The Sun.
London, England, 1849-11-28 00:00:00

4,'11,0 111'1111 ::7516*-Nttit.

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 184°.

The Gazette de France states that a telegraphic
dispatch from Valanciennes had been received in
Paris on Monday, announcing the abdication of the
Ring of PaussiA in favour of his nephew, the Prince
Royal. It is scarcely necessary to state that this
rumour stands in need of confirmation, more especially
when we consider that the journal in which it appears
hag always been particularly favourable to Austrian
views and Austrian policy ; indeed were it not for the
vacillating character of the Prussian Monarch, we
should at once treat the rumour as without founda-
tion, but we have seen so many changes of late come
over the spirit of FREDERICK WILLIAM, that we cannot
absolutely refuse to credit the rumour. There is no-
thing stated as to the causes rc hich have induced FREDE-
Ries. WILLIAM to adopt this step ; indeed, it is hard to
imagine what could have induced FREDRRICK
LIAM to abdicate at this moment save mere caprice.
his Ministers have a majority in the Chambers, his
octroyed Constitution has been accepted, his
troops have been victorious in Baden and the
Bavarian Palatinate, and the Sovereigns o
Saxony, of Bavaria, and of Baden owe th,
restoration of their authority so self-evidently to
Prussian assistance, that they must render their:p dicy
entirely subservient to the policy of Prussia; for were
the military support of Prussia to be withdrawn from
th,..m, in one week they would be driven from their
thrones by the people. There remains, then, the
Austrian question, and so far from shrinking from, it

would be for the interest of Prussia rather to court
a collision with Austria, of which the result must
necessarily be the speedy destruction of the Austrian
empire and the permanent ascendancy of the House
of Hohenzollern over that of llapsburgh. That
such must be the inevitable result must
be manifest to any one who fur a moment contem-
plates the relative situations of the two Houses which
now dispute the empire of Germany. Both have,
during the last year, come into military collision
with their subjects, both have ben actively engaged
in reactionary measures, both have promised consti•
tutions. But while Prussia put down the revolution by
her own unaided forces, and thus acquired the
prestige of strength and power, Austria, alter suffer-
ing a series of disgraceful and disastrous defeats, was
obliged to proclaim her weakness to the world by
calling in Russia to her aid ; the Hohenzollern
having gained the victory used it as mercifully as
perhaps, on the whole, any one had a right to ex-
pect. Berlin was tarnished by no such disgraceful
scenes as those enacted at Vienna, at Peath, and at
Arad—the name of IlArsau soils not the military
annals of Prussia; and thus while the Hapsburgh is
regarded throughout his own dominions, and through-
out all Germany also, with feelings of personal hatred
—whilst he dares not withdraw a single regiment
from oue of his garrisons, lest an insurrection should
break out at the point thus left unguarded,
the Hohenzollern is not regarded with feelings of
personal dislike by his subjects, and he has on more
than one occasion been enabled to lend military assis-
tance to his neighbours; be has, moreover, kept his
promise with regard to constitutional institutions—
he has called together the Chambers, and the Parlia-
ment has for some time past been actually assembled ;
while the Austrian Constitution, although published
in Marrh last, is still a dead letter, and is likely so to
remain. The credit of Prussia is good, while
Aug tria is a bankrupt, and would be unable without
pef.ainiary assistance to keep an army in the field.
i'sTi'or these reasons we cannot believe that the state
of relations between Austria and Prussia is of a nature
calculated to occasion the least alarm to FREDERICK
WILLIAM, and were it not for his notorious character
for vacillation, we should at once treat the rumour of
his abdication as a clumsy fabrication.

A spirit of inquiry into the sources of that sad
under-current of sorrow and corruption which flows
beneath the surface of our national wealth and mag-
nificence, is now happily making itself generally
manifest. The subject is one of such vital import-
ance to the whole community, that it cannot be toe
often or too generally discussed. We owe it, doubt-
less, to the recent pestilence that the condition of the
poor has become the popular theme of the day. We
hear of it from the pulpit, it fills the columns of the
journals, it forms the topic of general discourse.
It is true there is a vast difference betwixt
talking and doing there is a wide step
between profession and practice ; yet in this instance
one might reasonably suppose that evils so flagrant
require only to be known in order to be remedied.
Experience, however, far from corroborating the
supposition, sadly attests to the contrary. Many
social plague-spots have long been manifest to the
world—their evil nature btu been fully recognized,
and yet they have been buffered to exist in all their
odious enormity, continually, inereving in strength
and infictin►; the whole body politic. Shall it be so
from henceforth ? 7he corre,pmient of a morning
Contemporary has recently publishe l 'many revela-
tions of London life—of the life of that half of the
world of whose manner of, living the other half
knows so little, and, we were about to add, cares so
little, but perhaps it would be more correct to say,
thinks so little, for, as the poet of the poor—Tom
Hoop—so truly says,—

" Evil is wrought
By wer,t of thought,
As well as want of heart."

Melancholy, indeed, are the results of these and
all similar investigations.. All hope of effecting
any remedy is for the moment paralyrd by the