The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-16 00:00:00

() 5":71_137, 17-1: I . J.O, 100V'.

There is one thing very certain, which is, that
when once the Prussians have made up their minds
to an act of oppression or spoliation they do not
think better of it, but adhere rigidly to their deter-
mination. We thus see that the bills, relative to the
confiscation of the private property of the King of

A.NOVER and the Elector of HESSE-CASSEL, were
agreed to by a large majority of the Upper House
in the form in which they passed through the Lower
House. Perhaps this was only what might have
been expected ; but, at the same time, one cannot
help a lingering feeling of disappointment that no
sign of compunction was visible at the eleventh
hour, and no shadow of regret was visible. The
ever-ready Count BISMARCK made a speech
on each bill as it came before the House.
No statesman of the present day possesses half the
vitality of the Berlin counsellor. No matter how
grave are his maladies, no matter how doubtful his
physicians, only let him have a chance of confiscation
or a prospect of war and he is on the alert at once.
So we find him busy and active again, despite the
solemn statement which appeared some time back to
the effect that his health was too precarious to per-
mit of his
Pursuing his ordinary course of duties.
In commenting
upon the Hanoverian affair, the
Count said that the Treaty of 1867 on this subject
was no private contract, but a State document, and
proceeded to utter the magniloquent sentence that
in the interests of peace, they set an example
of magnanimity such as has never before been wit-
nessed." Could anything be mote absurd than this,
especially when it is remembered that the campaign
of which Sadowa was the crowning point, was un-
dertaken ostensibly in a friendly spirit, or at all
events in no supposed desire of vengeance. What is
to be expected from an assembly which can, like the
Upper House in Berlin, listen unmoved to such de-
clarations. Why not say at once, We have the power,
and mean to exercise it, instead of beating about
the bush after this fashion? Another extraordinary
statement follows upon this explanation, namely, that
they did not believe in the theory of the rights of an
enemy who had not concluded peace w ith them. Strange
interpretation of the mystery, that it was not King
WILLIAM, at the head of his army, who. injured and
despoiled the King of HANovEn, but it was the exiled
and broken-down Monarch himself who was the ag-
gressor, and whose cruel conduct Count BISMARCK
feels himself called upon to reprove. Prussia is not so
mighty that she does not quake at the thoughts of the
armed legions of Hanoverian exiles, and the needle-
gun is impotent to repel their attacks. The only
thing is to stop the supplies, and thus resort to an
old expedient, but a very effective one. We would
have given BISMARCK credit for more sense than to
express himself in such terms as these when he learns
that his language is addressed not only to sympa-
thising Pruss'ans, but to the other nations and
peoples, not under the spell of such infatua-
tion. "We are now compelled to preserve the
Fatherland from any possible danger that may arise
from this violation of trust." Perhaps we shall get
at the truth of the matter more readily if we go back
a little way, and take another text of the Count's for
interpretation. His MAJESTY has deceived us when
we confided in the fulfilment of the implied condi-
tions and assumptions of the treaty. This is the