The Sun.
London, England, 1858-01-25 00:00:00

LONDON, MONDAY, JAN. 25, 1858.

The Royal Marriage has this day been accom-
plished. The Daughter of England has assumed
new responsibilities, and become the denizen of a
different nation. She is now a Princess of
Prussia, and, according to the general rule, her
sympathies and interests will be with her adopted,
in place of her native country, and henceforward
she will see but little of England or the English ;
for, strange to say, not a single one of her
ladies-in-waiting bears an English name or an
English title. It was not so with the foreign
ladies imported into England. They at least
had invariably some of their own countrymen or
countrywomen to participate in their banishment
from Fatherland.

Since the matter can no longer be averted, we
earnestly hops that she may lead a protracted and
happy life, and that every ovil augury may
be averted from her fair young head. There
is
not one of the toadies who babbles about the
alarriage that has just taken place, as being an
event of political importance and joy to England,
or " of its being a case where hearts and hands
are equally united, can more thoroughly desire that
she may enjoy long endurit, ftlioity than ourselves.
It is to the system we are opposed, more especially
as there are four more Princesses besides four
Princes of the Royal Family, and it would
be ridiculous to hope that all their hap-
pinesses can be promoted by German
alliances. The present may be a fortunate one,
but still it must be regarded as strictly a marriage
de conversance. It is notorious that the engage-
ment was entered into before the young lady had
attained the age of 10 years, or WAS at least a
thoroughly understood arrangement, even if the
formal contract had not been completed until she
WAS some 15 years old, or possibly approaching

to 16 years of age. Now it is seldom considered
that young ladies are quite capable of under-
standing their own minds at any of those periods,
and albeit they may delude themselves into the
belief that they can comply with the orders of
their parents without any very great pain, they
may possibly awake to find that every feeling
dear to the female heart has thereby been sacri-
ficed.

How can it be said that the second daughter of
England can already have bestowed her affections
on the prince for whom it is more than hinted
that she is destined ? We believe that the young
parties have never had an opportunity of seeing
each other, or ascertaining how far their feelings
and sympathies may be in accordance. The
mamma of the intended bridegroom made a visit
for the purpose of feeling the way, and reported
that all was right ; but young hearts, in this
country at least, can seldom, if ever, be made
matters of bargain and sale, and whatever may
be the practice in Germany, God forbid
that the system should be maintained
in this country at the expense of all that may
render life desirable to many young heart?, whose
future prosperity is sincerely desired by the
nation.

We need not go through the other cases, but
we must say that we should greatly prefer an
English nobleman of ancient descent, handsome
fortune, and manly bearing, to any foreigner,
however unpronounceable his name, guttural his
accents, and slender his resources. We would
gladly bestow a handsome dowry on the Princess
who would remain in England to spend it here,
and who could, by her bridegroom's aid, main-
tain a far better establishment than if married to
one of the petty princelings who have nothing
but the so-called "azure blood"—something analo-
gous to the divine "ichor,", of which ancient poets
sung, but who could scarcely contrive to make
both ends meet.

As to its political importance, that is all bosh.
If the interests of England and Prussia should
ever again come into collision, we may rest
assured that the matrimonial alliance just con-
tracted will have no possible weight in the scale,
save so far as it may be against Great Britain.
In such matters, nations have no cousins. They
act, or are supposed to act, according to justice
and equity, to put forward only tenable demands,
and support them with temper and moderation.
And any other influence must be theoretically
wrong, and " far more honoured in the breach,
than in the observance." Besides, we may ask,
was it on account of his dynastic alliances that
the SULTAN received the disinterested support of
Great Britain, France, and Sardinia ? He did not
marry a Princess of any House, nor did he send
his daughters into the diplomatic mart to find
eligible Princes for the young Sultanas ; and yet,
when his position was imperilled, he found far
more powerful defenders than if he had looked
among his matrimonial connections for aid. He
might have long looked in vain in Germany, albeit
he had a son or daughter in every Brummagem
imitation of monarchical splendour.
Nor does Brother JONATHAN rely on such
matters for success to his diplomacy. He under-
stands his rights, and will have them, or know
the reason why. And he gets them, too, inasmuch
AS there is no possibility of bringing back-stair
influences into operation where he is concerned.
We may add one more instance. The Emperor
Nerorizorr, and it was the best and wisest of his
acts, did not seek to gild the splendour of his
novel diadem with any German paste. He knew
that the abandonment of the noble JosionuTE for
an Austrian Archduchess—afterwards the wife of
the one-eyed Chamberlain—was the chief cause of
his uncle's fall, and he avoided the mistake. He
selected a good and virtuous and amiable wife, and
obtained not only a greater chance of domestic
felicity, but also the approbation of every ight-
minded and independent man. Is he less powerful
because he could not get some stale widow of high
blood, and possibly damaged reputation ?
Which system, we ask, then, is the wisest ?
and which should, for the future, be pursued in
England ?

EILA.NCIPAKE YOUR VOTERS ! Turn the matter
how we will, the first essential in representative
reform is the absolute freedom of those who
choose representatives. From time immemorial
the style and title of our voters has been--`The
free and independent electors." How merely
titular the title has been, we need not discuss ;
still it has kept its place : the instinct, or the
courtesy, or the sense of decency of the bribing
or corrupting candidates themselves, has led them
to retain the phraseology which expressed what
should be, not what is. Why the very name
electors—choosers—what does it mean 7 Surely
not that the persons so called give effect mechani-
cally to the choice of others. It would seem use-
less indeed to waste a moment on what no one
denies—denies in theory—yet no fact is more cer-
tain than the absolute refusal of men who call
themselves reformers to reduce their theory to
practice.

Attempt to argue with them as to the influences
under which a voter ought not to vote, and they
will agree with you. You tell them a man does
not vote freely who fears whether his tenancy of
his farm, his custom at his shop, his retention of
a loan, his displeasing some one who has conferred
a favour on him, his losing a situation, his failing
to get one, or a hundred similar eventualities, de-
pend on his vote. It is at °tee acknowledged
that in such a case he does not vote freely. It is
confessed that no elector ought to be liable to such
influences;—that if he is, he transfers his vote to
the influencing party—that he is disfranchised—
is no longer an elector at all, but the tool of an
other elector, or possibly of a man who is not an
elector. Well, you go a step fart-Saes—eau these-
disfranchising influences be met by legal defini-
tions and penalties? It is not pretended that they
can. Take one case of a thousand—one of the
very best farmers of England, a farmer who had
gained a prize for having the best cultivated farm,
was lately ejected by his landlord—he had sunk
a large sum of money in the farm on
the faith of the landlord's honour—he asks the
reason, none is given ; the whole neighbourhood
is indignant, but no reason is given. The farmer
walks out, and the avaracious landlord walks into
the possession of his late tenant's property, and
no law can interfere. And so of the customer,
the banker, the mortgagee, the creditor, and the
tyrant legion who control elections, they are not,
cannot be amenable to law. Yet they disfran-
chise meat of the
1 irge numbers oftheeoueniteyetocroansitaituaeintnceieest,
evaenryd
borough.

No conclusion, then, can he more certain than
that a vast proportion of the registered
Theyelectors
are not at present electors at all.
not choose,
ex,!rcise their own judgment—do not vote accord-
iog do not
to their own preference. They do
but vote for the man of another's choice. Of course
there are a considerable number who vote as freely
as could be wished, but perhaps almost as many, if
we take the entire constituency of the kingdom,
vote entirely at the dictation, more or less
avowed, of others. What we want then is to see
these registered electors made real electors. To