The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-21 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Across the whole breadth of Germany,
from the frontiers of Poland to the Rhine, the forces
of Austria and the States in alliance with her are
mustering for an extended series of operations, but
as yet the actual gains have been all on the side of
their adversary. The despatches of the last two
days announce that the occupation of Saxony is
almost complete. The Prussians hold Leipsic,
Meissen, Dresden, and Zittau, and the Salon army
has been forced to fall back on Pirna. In the mean-
time the Austrians maintain a profound silence as to
their intentions. Whether they will march directly
on Dresden, or throw the bulk of their forces
against the wing of the Prussian army commanded
by the Crown Prince of Prussia, may be known in
a few days, but it is in vain to speculate on it now.
We only know that Field-Marshal Benedek intends
to take the offensive, and that the reconquest and
occupation of Silesia are avowed as the purpose of
the Austrian campaign. In the centre and west of
Germany the States of the Austrian alliance are
straining every nerve to make head against Prussia.
It is announced that Prince Alexander of Hesse has
taken the command of the Bth Federal Army Corps,
and that 60,000 Federal troops are concentrated
near Frankfort. The position of the Hanoverian
army is uncertain, but, if it can escape the Prussians,
it will still further swell the considerable force which
is opposed to Prussia on the Maine. Bavaria and
Wurtemberg have been stirred by the fate of their
northern neighbours to take energetic measures
against the invader, and in a few days a still larger
army than at present will be in the field to prevent,
if possible, the further advance of the Prussians.
But a*Federal army on the defensive at Frankfort
and Aschaffenburg, though it may save Southern
Germany, will not prevent the Prussians from keep-
ing all they have, and even possessing themselves
of more. They have invaded Hanover at
once from the northward and from the side
of Minden, and it is now as much their
own as Brandenburg ; they have seized Elec-
toral Hesse with the acquiescence of the
people, to whom no change of government could be
an evil ; and a large part of Grand Ducal Hesse is
by this time in their power. The Duke of Nassau, a
Prince scarcely less unpopular than the Elector of
Hesse, and a member of the Austrian alliance, may
also be dispossessed at any moment. It remains to
be seen whether the Prussians will be content with
these gains, or will attack the army of the Confede-
ration. It is stated that they are close to Frankfort,
and if they advance a collision can hardly be avoided,
in which the Prussians have, at least, the advantage
that they are a united army, fighting against mixed
contingents, which may have very different views
abotit the war, and very varying zeal in the cause.
There are signs that the people in some of the States
show indifference, if not hostility, to the anti-Prus-
sian policy of their rulers, and an unsuccessful
campaign might develope still more the desire for a
prudent neutrality. Yet, when the resources of the
Austrian alliance are considered, it must be acknow-
ledged to be a most formidable association. So
powerful are the forces arrayed against Prussia that
we cannot but believe that if Austria were able to
put forth her whole strength in Germany the Berlin
monarchy would succumb. What would be the
position of Austria in Germany were she at peace
and amity with Italy, and able to bring a quarter of
a 'billion of men from the shores of the Adriatic to
Bohemia ? It is not too much to say that her Gene-
rals might reconquer Silesia, and perhaps enter Berlin
in triumph. But the Imperial pride and the love of
territorial dominion, however useless, forbid such a
success. Venetia is there to paralyse the strength of
the Empire, to exhaust its resources, and perhaps to
destroy for ever its authority in Germany. War has
now been declared by Italy against Austria. Gene-
ral Cialdini has announced it to the enemy, and it
will begin at once. The Italian army is formidable
from its numbers, its enthusiasm, and the skill of
some of its leaders. It will have a difficult task, and
no one will be surprised to hear that it has met
with checks either before the fortresses in the plain
or among the mountains to the northward. But the
Italians are 22 millions ; they have 300,000 men
ready to enter on the campaign, and nearly as many
more to supply the places of those who fall. Such
an enemy must be formidable. The adhesion of the
minor German States can hardly counterbalance the
hostility of Italy, which will not only oblige the
Emperor to keep a great army in Venetia, but also
make it necessary to watch the whole Austrian
coast of the Adriatic. From Italy we shall doubt-
less have early news. Itsfinancial necessities forbid
it to delay, and the army demands an immediate
advance. In the meantime proclamations and ma-
nifestoes are the order of the day. In the despatch
which Count Bismarck has addressed to the Prussian
representatives on the hostile vote of the Diet, he
declares the Confederation to be dissolved. The
Prussian Government, in this despatch and in its
proclamation to the German people, declares that
the old Confederation has come to an end because
it did not faithfully represent Germany, because it
fostered division instead of union, and, because it
has been turned unlawfully by one Power to the in-
jury of another. " The King's envoy," it is said,
" announced in the name of his Majesty the dissolu-
tion of the Federal Pact" after au act in which the
majority of envoys represented States that had al-
ready previously combined in measures hostile to
Prussia. Prussia would hardly have hastened to pro-
claim the Confederation for ever dissolved if she did
not believe her interests were incompatible with the
existence of the Diet. She might have complained
that the States bad acted illegally, and yet have
professed her adherence to the laws which all were
bound to obey. But she announces that the viola-
tion of the law amounts to the abrogation of the
law itself. The whole country is now reduced to
its political elements ; it is no longer a federation,
but a number of States, great and small, which,
according to the declaration of Prussia, are no
more connected than any others on the Continent.
The despatch in explanation of the entry of the
Prussian troops into Hanover, Saxony, and Elec-
toral Hesse is equally decided in tone. The Minor
States are menaced in a fashion of which we should
hardly have thought even Count Bismark capable.
The King's Government, it is said, proposes to the
Northern Governments a new alliance, the accept-
ance of which would avert the dangers with which,
according to Count Bismark, they threaten Prussia.
But it must be on the condition that they restore
their forces to a peace footing or unite them with
those of Prussia, and that they assent to the con-
vocation of a German Parliament. "If these mode-
rate conditions be not accepted," says the candid
statesman, " the Government will feel itself obliged
to have recoarse to force, and to employ all the
means in its power against those Governments which
show themselves its decided adversaries." A Power
which uses this language is evidently prepared to go
all lengths. Austria must crush her imperious rival
by force, or see her influence in Germany pass away
for ever. The long rivalry of the two States—a
rivalry which showed itself as soon as the pressure
of the great Napoleon's power was removed, which
has broken out at intervals during the whole life-
time of the Confederation, and which brought the
two armies almost face to face in 1850—can no
longer be suppressed,, and the leadership, if not the
sovereignty, of Germany must fall to the lot of one
of them.

POST.—Those who would appreciate the difference
of the public feeling on the subject of Reform in
1831 and 1866 must turn to Mr. Roebuck's " His-
tory of the Whigs." There they may learn how,
when the House of Lords rejected the bill, the city.
of Bristol was set on fire by a frantic and uncontrol-
lable mob ; how the castle of Nottingham, the pro-
perty of the Duke of Newcastle, was assailed and
burned by the insurgents ; how the political
unions came into active operation ; how the people
refused to pay taxes ; how sedition, anarchy, and
terror overspread the land ; and the cry, not for a
bill, but for the bill, was raised in every city
throughout the kingdom. Such was the state of
the country in October, 1831. Look on this
picture and on this." In June, 1866, a Reform
Bill is withdrawn by the Government on grounds
reasonable or unreasonable, it matters not ; but for
the time there is no prospect of any Reform being
carried. The announcement of this withdrawal is,
contrary to all precedent and to all rule, received
with loud acclamations, even in the gallery the very
" strangers" rivalling with the Opposition in joy at
the relief from this incubus on all useful legislation;
and on Tuesday night, when it was known that the
Chancellor of the Exchequer was to announce the
intentions of the Government, and mere curiosity
might have attracted' a large crowd, a few dozen
idlers, who gave Mr. Disraeli a warm greeting, re-
presented the agitated thousands which at the in-
stigation of the arch-agitator were to fill Parliament-
street, and who, with banner unfurled, were to
march on the House of Commons and proclaim the
imperial will of the time-honoured Demos. We
said from the first, and never have found reason to
change our conviction, that the people are pro-
foundly indifferent to any Reform whatever, and
that Reform was the mere stock-in-trade of decayed
and bankrupt politicians. Mr. Bright agitates the
question on the same principle as the fisherman
troubled the water. It is, said he, " by agitating
the water I gain my living." Agitation is a trade,
and public opinion frequently a manufacture. Given
time and associates enough, you may create a kind
of demand, but this no more represents the earnest
requirements of the country than the unintelligent
cry of the child does the deep utterance of the earnest
man. There are good and sufficient reasons below
the surface why Reform is not only uncalled for butis
regarded with aversion by two classes of society, while
it only receives the support of a few Democrats. The
two classes are the employers of labour and the work-
men themselves the few earnest Reformers are the

men who organise and lead the strikes. Whoever
visits the great centres of manufactures will find
the, wealthiest employers more alarmed than ail
Conservative at the prospect of Reform, which may
result in placing power in the hands of those who
are the mere instruments of designing demagogues..
Left to himself, the working man is moderate in his
views and kindly in his sympathies, but he can-
not resist the force of association, and he becomes
a part of a machine terrible in its force and most
dangerous when in motion. It may be said that
we have no evidence that the working men would
abuse the power entrusted to them. This is quite
true ; but we can only judge by analogy, and We
do not know how they have been made use of in the
case of the trade unions, and the result is not en-
couraging. We• have before us a report from the
National Association for the prevention and SuP-
pression of Strikes and Turn-outs, and it is any'
thing but agreeable. The report says :—" The history
of turn-outs is indeed a most painful and disgrace-
ful one ; there is scarcely a crime, however horrible,
which has not at one time or other been committed
by trade unions. Many of us can remember that
vitriol-throwing, blinding, maiming for life and
even murder have been their common accompaol-
ments, and more particularly among the best trades
of the country. It is true none of these things hay?
disgraced the cotton operatives during the Pas!
twelve years in their disputes with their employer'
but they have organised and carried out a regular
system of coercion and intimidation more sever°
than was ever known. The levy ordered 11
the committee must be paid, or the party re-
fusing would be held up to public scorn, au'',
yelled and hissed to his home. The cost of
strikes is incalculable. Suffice it to say that the
cost of the Preston strike is no less a 031
than £400,000, exclusive of immense losses to
employers and tradesmen connected with the
cotton districts." No wonder, if this be true—and
papers quoted by Mr. Baillie Cochrane during the
Reform debate prove the accuracy of this deserlP:
tion from the rules of the unions themseves—that
the capitalists regard with ill-disguised alarm all
proposition which may transfer this formidable
organisation, embracing four-fifths of the whole
working men in great Britain, from without to
within the walls .of Parliament. What legislation
might we expect ? What proportion of taxes would
be placed on the upper classes? What chance would
wealth have in this contest with labour ? As it 1!31
there are not wanting voices which are raised 0,1.
behalf of the people, and the danger is rather, a..
present, that we shall over legislate instead of unt,`,
legislate in all questions of a popular character. V I
do not wish now to call attention to the inou_e
working man. He is fast becoming as great a 10;
as the intelligent foreigner or Lord Macaulay's Neit
Zealander. Too much has been already said abot
the genuine, frank, sober, industrious, intelligen:
artisan. If there is one thing more repulsive !le
the adulation of rank, it is the adulation of no
people. The worst periods of the Greek and Itor°;ci
Republics were those when the mob were flatter
into becoming the tools of ambition and of Party'
The world is, unhappily, not one " entire and P,
feet chrysolite." We have so to legislate as to PZt
tect the rights of property, and still more to pro.
men against the consequences of their own asp 0;1
And all the delay and annoyance of this def 0,3%
Reform Bill need not be regretted, because It '4O
proved to the most ordinary capacity that the Peeae,
are satisfied with things as they are—that they
_..to
sire no change—that they can see through the 4t
of the democratic leaders—and that for the presior
they do not desire to exchange their old lanaPs
new ones.