The Sun.
London, England, 1861-02-02 00:00:00

directions like a circle upon water when a stone
Eas been cast in to disturb its tranquillity. It has
thus been with Prussia—born from the little prin-

cipality of the House of BRANDENBURG. It has
thus been with Austria—born from the diminutive 1
State ruled over by the House of HAPSBURG. It
has thus been upon a grander scale yet, with the
original domains peatled by a race of serfs (iwning
allegiance to the House of ROMANOFF. Is it not
one of the most frightfully notorious incidents in
the modern annals of Europe, that these three
enlarging and despoiling Powers, having at length
extended their frontiers by piecemeal spoliations of
the most flagrant character, having at length

extended their frontiers until they pressed equally
from three different directions upon the boundaries
of the glorious but ill-fated kingdom of Poland—
then and there accomplished together, as the climax
of all their atrocious robberies, the partition of that

resplendent territory and of that heroic race—the
Barrier and the Champions of Christendom! Since
which infamous crime—one of those heinous and
preternatural political crimes that cry aloud to
Heaven for vengeance—the accomplices in that
execrable murder of Poland have still from time
to time so far obeyed the instincts of their nature
as to endeavour at least, upon every possible oppor-
tunity, to continue their system of annexation upon
annnexation. .Russia, it is true, has long since
been almost too large for further expansion—lying
there extended in all her " lubber length"—like an
over-gorgedboa-constrictor, across the width of the
two hemispheres. Austria, at once huge in her
dimensions and heterogeneous in her character, being
composed of a mass of incongruous nationalities
incapable of cohesion, has long been threatening
to fall asunder, as she must inevitably fall
asunder elentually—either " dissolving in the
silence of decay" or separating abruptly in
the shock of some comprehensive catastrophe.
Prussia alone might yet—notwithstanding her
antecedents—Prussia alone of the three might yet,
if she could at length in real earnest, but for once
and for all, assume that nobler role with which she
has so often been dallying—Prussia alone might
at last take her place securely and honourably
among the Constitutional Powers of Christendom.
Instead of which, so engrained in her nature
is the greed of annexation, so tainted is she
with the leprosy of spoliation that one
might as well attempt again, like the people in
the fable to scrub the Ethiopian white, as hope to
witness the adoption at last at Berlin of an honour-
able policy—a policy not tending as hitherto to a
greater or a lesser degree of territorial aggrandise-
ment —a policy, in fact, worthy of her late preten-
tions as an un- aggressive and strictly Constitutional
Government. As a Constitutional Government,
Prussia is, in truth, turning out once more to be
one of the veriest shams and impostures in all
Christendom. The new KING thus absolutely
appears, now upon the very morrow of his ascension
to the throne, to have taken a leaf—as in other
words we have already intimated—out of the Bc ok of
Fate of NAPOLEON 111. What the French EMPEROR
did in the absorption into his empire of Nice and
Savoy—fraudulently abstracted from the kingdom
of Sardinia ; the Prussian Sovereign seems now
bent upon imitating to the south-west of Germany,
namely, by the absorption of Schleswig and Hol-
stein, of one or the other, or of both, and with them
also of Lauenburg—fraudulently abstracting them
from the ancient Kingdom of Denmark. These
suspicious designs on the part of Prussia are, as we
all remember only too well of very old date. It is
a sinister project about which we have heard, and
read, and talked, and written at frequent intervals
duringmany years usque ad nauseam. It has been
again and again agitated—but now worst of all, it
is yet once more revived under the new Sovereign
and as we had hoped under his better regime, and
under happier auspices alike for Prussia and
for Germany. The suspicious and sinister
situation of this unhappy question about
what is absurdly called by the blent title
of Schleswig-Holstein, may be understood upon a
merely casual glauee down the correspondence
which not very long since took place upon this very
topic—a topic of vital interest to Europe generally,
but especially of vital interest and importance to
our ancient and loyal ally, Denmark. The
diplomatic correspondence which took place dur-
ing last October, November, and December,
between Lord BLOOMFIELD, her Majesty's Am-
bassador (then) at the Court of Vienna, and Lord
JOHN RUSSELL, her Majesty's Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, on the part of England, and
through the diplomatic intervention thus of Eng-
land, on the part also of Denmark—and on the
other side, the Baron SCHLEINITZ, the
Chief Minister of the Prussian Government.
This correspondence, it is true, as the date indicates,
took place prior to the death of the late King of
PRUSSIA, an event which only took place at the
very turn of the year 1860-1861: But Prussia was
then ruled by a Regency—the Regent being thq
now reigning Sovereign of Prussia. The policy of
the kingdom is unchanged. It is the same to-day
that it was thus notoriously yesterday. It is a
policy most sinister, most suspicious. How
sinister, how suspicious it is in the direction of
Schleswig, and Holstein, and Lauenburg, will be
seen from the ominous despatches written by the
Prussian King's Prime Minister, Baron SCHLEI-