The Sun.
London, England, 1858-10-27 00:00:00

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\LE V. SPARER'
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The Regency question.
stands astonished at her owl* c : 7
great Tom Thumb, if she has notiouga it S be-
cause she has found no foes to fight Withal. The
terrible Junker party, or Squirearchy, as we shoiild
call them, the adherents of the Kretrz Zritroty, the
High Church and Divine Right sticklers of our own
Revolution of 1688, have made no fight at all, and
so the poor King goes to recruit his shattered
nerves by a diet of grapes at Mcran, and the Prince
of Prussia has quietly succeeded to the Viceregency
of the kingdom. The two Houses of Prussian Par-
liament appointed a joint committee, a precedent
worthy of all imitation, always so far as private,
and very often when public business is concerned,
and looked into the case for themselves. They
examined physicians as to the Royal health, and
have agreed to a report which declares the Regency
necessary. So far all goes well and quietly, and
people seem astonished that so great a change could
be made with so very little disturbance. This, is
not the way they are accustomed to do things in
Germany. German quarrels have become prover-
bial for their length, at least, if not for their bitter-
noss, and we are used to fancy that everything that
emanates from the Teutonic mind, whether it b© a
bsok, a measure, or a negotiation, must be of the
most ample proportions. Considering how much
was said about it beforehand, the dismal doubts
that were entertained, and the awful speculations
that were indulged in, the change of the deposi-
taries of power in Prussia has been "a quick, facile,
and painless operation. The truth seems to be that
the Prussian public has undergone so many disap-
pointments, has so frequently gaified ground only
to lose it again, that it has lost heart, and
scarcely believes in its own good fortune even
when a change the most favourable appears to be
about to take place. The Kreuz Zeitany party
seems to have inspired the public mind with
a degree of awe and apprehension with which
its actual resources and powers arc utterly in-
commensurate. Prussia could not believe that
those who had for so many years directed het:
Councils with so much aristocratic insolence as re-
garded their fellow-subjects, and such abject and
ruinous servility with regard to Russia, who had.
defied the whole enlightened opinion of the country,
who had set spies upon the Prince of Prussia and
broken open his letters, and who had actually put
to death under the thin disguise of a duel a
Minister who had ventured in the discobarge of his
duty to incur their displeasure, were, after all, the
mere creatures of Royal favour, possessing little
substantive power of their own, supported by no
commanding talent, illustrious for no great public
services, and having no hold on the interests and
affection of the nation. That such a party could
thus be snuffed out without noise, and almost with-
out resistance, has been a matter of astonishment
in Prussia. To us the wonder has rather been how
such a party could ever have been regarded as pos-
sessing any of the elements of strength or dura-
bility,—as being, in fact, anything else than the
feeble reflection oT the Royal mind in its least
magnanimous and patriotic mood. The mistake
seems similar to that which led so acute an observer
as-Mr. Disraeli to believe that the-regeneration of
England was to be wrought out by the united
efforts of a number of young gentlemen in white
waistcoats, full of Catholic traditions and Norman
sympathies, with a religion formed on the " Tracts
for the Times," and a political creed based, princi-
pally, on Sir Walter Scott's novels. It is often seen
that just before the break up of a party or of a
creed there arises a feverish exaggeration—a kind
of parody of its most untenable opinions ; the lamp
flickers up once more in its socket, and -dm goes
out altogether. It was thus, that Young England
heralded the coming destruction of pure and genuine
Toryism, and thus the principles of violent reac-
tion and oppression in Prussia have found their
most outrageous, and we trust and believe their
last, exponents in the party of the Kreuz Zeituny.
We have been in the habit during the last ten
years of seeing so, many goodly barks put to sea
in search of the haven of a really constitutional
and liberal Government, and. have been so uni-
formly called upon to mourn over the wreck of
patriotic hopes and glorious aspirations, that we
view with very mixed feelings the new essay of
Prussia to win for herself those institutions and
liberties which have hitherto so constantly eluded
her grasp. -We hare already given our reasons for
believing that there is a great deal more to be done
than to snatch the reins of power from the hands
which lately held them. The very fact that a
country so enlightened as Prussia, whose literary
men have taken se decided a lead in the higher
walks of science and. philosophy, and -whose people
are beyond dispute the best educated in Europe,
should nave suffered itself, -without effort or resist-
ance, to be directed in a course almost fatal to its
-position as a Frcat Power,,and, exceedingly preju-
dicial to its highest political interests, was to us a
elear.proof, not only that public opinion was not
possessed of proper organs for its expression, but
that the iron system of police and routine had
weighed upon the spirit of the land till it had left
its people no other habit but passive obedience, no
other idea than executing, without murmur and
without question, the will of a Sovereign.
The Prussians have shown themselves the best
of subjects, but this virtue, like many other virtues,
must often be its own reward, and those nations
have, on the whole, fared best who have evinced an
unmistakeable impatience of control. We are now
to see what use Prussia will make of the opportu-
nity which no exertions of her own, but the fail-
ing health of her King, has thrown into her hands.
It seems absurd to offer advice to a nation whose
literary acquirements fit it, should it choose to
undertake the task, to be in so many matters the
preceptor of the world, but in the practice and exer-
cise of freedom England also is happily not without a
certain kind of erudition, and, if she has not brought
the abstract theory of government to perfection,
her history has contributed the most numerous and
the most interesting facts to the cultivators of
political science. We would, then, earnestly beg of
the Prussian nation, if they wish to found among
them an edifice of substantial and durable free:om,
to avoid as they would a pestilence all those who
would invite them to form their notions on any
abstract or metaphysical ground. There has been
no enemy so formidable to liberty as the doctrine
of the "Rights of Man" logically worked out and
scientifically expounded. We believe that history
will bear us out in the conclusion that freedom is
to be obtained more readily by the gradual relaxa-
tion of aristocratic restrictions than by the attempt
to invest every citizen at once with all those attri-
butes of sovereignty to which abstract theory may
declare him to be entitled. The. worst foundation
on which we can build is that of universal .tuffrage.
The edifice may rest on stones as yet unbroken,
but not when they are pounded into sand. Ano-
ther thing we apprehend is quite clear—that, how-
ever great be the blessings of a thoroughly
centralised and organised system of police, and of a
Government which regulates for its citizens almost
every action of their lives, these are blessings which
a nation really bent on the enjoyment of freedom
must be prepared to forego. Freedom is not
merely a matter of constitutional regulation ; it
depends on the habits and spirit of the people, on
the habit of self-reliance, and on the spirit which
repudiates the intervention of Government any-
where beyond its immediate province, and claims
to be free in it§ public acts because it has been ac-
customed to unrestricted liberty in its private con-
cerns. The experience of France shows that with
a system of passports, of centralisation, ion,andof
pGovernment,
police, changes may occur
in
Democracy may succeed Monarchy-, andthe nation
Despotism
be
Democracy, and yet the liberties of
in no degree extended. We trust that this
lesson will not be lost upon a nation which, if
it be the best educated, has also the distinction
of being the best drilled on the Continent of
Europe.

PRICE 4D. STAMPED, SD.

e1a11ip......•
countrymenof their just electoral rights ; entails
on the nation bad legisletion, financial extravagance,
and an irrespOnsible foreign policy ; and demands
a radical reform in the representation of the people
in Parliament, based on manhood suffrage, and vote
by ballot." In the course of a lengthy speech, he
said it depended in a great measure upon the con-
stituencies throughout the kingdom to say what
the coming Reform Bill should be. There cannot
be much.doubt that Government would like to give
the people a Reform Bill- with as much appear-
ance and as little reality"; as might be—as much
show of concession, with a little reality of power
transferred, would be what they would like. They
would like to play the trick which it was alleged-
the Whigs played in 1831, to lose as little aristo-
cratic.power as possible, and let the little come, if
possible, from the Whig boroughs and constituen-
cies: (Applause.) What they wanted in the coun-
try was plain and simple—a full, free, and fair re-
presentation of the people of this country. (Loud
applause.) They wanted the removal of the dis-
grace which attached to those who had nothing to
do with the laws but obey them ; they wanted the
removal of that brand from mcn who were called on
to pay taxes, whose levying and whose distribution
they have but little voice in. They demanded, then,
a full, free, and fair representation of the people, a
vote for every Englishman—(loud cheers)—not a
vote because he had a particular situation or a par-
ticular amount of brick and mortar, but because lie
was an Englishman. (Loud applause.) They wanted
universal suffrage.. (Lend cheers.) It should be
clearly understood that whatever was given, if
short of the reality they meant to ask, could lead -
to no peace and i.no.- satisfactory solution of the ,
matter. They wanted the ballot. lie was not very
enthusiastic in regard to the ballot. He did not
look upon it as a panacea for all political short-
comings. At the same time he did look upon it as
a.temporary necessity in many places. No man can
but be aware that to profess to give a man the
freedom of a vote in a case where he is not able to
exercise that vote,• could but be a mockery, and,
therefore, when necessary, and for as long as neces-
sary, they.demanded the ballot. They demanded,
he apprehended, a very great shortening of the
duration of parliaments. They.wanted it not merely
because they required a much greater and more
frequent reference between. a member and his con-
stituency, but because that frequent reference
would be the very best obstacle to bribery, because
it would be next to impossible, in his opinion, for
a member with the largest intention to bribe, to go
on bribing, if annual parliaments, or, at most,
triennial parliaments, were the law of. the land.
They required also a very great equalisation of the
electoral districts, as had been so very-distinctly
stated by the chairman. Anything but that was a
mere mockery. They had obtained one point—the
abolition of thOproperty qualification.; but he appre-
hended they required some machinery by which the
principle involved in that which he took to be the
right of any man to choose any other man he
pleased to sit in the Commons House of Parliament,
would be carried out, and by which a sprinkling,
at any rate, of the, working men of this country
would be enabled to sit in the Commons' House of
this country. .(Applause.) Whether that should be
done out of the national funds or whether it should
be done by the votes oftlie constituencies,was a mere
detail not necessary to be entered into at that time.
They claimed, then, a new national_ government—
a policy of government and legislation which should
embrace within it all the powers that Englishmen
could boast of. They 'needed them especially for
their home and foreign affairs. In civil matters, eccle-
siastical matters, and everything, it was essential
that there should be a basis of honestY, efficiency,
and economy. The people bad no longer any con-
fidence in the action of either section of the aristo-
cracy. There was too much tendency to enthusiasm
:about the Derby administration. There had been
,a natural reaction at the abomination in which Lord
!Palmerston and the Whigs were held, and it had ,
taken into favour Lord Derby and his " squad."
This was the very trick that had been played year
after year, each party bad had its turn, and the
country had been disgusted.. They must have
nothing more- of this for the future. Let the old
parties be broken up, until they get a broad line of
those who wanted to go on and those who wanted
to stand still. If they had not much hope from the
Old leaders of the party, it became them to look to
what they had to hope for' in the new party, if they
had any, or in the leaders, if they could see them.
The party who pattered about peace at any price
could not be the leaders of this country. The party
that could repudiate any increase of the defences of
this_ country could never represent the nationalism
which lived in the hearts of Englishmen. The
Manchester policy was a policy of despair, in illus-
tration of which he referred to the Crimean war.
They had then to found a national policy, to make
a national party, and get national leaders. The
object should be—a national policy to carry forward
progressive freedom at home, and consistent action
with that freedom abroad. The battle lay now in the
hands of constituencies to say what the reform
should be ; they might. not get it next session, but
it was of more consequence to keep their eyes upon
a sound object that they meant to get. In conclu-
sion, he would say to the electors and non-electors
of Newcastle, while this question was pending,
their course was to tolerate the pretensions of no
man to represent them in Parliament who shall not,
at least, be thorough on the question of reform.
(Applause.)
Mr. SLACK seconded the resolution, and in doing
so referred to the mismanagement of the Russian
war and the sham peace which followed, and said
if the people had political power they would have
that political life which was essential to the vitality
of a people. If they desired reform they must have
a reformed Parliament; and he thought that the
appeal made to the working classes of England—
this revivification of the old English spirit—would
meet with a candid and hearty response. The
Northern Reform Union was well calculated to
effect the object that it desired, for it was by far
the most important political body in existence in
this country. They had nothing like it in London
at all events. -What they wanted was a simple
measure of reform, free from all those complications
which characterised the present state of things; and
independent of revising barristers and persons
attendant upon them. They neither wanted a sham
nor a permissive ballot, for these would be worse
than no ballot at all. If they could get nothing
else than this, it would be better for them to wait.
Mr. MIDDLEMASS proposed an amendment to the
effect that the meeting should waive for the pre-
sent the age at which manhood suffrage should be
conferred ; and leave the question of electoral qua-
lifiCation to be settled by the representatives of the
people.

THE CASE OF THE REV. ALFRED POOLE.—We
are informed that legal proceedings have been commenced
by the Rev..n Alfred Poole against the Hoy_ and Rev. nFre-
derick Bag, in consequence of the alleged defamatory
statements made by the latter gentleman at the meeting in
St. James's Hall on the 11th June. Mr. Bovill, Q.C., and
Mr. Coleridge will be counsel for the plaintiff and Mr.
Edwin James, Q.C., is retained for the defendant. An ap-
plication will also be made to the Court of Queen's Bench,
on behalf of Mr. Poole, for a mandamus, to compel the
archbishop to receive his appeal, and sanguine expectations
are entertained as to the result. It will be recollected that
a similar procedure was successful in the case of Archdeacon
Denison.

TIIE ARMY AND NAVY INVADING THE EXCISE.—
EXTRAORDINARY PRIVILEGE.—At the Dudley Police
Court yestoday a novel application was made by Mr. John
eith, solicitor of Birmingham, on behalf of Mr. Timothy
Salmon, of budley. It was stated that the applicant wished
to make an affidavit to the effect that his father had served in
the army during the years 1802 and 1816, and upon his
making this ail davit it was shown that, under the Act
5 and 6 Geo. 111., cap. 67, any officers, mariners, soldiers
and marines, or persons who served in the militia or
fencibles (or their wives and children); during the years
1802 and 1816 were entitled to sell exciseable articles with-
out a limns:), and in any place they might think fit ; and that
if after such an affidavit were made, any person should take
proceedings' against the party, such persons would, upon a
nonsuit, have to pay double costs to the defendant. Documents
were put in by Mr. Smith,showing that the applicant's father
had served in the 7th Batt. of the Royal Artillery, and that he
was honourably discharged with a pension. The magist rate r,
after a long Consultation, and after calling inlegal aid,founn
they had no alternative but to take . the affidavit ; but as;
according to their view of the act, the applicant must first
sell the eniseable articles, •they agreed to take his affidavit
on Wednesday, he in the meantime selling the articles.
This application has caused considerable excitement in this
district among the licensed victuallers and others interested, as
by the wording of the act the person selling does not come
under the surveillance of either the excise or police authori-
ties. It is understood that this application is but a prelude
to muziorgus.othere of the same

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