The Sun.
London, England, 1854-04-12 00:00:00

[PRICE SD.

RECOIL OP THE PRUSSIAN MINISTER.

The allusion we made yesterday morning to the pos-
sibility of Chevalier Bunsen's withdrawal from the post
of Prussian Minister at this Court was followed, after a
very brief interval, by the announcement, telegraphed
from Berlin by our own correspondent, that the Prussian
Minister is actually recalled. It appears that no formal
communication to this effect had reached London yes-
terday evening, but there is no doubt that our statement
is correct, and that a courier is now on the road with
despatches to this effect. At any time, and under any
circumstances, we should have learnt with great regret
the termination of Chevalier Bunsen's mission to the
Court of England. This minister has played no common
part among us. He has justly endeared himself to the
best classes of Englishmen, In politics his sympathies
have never swerved from the cause of constitutional
liberty, and, though he came here as the represen-
tative of an almost absolute monarchy, he served
the King of Prussia in the spirit of a free Go-
vernment. his hospitality has been as enlarged
and liberal as his acquirements and his tastes ;
and, in the position he has filled with so much
ability, he was the strongest link between Eng-
lish society and German aspirations for freedom.
But, if these reflections naturally suggest themselves
upon such an occurrence, their force is greatly increased
and heightened when we find that the recal of the Prus-
sian Minister from London is the work of the enemies of
this country ; that the only fault imputed to him is, that he
laboured too earnestly to promote the alliance of Prussia
with the Western Powers, and that he has been sacri-
ficed to that Russian influence which does not scruple
to demand as its victims the most faithful servants and
the most honest hearts. The Prussian Government has
been so weak and infatuated as to yield to these in-
trigues,
and to break the tie which long use and mutual
respect had established between the British Ministry, of
whatsoever party, and the Prussian Minister in this
country. It is not our duty to judge their motives or
to reprove their conduct, but the fact tells its own story,
and will be perfectly understood in Germany as well as
in Britain ; and, at this moment, such an incident is not
without its weight in the general policy of Europe.
As if to mark still more strongly the wavering and
inconsistent course of the Prussian Government, at the
very time when they aim this blow at one of the stoutest
champions of the Western alliance, and an avowed op-
ponent of Russia, they so far adopt the views of those
they proscribe as to sign a Protocol with the other great
Powers, binding Prussia to the very principles which
they punish in others. To satisfy France and England
they sign the new Protocol ; to satisfy Russia they re-
cal Chevalier Bunsen—double and irresolute to the last,
and playing the game of both parties without gaining
the confidence of either. The Protocol itself appears,
from what we know of it, to be a satisfactory document.
It adopts, on the part of the German Powers, all the
principles for which England and France have de-
clared war. It repeats, subsequently to that decla-
ration of war, the points established by the earlier
Protocols—the necessity of obtaining the evacua-
tion of the Principalities, and the territorial se-
curity of the Turkish empire ; and it is said to
bind the Four Powers to communicate without re-
serve to each other all the overtures which may be
made to them in the course of hostilities. These are
important engagements, and would seem, if we were
dealing with less slippery allies, to constitute an identity
of interests between the Western and the German
powers. But this is not all. Before this protocol was
signed at Vienna the Austrian special Envoy at Berlin,
General Hess, had concluded the separate treaty, of
which so much has been said, between the two leading
German powers. The first object of this treaty is to
bind Austria and Prussia, jointly and severally, to the
defence of their respective dominions, both within and
beyond the Germanic Confederation ; but, if the reports
we receive of the purport of this treaty be correct, its
provisions extend further, and, in the event of Austria's
being compelled to cross her frontier for the defence or
occupation of any part of the Sultan's territories at the
request of the Porte, Prussia consents to furnish
,the troops necessary to cover the northern frontier
of her ally. Such a stipulation would be of the utmost
consequence, for, until Austria was secured by
some such promise on the side of Germany, and could
rely on the assistance of the German States if attacked
in Gallicia, her movements were necessarily kept in check
and suspended. The immediate result of the signature
of the treaty with Prussia was the adoption of the pro-
tocol at Vienna, which marks another step in the same
direction, and a step totally at variance with the recal
of the. Prussian Minister in London.

In addition to these facts, we have now before us the
report of the debate in the Prussian Chamber on the vote
of the projected loan of 30,000,000 dollars, which con-
firms in the most striking manner the conviction we
have constantly expressed of the gallant feeling which
animates the people of Prussia and their representatives.
Baron Manteuffel himself relied on the effect to be pro-
duced on the Chamber by the signature of the last proto-
col of the Four Powers, though he artfully used this cir-
cumstance to obtain the vote without conditions or any
precise assurances at all. But M. B. Hollwegg and M.
Vincke expressed with great force and eloquence the true
policy and convictions of the country. They repeated
the arguments we have so often employed, that Prussia
cannot remain neutral in the midst of a European war ;
that she has only one safe and honest course to follow,
which is to join the Western Powers ; and M. Vincke
added, with amaz►ng force, "If you are a European
Power, you are bound to combat the projects of Russia
to the death—if you are not, attach yourselves more
closely to those who can shelter your weakness." To
play the part of a pretended mediator is only to make
Prussia " the letter-carrier of Europe." Even from the
extreme right of the Chamber, occupied by the ultra-
party, Count Ziethen exclaimed that if the Emperor of
Russia had acted before as he has done now Frederic
William 111. would not have advised his son to abide at
all hazards by the Russian alliance.
Upon the whole, these are good signs. There is, no
doubt, a powerful and unscrupulous party at the Court
of Charlottenburg capable of acting on the weakness of
the King and the duplicity of the Minister, and these
men have achieved a triumph in removing Chevalier
Bunsen and other members of the constitutional
party from office. But these men are not masters of the
national will of Germany or of the great interests of
Europe. They will, fall under the weight of the great
events in which, we trust, this country is about to bear
her part ; they will fall when the strength of that
alliance, which the aggressions of Russia have called into
being, is felt throughout the world ; they will fall under
the just resentment of the nation whom they have
attempted to deceive, if not to betray, The language of
the great majority of the Prussian Chambers is that of
every thinking man in Germany. There is no one op-
posed to it except those who even in 1813 would have
sacrificed their country to the foreign invader. Every
day the cause of national independence gains strength,
and, though the present constitution of Prussia has been
decried, it has rendered an inestimable service to the
country in this emergency by giving a voice to the re-
presentatives of the nation. If Russia triumphs, that
voice will assuredly not be heard again ; and, unless
this contest be terminated in favour of the freedom and
the rights of Europe, the fate of Germany will hardly
stop short of the fate of the Ottoman Empire, and the
authority of the Czar will extend, not only to Constan-
tinople, but to Berlin.—Tinter.