The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-30 00:00:00

PRUSSIA.

The results of the elections in Prussia are even
more favourable than was announced by telegraph.
The majority of the constitutionalists is over-
whelming. The National Gazette of Berlin, whose
liberalism is of a more advanced type than that of
the Government, thus classifies the successful can-
didates :

Ministerialists
Advanced Liberals 95
Conservatives 39
Catholics 3B
Poles
Feu dalists

The Feudalist party, which had the upper hand
in the last Chamber, has suffer,ed most, and is com-
pletely defeated. The Kreuz Zeitung, the name of
which that party often bear, laments in its issue, of
the 27th, that territoriatinflu.ence has almost every-
where had to give place, pfrsonal qualifications in
these elections. The Democrats have for the most
part abstained from :the elections. Neither Rod-
bertus, Schulze, Delitsch, nor Jacoby, names so
familiar in 1848, have presented themselves to the

constituencies. But, on the other hand, the party
of real progress in Prussia is represented in the
Chamber by a large number of its ablest champions.
There are George von Vineke-Hagen, whose con-
stancy and force in debate sustained the cause of
Prussian liberalism in its darkest days ; Count
Schwerin-Putzar (returned for five places), formerly
for six years President of the Chamber, moderate,
but firm and true, and honoured of all parties ;
Simson, President of the National Assembly at
Frankfort ; Heinrich von Arnim, the Foreign
Minister in 1848, and subsequently an imprisoned
victim of the Manteuffel Ministry, having offended
by the publication of a pamphlet ; and others of
scarcely inferior note.

A more promising Chamber with which to renew
the experiment of parliamentary government can
hardly be imagined. The members have not been
returned under the influence of any violent tem-
poraryexcitement. Extreme parties are represented
in it only by inconsiderable minorities. The nation
has understood from the words and acts of the
Regent that he wanted a really representative
assembly, and that he did not propose to dictate to

the electors, and it immediately returned to politics,
from which it had retired, disgusted by the hypo-
crisy and unreality of M. Manteuffel's pretended
constitutionalism, and elected a Chamber which it
believed will prove worthy of its authors and its
vocation.

THE PRINCE OF PRUSSIA'S DECLA
RATION TO HIS MINISTERS.

The Hamburger Nachrichten publishes the fol-
ow ing as the full text of the address which the
Prince Regent on a recent occasion addressed to his
new Ministry :
" Gentlemen,—After having passed through a
serious crisis, I behold you, for the first time, as-
sembled around inc—you, gentlemen, who inspire
me with that confidence that I do not hesitate to
select you as the prime councillors of the Crown.
Moments of this description appertain to the most
serious incidents in the life of a Sovereign, and I,
as Regent, feel it all the more keenly, as-unfortu-
nate circumstances have called me to the position
which I now occupy.
" My devotion towards my King and master, so
cruelly tried, made me hesitate long upon the best
means of bringing back the symptoms which I had
observed under his Government to a more healthy
state, without hurting my brotherly feelings, or
tainting the solicitude and fidelity with which our
King exercised the government of the country.'
" If I have finally resolved to change the council-
lors of the Crown, it is becauso all I have selected
share my opinion—viz., that neither now nor ever
can a question arise of a rupture with the past. All
that is required is to restore and improve with a
gentle hand whatever errors or usages contrary to
the wants of the age have inadvertently slipped. in.
" You all admit that the interests of the Crown
and of the country are inseparable ; that the wel-
fare of both rests upon a healthy, strong, and con-
servative basis. The great secret of Statecraft is
to find out exactly those wants, to understand
them, and to meet them, and, to do so, all extreme
measures ought to be avoided.
" Our task is no easy one, for a movement has
for some time manifested itself in public life which,
if it can in part be explained, still in many points
presents traces of ideas wilfully exaggerated, to
which it will be necessary to oppose a calculated,
legal, and even energetic line of action. We must
faithfully keep what has been promised without
giving up improvement ; we must boldly put aside
what has not been premised.
" Above all things, I wish to guarantee you
against this stereotyped phrase—' That the Go-
vernment must allow itself to be driven more and
more towards the development of liberal ideas, be-
cause they would prevail in despite of it.' fhis is
precisely the point where what I called Statecraft
is applicable. When every act of the Government
bears the stamp of truth and consistency, a Go-
vernment is strong because it has a good con-
science, and with a good conscience it has a right
to oppose everything that is evil.
"In our home affairs, which appertain to the

Ministry of the Intetint tit Agriculture, we I
have been thrown from one extreille td
'since 1848. • From a communal regulation, 4),-",-`t
was meant to introduce without preparation sy,..
tem of self-government, we have been throl, ;a back
to ancient Institutions, without taking int,3 account
the wants of the age, which would
out to us the desirable middle pat:
i" It will be
necessary to realise improvements or this head.
But we must first of all allow to rer.Aan what has
just been re-established, so as not co provoke dis-
content and new anxieties, which !cannot fail to be
baneful. 1/
" The finances of the count_have within the
last eight years been retri, .ved from a very sad
condition in such manner that not only is the
budget fairly balanced, bu it shows an excess of
income ; but it is not psgible as yet to provide for
all the wants which WAtni fest themselves in every
branch of the Admir;4tration. •
" If, two years si:,;,ce, modifications had been made
in the projects of. -new taxes which were proposed,
those taxes wou,',d have been voted, and the press-
ing wants of tie country would have have been
satisfied for rears to come. One of the principal
problems of the future will be to find the proper
means for prti,,,iding for those wants. And the first
consideration to be looked to here is to ascertain
exactly the amount of taxation which the country
can bear.
" Commerce, industry, and the means of commu-
nication, .which are so intimately connected there-
with, have taken an extension which was scarcely
to have been expected. But here again certain
limits are necessary, lest we be blinded and carried
away by prejudice. Before, as after, considerable
means must be provided for the highways of com-
munication, but they must be proportionate to all
the other wants of the State, and then it will be
time enough to have recourse to credit.
" Justice has always knoWn how to make itself
respected in Prussia, but such important changes
have taken place in the form of justice that it must
be our task to imbue every class of the population
with the sentiments of truth and equity, so that
every jury may render a just verdict.
"Of all the questions of the day the most diffi-
cult as well as the most delicate one is the question
of religion, because on this ground much bad seed
'has been sown of late. Imprimis, the most perfect
possible equality must be maintained between the
two Christian confessions.
" In both Churches a serious opposition must be
made to every tendency which has f?r its object to
make religion the cloak for political designs. In
the Evangelical Church we cannot dissimulate it—
an orthodoxy has arisen which is not compatible
with its fundamental principles, and which, conse-
quently, has hypocrisy for a companion. That
orthodoxy has raised obstacles to the salutary ac-
tion of evangelical union, and we were on the point
of beholding the dissolution.
" It is my firm will to maintain that union, and
to propagate it with every possible regard in a con-
fessional point of view, as prescribed by decrees rq-
lating to that subject. To realise this plan it will
be necessary carefully to select, and in part to re-
place those who are to be its organs.
" All hypocrisy, sham piety—in a word, all reli-
gious semblances which are but the mask for
selfish views—must have that mask torn off
as much as possible ; the true spirit of re-
ligion reveals itself in a man's actions. This
must not be lost sight of, and a line of distinction
must always be drawn between a man's actions and
religious ostentation,
" As regards the Catholic Church, its rights are
fixed by the Constitution. No extravagances be-
yond shall be tolerated. Public instruction must be
directed with the conviction that Prussia ought to
lead intellectual sway by the establishment of su-
perior colleges and schools which shall provide the
necessary education to all classes of the population
without raising those classes beyond their sphere.
More liberal grants must be made for this purpose.
" Prussia is indebted to the army for her greatness
and development. It is because the army was ne-
glected that a catastrophe occurred to her and to
the State—a catastrophe gloriously effaced by the
re-organisation of her forces at the time of the war
of independence.

" A 40 years' experience and two other short
episodes 'of war have called our attention to many
an arrangement which is faulty and must be re-
formed. To do so political quiet and money are re-
quisite, and it would be a great fault to pretend to
boast of a cheap military organisation which when
it came to work would not be up to the mark. The
army of Prussia must be powerful and held in high
esteem, so that when needs be she can throw an
important political weight into the balance.
I have yet to speak of the political position of
Prussia towards foreign States. Prussia ought to
be on friendly terms with all the great Powers,
without being influenced from without, and with-
out binding her hands too much by treaties.
Friendly relations ought at the same time to be
kept up with all the other Powers.
" In Germany Prussia must make moral conquests
by a wise legislation at home, by upholding all moral
elements, and b 3, seizing upon all elenients of union,
such as the Zollverein, which, however, must un-
dergo a reform.

"The world must be made acquainted that Prussia
is ready to protect right everywhere. A firm, con-
sistent, and if necessary energetic line of policy,
allied to wisdom and prudence, must procure for
Prussia a political importance and a position which
she never could obtain by her material power alone.
" To follow that path, and to do so with honour,
I need your assistance, your counsels, which you
will not deny me. :hay we always be of one
mind for the welfare of our country and of Royalty,
by the grace of God !"

AN AGED LOTRARIO.

An amorous old gentljnan is the stock property
of the farce writer. He fails in real life. On the
stage his asthmatic sobs may make whimsical
contrast to the fervent sighs of the favoured
lover, and it is in accordance with all prece-
dent that just before the curtain falls he with-
draws his pretensions in favour of the happier
swain, and bestows his fortune upon the youthful
pair whose course of true love he had for a moment
ruffled. But in real life an old gentleman in
love is apt to move more disgust than laughter.
His false and ridiculous position does not gather
round him the most virtuous of mankind ; and, if
the veil which covers his private life is suddenly
torn off, an ancient Lothario is likely to be found
mixed up with a somewhat doubtful set of people.
At a certain time of life a man ought, as the
French say, "to accept his position." Of course
we are bound, in the interest of morals, to protest
against all amatory perjuries, but if a gentleman
appearing to be on the shady side of 60 should set
up as a lady-killer, the sight is not likely to be
edifying to his friends, or to obtain for him the
respectful confidence of those who are placed under
him.
The Hampshire magistrates have been engaged
in disentangling an imbroglio occasioned by the
loves and woes of a Commanding Officer of Prince
Albert's Regiment of Light Infantry. Colonel
Horne, while taking his morning constitutional in
the neighbourhood of Winchester, had the mis-
fortune to be smitten with the charms of a lady
whom he encountered "at a stile." With mili-
tary promptitude he accosted his fair captivator,
and, after surmounting obstaeles more or less im-
portant, he succeededin establishing what the
lady afterwards termed a "slight acquaintance."
He was rewarded, however, for his promptitude and
pertinacity so far as this—that the slight acquaint-
ance extended to visiting her at the house of her
§tepfather, and writing her letters, wherein he says
that she is his " own darling," and, he is her
" own Horne ; " and that she must " bring
her sweetest kisses " with her, for he, monopo-
list as he is, " shall want them all." 'What the
progress made was we are not teld; perhaps the
damsel was laughing at the pretensions of her
gallant but not juvenile admirer, and was amused
to see an old gentleman " spooney." It was not
to be expected, however, that her friends would see
this matter in quite the same light. Her stepfather
was one Roe, and he seems to have been at once the
hardest and the softest of his name. Oddly enough,
lie appears, from the fact of Colonel Horne coming
to his house and writing a large bespeak of kisses,
to have arrived at the conclusion that the Colonel
was trying to seduce his stepdaughter. it is just
possible. that this may have been the Colonel's in-
tentio. n, and we must allow Mr. Roe to be the
best judge of the facts ; but the course of action
he adopted after arriving at this conclusion was of
the softest possible character. If the cruel step-
father was determined to interfere with the loves
of this interesting couple, it might have been
expected that the hardness of his heart might have
communicated itself to his boots, and that he might
have kicked the enterprising veteran out of his
house. If his indignation was not equal to so
decisive an act as this, he might at least have
warned him by letter not to disport 'his dangerous
fascinations in the vicinity of his household;
and
he might have disclosed to him. that his incon-
siderate commission for an unrestricted quantity
of kisses had been treacherously intercepted by
" Miss Norgott," and was then in the stepfather's
keeping. Roe, however, pursued no such straight-
forward course. He; first of all, seems to have
been smitten with a morbid desire to know the

strength of Colonel Home's regiment, and then
the age of that too gallant officer. For this appa-
rently very insufficient purpose he forgathered with
the privates of the regiment, and Heated them
with brandy-and-water and beer. The thirsty
warriors drank his brandy-and-water and drained
his tankard, but they were not in the secret

°".4 their Colonel's tlge: They could tell their
• entertainer that the old gentleman had seen 33
se' Cif , active warfare, an ,1 had been knocked
about in the Offfoe War, but the !Ixact date of his
nativity was not in. Mt regimental books. But,
to satisfy' Mr. Roe, they made s gueo ; they put
him at the age they thought he looked,. j boldly
stated his age at 62. Roe having got this „,:ous
piece et in tdrination, writes two anonymous letter;
one to Colonel Horne and another to General
Scarlett. The letter td the Colonel complained,
not of his attention to Roe's Ntepganghter, but of
his /logging his men and reducing his sergeants,
and warned liliit that for these causes he was likely
to be 'poisoned or she, The letter to the General
was in the same strain ; net a word about the
young lad,y, but all about the cat-o'-nine-tails. The
letter of floe was caviare to the General, and we
confess we find it not quite easy to explain. It was
handed over to the Colonel, and the Colonel com-
manded that both letters should be read at the head
of the regiment; and, although he perfectly knew
With the author was, offered five pounds for the
discovery Of the writer. Having thus opened the
public scandal, he proceeded to ventilate it
thoroughly by summoning Roe before the Mayor of
Winchester and a full Waft of magistrates to
answer the charge of having excited the soldiers
of the regiment td commit an act of mutiny. The
only tittle of proof in support of such a charge was,
that Roe had said to two soldiers over their beer
that he wondered no one had attempted the life of
the flogging Colonel. There wzs no excitement to
mutiny in the two letters, or, if there were, it was
caused by the Colonel ; for no one heard of
them till the Colonel read them. The Win-
chester magistrates were not 'of opinion that the
homicidal propensities of tin English soldier are
so strong that he will rush away to kill his officer
because a stranger happens to say that he wonders
a flogging colonel is not killed. The colonel was not
more fortunate in his law than in his love; the
stepfather Was liberated, and the colonel's hapless
passion has become as public as that of Petrarch.
The most inconceivable part of this foolish affair
is the taste of Colonel Horne in making the public
the confidant of his bonnes fortunes. As to Roe,
his folly and baseness were of that intensity which
defies all comprehension. The whole affair is ex-
quisite in its absurdities—the irresistible old Colo-
nel, lithe and enterprising in his age, the laughing
damsel facile in flirtations, the moody father-in-law
vapouring to himself of a melodramatic revenge,
never to 'become a reality, and those delightfully
characteristic soldiers, ready to drink the health of
anybody who, would pay for the liquor, and de-
ciding to tell the stepfather a fiction to save them-
selves the trouble of finding out the fact. It is very
amusing, but these tableaux ridicules are not con-
ducive to good discipline. Old gentlemen will have
their follies, but it is scarcely advisable to indulge
them at the head of a regiment. Colonel Horne
has earned- a little season of quiet ; after 33 years'
active service a little leisure and half-pay might do
him good. So devoted an admirer of the sex must
have a stock of sonnets that require polishing, and
half-pay might, 'as a sanitary discipline, diminish
the fervency of his inconvenient pursuits.—Times

ANNIVERSARY OF THE POLISH
REVOLUTION.

Yesterday being the 28th anniversary of the Polish Re-
volution of 1830, the Polish exiles resident in London
attended a funeral mass, performed by the Rev. Emericus
Podolski, at the Roman Catholic chapel, Sutton-street,
Soho-square, for the repose of those who fell in that national
struggle. In the course of the day a meeting was held at
Sussex-chambers, Duke-street, St. James's, where General
Count Zamoyski, who, finding himself in England, had
hastened to join his countrymen on this occasion, spoke as
follows :

Gentlemen;—Since the opportunity is unexpectedly given
to me of meeting you here on this day of commemoration of
our last attempt for the recovery of our national indepen-
dence, I think- I may at once enter on a question, on the
settlement of which, to a considerable amount, depends the
future condition of the civilised world : Does the present
peace between the West and the North of Europe promise
to be a lasting (S•ne ? or, shall Russia soon amain set it at
defiance ? In that case, is Poland likely to be again studi-
ously kept out of the struggle ? or is there sufficient ground
for expecting that the coalesced 'powers of the West will
then turn at once to Poland as the best means of stopping
the aggressions of Russia on Europe ? It is superfluous to
insist on the utter insecurity of any interest placed within
the range of Russian aggression. It may answer official
necessities to show that, after such a sacrifice of lives and
moneys, the end for which it was incurred was realised by
a lasting peace; but in reality no one believes it, whether
he derives his information from State papers or simply.rests
on his private judgment and good sense. That Russia, by
the awakened watchfulness of all Governments, is prevented
from any immediate outbreak upon Europe, or that the
suppression of serfdom in her dominions, which com-
mands the sympathy of the civilised nations, may cause her
prolonged domestic embarrassment, no one ill deny. But
it is no less certain that this social reform, when accom-
plished, will double Russia's power, double her means of
conquest, and that the lust for it in her population will
only be increased by delay, and by the remembrance of the
humiliation which she suffered. from the rashness of a
vanitous sovereign, and the neglect of her traditional vile-
ness in foreign intrigue. No statesman deserving the
name—no man the least read in modern history and
gepgraphy—can doubt that another conflict is, in
in the course of time, inevitable between a new
overflow of the Northern Power and such governments of
Europe as shall either escape from its vassalage or resist the
temptations of dividing the spoil win. it. A doubt can
exist only as to whether that conflict will come on a little
sooner or a little later, and as to whether it is advisable,
laudly and permanently, to acknowledge the coming danger.
or preferable to meet it by secret preparation and by a pre-
tended confidence in the improved disposition and policy of
Russia. To us, gentlemen, that difference matters little.
To us, who have known prolonged trials and shown some
perseverance in them, it suffices to see that the western
powers of Europe must once more draw the sword for the
sake of their own safety and independence, and that the
Government they have to encounter remains the one which
is our principal foe. But, among us, it is a frequent matter
of complaint, that the Governments of the west showed
such great indifference to our misfortunes, and'evinced such
wonderful blindness, when at war with Russia, in neglect-
ing to call at once the Poles, forming a large portion of her
dominions and of her armies, to join and unite against their
oppressor. It may be on our part a just complaint, and one
which reflects on the feelings and on the clearsightedness
of statesmen otherwise renowned.. It permits us to distrust
the future decisions of men of the same nations and school ;
but they, in their turn, may inquire into a question which
we, Poles; are called upon to answer, and which, if settled
one way or the other, draws at once the line both of our
present duties and of our future destinies. That question,
gentlemen, is mot one for a Pole • but it certainly awakens
great doubts in the minds of all who are not Poles, like
ourselves. They all doubt whether our nation at large still
retains the memory of her past independence, so as to be
ready once more to put all at stake for its re-assertion. They
admit of discouragement among us as the consequence ofso
many and apparently vain efforts and sacrifices. , They sup-
pose that, like other nations of the present age,our nation longs
for material improvement and peaceful pursuits. The least
indication of a more humane or simply less cruel dealing
on the part of the Governments undix which the Polish na-
tion is placed ,is enough to make them eagerly inquire whether,
by consenting to her present fate, sho would notbest secure its
further improvement. If we show them that such a notion is
nothing but a mistake, that the change does not bear upon any
of the conditions which ase the necessary safeguard of a
people's moral and material improvement ; we are sus-
pected, if not reproached, with being hot-headed, and run-
ning after dreams. If, on the contrary, we conditionally
acknowledge that it is the stern but urging duty of the best
among Poles not to reject means, .if offered, and however
insufficient, by which good may be partially effected—the
acknowledgment is at once interpreted as a proof that we
despair of ever being rescued from foreign domination, and
that the time is over when it was the subject of unanimous
abhorence among Poles ; it is made to prove that the Polish
nation is extinct, and that, if not contented, it is resigned
to its fate, and, at all events, it is no more that brave, that
devoted people, ever ready for generous sacrifice, unsur-
passed in its qualities for a national war, and which, other-
wise, might on a future 'contingency have been associated
as a valuable ally to other nations contending for indepen-
dence and international law.
Now, gentlemen, to overcome doubts with which we are
thus assailed, our paramount duty is to show that we are
neither extravagant and sanguine in our Rxpectations nor
desponding and resigned to our present,conditions that
whilst we can place no in rulers whose object it
'must necessarily be to deprive us, as a nation, of everything
that constitutes the very life of a community and its title to
respectamonm'men, we, on the other hand, are ever ready for
any peaceful and unrelenting effort which a change in the
conduct of our oppressors may render more attainable; we
have to show, and to put beyond all doubt, that whilst our
countrymen in Poland have our best sympathies and wishes,
and our hearty admiration for whatever, by energy and
perseverance, they may add to the welfare of their fellow-
countrymen or take off from the burdens which weigh upon
them—we, • who have preferred exile, never doubt their
attachment and fidelity towards any national interest. But
upon us, the exiles, devolves the task of serving those
interests which are more of a national and political charac-
ter. In the fulfilment of that duty, we feel certain of theapprobation of our countrymen at home, and know
that
,
they expect us unceasingly to recalln,tiotsthor the nations
ns andand
th;
go-
vernments of Europe the violated is
unflinching fidelity of her sons to her national indepen-
dence.
That duty is the necessary complementt of those which
our brethren in Poland are called upon perform. What
they do at home and what we endeavour to accomplish
abroad forms but one total, and constitutes the present life
of Poland, a life which, under the will of a merciful God,
will ultimately prove to have been the best, though labo-
rious, preparation for liberty and independence.
And now, to conclude, let me turn once more to the noble
country of whose never failing hospitality we presently
partake. Among its eminent qualities, let me call more
particularly your attention to its daily increasing feeling
of the high responsibilities which Great Britain's immense
power throws upon her. It has now, in the eyes of every
Briton, become a national duty to contribute to the im-
provement of the human race, and mainly to preserve jus-
atleittintas oefqtlnieotlVOtrol d
11 an ,h aa st
at ine 'lint a tsieocnu roiftyt haoins
my friend the Duke of Argyle, who sat in her Majesty's
Cabinet during the Late war, recently said in public. As
an answer to certain abstract and visionary notions of per-
petual peace and isolation from all foreign matters—as an
answer to the imputation of the late war having been en-
tered upon by Great Britain rashly and uselessly, my noble
friend appealed to his audience, and .received unanimous
applause, when he stated that the feeling of the immense
majority of the British people was rather that the war
with Russia ought to have been declared sooner, than that
it had been declared too soon. I think it may safely be
added that the feeling of the same majority on the unex-
pccted termination of that war was, and is to this day,
that it had ceased not too late, but too son.
Such being the disposition of the British nation, her
Government, it cannot be doubted, will not hesitate to call
Poland to co-operation when again at war with Russia,