The Sun.
London, England, 1860-12-04 00:00:00

THE PRUSSIAN POLICE.

An extraordinary prosecution is now going on in
Berlin, of which the following account will be in-
teresting :--
The Court of Appeal of Berlin has just given its
decision in a -ease that has excited an unusual
degree of interest, not only in Prussia, but through-
out Germany. A director of the Berlin police, M.
Stieber, having been charged with official miscon-
duct and abuse of his functions, the lower Court de-
cided that the evidence adduced was insufficient;
and on this ground of defective proofs of the
several heads of the accusation the case against
M. Stieber was dismissed. He was not fully
acquitted, but the charges were held as " not
proven." Against this decision the prosecution
appealed to the Senat of the Criminal Court, and
the investigation was renewed before this higher
tribunal. The Procureur du Roi, M. Schwarck,
conducted the prosecution officially, and his address
to the Court contained a series of revelations of the
despotism and corruption of the Police Adminis-
tration in Berlin that have caused an extraordinary
sensation in that capital. It is not that the public
are surprised by the allegations—that the police
was all-powerful, and that its power was abused
by its agents and officers, was too well known
before ; but such an exposure of the system has
never yet been made on high official authority. In
support of the special charges against M. Stieber,
the Public Prosecutor asserts that the Prussian
Police Department has for several years sys-
tematically set itself above the law : that it has
arrested illegally and arbitrarily, imprisoned, and
detained in confinement any person it pleased, and
for indefinite periods of time; and that individuals
so arrested, without having any formal charge
brought against them, after the lapse of weeks or
months, have been released without judicial
inquiry.

In some cases persons politically suspected, after
having been thus arrested and imprisoned, have
been expelled from the Prussian territory without
even a semblance of a trial. it is stated also, that
is Berlin the police have frequently interfered in
the most imperious manner between the
opposing parties in questions of debt, and, by
threats of various kinds, have compelled them to
offer or accept terms of settlement that caused them
serious pecuniary loss and damage. In short, the
picture of the Prussian police, drawn by this official
pencil, is that of an imperimn in inzperio, continually
overriding the written law, vexatiously meddle.
some, irresponsible and tyrannical. The specific
facts that, in the case of M. Stieber, support the
more general allegations are as follow:—The Pub-
lic Prosecutor states that when he was appointed to
his office in 1853, he found the law relating to free-
dom of the person (part of the constitution as settled
in 1850) had become a dead letter, He endeavoured
to enforce on the Police Department some degree of
observance of that law by demanding that, in the
case of any arrest, the party should be brought
before a Juge d'lnstruction within the term legally
fixed. Conferences were held between the judicial
and the police authorities en this subject, but they
led to nothing. In the course of the discussions
M. Stieber, representing both the opinion and prac-
tice of the police, said the enactment of 1850 was
an absurd and stupid law, and that the 24 hours
it appointed as the time within which a prisoner
must be charged, in the first instance, before a
magistrate, was much too brief, and therefore the
whole law must be set aside ; and this the Police
Department has always done. The defective evi-
dence, however, has compelled the Court of Appeal
to confirm the first decision, and the case is dis-
missed. But the statements of the Public Prosecu-
tor have aroused so much public indication that
the Government has been obliged to act extra-
judicially, and a Ministerial order has deprived M.
Stieber of all his functions.

Baron Charles Dupin has just concluded the last
volume of the proceedings of the French commission on the
industry of nations. This important work is published by
the order •f the Emperor Napoleon. The volume just pub-
lished treats of the productive forces of the East. It con-
tains interesting details on Russia in Asia, China, and
Japan.

The seventhvolume of M. Frangois Victor Hugo's
translation of Shakspeare has just been published at Paris,
under the separate title " Les Amants Tragiques." It con-
tains " Anthony and Cleopatra" and " Romeo and Juliet,"
and, to the last-named play, an introduction, by M. Victor
Hugo, in which Italy, rising from the tomb, is compared to
the heroine.

FURTHER PARTICULARS OF THE MURDER AT
TORRYBURN.—The tragic event took place in a public-
house in the village, occupied by the father of the deceased.
INlTann had been drinking there during the evening, and
having, after some time, shown signs of being considerably
the worse for what he had had, more drink was refused
him, although ho asked repeatedly for it. The deceased,
who was sitting by the fireside, then advised M'Cann not
to ask for any more, as he thought ho had had enough.
ikl`Cann then raised his gun, and, taking aim at Debbie,
said, " If you say another word, you b—, I'll shoot you;"
to which Dobbie replied, " I think you'll no do that." No
sooner had the words passed his mouth than the gun went
off, its contents lodging in the abdomen, and causing so
large a wound that a porticos of the intestines protruded.
The unfortunate man lingered on for about three hours,
and is stated to have repeatedly said, " M'Cann has mur-
dered me ; you must see him apprehended." M'Cann, as
v as stated, was apprehended the same night, and now lies
in Dunfermline jail,"—Caledonian Mercury.