The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-14 00:00:00

'min Pitatt

LONDON, TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1848.

Prussia is at last fully sucked into the vortex of the
reactionary movement. FREDERICK. IVILnELst has
thrown off the domino of constitutional reformer—
that flimsy disguise in which he has masqueraded
with as much eclat as the most practised debardeitr at
the Carnival. The bombardment of Vienna by WIN-
DISCIIGRATZ has proved not only calamitous to the
Austrians, but fraught with danger and misery to
"My Beloved Berliners !" The King of PRUSSIA
only tarried for some sort of encouragement, and
that he has at last found in the butchery of the
Viennese by the soldiers of FERDINAND. Finding
that the glory of a political charlatan was
not precisely the one most after the taste
of the German Parliam-nt at Frankfort-on-the-
:Maine, finding,, in fact, that the budding diadem of
the German EMPEROR already encircled the brow of
the Archduke JOHN, and that the assumed sincerity
of the house of Brandenburg already stunk in the
nostrils of the German population FREDERICK
WILHELM repented his precipitate manifesto in
favour of an united fatherland, and resolved at the
first opportunity to retrograde to the old state of
things. He has just recognised the opportunity in
the success of the kindred Sovereign of Austria. One
capital has been stormed and captured. The other
must be insulted and taken in like manner. Vienna
has fallen under the yoke of Prince WINDISCHGRATZ.
Berlin must succumb to that of Count BRANDEN-
By tic. In the interval of his potations at Potsdam
the KING resolved upon this hazardous step of retro-
gression. The dies are being thrown even at this
moment, and it is difficult to conjecture who will
prove the winner—the people or the Prince—the re-
presentatives of 16,000,000, or the Cabinet chosen
from a coterie—the Prussians themselves, or the
Prussian Sovereign.

Our intelligence from Berlin, published among the
foreign correspondence of The Sun of yesterday and
of this evening, has fully explained the progress of
events in that city, from the nomination of the unpo-
pular Count VON BRANDIiNBURG to the occupation of
the metropolis by the soldiery. A retrospect
may not, however, be unprofitable in this time of
political fluctuation and of state catastrophes, inas-
much as it may serve to impress upon the public
mind the actual posture of affairs in the Prussian
metropolis, and the relation in which the MONARCH
stands at this moment towards the multitude whose
happiness he has so long pretended to cherish.
In consequence of the differences which had latterly
sprung up between the Diet and the KING in re-
ference to the men chosen by the latter to participate
in the labours of the Administration—FßEDEßlCK
WILHELM determined to try the temper of his sword
upon the stubborn neck of the Parliament. He an-
nounced definitively, in spite of the opposition of the
Deputies, that his Government should stand as
follows :

President
Public Worship
Interior ...
War ...
Justice ...
Finance ..
Commerce ..

BRANDENBURG.
LADENBERG.
MANTENFFEL.
STROTHA.
KuiiNE.

POMII-2R- _Esc

After issuing the ordinance containing this
nouncement, the KING dispatched a royal rriemagEnto
the Assembly, which message was read in the sitting
of the 9th instant, the date of the document
being, with a bitter parody—Sans Souci t Therein
it was solemnly proclaimed to the Diet
that FREDERICK WILHELM IV., "by the grace of
GoD," King of PRUSSIA, &c. &c., having at repeated
times, &c. &c., observed that the Members of the
Assembly convoked for the settlement of a constitu-
tion had been personally insulted for certain of their
votes, &c. &c., therefore decreed that the Assembly
should discontinue its sittings immediately after the
message was perused, and should meet again, on the
27th instant, at Brandenburg! Here, then, the
screen was beaten down at last, and the people saw
clearly into the face and the heart, the policy and the
intentions of the constitutional SOVEREIGN.
Since the above coup d'etat the soldiers have marched
into Berlin, And taken possession of the capital—the
Diet, in defiance of every opposition, declaring their
inflexible determination to continue their sittings un-
interruptedly, and calling upon the Burgher Guard
to shed the last drop of their blood rather than sub-
mit to their disarmament. The Brandenburg Ministry
is to be impeached—the KING IS openly set at nought
in consequence of his treachery and retrogression—
the national representatives have absorbed into their