The Sun.
London, England, 1848-11-18 00:00:00

plorable misfortunes of the population. FERDINAND
remains at 011mutz, issuing from his seclusion those
edicts which result in the shedding of the blood of the
bravest children of Austria. FREDERICK WILHELM
continues at Potsdam, developing in that base retreat of
his hypocrisy the schemes which tend to the subjuga-
tion of the heroic Prussians. tip' RANGEL holds his
sword in a threatening posture above Berlin. WIN-
DISCHGRATZ exercises the same inexorable authority
over Vienna. SCHWARTZENBURG has assumed the
reins of the Austrian Government, and gathers them
up with the distracting and unendurable tension of
Absolutism. BRANDENBURG has gratified his con-
servative, or rather his repressive and retrogressive,
predilections, by occupying in Prussia the smile office
of danger and unpopularity. In both capitals
there are the scattered members of a Diet at
open war with the minions of the re-
spective sovereigns. In: both there are the ripening
seeds of a new and final revolution. In both are men
weighed down by circumstances among the ranks of
criminals, their only atrocity being their patriotism,
their only title to the abhorrence of the ruling
powers being their exalted civism and their unequalled
audacity.
Suddenly, in the midst of this tremendous crisis,
the great Germanic Parliament at Frankfort-on-the-
Maine has interposed ; and with their paramount
voice the representatives of United Germany
have declared for the People and against
the Sovereigns. An abrupt change has con-
sequently taken place in the situation of affairs
both in Prussia and in,Austria. The doom of both,dy-
nasties, the dynasty of Brandenburg as well as that of
Hapsburg-Lorraine, has been pronounced, unless the
present despotic adventures of the soldiers of FREDE-
RICK WILHELM and of FERDINAND be at once and
permanently abandoned. It has been resolved upon
by the Diet of Frankfort, that the Assembly at
Berlin has acted in a manner worthy of the admira-
tion of contemporaries, and of the gratitude of pos-
terity, in resisting the unconstitutional proceedings of
the Prussian Sovereign. In the same sitting, the Su-
preme German Parliament has declared the execution of
BLUM, the celebrated publisher of Leipzig, to have
been nothing less diabolical than murder, and have,
in addition to this declaration, dispatched two com-
missioners to the city of Vienna ,to demand satisfac-
tion for the insult thus offered to the Germanic na-
tionality, as well as to insist upon the instant punish-
ment of those who have dared to become the murderers
of a German representative. To demonstrate that the ,
latter resolution is not an act of superfluous rigour
is by no means difficult, seeing that the newly ap-
pointed members of the Austrian Cabinet! have
themselves appealed to Field-Marshal the Prince
WINDISCHGRATZ, beseeching him to behave less
rigorously to the unfortunate Viennese. A powerful
argument will be found in our foreign correspond-
ence from Vienna, proving the coldblooded murder
of BLUM to have been not only a ferocious act of
assassination on the part of WINDISCHGRATZ, but
one of matchless treachery on the part of FERDINAND.
In expiation of that grand crime against the sove-
reignty of the people and the nationality of the united
fatherland, the Austrian Generalissimo and the
Austrian EMPEROR will have to bow down to the
decision of the Frankfort Parliament.

Before, however, we refer to the insurmountable
nature of the embarrassment thus thrown in
the way of the tyrannous and retrogressive
Sovereignties of Prussia and Austria, we would
incidentally allude to one of the preposterous
pleas advanced by the Conservative journals of
London in behalf of the Government of the house of
Brandenburg. It. is argued by our Contemporaries
that the gentlemen of Pomerania, and the merchants
of Saxony, and the agriculturists of Silesia, should
feel themselves called upon by their ancient sena.
ments of
.loyalty to rally round FREDERICK WIL-
HELM IV., the head of the house of Brandenburg,
the last representative of an ancient dynasty ! Why,
throughout the length and breadth of Christendom,
there is scarcely to be found a more upstart
dynasty than that of the mushroom house
of Brandenburg I Scataely a hundred years ago the
comparatively insignificant Electorate of Brandenburg
had not emerged to anything approximating to either
dignity or independence among the dominions of
Europe. Subsequently the little kingdom of Prussia
extended merely from the mouth of the Niemen to
the mouth of the Vistula. Next came the partitions of
Poland and the absorption of the principal portion of
Silesia, together with the seizure of Lusatia, a part
of Saxony, and the whole of Pomerania! The
Robber-Dynasty of Brandenburg emerged from
its obscurity, and the diadem of Prussia
was adorned with the jewels pillaged from the sur-
rounding territories. The Electorate, aided by the
unprincipled policy of its Government, by unparal-
leled good fortune, and by the military genius of the
Great FREDERICK, abruptly rose to distinction as one
of the principal kingdoms of central Europe. And it
is this parvenu dynasty of Brandenburg that; sixteen
millions of people are called upon to environ with the
protection of their ancient loyalty. Instead of look-
ing for encouragement from the population of
Prussia in his present tyrannous and atrocious pro-
ceedings, it. would be well for FREDERICK WILHELM
to consider whether he may not speedily be called
upon to subside from the pomp of royalty into the in-
ferior state attendant upon an Elector of the petty
Duchy of Brandenburg.
The proceedings of the United Diet at Frankfort-
on-the-Maine are not less paramount than they are
peremptory. Austria and Prussia are alike pledged
to submission : the EMPEROR, by the circumstances
of his uncle the Archduke JOHN being installed in
the supreme dignity of REGENT of all Germany,
without taking into account the other guarantees
afforded by him of his adhesion to the High
Parliament assembled in St. Paul's Cathedral
at Frankfort, such, for example, as his previous
submission to the decrees of the Diet and the sending
of Austrian deputies to participate in its delibera-
tion; the KING, in like manner, is pledged irre-
trievably to obedience by all his preceding efforts
towards the proclamation of one indivisible nationa-
lity. Between the decrees of the Frankfort Parlia-
ment, therefore, and the enthusiastic patriotism of the
people, the KING and the EMPEROR, are at this
moment situated. They must either yield or perish.
Supposing them to be insane enough to set at defiance
the will of the Germans and the commands of the
German Parliament, Austria and Prussia will very
speedily be in one vast conflagration.

The "Bears" are still labouring in their vocation
zealously and indefatigably. The **game which they
had carried on with so much success for a consider-
able time, was by far too profitable to be relinquished
without a determined struggle. The enormous gains
they had realised during that period enabled them to
sustain losses which, under other circumstances,
would have proved absolutely ruinous, and driven
them with disgrace from the precincts of
Capel- court. They are now making a despe-
rate, and it is to be hoped a final, exertion
to retrieve their recent losses, and to bring
matters again to their former condition, when they
can dip their hands into the pockets of bona fide
shareholders,. and plunder their victims with complete
Impunity. Unwarned by the results of the two last
settlements of accounts, they still persist in selling
property which they have not in their possession or
power, hoping that they will be enabled at the last
moment to. borrow stock sufficient to carry them
through their difficulties, m a
yperchance d
the event
o findf thet
interested
pur-
chasers insisting upon an' in
actual
elivery of the
transfer
shares which they have undertaken to
them-
selves
upon
the appointed day. They
mistaken in this respect. If those erestedd
in railway stock are only true to themselves,
adopt the most simple precautions for their own pro-
tection, their assailants must be signally defeated. it
is manifest that stock cannot be lent for even a few
days without the consent of the actual pro-
prietors thereof. The latter may, perhaps, be
tempted by the exorbitant price offered for
the temporary accommodation, but a mo-
ment's consideration should induce them to reject any
temporary advantage, however tempting, when the
object of the parties by whom it is offered oust be
to occasion a serious depression in the value of the
property they are borrowing at the moment.
As we have repeatedly pointed out, it is necessary
that railway proprietors should co-operate together for
their common benefit. They have a formidable
enemy to contend against, who will not scruple at
any means by which their object may be attained.