The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-14 00:00:00

THE CHANNEL FLEET AT QUEENSTOWN.

The Cork Examiner of yesterday says :—" As
it is intended that the vessels of the fleet at present
stationed at Queenstown should leave that port on
the 15th inst., it was deemed advisable to exercise
the Marines of the various vessels before departing.
This morning, accordingly, shortly after 9 o'clock,
boats filled with Marines and blue jackets put off
from the various men-of-war vessels in the harbour
—the Nile, the Racoon, the Brunswick, &c.—for
Spike Island, where the Marines landed at the pier
and proceeded to the other side of the island. Here
they were exercised, drilled, and put through vari-
ous manceuvres for upwards of three hours, or till
near 1 o'clock. Nothing, however, beyond the
usual reviewing or exercising occurred, although
statements had gone abroad that a sham battle, &c.,
would take place. At the time above-mentioned
the Marines marched round again to tho pier where
they had landed, and took their places in the boats
which then left the island. There were a great
number of men reviewed, as nearly all in the vari-
ous vessels were present, and upwards of 1,200 men
were in the boats previous to the debarkation, and
when the boats were filled with Marines after the
review was over, making the harbour in the neigh-
bourhood of Spike have a very animated appear-
ance. The day was favourable, as, with the excep-
tion of a smart breeze blowing during the whole
time of the review, the weather was as pleasant as
could be wished."

THE REGENT OF PRUSSIA'S SPEECH.

(From the Times.)
The speech of the Prussian Regent at the open-
ing
of the Chambers is remarkable more for what it
omits than what it contains. It is hardly possible
to conceive a composition avoiding in a more
masterly manner all reference to the subjects
which fill men's minds. It is made up of what
may be the constant elements of a Royal speech—
patriotic allusions, appeals to the national feeling
of Prussians, assurances that the ruler will do his
best to uphold the honour of his country, and
requests that the representatives will vote a liberal
budget. Perhaps we ought not to criticise harshly
the first address of one who exercises only a
vicarious power, but we certainly could have wished
to hear a less uncertain and timid sound from Royal
lips. Prussia has now arrived at an important
epoch in her history. In this men of all parties
agree—that, whether for good or evil, the ensuing
Session of the Chambers will fix the policy of
Berlin for many years. Emperors and Kings,
rulers of small German States, mediatised princes,
landowners, professors, officials, traders, and
peasants,—all the elements of which German
society is made up,—now look to Berlin for an in-
dication of what is to be the future of Prussia, and,
through Prussia, of Central Europe. The repre-
sentatives returned throughout the monarchy are
Liberal almost to a man. The party which so long
lorded over the intellect and checked the aspirations
of the country is now powerless, at least in the
Chambers, and it is evident that if constitutional
government is to be a reality, and the Regent is to
be guided by the legally-expressed will of the
people, the whole system of Frederick William's
rule must be changed. Yet the Regent says no
word of these great political changes, nor does he
reveal whether he accepts the revolution which his
own accession to power has made. This may be
decent, statesmanlike, perhaps necessary, yet the
European world would be glad to learn some-
thing of the designs hidden in the Royal
breast. Has Prussia definitively joined the
number of constitutionally governed States ?
Are future Prussian Kings—the Regent, his
son, and any heir who may be born to that son's
lately-contracted alliance, to be the chiefs of a
limited monarchy like that of England, or are they
to be military rulers of the old school, only calling
in a legislative body on rare occasions to sanction
important changes in the ruling power, or to give
effect to any extraordinary law ? We know, indeed,
that the enlightenment of Prussia and the general
good sense of the Royal Family are sufficient
guarantees against the re-establishment of any
coarse despotic rule ; but we may be allowed to feel
a little anxiety as to whether constitutional forms
will be the ordinary or only the occasional ma-
chinery of the Prussian State.
The times are past when Englishmen were ac-
customed to judge every act of another nation by
their own standard. We may retain something of
insular narrowness, but still we are sufficien

aware of the differences between Prussians an
ourselves not to be impatient if in seeking the same
goal they diverge somewhat from our path. As
little do we think it necessary that they should
move as fast as we do. Englishmen are in " train-
ing," to borrow an expression from the sporting
world, and can enter into the race or the battle
with an assurance of ending without exhaustion or
discouragement. The Prussians are only now be-
ginning to move after nearly nine years of inaction,
and they are without either traditions or practice
to guide them in their new career. Happy, then, is
it for the world that their natural slowness accords
with the exigencies of the situation. Germans have
one quality pre-eminent,—thel dislike of being
hurried. A Hamlet-like consideration of all the
possible bearings of any course commends itself to
their habit of thought. It is a valuable quality in
political life, and will preserve them from a
repetition of the evils which arose in 1848 from a
spurious and un-German aping of French demo-
cracy. Still this constitutional slowness demands
that the ruler should take the initiative some-
what more than in England, and anticipate the
desires of liberty before they take the form of
popular clamour. The time has, we think,
arrived for the relaxation of the laws against the
Prussian press. No great outcry has yet been
made, simply because journalism has not attained
the importance which it possesses in this and some
other countries. But the censorship, an odious
relic of the late Governmental system which still
virtually exists, might well be discontinued. We
regret to say that the Regent, either through a
deeply-seated fear of free speech, or from deference
to the policy of the King, has in no way relaxed the
stringency of official control over printed matter.
Not only is the newspaper press continually inter-
fered with, but even publications of a more preten-
tious character, such as the Berliner Jahrbucker,
are quite at the mercy of the police. Perseverance
in such a system can do no good to the new Govern-
ment. The Regent may bring to his side all the
energy and ability of the country simply by ceasing
to degrade it. He may turn the organs of national
feeling into supports of the Royal house, if he will
only restrain the meddlesome zeal of subordinates,
who see a violation of State secrets in the mention
of an Ambassador's dinner, and double-dyed trea-
son in a criticism of a Custom-house clerk.
It is to be trusted that this subject, though un-
noticed in the Regent's speech, is not far from his
thoughts. Had he assured the Chambers that he
could trust to the attachment of the people, and
that henceforth the press would be amenable only
to the tribunals of the country, the Regent would
have satisfied the world far more than by the sally
against the Danish nation which is the principal
feature of the Speech. The Regent declares that
the efforts of the Government have always been
directed " towards obtaining for the German Duchies
which are under the Danish sceptre the full exer-
cise of those rights to which the Federal laws and
the treaties between the German Diet and Den-
mark give them well-founded claims." That Hol-
stein and Schleswig should have their due every one
is willing to admit, but it cannot be concealed that
on this question the German Diet, with Prussia at
its head, has played an unworthy part during the
last ten years. An agitation, to a great extent un-
reasonable and unmeaning, has been kept up in
the Duchies against the Danish Crown, and the
.people have been persuaded by poets, professors,
"and political orators that they present a most de-
plorable case of an " oppressed nationality." If the
Regent, after so vaguely alluding to domestic sub-
jects, felt it necessary to travel into the domain of
foreign politics, he might have found in the position
of the Austrian monarchy subject of comment more
suitable than the half-forgotten quarrels between
the Diet and the King of Denmark.

A large number of heavy failures are expected
to be announced in Paris during the half-monthly settle-
ment now about to take place. At Vienna, likewise, the
losses must have been severe, and in the prevailing un-
certainty bills upoA
that city are almost unsaleable,