The Sun.
London, England, 1854-12-27 00:00:00

' Henceforth, 'the students must be considered as
men whose general education. has been finished,
and finished with great success. Greek, Latin,
and mathematics will no longer be parts of the
course of study. The whole education will be
special, and ought, in some departments; to be of a
different kind from that which has hitherto been
given.
We are far, indeed, from wishing to detract from
the merit of those professors—all of them highly
respectable and some of them most eminent—who
have taught law and political economy at Halley-
bury. But it is evident that a course of lectures
on law or political economy, given to boys of 18,
who have been selected merely by favour, must be
a very different thing from a course of lectures on
law or political economy given to men of 23, who
have been selected on account of their superior
abilities and attainments. As respects law, indeed,
we doubt whether the most skilful instructor will
be able, at Haileybury, to impart to his pupils that
kind of knowledge which it is most desirable that
they should acquire. Some, at least, of the proba-
tioners ought, we conceive, not merely tv attend
lectures, and to read well-chosen books on juris-
prudence, but to see the actual working of the ma-
chineiy
by which justice is administered. • They_
ought to hear legal questions in which great princi-
ples are involved' argued by the ablest counsel and
decided by the highest Courts in the realm. They
ought to draw up reports of the arguments both of
the advocates and of the judges. They ought to
attend both civil and criminal trials, and to take
notes of the evidence, and of the discussions and
decisions respecting the evidence. It might be
particularly desirable that they should attend the
sittings of the Judicial Committee of the Privy
Council when important appeals front India are
under the consideration of that tribunal. A pro-
bationer, while thus employed, should regularly
submit his notes of arguments and of evidence to
his legal instructor for correction. Such a training
as this would, we are inclined to think, be an
cellent preparation for official life in India ; and we
must leave it to the Board of Control to consider
whether any plan can be devised by which .such
training can be made compatible with residence at
Haileybury.—We have the honour to be, sir, your
obedient servants,

" T. B. MACIVLLY.
" ASHBURTON.
" H. MELVILL.
" B. JOWETT.
" J. G. S. LEFEVRE.

" Nov., 1854."

THE MISSION OF M. TON USED OM.

(From the Tines.)
If the objects of M. von Usedom's mission to this
country were confined to the transmission of certain
communications from the Court of Berlin to the West-
ern Powers, in the hope of inducing them to enter into
separate engagements with Prussia, or of limiting the
extent of the resolutions in which Austria has already
concurred, a very short time would probably suffice to
satisfy the Prussian emissary, who is an intelligent man,
that he could hardly hay e arrived at a less fortunate
moment for the King's purpose. We suspect, however,
that this gentleman is the bearer of no such instruc•
tions, and that in visiting England he merely brings an
autograph letter to the Queen, and is desired to observe
the real state of affairs. Prussia has already placed
herself so far in the rear of the policy of the other
Great Powers of Europe, that she has no elaim to be
heard on the present state of these questions until she
has adopted the principles which now form the basis of
the Triple Alliance of England, France, and Austria ;
and there is not the slightest disposition on the part of
any of these Powers to suspend the operations or the
political measures they would otherwise take in order to
suit the convenience of a Court which has shown so

little disposition to carry on its former engagements to
their legitimate consequences. The effect of M. von
Usedom's mission in this country and in France will
therefore be absolutely null and void ; and the journey of
Colonel von Manteuffel to Vienna will probably be equally
bootless. Nevertheless there is one point of view in which
these missions may perchance be productive of some
benefit to the eammon cause. M. von Usedom is a man
of independent character and position, attached to the
Parliamentary party, and favourable to the poliey of the
Western Powers ; he took his instructions for this mis-
sion, not from the Government, who justly regard him
as a sincere and formidable opponent, but from the King,
who has confidence in his fidelity and discernment. It
is, moreover, no slight triumph of the political views
so long and so ably represented in this country by Che-
valier Bunsen that, en the first emergency, Prussia sends
to England a man who is known to have been reared in
the same liberal faith, and to be as steadily attached to
the same cause. For these reasons M. von Usedom has
been received in this country with a degree of confidence
which few other diplomatic agents of Prussia could have
obtained. Upon his return he will therefore have an
opportunity of informing the mind of the King on some
points which have hitherto been entirely obscure and
impenetrable to the royal perceptions. He will tell his
Majesty that this war is waged by the whole British
nation, without distinction of parties, because we believe
it to be a war for the defence of right, for the chastise-
ment of wrong, and for the.Enfety LI Europe. Ho will
assure him that, although we have no secret objects or
sinister motives in conducting this wart the Queen of
England and her people will never content with less
I ban the objects and securities they have pledged them-
,elves to obtain. He will add that, although the losses
already sustained by ushave been severe, and are severely
felt by the whole community in this country, yet that there
lives not in this land a man so base as to set his private
.rarrrifices er plivate griefs against the call of public
duty ; and he may wind up his report by an intimation
:hat the remtne,s of the c iuntry to carry on the war
against Russia is not greater than their astonishment
that the Government of Prussia should occupy a position
30 unworthy of the successor of Frederick the Great,
and of the people whom Mr. Cobden terms " the brain
of Germany."
It matters little what M. von Usedom may have to
say here, for the Allied Governments have already con-
tracted reciprocal engagements, and have a systematic
policy of their own. But the result of this mission may
not be unfelt at Berlin, where the Government is under
no engagements to any one, and has, as yet, no policy.
In speaking of the Government of Prussia, we mean at
present that cabal of time-serving Ministers and influen-
tial chamberlains who have mainly contributed to place
their country in its present situation, because they have
the interests of a foreign Power more nearly at heart
than those of Germany and of Prussia. The King is,
after all, a well-meaning man, anxious to be well with
all the world—as good a talker and as learned a King
as our James 1., and almost as brave. We wish him
well, for we wish him better Ministers and truer friends.
But with the Gerlachs, and Groebens, and Manteuffels,
we know no peace. They are the heads or the instru-
ments of a party which must be eradicated from the soil
before the King of Prussia can be the ruler of an inde-
pendent realm, and of a proud and contented people.
The confidence placed in these men by the Emperor of
Russia, who knows that, as long as they have the
power, they will hold the north of Germany in check,
is one of the principal causes of the war, for it en-
courages the enemy to rely on their assistance, as the
declaration made the other day by M. de Gerlach in the
Diet showed that amity with Russia is the basis of their
policy. The King, we are ready to believe, is less in.
different to the good opinion and goodwill of this country.
He shares our religious faith, he is attached to the
English Royal family, and in happier tithes he culti-
vated our alliance. We have done nothing to forfeit
his regard, but the sycophants about him have continued
to alienate him from his best friends, and it must be by
his own actions alone that he can regain the sympathy
which is now interrupted.
Among the delusions prevalent in Berlin as to the
present state of feeling in the other capitals of Europe,
there seems to be a notion in certain quarters that by
holding out long enough from the general alliance Prus-
sia will obtain her own terms, and will induce the other
Powers to bid for her support by some important con-
cessions to her own particular advantage. Thus, it is
already hinted that if we could be induced to promote
,her views in the abolition of the Sound dues, which are
the security for a public debt held to a large extent is
this country ; or if we would re-open the Danish nego-
tiation of 1852, to which she gave so reluctant an assent,
or consent 4o detach Holstein from the Danish '
monarchy, Prussia might be induced to lend a more
favourable ear to the proposals of the Western Powers.
We really hope that these insinuations are made with-
out sufficient authority, for if anything could increase
the unfavourable impression which the conduct of the
Prussian Government has produced abroad, it would be'
the conviction that the Cabinet of Berlin is speculating
on the calamities of Europe to promote its private ob.
jects. If her duty to Germany and to Rump° does not _
speak high enough to prescribe the course she ought t•
pursue, it would be vain for us to solicit her "active
co-
operationA.slonginasthteh
ecoKmimn
goniscsauurrose'u' onndeadnybyothhriesrapltrleerinsut aa
p.
ro;visers this co-operation is impossible, fo
knows that no communication can be mad •to the Court
of Berlin which is not immediately transmitted to St.
Petersburg for the informatirohunasdsoiafparteahpreamreyeadoanar. To such
scheme of
lengths has this treachery been carried that when General
with a view to
the eastern
the possibilityof
frontierßn militaryi n,a
osfMinistereoperations
kingdom,
fo of r W
the a
a future war with Russia, this secret paper, of which,;, -
only three copies were in existence, was conveyed to the
Emperor of Russia, and the person who committed this
act of treason to his country,
as we must call it, was
either a great officer of state or a member of the King's
own family. After such an occurrence as that, it ,is im-
possible , that foreign Governments mould enter into
confidential negotiations with a Court in which the
avowed p rrtisans of the common enemy still exercise an '
undisguised ascendancy ; and the first condition of the
restoration of Prussia to the position she has relinquished ,
will be the formation of a Government in that country
not Identified with the cause to which we are opposed.
The King of Prussia peremptorily declines to adhere to
the treaty of the 2.,1 of December, because he thinks it
beneath his dignity to follow in the track of the three
other Powers. But is it more consistent with his dignity
to be put aside altogether in the greatest struggle which -
Europe has witnessed since 1315, or to be represented
by ministers whose fidelity to the interests of %Ink
uis dubious and discredited The treaty con-
celoudnety
drby Austria with the Western Powers has already
had the effect of demonstrating to the King of 1)-ussia
that in his present position he cannot remain,lnd we
trust the mission of M. Von Usedom to this conntryii
a step towards a more definite and trustworthy- 'alley,