The Sun.
London, England, 1856-05-22 00:00:00

lIIGYI WATER AT LONDON SMUDGE.

THIS Dar—lfora. 11 min. aft. 3—Evening 28 min. aft. 3
TA-Houßow—Morn. 46 min. aft. 3 —Evening 7 rain aft. 4

- THE WEATHER—SiTN OFFICE, MAT 22.
THERSIONETER, IN THE SHADE.
68 highest since noon yesterday.
57 -lowest this morning and during the night.
60 —this day at noon.

BAROMETER, 29.69.
WIND, Westerly, light and variable; now S.W., with
dull, rainy weather. It began to rain last evening about
8, and so continued during the night.

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LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 22, 1856.

Prince FREDERICK WILLIAM of Prussia has
safely arrived in England. He is now in com-
pany with his intenied bride, and within a few
days, or weeks, everything connected with the
inauspicious marriage will be duly arranged. The
innocent victim will be bound by an engagement,
entered into before she is capable of knowing her
own mind, or forming a correct opinion as to her
prospects of happiness in the new state of life on
which she is about to enter. It would be well
to avert the sacrifice, even so far as merely
personal interests are concerned, until she
has attained a riper age. As we have already
stated few English parents would permit a
daughter to enter into so solemn a contract until
she had long passed fifteen years of age.
But there is another and far more important
view of the subject. The marriage is solely advo-
cated as a matter of " State policy," and every
tax-payer throughout the length and breadth of
the land is deeply interested in a question on which
may depend the possession of the British sceptre
and the future government of the country. Many
concessions have already been made to Germanism,
which may in a great degree, if not altogether, be
ascribed to this untoward event. Prussia was
chiefly concerned in obtaining the abrogation of
our neutrality laws. She had already realised
great profits, as agent for the maritime trade
and commerce of our late opponent, which was
conducted during the War through Prussian inter-
vention. Without the important assistance thus
afforded the CZAR would have succumbed at a
much earlier period. Had the transit by sea beer
entirely cutoff the sinews of war would have beei
wanting. . Re Could not have maintained tit e
contest, and fifty millions of pounds sterling, awl
the lives of fifty thousand British subjects migl t
-
have been saved. Now, the improvident arranele
meat entered into, without the knowledge t'or
assent of the English Parliament, will afford ei-
ouragernent to future aggression,
-naenaUch a.;
ne of the most serious difficulties in the way,
not only of Russia, but of any Power that may be
involved in hostilities with the United Kingdom,
will be avoided ; while the Government at Wash-
ington, the only one that could offer anything
approaching to an equivalent fur such an
arrangement, remains absolutely unfettered.
This has been a sop to the Pru 3.

sian CERBERITS, a portion of the dower
to be paid with the illustrious victim_ It would
indeed have been cheaper to give even the 70,000/.
per annum spoken of, ridiculous as it was, than
to surrender the principle which NELSON said Eng-
land would support with her last man and her
last pound.

But setting aside the wdfare of the poor child,
and the heavy price already indirectly paid for the
dynastic connection, There are other matters of
still graver import to be taken into consideration.
We may become in* solved in Prussian and Ger-
man intrigues, aO. drawn into contests in which

we are in no degree concerned.

We have-alieady

had bitter experience of the consequences of a
Hanoverian connection, and should -so far profit
thereby as sedulously to avoid a similar scrape,
that might involve us in serious trouble with-
out any equivalent, however insignificant.

But " this, and these, and all" are as nothing
to the possibility of the annexation of the Crown
of Great Britain to that of Prussia. There are
happily four Princes, whose claims are paramount
to those of the intended bride. But the Royal
Marriage Act is not calculated to produce legitimate
offspring. Her MAJESTY is the daughter of the
fourth son of GEORGE 111., and but for the ex-
traordinary inducement held out to princely mar-
riages in 1818—and which are not likely to be
again offered—there might have been a total
failure of the House of BRUNSWICK. There is,
therefore, not merely a possibility, but even a
strong probability, of a Prussian Sovereign suc-
ceeding to the sceptre of Great Britain at the
termination of lives now in being. Can such a
prospect be regarded with patience ? What would
be the inevitable result ? The Prussian Viceroy,
that would gladly degrade England to a third-
rate Power, would be speedily expelled. We
should suffer under internal conamotions, and
endure—

" Civil dissension, with its vip'rous tooth,
That gnaws the bowels of the commonweal."
Surely in such a case, where the succession to the
Throne is concerned, and the future welfare and
prosperity of the nation is at stake, the Parliament
and people of Great Britain have a right to forbid
the banns, and interpose a veto against the in-
tended marriage. If it must go on, there-should
be a new "act of settlement" to exclude the issue,
being Sovereigns of Prussia, from the English
Throne. Even if the welfare of this kingdom
did not recognise such a proviso, the interests of
Europe, and. the maintenance of "the balance of
power," about which so much noise is made,
would be sufficient to prevent " the union of the
Crowns." We should scarcely approve of the
amalgamation, by any means, of France or Aus-
tria with Russia. We are even prepared to
protest against Denmark being added to the
Muscovite diadem, and surely the annexation of
the United Kingdom to Prussia would be just as
objectionable, and occasion as many serious com-
plications as those above referred to. Any deli-
cacy on such a matter would now be misplaced,
and we earnestly hope that some independent
Member of Parliament, if such there
are to be found, with sufficient firmness,
to " bell the German cat," will be induced to
exhibit such interrogatories to Ministers as mly
obtain materials whereon to frame a new Act of
Settlement, providing for the succession to the
Throne in certain, by no means remote contin-
gencies.

" Secrecy is the parent of impunity, impunity
of corruption," therefore the Ballot is grandfather
to corruption ; so argues the Times, and so,
therefore, believe a host of virtuous members of
Parliament, of patrons of pocket boroughs, of
lawyers who work the business, and of Tory
squires and landlords all the country over. "Ah !
I always said as much," remarks some Sir JOHN
LEICESTER, as he lays down the paper to sip his
coffee, " These Socialists who advocate the Ballot
are the manifest friends of darkness and corrup-
tion ; they would utterly annihilate the salutary
effect of a landlord's virtue on his tenants—yes,
they would deliver the simple creatures over to
secrecy, impunity, and corruption. I shall write
to the Editor, and thank him for his admirable
article, giving him leave to insert my letter, with
an order for a copy for each of my tenants, and
one to lie on the table of the Rose and Crown."
But when Sir JOHN sits down to confer on Mr.
Editor the honour of his baronial thanks, it may
be his proud consort happens to glance at the
superscription " Mr. Editor." "Do you know the
man, Sir JOHN ?" " Know him, Lady LEICESTER
—of course not—but he, whoever he be, has just
written a most admirable exposure of that absurd
and corrupting proposal of Vote by Ballot."
" Oh, yes, Sir JOHN, some writer for hire, I dare
say, writing in perfect secrecy, with perfect im-
punity, and no doubt ready to take any one's pay
—secrecy is the parent of impunity, and impunity
of corruption." "Why, that is the very thing he
says of the Ballot !" " Let him say it of himself
too, then," rejoins her Ladyship ; " about politics
I know nothing, and I care less, but I have
enough common sense to understand that a person
who publishes an article without a name, is not
just the man to blackball another who wishes to
vote without revealing his name."
Of course, Sir JOHN'S pen is paralysed by his
Lady's common sense, and he no doubt turns
the thing over in his country brains often
enough in his morning's ride ; but a solution of
such difficulties is not the game which country
squires can reach. Not that it is so very difficult.
Their JOHNSON'S dictionary, when theyhave blown
off the dust, will tell them that impunity means
freedom from punishment, and freedom fr( na
punishment may be the removal of temptation,
and an encouragement to virtue. Both the jour-
nalist and the voter may escape by secrecy the
penalties of doing right. Speaking truthfully,
and acting out one's honest convictions, have in
all ages frequently incurred penalties of various
kinds. From the earnest professor of primitive
Christianity, to the denouncer of some social
or political evil, secrecy has ofttimes been the
only means of freedom from punishment ; but
the impunity has in these cases been parent to the
very opposite of corruption. If, indeed, legal or
social punishment followed upen wickedness only,
impunity could have but one offspring ; but the
impunity sought by the writer through the first
person plural, and by the voter through the ballot
box, are sought on the whole for virtuous pur-
poses. The journalist wishes to write free from the
influence of seine persons he might not like to dis-
please. The elector, in many cases, wishes to do
the same ; and in either case mere modesty may
frequently prefer concealment to publicity. We
are confident that our contemporary will decidedly
assert that secrecy aids the independence of its
writers ; why should it not aid equally the inde-
pendence of voters ?

Oar great contemporary, "however, takes its
cue this time from the House of Commons, and
as hon. members on Tuesday afternoon preferred
-their dinners to a debate on Mr. H. BERKELEY'S
'motion, has itself dismissed the subject with
merely ,a little oracular condemnation—no one
cares about, it can do no good ; nay, it will make
people WG 1, se. There is, of course, no denying
that a cap tal Rause of Commons speech from
Mr. BERKE LTA-, a silent seconding of his motion
by General _ EVANS, and a singlo antagonistic speech
from Mr. P, EACOCKE were the whole of the debate,
if such it at. be called—a division and dinner
were the pr€ loyncerted tactics, and in a house of
261 members the Ballot gained only 111 of their
votes. Thera is little doubt that the War, the
Peace, and t1:70 Income-Tax have so absorbed the
nation's /ply cl. of late that Representative Reform
and the Ba 'lot with it, has not been a practical
topic with the public, and that the House felt it
might sect 'rely treat it
business as a question on which no
1
,vas just now to be done. Not a Mini-