The Sun.
London, England, 1861-05-17 00:00:00

rate of unanimity upon the side of the Oppositio n
It is now known, from what Sir W. HEATIICOTE
was permitted by the ex-Home Secretary (under
Lord DERBY'S regime) to say, that Mr. WALPOLE
—no mean authority in the general estimation of
the House, one whose opinions are listened to with
deference by all parties is that House, indis-
criminately—it is now known that that right hon.
gentleman thinks not with the mass of his col-
leagues and supporters upon the side of the Oppo-
sition, in respect to the constitutional question that
has been raised in this matter of the Financial
policy of her MAJESTY'S Government. Others
' there may be, others there probably are, upon that
front bench of the Opposition who coincide in those
calm and dispassionate opinions of Lord DERBY'S
ex-Home Secretary. But, at any rate, there is
Mr. WALPOLE, who is now known not to think
in this matter of the Constitutional difficulty with
the mass of the Opposition. The fact that such is
his view in that particular is now as visibly before
the house and the country as the kindred fact upon
the other particular, the question of the Paper
Duties and their remission in perference to the
diminution of the tax upon tea—that an ex-Ministe-
rial colleague of Mr. WALPOLE'S, namely, no other
than the right hon. baronet the ex-Secretary of
State for the Colonies in Lord DERBY'S Govern-
ment, paired upon the occasion of the last decisive
division in favour of the policy advocated in this
matter by the existing Administration. So that
upon the Quistitutional Question and upon the
Question of the Paper Duties Abolition—there is
no prospect whatever of unanimity-of-antagonism
on the side of the Opposition. That is their bewil-
derment. Thence comes their hesitation as to
when and where they will for once and for all
have at the financial policy of the Government.
That they are determined to " have at" it, in some
way or another, was quite clearly avowed last
night by the Right Hon. Gentleman the Leader of
the Opposition. But it is not to be even now—imme-
diately. The holidays of Whitsuntide come to himself
and to the more eager among his followers as another
opportune breathing time, as another welcome in-
terval for serious reflection and for earnest premedi-
tation. What will come of it all after the Whit-
suntide recess has passed over, depends still very
much, we cannot but think, upon the Chapter of
Accidents. On Monday week the bill (last night
read a second time) will be brought into
Committee for consideration, there in that Com-
mittee of the whole House, clause by clause. Whe-
ther the Great Party Fight that is yet to " come,off"
is to be taken upon one of its details or upon the
Budget scheme as a whole, we doubt very
much if even Mr. DISRAELI himself could
form a very shrewd conjecture. Cela de-
pend Yes, upon the before mentioned Chapter
of Accidents ! All that we know now, all that the
House and the country, all that the Government
and the Opposition know at this moment upon the
matter, is -- that it will in another ten or twelve
days " come off" definitively, that. Great Party Fight
upon the financial policy of the Government. And
our only consolation under the irritating remem-
brance of all these past delays, our only consolation
at the present moment in this matter, is the know-
ledge of the fact that that long-threatened Great
Party Battle must come off, if it is to come off at
all, immediately after the close of this recess of
Whitsuntide.

A German writer in a letter to a contemporary has
given a picture of the politics of the minor Princes
of that singularly divided country, which will be
new to the generality of Englishmen. Unversed
as we all are here in the obscure proceedings of
these petty Courts and Governments, and having
little or no inducement to make a study of them,
we can neither confirm nor deny his statements—
we can only consider their probability in the light
of more generally known facts. Since the days of
LOLA MONTES,WhO knows any thing about Bavaria?
and if a paragraph appears in our foreign intelli-
gence relating to Wurtemberg or Bavaria, or
Hanover, probably not one reader in a hundred,
when he sees the heading, thinks of mastering its
contents. We remember how all the little
Monarchs flew up in a hurry and flutter to watch
Loris NAPOLEON and the King of PRUSSIA, when
the former invited himself to meet the latter. They
were then doubtless alarmed with the apprehension
of being sold in their absence. Now, according to
our informant, they are plotting to sell them-
selves, and all that is called Germany too, to a
French protectorate, and the consummation of their
scheme is a German Heptarchy !
" The ideal of statesmen (!) in Dresden, Munich,
Stuttgardt, Hanover, and Darmstadt—says our in-
formant—is a Heptarchy—the division of Germany
into seven kingdoms. The house of HAPSBURG
would, under this arrangement, obtain an Austro-
German kingdom out of the ruins of the empire.
The Prussian eagle would be shorn of its wings
and deprived of its foreign feathers, so that nothing
would remain to the house of Hohenzollern but a
throne of small dimensions, incapable of casting a
shadow over the rest. By the side of these quon-
dam great States the Napoleonic kingdoms of
Bavaria, Saxony, Wurtemberg, and Hanover, the
ancient Guelphic domains, would take a splendid
rank as states enlarged and rounded by the ab-
sorption of their little neighbours, such as Olden-
burg, Thuringia, and Baden. The seventh kingdom
would be formed of the three Hesses, Nassau,
Waldeck, and such strips of territory as can be torn
in this direction from Prussia."

The above-mentioned minor kingdoms live, we
are told, in daily fear of Prussia. Her policy has
been so mysterious that they know not what to
make of it. They only know that to them it seems to
threaten absorption or mediatisation. They believe
that France is as much as ever set upon the left
bank of the Rhine, that Prussia would not object
to parting with her share of it, if compensated from
other parts of Germany, and they are disposed
therefore rather to make a good bargain for them-
selves with France, than to leave Prussia to steal a
march in that direction upon them. NAPOLEON I.
formed a'Confederation of the Rhine, by which he
gave to
these Princes, what they chiefly covet,
absolutism at home.
few soldiers, and They had only to maintain a
subjects and secured
constitutions.
themlvhy
should against n
theiro t
NAPOLEON M. be ready to confer a like favour on
them? Independent they cannot be—they are too
small for that ; absolute they may be, it the half
million of French bayonets are held ready to
guarantee to the monarchs of the new Reptaichy
what they certainly do for their own Sovereign.
Strange as the conduct of Prussia has been, it is
quite certain that a large proportion of the Liberal
Germans, especially of those who desire the unity
of Germany, see no feasible road to it but that of a

Prussian Hegemony, Austria, no one ban trust—.

and to Englishmen, Prussia, with her sham Cham-
bers and Conservative KING, seems almost as un-
worthy of reliance. Still she demands the estab-
lishment of its lawful Constitution in Hesse Cassel
—blusters about Schleswig and Holstein—and has
been the prime mover and agent in the Zollverein,
which all looks the right way. To Prussia the
Liberals seem constrained to look for want of a
better centre of union. Whither shall the Princes
look for the preservation of absolute power ?
When the fall of NAPOLEON L broke up the

Confederation of the Rhine, the Holy Alliance
substituted its own patronage of petty despotism,
and the Diet was its agent. " The Congress of i
Vienna," our writer says, "substituted the Germanic
Confederation for the Confederation of the Rhine.
The protector of this new confederation was
the Holy Alliance, a club of princes. The latter
endeavoured to preserve the pleasant privileges they
had enjoyed under the old system; and the Kings
of Bavaria and Wurtemberg only joined the new
association on condition that they should preserve
their entire sovereignty. For 39 years the Diet of
Frankfort performed its task of reaction. The
aspirations of Germany towards unity and liberty,
those wishes for which it had spent its blood and
treasure, were rigidly stifled. The Diet helped the
governments against the legislatures and the press ;
against professors, students, and the working classes,
and earned thereby a cordial and genuine hatred."
The shock of 1848, and the breaking-up of the
Holy Alliance, have caused the Diet to lose ground,
and the means of strengthening it in the interests
of despotism obviously diminish from year to year.
The demands of the people for a union of States, not
a union of Princes, become louder, while Austria and
Prussia fail to co-operate in any such way as can at-
tain
the latter object. They do not care to resist
foreign domination under the leadership of Prus-
sia, since they would be certain to add, practically,
their crowns to the many others which the Prus-
sian monarch has already appropriated. They
look, therefore, with hope to the Austrian Empire
becoming, for the better part of it, a kingdom of
Hungary; and through the patronage of France,
to whom Bavaria and Hesse will surrender their
posseisions on the left banks of the Rhine,
they will add to their domains, in compensation,
those of all the princes yet smaller than them-
selves. Thus will they complete their new Hep-
tarchy of absolute monarchs, with NAPOLEON 111.
as their suzerain lord.

We cannot go further into the details of this
curious conspiracy, if conspiracy there be. It is
probably the gossip of German coffee-houses, and
perhaps of higher circles. There may be truth in
it. The Liberals of Germany have, doubtless, rea-
son enough to dread the designs of their princes ;
their princes must be very uneasy between the
demands of their people, and the spectacle they are
now witnessing in Italy. The example of VICTOR
EMMANUEL must seem, to them, very suggestive to
the KING of Prussia; they also know that NAPO-
LEON 111., on the part of France desires Federation,
not strong kingdoms for neighbours; and who, they
may well say, so likely therefore to stand by
us ? It would certainly be a singular turn
of the political wheel which should bring the
petty despots who hurried up to Baden-Baden,
fettling lest Prussia should purchase them at the
hands of France, now to sell themselves and per-
haps Prussia too, to her, to secure the privilege
of a French Protectorate and of Federal German
Despotism. NAPOLEON is however wary. He
has been warned once. He has seen the unlooked
for result of his Italian intervention, and he may
well hesitate before by an imprudent move he
hazards the undersigned creation of a united Ger-
many,

Their Royal Highnesses the Duchess of Cam-
bridge and the Princess Mary honoured General and Lady
Alice Peel by their company at dinner on Wednesday
evening, in Park-place, St. James's. The duchess and
princess were attended by Lady Geral line Somerset and
Colonel Purves. A select party had the honour to join the
circle, and a small and distinguished company assembled
after dinner.
The Duke and Duchess of Marlborough enter-
tained a large party at dinner last evening, at the family
residence in St. James's-square. The duchess afterwards
received a select party.
The Duke and Duchess of Roxburghe, accom-
panied by the Marquis of Bowmont and Lady Charlotte
Ines Tier, have arrived at the Clarendon for the season.
The Earl and Countess of Aberdeen are shortly
expected to arrive from Egypt. The noble earl's health has
greatly improved.
FIRE AT GREENWICH.—This morning an ex-
tensive conflagration broke out on the premises of the
Thames Soap Mills, causing the destruction of a vast
amount of property. Several hours elapsed before the
flames were extinguished.
LONGEVITY.--Died, at Tomnakeist, near Balla-
tor, oa Wednesday, Ist inst., Charles Sandison, in the 103 d
year of his age. His grandfather, his father, and himself,
were all born at Tomnakeist, and their united ages
amounted to 272 years. His cousin, Alexander Sandison,
born at the same farm, died on 7th September, 1843, aged
101.—Aberdeen Journal.
GOVERNMENT EMIGRATION.--The Government
emigration vessel Hotspur, of 1,670 tons, Capt. B. Stacey,
belonging to Mr. George Seymour, of London, which sailed
from Plymouth on Dec. 3, arrived at Sydney, New South
Wales, on Feb. 24, with 31 married couples, 175 single
men, 134 single women, 36 boys age from 1 to 12 years, 22
girls between the same ages, 1 male and 3 female infants,
making a total of 433 souls, equal to 400 statute adults,
under charge of Surgeon-Superintendent D. B. North.
One birth and 10 deaths (2 adult females and 8 children)
occurred during the voyage.
THE SULINA BANK.—NOTICE TO MARINERS.—
The following notice announcing the removal of the above
bank, and reporting an improvement in the depth of water
on the bar, has been received from the Board of Trade :
"The bank off the Sulina mouth of the Danube mentioned
in the caution published April last having been removed,
the said caution is hereby cancelled. As the Sulina banks
are of a shifting character, mariners are advised not to ap-
proach within a mile of the entry without having a bar
pilot on board, and their attention is called to articles 23
and 24 of the Pilotage Regulations, published by the
European Commission of the Danube, which oblige the
pilot to meet vessels at a mile and half from the entry.
Notice is hereby further given that the works executed by
the above-mentioned commissioners at the mouth of the
Sulina have deepened and straightened the entry and
that a depth of from 12 to 16 feet may be expected during
the present year, according to the season. The depth is
daily published on the lighthouse, in figures legible on
board of vessels in the roadsteads."

FREEHOLD LAND IN SURREY AND MIDDLESEX

—The Putney Manor estate was offered for allotment at the
office of the Conservative Land Society yesterday. This
building property adjoins the mansion and estate of Roe-
hampton-park, East Surrey, formerly the seat of the Earl
of Bessborough. The land now on sale, with frontages to
Roeham?ton and Ponsonby-road, is dividei into 30 lots;
one of which, designed for an inn, was selected with a very
early right of choice. On the same occasion the sale of 111
building plots at Kentish .town was commenced. The land
is situated on a slope gradually rising from the north-
western suburb towards Highgate, commanding extensive
views. A costly system of drainage has been made under
the superintendence of the Board of Works.
THE CASE OF THE REV. MR. BON-WELL—The
appeal of the Rev. Mr. Bonwell against the decision and
sentence of the Court of Arches had been set down for
hearing before the Lords of the Privy Council. Owing
however, to the heavy legal expenses incurred by the rev.
gentleman during the protracted proceedings arising out of,
the 'alleged liaison with Miss Yorath, and the charge of
immorality consequent thereupon, he is stated to be so im-
poverished, that though he has, to save expense of counsel
and attorney, conducted his case in person, he finds that
he'cannot comply with the rule of the court, which requires
him to incur the enormous expense of a transcript of the
notes of the hearing and judgment, and drawing up the
case, and then printing and furnishing sixty copies to the
Registry Office, forty of which are sent to the Privy Coun-
cil. In default of these copies being delivered the case can-
not be heard, and when called on will be struck cut, and
entitle the bishop to ask it being dismissed, which will fol-
low as of course.

THE ILKESTON MURDER—COMMITTAL OF THE
PRISONER.—The inquiry before the magistrates was con-
cluded on Tuesday, when several important witnesses were
examined, and as most of them were comparatively strangers
t o the prisoner, before the re-examination he was paraded
ith half-a-dozen others in the yard ; and he was in-
stantly identified by all the witnesses successively, except
ono, who was short-sighted. When asked if he had any
questions to put to one of the witnesses, the prisoner jumped
up, and in a a rapid manner said, "I want to put one ques.
tion to all the gentlemen present. lam not responsible for
the words I have said; I have been in an unsound state of
Y
mind since Ist of May. I went to Nottingham with the
intention of Drawing some money, and going off with it to
France. ou can please
Yourselves whether you believe,
me but I wanted to list for a soldier." The prisoner was
committed to take his trial at the next assizes for the wilful
murder of his father, and was shortly after removed, say-
ing, " I have God in my heart, and I shall face it through,
si,ik or swim."