The Sun.
London, England, 1860-06-19 00:00:00

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union of the Moldavian and Wallachian provinces
is also witness to the blessings of French philan-
thropy; and "Italy, our august mother in civilizat ion
and the fine arts, has, under the auspices of France,
entered on the path of independence and unity.
It was French Armies who opened the way
in which she now marches alone under
the guidance of Piedmont ; if GOD allows
this great work to be accomplished, and a nation
of 26,000,000 of inhabitants is organised at h r
gates, France will take no offence. Faithful to
her generous traditions she will sacrifice her pri-
vate susceptibilities to the general welfare and for
a peaceful future ; for European order will not be
firmly established until the day in which there shall
be neither nationalities oppressed nor kings insup-
portable to their subjects." M. ABOUT does not
advert, however, to the fact that, in Savoy and Nice,
France took the keys of the north-western gates of
Italy into her own hands. A rather suspicious
looking preamble all this for the monarchs.

But what follows was worse. First the laser
ones have their lesson the " swarm of petty
Princes who buy and sell their subjects as they
would their flocks," who have divided a nation,
naturally homogeneous into a " deplorable multi-
tude of Governments." The intelligence and pride
of the German people resent the degradation, and
regard the support of 27 Governments, when one
would be sufficient, as ridiculous. The German
people can unite ; they did it to expel the French
in 1813, they strive to do it in the Zollverein, they
showed their national sentiment at the SCHILLER
feast, they would have united under the lead of
Prussia, in 1849, but for the imbecility of
FREDERICK-WILLIAM, and they are ready to do it
now ! Their Majesties of the petty territories
must have read these words of the Imperial
anonymous Secretary with rather uneasy con-
sciences.

But the greater ones were not spared. Austria
comes in for the most contemptuous denunciation.
She represents the doctrine of Divine right in its
most absolute vigour ; political and religious
despotisin, abnegation of the rights of the
people, the most enormous concessions to clerical
authority, a blind worship of the past, and an
obstinate hatred of all progress ; these, says M.
ABOUT, " are the worm-eaten bases of the Austrian
monarchy." She is then contrasted as a confused
heap of nationalities with Prussia, which repre-
sents German nationality, religious reform, com-
mercial progress, and constitutional liberalism.
Hence the people of Germany love Prussia, and
look to her as the centre and rallying point of
German unity. Moreover an Austrian unity,
by comprehending with the same hand nationalities
amounting altogether to 70,000,000 men, would
have threatened the equilibrium of Europe. A
Prussian unity would number but 32,000,000 sub-
jects of one Government.

Let not, however, Prussia think herself immacu-
late. She at the crisis of 1849 adopted the
principle of Divine right in opposition to that of
popular suffrage. She has been guilty of supress-
ing constitutions around her, and of putting to
death the noble patriots of the Fatherland ; still,
peoples are more forgiving than Monarchs, and
she will be forgiven if she repent. But Germans
may ask—Who is a Frenchman that he should talk
to us of liberty ? Gagged and deprived of all
political liberties, what honest interest can he
take in German liberties ? Of course M. ABOUT
gets out of his own awkward question as
well as he can, but it is a sorry affair.
He succeeds easily enough in showing that Prus-
sians are pretty closely fettered, and that the dif-
ferent provinces of the Kingdom, do not, like the
departments of the Empire, enjoy equal rights.
What, however, those rights are, in France, he
does not tell us, and a German would doubtless tell
him, that unequal franchises, may be better than
equal fetters.
But what about the Rhine ? Why, says M.
ABOUT, you have all been very uneasy about it ever
since we claimed " natural boundaries" in Savoy.
Now, really, if you will go on saying that we mean
to make the Rhine our boundary, too ; if no protes-
tations, no explanations will suffice, you will just
irritate us into doing the thing. It would be just
like a man persisting in telling another that the
latter meant to give him a slap in the face ; per-
sisting in following him and telling him PO—tell-
ing him, also, at the same time, that he would crush
and annihilate him. If he did of course, the
accused man would at last find excellent reasons for
giving the slap which his provoking neighbour
dared him to inflict.

Such then is the scope of the last Imperial pam-
phlet. Germany is but a name for a miserable
batch of feeble states. Two only of them can com-
bine, end unite all into one efficient whole. Austria
is out of the question; she represents but antiquated
principles. Prussia may do, but she must mend
her ways ; and as to the Rhine, why, you say we
will come there, so we suppose we must ; if we do,
thank yourselves.

A remarkable letter from the hand of Colonel
Sir JOSHUA JEBB will be found in another part of
The Sun of this evening. It is an argument in
which that gallant soldier supplements in. an ad-
mirable manner the elaborate Report of the Royal
Commissioners appointed to inquire so far into the
state of our National Defences, as those Defences
are substantially embodied in oar outer For-
tifications. Nothing could he more happily
timed or more directly to the purpose than
this well reasoned communication. Colonel JEBB
recognises the justice and accuracy with which the
one damning blot of the report (a report otherwise
entitled only to our heartiest commendation) was
hit immediately upon its issue from the press
and its submission to the two Houses of the
Legislature. That solitary but all-important
omission was at once indicated among others
by ourselves. It is a hiatus, in fact, quite as start-
ling in its way as that in which the character of
HAMLET was said to have been once overlooked in
the distribution of " parts," when the Danish
Prince was about to be doubly murdered at some
redoubtable amateur performance. The Commis-
sion, it will be remembered, has, In effect, simply
evaded the very point of the most vital importance
among all the points of vital importance submitted
to their consideration. They have shewn, as
their report shows with admirable lucidity, how all
the naval ports may be the most rapidly and the
most effectually rendered impregnable. They have
dedicated to this end the whole of their energies.
They have set apart for the realisation of

this design a round sum of £12,000,000 sterling,
only providing that that otherwise somewhat
alarming aggregate of £12,000,000 shall be di-
tributed over fonr years, and disbursed in corn.
paratively moderate instalments. But—while pro
viding thus for the safety and security of such
places as Portsmouth and Chatham, the Medway
and the Thames—the capital of England, the heart
of the British Empire, is passed by ! Certainly, it
must be admitted, with a wistful look askance
in its direction. It has been passed by as
though it were a subject of the most secon-
dary nature. This, moreover, while it is
candidly acknowledged all the while that " the
main object of an enemy in invading this country