The Sun.
London, England, 1858-11-06 00:00:00

RUSSIA.

A letter from St. Petersburg says:—" The
Gazette of the Senate publishes some modifications
in the statutes of the Russian Steam Navigation
Company, the principal of which are that its

steamers, which hitherto have not quitted the
Mediterranean and the Black Sea, shall be allowed
to go to the ports of England and Belgium.—
The Mortara affair has excited great interest in
this city, and our journals have expressed the
same reprobation of it as those of the rest of Eu-
rope. For :centuries,' says the Russian Gazette
of St. Petersburg, efforts to improve men and
things have been made, and yet now, in the heart
of Europe, at Rome, family rights—the rights of
father and mother, which form the corner stone
of the social edifice—are not only not protected
but are trampled under foot, and grave discussions
on regulations and customs which permit young
Mortara to be carried off from the paternal home
are indulged in ! Extraordinary to relate, this act
finds defenders, and follows the course of an
ordinary process. As for ourselves, we cannot
defend this immoral act. It is such a reproach to
the society in the midst of which it is accomplished
that we do not hesitate to brand it as it merits !'
—The Empercr has presented a diamond ring to the
principal editor of the Invalide Russe for an
historical account of the Lunatic Asylum at St.
Petersburg. Baron de Chaudoir, member of the
Academy of Sciences of this city, an eminent
archaeologist and numismatist, and author of Trea-
tises on Russian
_and Chinese moneys, has just
died."

PRUSSIA.

BERLIN, Nov. 4.

The Ministers are out. They have resigned, not
collectively, but each one singly, which you may be
disposed :to think the same thing ; but it is not
quite. _ _ .

The names of the new Ministers, se far as they
are yet known, are as follows :

President of the Council d'Etat.—The Prince of
Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen (without a portfolio.)
In the Cabinet, but without office or official posi-
tion.—Von Auerswald.

Minister of Foreign Affairs. Baron YOU
Schleinitz.

Minister of War.—General von Bonin.
Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs and Education.
—Bethmann-Hollweg.
Minister of Finance.—Patow.
Two members of the present Cabinet remain in,
viz. :

Minister of Interior.—Flottwell.
Minister of the Household.—Von Masson.

The first three names in this list arc very far from
what would be called in England "Liberal." But
contrasted with the party tools who have been
destroying law and order, and undermining honesty
for the last eight years, the accession of such men
to office is not only the best thing which could have
been done for this country, but cannot fail to have
a salutary effect on the small German States of the
north and west. The Education Minister is the

least satisfactory of the whole, as he belongs to a
peculiar religious party, which it would be highly
undesirable to see engrossing the direction of the
education of the country. It would be to little
purpose that the schools and universities of Prussia
were delivered from the hands of the declared
enemies of education—Stahl and the High Luthe-
rans—if they exchange open enemy for the equally
dangerous patronage of the Pietistic section. It is
to be hoped, therefore, that the division of that
department into two parts—one for church affairs,
and another for education—may be carried out. It
has often been talked of, and is required even by
the duties of the Bureau, which cannot be ade-
quately discharged by one man.

A letter from Berlin of the 2d says :
" The Prince Regent leaves this capital the (lay
after to-morrow. Before proceeding on his intended
visit to Prague he will go to Blankenbourg, in the
Harz, on a sporting excursion, to which he has been
invited by the Duke of Brunswick, who, as is well
known, kept himself aloof from the Prussian Court
under the preceding Government. This friendly
interview with the Regent will not be without a
certain importance." The same letter, after speak-
ing of the interview which will take place at Prague
between the Prince Regent and the Emperor of Aus-
tria, and expressing the belief. that it will contri-
bute to improve the relations between the two
countries, at present by no means friendly, adds :
" The Austrian Cabinet appears disposed to make
some concessions, but it must completely modify
its attitude at Frankfort, if it wishes to avoid seri-
ous eventualities. These journeys of the Regent,
which in themselves have a certain significancy,
acquire still more importance when it is remembered
that the elections are about to take place, the Pri-

miry Assemblies meeting on the 12th, during the
_ .

absence of the Prince, and that between this time
and his departure it will be necessary that the Go.
vernment should make known in some manner its
intentions to the electors, and particularly to the
persons employed in the Government offices."