The Sun.
London, England, 1847-04-19 00:00:00

Executive to the help of whatever ragged schools, and
reformatory schools, and industrial schools, have
yet dared to raise their redeeming heads, and to show
forth their plenary benevolence. England presents
a gigantic field for those Governmental labours—
Ireland, a profound abyss. We want the diminu-
tion of the sources of our physical contamination, and
GOD knows we are sadly in need of a diminution of
the sources of our moral and social corruption !

-
The Prussian Diet held a short sitting on the
12th, at which it resolved that an address should be
sent in answer to the KING'S speech, and it appointed
a committee to draw it up.

The members of the Prussian Diet were presented
by their marshals to the KING on the 12th, and after-
wards had the honour of dining at the palace with his
MAJESTY and the Princes of the Royal Family. The
Ministers were also present. During the dinner the
KING proposed a toast to the country and the United
Diet, and expressed a hope that the labour of the
assembly would be useful to the nation. The toast
was received with enthusiastic acclamations.

The Post•Ampt Gazette of Frankfort publishes a
letter from Berlin, stating that the effect produced
there by the speech of the King of PRUSSIA, on open-
ing the Diet, was so favourable, that the funds rose
nearly one per cent.

We find in the Aug,sburgh Gazette a letter dated
the 10th instant, which states that the five great
Powers had instructed their ambassadors in Vienna
to adjust the difference which has arisen between the
Porte and the Greek Government.

Letters from Rome of the Bth instant announce
that Cardinal Gizzi, the Secretary of State, had ten-
dered his resignation on the 6th, but the POPE had
refused to accept it.

Madrid journals of the 11th have arrived.

The Government, it was said, had received positive
assurances that it was not the intention of Queen
CHRISTINA to return to Spain, but that when she
quitted Paris she intended proceeding to Marseilles,
to embark from thence for Naples.
General SERRANO left Madrid on the 11th. Pre
viously to his departure he was visited by Senor
Ros DE OLArio and by Senor DE LA VEGA, the
private secretary to the QUEEN.
The Carlist Generals ELI° and ZAVALA have
entered Navarre and joined General ALZAA. The
Carlist insurrection, however, is, it is said, rapidly
dying away.
Senor 0 LOZAGA was expected in Madrid on the 11th.
lle will be speedily followed by General OSORIO, the
friend of ESPARTERO. ()SOUL° has received a full
pardon, and is reinstated in all his honours.
The Madrid mail of the 12th had not arrived in
Paris when the post left on Saturday.

We have received the Paris papers of Friday and
Saturday.
The Jourwil des Dibats announce=, in what may
be considered an official form, the appointment of the
Duc DE BROGLIE as Ambassador to the Court of

London.
The Bill authorising the Bank of France to issue
notes of the value of 200 f. has passed the Chamber
of Deputies by a large majority, the amendment of
M. LEON FAUCHER (proposing to authorise the issue
of notes of 100 f.) having been previously rejected.
The announcement which appeared in the Patrie
of 'Wednesday, of the execution of the three persons
convicted of rioting at Buzan9ais, was, it appears, pre-
mature. The execution was to be delayed until
Friday, according to the National. The Siecle ex-
presses a hope that this delay may be favourable to
the convicts. It says—
" The evening journals of Wednesday announced posi-
tively, and one of them, the Patric, with the most cir-
cumstantial details, the execution of the three unfortunate
persons condemned to death for the affair at Buzancais.
This news has been repeated as certain by most of the
morning journals. The 1) bats itself, which ought to
have been better informed, reported that the execution
took place on the 12th, in the public market place at
Buzancais, amidst a prodigious concourse of people from
the environs, adding that there was a great display of
military force from Bourge, Nevers, and Chateauroux.
Notwithstanding all this, the magistrates, who have seats
in the Chamber, and who, by reason of their special posi-
tion, have been called upon to follow all the phases of
this deplorable affair, declared yesterday that the sen-
tence upon the condemned men at Buzancais had not
been executed. We hope that this happy delay, which
has allowed the Government time to appreciate the
unanimous feelings of the public, will save these un-
fortunate men, who certainly were very guilty, and who
would have no claim to pity, if their crime had not, in a
degree, sprung from the popular agitation excited by the
apprehension of famine. Our intention, as we trust our
readers, will conceive, is not to extenuate the crime of
murder, which has been committed. We have respected,
even in all its rigour, the decree of justice. But can the
shedding of blood on the scaffold expiate the blood of the
victim?"
The Moniteur publishes a royal ordonnance ap-
pointing in the department of Public Works a
general committee on railways. This committee is
divided into four sections : first, that of lines of di-
rection ; secondly, the working in a scientific point
of view; thirdly, the working in a commercial point
of view; and, fourthly, the regulations. Each sec-
tion is to be consulted, according to the nature of its
attributions, on such questions as belong to it.
The Speech of the King of PRUSSIA on the opening
of the States-General is the subject of comment in
almost all the Paris papers of Saturday. The Con-
stitutionnel draws the following curious parallel be-
tween the opening of the States-General of France
in 1789, and those of Prussia in 1847:
" Prussia gives at this moment a curious and solemn
spectacle to the rest of Europe. The States-General
have just been opened at Berlin, as the States-General
of France were opened in 1789. There, too, is a King
beloved by the nation, who, influenced by the liberal
movement of his century, takes the initiative of this con-
vocation. The Assembly is also divided, in nobles, who
for the most part believe in equality, and in citizens, who
have the sentiment of their rights. The first questions
propo-ed by the royal power are questions of finance ;
Out the Assembly seems pre•cecupied above all by the
desire to assure and develop the liberties of which it takes
possession. Around the States a nation of writers, of
controversialists, of thinkers, discuss natural and histo•
rical rights, the origin of the powers, and the best con
stitution. These similarities, although they are more
apparent than real, and although there are very profound
differences between the two nations, the two periods,
and the two sovereigns, do not the less appear to have
caused a very profound impression on the mind of
the King of Prussia. The speech which he delivered
on the opening of the States seems altogether inspired
by aversion for liberal French principles, by the ter-
rible remembrance of the Constituents and Louis XVI.
The King declares twenty times in his speech, and
with the greatest energy of language, ' that no power
on earth will be strong enough to induce him ever to
change the natural relation between the Sovereign and
his people, into a conventional constitutional one, gua-
ranteed by charters, and sealed by oaths.' Never will
he permit that a written sheet shall place itself forcibly
between God and Prussia to govern that country with its
paragraphs.' The natural relations between the King and
the people are founded on the royal omnipotence;' and
the people owe obedience, not servile, but dictated by God
and the conscience. The States are instituted in virtue
of the historical German law;' the Deputies represent
neither the people nor opinions;' they exercise their
proper rights, those which they enjoy in virtue of an-
cient laws, and those which the Crown has recognised;'
the Crown must reign according to the laws of God
and the land, and to its own free will, and not according
to the will of majorities, if Prussia is not soon to be an
empty sound in Europe.' The King expects sad expe-
riences; he complains bitterly of part of the press, and
of Prussian Liberals; he counts on his people, who will
not see the absolute power' of their kings broken,
and who will second him in his struggle against
democratic efforts, and the wicked desires of the cen-
tury. Our readers will understand that we shall not
here discuss these theories, which are so much in con-
tradiction with our ideas in matters of natural right, of
political right, and of liberty. Tl,e King of Prussia,
with great warmth, praises the English nation, whose
constitution, he says, is the work of centuries, and of
incomparable hereditary wisdom. It would be easy to
us to show that the English nation, since it founded and
developed its liberty, has never considered royal omni-
potence the basis of constitutional right, that the writ-
ten text of the law reigns supreme over the people and
the Kings of England, that the political institutions of
Great Britain are guaranteed by charters and sealed by
oaths. But instead of opening a useless controversy, we
prefer to follow the King of Prussia and the nation which
he governs in cash step that they make towards liberty,
to applaud their generous sentiments, and honour their

patriotism, even its exclusiveness. When King Frede-
rick William recognises in the Diet the right of voting
the taxes—when he accords to the courts of justice public
and oral trials—when he proclaims liberty of con-
science in religious matters, and the civil character of
marriage—when, in short, he seems to regret that the
laws of the Germanic Confederation do not permit him
to concede the liberty of the press, what matters it
that be has discovered all that in the German historical

law, or that he has involuntarily received the inspiration
of the great principles which the French revolution
promulgated in the world? There is there a movement
towards liberty, and we pardon King Frederick William
for being in his speeches less just towards France than
he appears to desire to be in several of his acts towards
and her
friendly
ntiehbo
his OWt country. One thing, however, strikes us in
this speech—the declaration of a sort of rene%: al of the. Holy Alliance. Alter having spoken in general terms
of
zuraielatitoxzinghich exist between Prussia
adds, and with our allies,