The Sun.
London, England, 1861-10-04 00:00:00

HIGHWATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
This DAY.—Morning, lh. 30m.—Afternoon, ;Ih. 50m.
i To-moßitow.-Morning, 2h. 10m.—Afternoon, 2h. 30m.

THE WEATHER.—Strx OFFICE, °aroma 4, 1861.

THERMOMETER, IN THE SHADE.
63—highest since noon yesterday.
53—lowest this morning and during the night.
64—this day at noon.
BAROMETER-30.16.

WlND—South-Easterly—frestt gale; with fine weather.

THE SUN.
LONDON, FRIDAY, OCT. 4, 1881.

Some of our contemporaries seem disposed to

amuse themselves with guessing the topics which

the King of PRUSSIA and the EMPEROR are to dis-
cuss at Compiegne on Sunday evening. What
some of them will be can be little doubted; it
would be strange, indeed, if the affairs of all
Europe were not matter of conversation, especially
when we are assured that the visit ig one of cour-
tesy and goodwill, not of business. Perhaps we
should have been more ready to think so if pains
had not been taken to assure us of it, As it is,
the meeting of the two monarchs will singgest all
kinds of speculations to those who "put no confi-
dence in princes,"—and especially in princes who
have done everything in their power to destroy
confidence.

It was not very long ago that the last threat of
Earl RUSSELL was that use were to look round for
new alliances in the event of a neighbouri ng Power
showing itself so ambitious as to desire fresh
accessions of territory. Prussia was commonly con-
sidered and understood to be one country between
which and ourselves diplomatic cords were to be
closer drawn, and a kind of offensive and defensive
understanding to exist. We naturally, therefore,
ask, what Means this visit of our ally presumptive
to our antagonist presumptive ? Has England any
interest whatever in it ? If we may answer specu-
latively, we should say none whatever., So far
from caring a straw for the Prussian alliAnee, we
should think it enormously dear at the pric e 'we have
to pay to supplement the poverty of the ICING and
his son, when we found the latter a wi fu, whom
he could not maintain without a good ro v .nd sum
per annum out of our treasury. We won der how
much our German consorts, male and fen 18 de, have
ever received from the Fatherland ! Er 1€ lishmen
cannot look to Prussians as allies. TI is )y have
deceived all round too often. They would sell us
again at a day's notice if by doing so th.e y could
ward off an invasion, or appropriate anot h er little
principality, or set up a German fleet, or o btain as
neutrals the carrying trade between two bellige-
rents, one of whom they knew to be viola ti ng, and
the other maintaining the public law oi! Europe.
We must say it openly, notwithstanding t h e differ-
ence in religion, and the long rivalry, we Ni could in-
finitely sooner have the French for allies i n any un-
dertaking than the Prussians. We should Ea 4 )ec t more
sense of honour, and if not the absence ()1 selfish-
ness, yet a greater reluctance to exhibit it too bare-
facedly.

As to the present KING, we know of n ithing to
give us better hopes of him than we had from his
brother. He is not so capricious and vaci 1 lating, it
may be said. But then he is a dull, stub born old
Conservative, of the most leaden German ype. Not
one noble deed has he done since his aset )1 at to the
throne. Italy has had as little as she co uld of his
sympathy, though his Chambers, to do the n i justice,
were better to her than he. As to Del 21 nark, he
has used her disgracefully; the shabby man is
actually joining with other Germans to, demand
liberties foi the German population subje c t to the
King of DENMARK, which, rather than g 'e to his
own subjects, he would see them bayone tf :ed first.
He has actually driven the brave inhab i tants of
the little kingdom to prefer a war with. Prussia
to enduring farther intermeddling.
We cannot wonder that there should :be again
a little flutter among the German Prince s, . Were
we in their place we should not have they . smallest
doubt that our territories would be dis, ci issed as
matters of convenient exchange between the two
greater territorial potentates. How in u .ch else-
where in Germany, would compensate for arrang-
ing natural boundaries on the Rhine, is a 'question
which Louis NAPOLEON would certain ily not
scruple to put, if he thought its answ a; r might
conduce to the glory of the dynasty; and as cer-
tainly his Prussian MAJESTY would not: shrink
from an answer involving a notice to quit to some
of his neighbours, if he supposed the who) le thing
would be to his advantage. Right or wror ig, such
would be the opinion of all parties who cold d afford
to speak their minds, and that being the case, all
the Sovereigns likely to be affected by the discus-
sions at Compiegne must feel more or less un-
easiness.

England can but look on with unconce? n. We
could desire indeed a strong Austria, a strong
Prussia, a strong Italy, and a strong Sprdi a. But
Austria refuses in her despotic pride and s el fishness
the first condition of strength—justice and loyalty
to her nationalities. Prussia is worthLe SS as a
leader of Germany, and helpless as a :military
power, sprawling as she does over half s 0 ermany
and what she has robbed from poor Poland.
We can only look to ourselves. That we :mean to
do ; and the Kings and Emperors must ; settle
matters as_ they best can. We are ever ri 3ady to
give our moral support to nations strug gl ing for
liberty, but we care not for the schemes of ( lespots.

English—our own good, honest native :.tongue,
and the honours due to it, is one of the tx pies of
the moment. A right sort of lecture on -I fanglish
teaching, by the Rev. A. J. D'ORSEY, B. 1) ~ Eng-
lish Lecturer at Corpus Christi College, Cat n' bridge,
now lies before us, urging the necessity of inst auction
on our language itself; and daily letters in the
newspapers are demanding that clergymon shall
utter it in a manner worthy of its merits . The
clerical delinquents, on the latter point, seem 3. to be
the worst, judging at least by the numerous com-
plaints and the humble excuses. It is a 'clergy-
man, the Rev.J.D'ORsEY, who writes of his orkl4 r,that
we " might listen to the way in which the $J harch
service was read in nine cases out of ten as a proof
(indistinct utterance, incorrect pronunciaticm, pro-
vincial accent, false emphasis, drawling; monotony,
&c.)—to the dull, listless style in which sermons
were composed and delivered, and to the painful
attempts of most clergymen to do what the barrister
or the member of Parliament did—speak without
paper."

To be sure our Parliament itself, where if we
regard its name speaking must be held to :be an
essential qualification, incurs a tolerably who)esale
censure. "With some dozen exceptions, in neither
House were there any really good public speakers.
Of the 10,000 speeches made last session, 5,000
might have been spared, and the rest given in a
tenth of the time, if the speakers had been trained
to speak to the point, to say what they had to say in
the fewest words." We must confess our fears hat

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