The Sun.
London, England, 1851-12-17 00:00:00

GERMAN Y.

The official organ of the Prussian Cabinet has pub-
lished an article announcing distinctly that the Go-
vernment will readily recognize the new order of
things in France, which promises "to lessen the
danger of the present period." It examines critically
the conduct of the late National Assembly, by which
that body lost its influence with the people and made
its destruction possible, and points out the folly that
led i: to insult and threaten the Executive powelrd
,
without having at its command the force that cou
alone eatable it to act. It estranged from itself the
confidence of the nation, though it was more
indispensable to its existence than to the President,
who had the army at his disposal, and made but an
unskilful attempt to defend itself against the Execu-
tive it had defied. "Probably," says the Ministerial
manifesto, 66as the relations of the army to the Pre-
sident have now become clear, a positive resistance
on the part of the Assembly would have been of no
avail, would have altered or hindered nothing; but it
would not have disappeared under the reproach of
such a singular want of ability either to act or to ad-
vise." The article then proceeds
since the opening of the last session of the Assembly
a thunder-storm hovered over France. An outbreak was
unavoidable. The only question was whether the bolt
would be launched by the Assembly or by the President.
If it came to a real conflict, there could be no doubt,
under theca ircumstances, as to which party would pre-
vail. Le the Assembly acted in the spirit of a real
national representation, silenced the mischievous elements
within itself, bridled the revolutionary passions, instead
of betraying a continual terror of them, had it busied
itself more with the material interests of the mass of the
people, an event like that of the 21 of December would
have been superfluous and impossible.
" Had the Assembly anticipated the President, and
had the lattfr waited-passively, it may be safely assumed
that it would hive done so; the spirit of the army on
one side, and that of the democracy and Socialists on the
other, would have been arrayed against each other, in a
conflict much more general and more bloody than the
present, and internal peace and order would have sus-
tained a much heavier and more destructive shock. For
the Assembly would never have been able to have re-
strained the masses, and confronted the perils with which
the now abolished Constitution of 1848, threatened the
whole of Europe.
" The Conservative Governments of the Continent,
which, under the hitherto existing state of things in
France, must have been unceasingly anxious at the threat-
ening prospects of the coming p ar, and whose position,
laborious enough without that anxiety, must have been
rendered still more difficult by it, will not refuse their re,
cognition to a change in the political situation which
promises to diminish the dangers of the present,
and thus makes the commencement of the way to a
better future possible. Every other consideration must
be made subordinate to the effecting this object. History
has more than once proved the events that, on moral
grounds, were deeply to be deplored, have been the ne-
cessary and unavoidable points of transition to something
better.
We are not a little surprised, therefore, to find the
present occurrences misunderstood, even by those organs
of the press that claim to be the heralds and supporters
of the strictest Conservatism. Hateful reminiscences
and comparisons—violent attacke on eminent political
characters, on whom, far the moment, no full and im-
partial judgment is possible—can pass neither for
patriotic nor politic."
The report of the Commission of the Second Cham-
ber of Prussia on the Treaty of Commerce between
Prussia and Hanover, and the admission of the latter
State into the Z Alveirein, has appeared. The Com-
mission has decided unanimously on recommending
the Chamber to assent to the treaty as laid before it
by the Government. Tnough the Chamber of Hano-
ver has rejected the Government Bill relating to se-
veral judicial reforms, the Ministry believes the above
treaty will receive the assent of the Hanoverian Le•
gislature also.