The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-25 00:00:00

LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 25, 1856.

Spirit of the Public Journals.

(From the Times of this day.)
It has always been considered a sign of the ap-
proaching downfall of Governments or political
systems when scandal after scandal has come to
light among those highest placed in a country, and
men have seen with astonishment and something
like terror the corruption of those who rule their
destinies. The fall of the Roman commonwealth
was presaged by portents far more signiEcant than
comets or showers of blood, and within the last few
years a dynasty of France seemed fore-doomed to
destruction in the terrible histories which cast a
gloom over its latter days. Recent events in Berlin
may well cause observers of political times and
changes to reflect. Seldom have a few days brought
into view so much that is foul, strange, and unna-
tural. Men had scarcely recovered from the sur-
prise occasioned by the death of Hinkeldey, the
Minister of Police, when it was announced that
Herr von Canitz, another well-known member of
Berlin society, had committed suicide. The report
prevailed for two or three days, when it was an-
nounced that he too had lost his life in a duel of

mysterious origin. Scarcely are these two men in
the grave, scarcely has the indecent address of the
President of the Upper House in the case of Herr
von B,ochow been uttered, than a new and larger
scandal appears. The circumstances, as fgr as they
are known, were detailed in our Prussian corre-
spondence a day or two ago. It can well be
imagined that even in the midst of duos and
alleged suicides, even when Peace Conferences are
at their crisis, and Frederick Williamis accrediting
a representative to them, such an incident as the
theft of important and compromising documents
from the portfolios of two men high in Court favour
must move the world of Berlin. The facts are as
follows :—ln the course of last summer two men,
one in the service of the King's Private Secretary,
Niebuhr, and the other of General Gerlach, were
arrested on suspicion of having betrayed the corre-
spondence of their masters to several persons both
at home and abroad. It appears that the Cabinet
of St. Petersburg fancied that certain communica-
tions made to the Court of Berlin had become
known to the French Embassy, and even that the
operations of the allies in the Crimea had been in-
fluenced by revelations surreptitiously made. The
matter appears to have been little inquired into at
the time, but subsequently it was found that a
much larger mass of correspondence had been pur-
loined, and, from what has escaped into notoriety,
it seems evident that two sets of men high in the

State have been intriguing against each other, and
that one has had recourse to the most dishonourable
means to learn the secrets and to baffle the plans of

the other.
The relation of the King to his Ministers is
singular. The responsible instruments of his ad-
ministration are by no means those in closest
connection with him. Behind, and almost above
the Ministry, is a small knot of men who, under
the names of Chamberlains and Adjutants, report
on the measures of the accredited advisers, have
sight of all documents, and. are said to sway the
Royal purpose according to their own views.
Among these are M.M. Niebuhr and Gerlach,
whose correspondence has been lately purloined.
Though much that is asserted may be incorrect,
we yet must give the accusation as we find it. It
is said that one of the King's Ministers has had
some share in employing or rewarding the
men who have violated the sanctity of their mas-
ters' correspondence. Last autumn a man named
Techen was arrested as an abettor of the men ser-
vants in robbing their masters. This person, an old
man, was formerly a police spy, and well he seems
to have understood his, nefarious craft. Having
been for some unemployed and penniless, he was
accustomed to solicit alms of a gentleman occupy-
ing a high office under the Minister of Finance, at
Potsdam, but who had been himself a " confiden-
tial official of secret police," and as so connected in
old times with Techen. At last he began to be less
importunate for money, and confessed that he was
regularly engaged at a fair salary in a most delicate
service. To prove his words hesho wed papers of high
importance, which it was evident could only have been
obtained in some improper way. His benefactor was
staggered, but was too much a man of the world
to make a noise about it. Old Techen was well
paid, and had managed to get hold of important
documents. It must therefore be evident, thought
the finance official, that be was acting under high
authority. He behaved, therefore, as a good
Prussian official ought, and contented himself with
intimating the fact "in a high quarter."- One of
the papers was especially interesting. It was the
copy of a 3 eport sent to General Gerlach by a spy
who had been employed to observe and record
" all the Prince of Prussia's sayings and doings
while on a tour of military inspection, and was
full of the most odious incriminations of his Royal
Highness." There were also private communica-
tions from Count Munster, at St. Petersburg, to
General Gerlach, and it was probably these on
which the Czar's Government founded its repre-
sentations. Some time after Techen disappears,
and on returning deposits papers and money with
his friend. The money he afterwards asks for by
letter, and the answer he allows to be discovered
in his own house, thus making it appear to the
world that his old friend had employed him in his
scandalous proceedings and sent him money for
his trouble. This is the transaction as understood
at present in Berlin, and in which it is whispered
that one of the Ministers has borne a principal
part. If it be correct, it appears that some of the
King's advisers have thought right to employ the
vilest of mankind in discovering the secrets of
persons who may in some sense be •called, their
colleagues.
The whole of this strange story throws a strong
light on the mysteries of Prussian official life, and
helps us to understand a story which was current
some time since--..,hat the King, conscious of the
system of espionage under which he lived, when
on a visit to the Rhine last year had the greatest
difficulty in communicating confidentially with an
ex-Minister' who was at the same time one of his
Majesty's oldest and dearest friends, and at last
thought it necessary to appoint a meeting at a
railway station, where the two could converse with-
out fear of intrusion on their privacy. But what
is most interesting to Englishmen is to find that
the spy system on the continent is no exaggeration
of Liberal orators, no dream of popular suscepti-
bility, no usage of the past which is gone, never
to return. In Prussia, educated, enlightened, and
artistic, we see men of the highest rank accused on
no slight grounds of practices not only unknown
to this country, but abhorrent to the feelings of
every man among us. When we consider that no
official of even the lowest rank in England would
dare to be concerned in such enormities, it gives
us some notion of the difference between our own
country aud the continent to find that statesmen
and nobles can look on such things as the legiti-
mate means of political success.

(F;•om the Morning Post of this day.)
With respect to wife-beating, we have heard
asked whether the punishment of whipping (which
Mr. Dill wyn, immediately after the re-assembly
of Parliament, will propose to place it in the dis-
cretionary power of magistrates to inflict), whether
this punishment would not "degrade" the brutes
who should suffer it ? We have seen this question,
and several like it, put in various respectable organs
of opinion, and answered by them affirmatively,
and then made the basis of vehement objections to
the experimental alteration proposed. We wish our
readers to examine with us what this reasoning
really means, and what it is worth. The few words
we shall have to say about it will necessarily cast
some incidental light, as we pass, on certain other
equally valuable, equally profound, equally philo-
sophic, and thought-evincing inquiries continually
heard in the discussion of this subject, such as—
would it (whipping) "go to the root of the mat-
ter ?" Would it change our ruffian class into orna-
I meats of society ? Would it " reform" their bar-
I barons hearts and their degrading habits—would it
turn child-kickers and wife-beaters into fond parents
and gentle husbands ? All such queries, in cases like
the one under consideration, constitute that rub-
tish of argument—that pretence of reasoning—that
embarrassing heap of extraneous, irrelevant twad-
dle, with which every proposition of importance—
the instant it becomes the theme of wide-spread
and miscellaneous debate—is certain to be overlaid.
These solemn admonitory appeals are the well-
known product of strong but vague wishes, in per-
sons of a weak understanding, highly cultivated—
persons who do the largest habitual quantity of
meditation with the smallest proportional quan-
tity of thought. Persons of that kind ask
—would this particular species of punishment
eradicate the vicious propensities and bad disposi-
tions from which has proceeded the delinquency
punished ? Well, we think not. They next ask—
which is better, to punish a delinquency, or to pre-
vent it ? No one can hesitate how to answer this
to prevent the crime is better. obtaining these
" concessions," the objectors to Mr. Dillwyn's pro-
posed experiment, and, indeed, to every similar
suggestion, proceed to draw their triumphant con-

elusion against his measure, forgetting that pre-
cisely the same reasoning would warrant a conclu-
sion against all ptnishments in the case of any
offence, no matter what. Since you grant, they say,
that your new penal process cannot eradicate the
evil dispositions which are the cause of the crime,
and since you also grant that it is better to prevent
it than to punish it, why not prevent it at once ?
In the name of philanthropy, why not ? Let It be
done. No punishment ever yet in use among men
has been able to uproot the badness which caused
the act it punished; and, what is more, neither
have any other means yet succeeded in quite re-
moving from the face of the earth the moral seeds
out of which offences spring. But two truths re-
main truths for all this ; first, the existence of a.
punishing machinery .for crimes actually perpe-
trated, does not preVent the simultaneous existence
of reformatory processes for their prevention to the
greatest extent possible, nor the introduction of as
many new agencies of the kind as you please, nor
their indefinite tunitiplicatton afterwards and per-
petually. Every instrument to its proper work ;
and, though the work of one nsay be far better than
the work of another, yet the instruments are not,
if interchanged. In the second place, punishment
does act, in its sphere, for the prevention of some
crimes, and especially on the part of him who is
under the-penal restraint, whatevei it may be.
-Those who urge the most appropriate chastise-H
went of offences have, of course:Lin their mind only
offences already perpetrated and done. If none be
perpetrated, it little matters what the punishment
reserved for such acts--rthat punishment cannot
apply. Prevent them'altogether, and their punish-
ment will never come into force. Meantime, per-
mit us to speak of what unfortunately still claims
attention— 'e mean the occurrence of positive
actual facts contrary to laws •Woesagnge to occupy
`ourselves with penal enactments only until there
be nothing to punish—not one' Moment longer.-
Therefore, by all means, prevent crime. It is a
niost excellent work. So it is to prevent a fire in
your house far better than to extinguish afire in
it. But because the precautions which keep your
premises from igniting are much more valuable
than any processes for subduing their conflagra-
tion, would you forbid these last ? Cannot both
be attended to without incompatibility ? He who
keeps a valuable dog from going mad does a better
thing than he who shoots him when mad, but the
last will continne to be a prudent measure until
dogs cease altogether to be liable to rabid frenzy.
Not one of the various chastisements'awarded
for murder (or for any other offence) ever yet deli-
vered the community where they were in force
frop the occasional occurrence of the deed. There-
fore, such deeds, we suppose, must not be punished
at all. What the penalties do not hinder malefac-
tors from venturing we behold ; what the penal-
ties deter them from doing we can but calculate—
surely calculate in the gross average, but never
with precision in the positive number of cases, for
the nature of these is not to come to light. This
is the very advantage gained, and it is forgotten by
our mawkish sentimentalists, and by the whole
tribe of these philosophic progress-preachers Who
disdain lucidity of argument, and everything like
carefulness in their reasonings.
As to the " degradation" of a whipping for child-
beaters and wife-beaters, we advise Mr. Dillwyn to
say plainly that degrading it is, and that this is
precisely one of the reasons why he recommends its
adoption. A person is powerfully restrained from
doing, or incurring, what is deemed, in his own
circle, a degradation. To strike to the earth a preg-
nant wife, to kick her, to jump on her, to drag her
by the hair of the head around her garret, all this
is not considered by the persons in question to de-
grade them ; but to be whipped for it, we are now
told, will be so considered by theni. Then whip
them for it. It will " hurt their conscience" to
treat them thus ; then hurt their conscience. The
very argument most used and pressed against the
proposal is au unspeakably powerful argument in
its favour. Meantime, " moralise" these persons as
much as you please. If you moralise these men
sufficiently, there will be none to whip. Let it be
remembered that no one asks punishment for the
crimes that are, but only for those that still unhap-
pily may continue not to be " prevented."

DEATII 6i TB hi RIGHT HON. SIR
POTTI GER, G.C.B.

..sl. large portion of our readers, especially those who
are connected with the East by personal or professional
ties, will learn with regret the news of the death of so
*experienced and able a servant of the Crown as Sir
Henry Pottinfrer, an event which occurred at Malta
early on the morning of the 18th last., in the Vith year
of his age. Sir Henry, who was born about the year
1789, represente,l, like the Deke of 'Wellington, an an-
cient English faintly which had been settled for some
generations in Ireland. So ancient, indeed, is the
stock of which he came, that according to the records of
the Herald's College, the deceased baronet is sail to
have been 31st in decent from Egbert, the first Saxon
King of England, and grandfather of Alfred. Be this,
0 ever, as it may, one bratch of the family has been
settled in Berkshire since the conquest, and during the
17tti century sent several of its members to represent
the good town of Reading', n Parliament. The other
branch, from which the late Sir Henry was descended,
. . .

settled in Ireland about the middle of he 16th century,

and in 1661 we find one Thomas Pottinger, of Mount
Pottinger, county of Down, elected thefirst"Sovereign"

or Mayor of Belfast, on theincarporation of that town by
Charles 11. His son conveyed King William 111. to Ireland
but was lost at sea in an attempt to intercept a convoy of
French vessels I..tden, as waa supposed, with supplies for

King James's army. Fourth in descent from the above
Thomas wa tho father of the subject of our memoir,

Eldred Cerwen Pottinger, Esq., of Mount Pottinger,
who married, in 1779, Anne, daughter of the late Robt.
Gordon, Esq., of Florida, county of Down, and died in
1814, leaving three daughters and eight sons. Nearly
all the eons who survived infancy devoted themselves to
the service of their country, either in the navy, the
army, or in the East India C.)mpany's army. The fifth
son, Henry, the subject of our present remarks, went to
India as a cadet in 1804, and at an early age attracted
the attention of the civil and military authorities there
by his energy, information, and ready administrative
powers. During his long sojourn in that country he was
employed in almost every branch of the public service.
He was for more than seven years Judge and Collector
at Ahmednuggar, in the Deccan, and for 15 years more
he filled the post of Political Resident at Cutch and
Scinde ; during part of the latter period he was also
President of the Regency in the former province.
So high was the opinion at that time formed of his
talents by Lord Auckland, the Governor-General of
India, that when that nobleman was raised to the
Earldom, and General Keane to a Barony, in De-
cember, 1839, after the Affghauistan campaign,
Major-General Pottinger was raised to the Baro-
netage, as a token of the appreciation felt in England
of the services which he had render's' in the discharge
of his difficult duties. Sir H. Pottinger returned to
England in 1840,-having established a deserve ily high
reputation ; nod it cannot be a matter of surprise that
he found no difficulty in obtaining further employment.
In the year 1840, as is generally known, differences con-
nected for the most part with the opium trade broke
out between this country and the Emperor of China.
Accordingly, early in 1811 Sir Henry was selected by
her Majesty's Government to discharge the office of a
mediator, and was ordered to proceed to China as En-
voy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, for the
purpose of adjusting the matters in dispute. He joined
Admiral Sir William Parker at Bombay about the end
of June in that year, immediately after the surrender of
the city of Canton to the British forces wider General,
now Lord Gough, supported by the fleet under the late
Sir H. de Fleming Senhouse and Sir Gordon Bremer ;
and he arrived off Canton in the Sesostris towards the
end of the following month. At the same time he was
gazetted Superintendent of the British Trade in China.
Whatever may be the opinion entertained as to the
policy of our war with China, it is certain that China
became the field on which the diplomatic ability of the
late Sir Henry Pottinger was most fully and fairly
exhibited. On his arrival at Macao, August 12,
he issued a spirited proclamation, notifying that while
he would do his best to consult the wishes and prosperity
of all her Majesty's subjects and other foreigners resident
in China, "at the same time it became his first duty
distinctiy to intimate that it was his intention to devote
his undivided energies and thoughts to the primary
object of securing a speedy and satisfactory close of the
war, and that therefore he could allow no consideration
of mercantile or other interests to interfere with the
strong measures which he might find it necessary to
authorise and adopt towards the Government and nub-
jects of China in order to compel an honourable and
lasting peace." At the same time, with great wisdom,
he warned the British residents on no account to rely
upon the existing truce,*but to stand upon their guard
against the perfidy and bad faith of the Chinese officials.
The sequel of our war with China is too well known to
need recording here ; it is enough to say that the mili•
tary and naval operations of the British farces at Amoy,
which was captured in the same month, were well sup-
ported by the arts of diplomacy, and that the genius
and fareaightedness of Sir Henry Pottinger contributed
in no slight degree to bring to a successful issue our
protracted hostilities with the crafty Chinese. The re,
cult of these operations, as all our readers are aware,
was to throw open a commerce with 330,000,000 na•
tives, and the terms of the treaty with which the war
was concluded in 1842 " were such as to give uni•
versal satisfaction, not merely on acmunt of the palpable
and self evident benefits arising from free trade with
such an extended population, but also from the strong
precautions that have been taken to prevent abuses."
It is not too much to say that, if the " benefits" under
the former category are mainly due to Lord Gough and
Sir W, Pallier, those under the latter arer n cipaily to

be ascribed to tha i,kill and forethought of Sir Henry
Pottinger. As FOOD as the news of this treaty reached
England Sir Henry was rewarded tor his services with
the Grand CrosE of the Order of the Bath ; he was sub-
sequently appointed Governor and Commander-in-Chief
of the island of Hong-kong, which post he held from
April, .1843, to the spring of the following year, when
he returned to England. In May, 1844, he was sworn
a ineenber,iif the Privy Council, and a pension of 1,5001.
a-year rwas settled upon him by a vote of the House of
Comm Ons, In September, 1846, he was again chosen
fcr active service, being appointed to the Governorship
of the Cape of Good. Hope, in.succession to Sir Peregrine
Maitland, and discharged that office with great address
and enemy through a very troubled period, until Sep-
tember, 1847, when he was relieved by the present Gen.
Sir Harry G. W. Smith, G.C,B. In 1847 he went again
to India, the saene 'of his early services, and held the
post of- Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the
Presidency of Madras until the year 1854, when he
finally returned to England. In Nov., 1851, he was
promoted to :he local rank of Lieutenant-General in
India. In early relation of public and private life the
.name of Sir lienry Pottinger has long commanded the
respect and eiteem of all who have been brought into
connection with him. His administration of public
affairs in India, China, and Africa has been uniformly
excelle4, and we only re-echo public opinion when we
say that we seldom have had occasion to regret an offi-
cer who has rendered greater service to the Crown and
1. the countr

.ry.

THE XASTEK BAINUIET AT • THE
MANSION-HOUSE.

Yesterday evening, pursuant to 'annual custoth, the
Right Mon. the Lord Mayor entertained a large and
distinguished party/at dinner in the Egyptian Hall,
where Cstvera were laid for 200. -
The:frat. that net a single Cabinet-Minister was pre-
sent? assndect of general conversation amongst the.
guesOn the removal of the cloth,
The Lours MAYOR gave in. succession " The Queen:
" Prince Albert," Lite., and then proceeded to the toast
of "The other Members of the Royal Family," in giving
which he congratulated himself, on the peesence of so
distinguished a member of the Royal family as his Royal
Highness the Duke of Cambridge, who sat upon Ins
rieht hand. His lordsh:p concluded by giving " The
Health of the Duke of Cambridge and the other Mem-
bers of the Royal Family." (Cheers.)
The Duke of CAMBRIDGE returned thanks.
The LORD MAYOR gave, with an appropriate eulo-
gium, " The Army and Navy." (The Earl of Lucart's
name was placed opposite to this toast in the list, but
the duty of responding to it was ultimately allotted to
the Duke of Cambridge.)
The Duke of CAMBRIDGE, in returning thanks, ex-
pressed hie conviction that no man could speak with
greater sincerity or greater knowledge of the merits of
the army than the individual who then had the honour
of addressing them. As a soldier he felt that Ire owed
everything to the army of which he was a member, and
that no words of his could do that army justice. What-
ever might be the difference of public opinion as to cer-
tain points in the conduct of the war, he believed there
was no difference as to the merits of the soldiers and
sailors concerned. He hoped and trusted and believed
—although on that matter he knew as much, and no
more, than the cempany,around him—perhaps less than
some of them—but, speaking without any authority, he
hoped and trusted that they were on the eve, he might
say, of peace, and if that peace should arrive, and be
satisfactory, it would be to our soldiers and sailors we
should owe the advantage. (Cheers.)
The LORD lkiksort said that the next toast he had to
propose involved a compliment to the Government which
had been called to office for the purpoSe of carrying out
the almost unanimous wish, of the people. The Govern-
ment had carried on the war vigorously, and with vigour
would demand proper conditions of peace. He had,
therefore, great pleasure in proposing the healthy of her
Majesty's Ministers. (Cheers.)
Lord WODEHOUSE returned thanks, and apologised for
the absence of the Earl of Clarendon—absent upon the
most responsible of public duties ; for if the responsibi-,
lity of going to war was great, the responsibility of con-
) eluding ayeace was not less so. He trusted that the
) Paris negotiations would, have such a result as should
win the Approbation of the country.
The next toast was ""he House of Lords."
, Lord MONTEAGLE returned thanks.

Sir J.-PAKINGTON gave the health of the Lord Mayor,
with a warm compliment upon the manner in which hie
lordship discharged the duties of his office.
The LORD MAYOR, in returning thanks, observed that
he could hardly complain of reform, being himself, as it
were, the very emblem of innovation. In the corpora-
tion they did not dread nor oppose the reform of proved
abuses, anti while he held office he should endeavour to
render its functions as efficient and pure as possible.
After one or two further observations his lordship con-
cluded by giving " Mr. Gladstone and the House of
Commons."
Mr. GLADSTONE said that his, lordship bad done him
an honour of which he was not worthy in selecting ,him
to:*teturn thanks for the toast which had just been pro-
posed ; for in his opinion, it was an honour in which any
man, however eminent, might take delight to be called
on in such au assemblage as he saw around him, to return
thanks for such an institution as the House of Commons.
(Hear.) Whatever faults or whatever virtues that house
might have they were pre-eminently English, and repre-
sented tne greatnesses and defects of the national charac-
ter, while at the same time they were inseparably con-
nected with the stre►gth and progress of the country.
During the last two years the House of Commons had
to discharge a painful function in adding to the burthens
of the country ; but he trusted that the people were of
opinion that the house had been justified in voting freely
and liberally the large sums for a war undertaken for no
purpose of aggrandisement, but solely in the cause of
honesty, humanity, and justice.
The health of the Lady Mayoress followed ; and after
one or two other toasts, the company returned to the
drawl ng-room.