The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-09 00:00:00

TILE KING OF PRUSSIA.

If much admonition could make wise, no monarchy
ought to approach in wisdom to the Kingdom of
Prussia. For a considerable number of years
Prussia has been alternately cajoled and rebuked,
complimented and reviled, by the Press and by the
Diplomacy of every Power in Europe. Prussia
occupies, in fact, exactly that position with re-
ference to which people are most prodigal of advice
or dissuasion, of praise or of blame. The kingdom
is composed of heterogeneous parts ; its policy is
the strangest mixture of opposites and contradic-
tions. Nothing can be said of it which does not
require to be qualified by an infusion of its contrary.
Prussian liberty is tempered by a strong mixture
of absolutism. Prussian education is neutralized
by a concomitant dryness and formality. It is a
military country, but its army scarcely rises above
the organization of a Militia ; it is a Parliamentary
country, but the Press and the people are alike
submitted to the absolute control of the police. One
might have thought that a nation so circumstanced
would have contented itself with the attempt to
reconcile and combine the discordant elements
which struggle for mastery within her ; but Prussia
is a country, if not of any deep or settled purpose,
of many wants, tendencies, and proclivities. Prussia
wants very much to take the lead in Germany, and
to rally under her banners all that is liberal and
enlightened in the great Teutonic nation ; but here
she is met with this difficulty, that she cannot make
up her mind to become really and thoroughly
liberal herself. She has a sentimental desire to
claim as her own the Duchy of Schleswig ; and if
speeches and songs could make that Danish Duchy
German soil the deed would have long since been
done. Prussia believes that she has a common in-
terest with Russia, though she isjealous of the power
of her colossal neighbour. She hates while she is
nervously anxious to conciliate France. She is,
drawn towards Austria by a common fear, and re-
pelled by a mutual rivalry ; and assures England of
her warmest sympathy, while she carefully stands
aloof from her policy. It is not to be wondered at
that such a nation should perpetually be the object
of remonstrance and expostulation ; for, while there
is in her something to make everybody hope, there
is also in her something to disgust and disappoint
everybody.
We stand now at the entrance of a new reign.
Of the late' Sovereign it may be said with truth
that he fairly represented the country over which
he ruled ; that no man had given cause for more
hope or for more disappointment, had devised
more schemes and seen fewer brought to any prac-
ecal result. On the accession of his brother to the
Revncy he took up a position which seemed to
promise, well for the liberty of his country. The
party of tii'e Kreuz Zeitung, with its romance and
its fanaticism, had fallen from power, and we were
encouraged to hOPe that the change we witnessed
was the dawning of a new and brighter era. But
we have found reason to retract our sanguine
aspirations. Schleinitz is, after all, much the same
as Manteuffel, only with a , little prettier name;
and as for the development of vublic opinions, we
find Prussia very nearly exactly where she was.
But a Regency is proverbially a time of irresolute
councils and tardy action, and we may hope that,
now that the Regent is converted into a King, we
are at length to see the accomplishment of our
long deferred expectations. Apparently we were
never further from their realization. There are
domestic influences at work which urge the present
King of Prussia to cast aside the vacillating policy
of his brother, and to present himself to Europe as
the founder of a dynasty of the Napoleonic, or
rather Caesarian type, where the King, being
placed at tile head of the army, regulates all things
by his absolute will, and recognises no power in
the State except his own. Opposed to these
promptings are the straggling nature of his
dominions, the danger of discontent among at least
a portion of his subjects, and the uncomfortable
position of a power hemmed in by France, Russia,
and Austria, none of them true friends, and all of
them capable of becoming, at very short notice
and on very slight pretext, exceedingly for-
midable enemies. Thus is the period of
uncertainty protracted, and the nation kept in
ignorance whether it is to have any policy at all,
and whether that policy is to be absolute or libe-
ral, patriotic, or dynestic.
While things are in this uncertain state, the
King publishes an address to his people, and we
naturally seize on it with avielii`,y, in order to deter-
mine what is to be the future of Prussia and of
Germany. The laic King, we are told, laid the
foundations of great things, though we cannot for-
get that these great things have, as yet, nGt ad-
vanced beyond the foundations. The King pfo-
mises to guard the bequest of his ancestors, though
whether that bequest be Prussia oe its Constitu•
tion we are not told. His hand, he promises, shall
protect the welfare and the right of all, in every
class of the population. It shall sustain the precious
life of the nation. According to our notions, the
life and welfare of the nation would be better pro-
tected if intrusted to the nation itself. The con-
ditions of Prussia's power are, the King tells us,
founded on her spiritual and moral powers, her
religious feelings, the combination of liberty and
obedience, and the strengthening of her military
force. What all this means we do not pretend to
know, and we are only sorry that the welfare of a
State to which we wish well does not rest on some
more intelligible basis. Tile King will observe the
Constitution, and, though the confidence of Europe
is shaken, will seek to maintain peace ' • bat if war
shall come he relies on the courage of his people,
and the blessing of God on his mission. Such is
the programme which Prussia has before her, and
he mdst indeed be a shrewd interpreter of involved
diction and metaphysical jargon who can pronounce
from this aggregate of unmeaning words whether
it is the intention of the King of Prussia to make
the Constitution of his country a reality, or to leave
it only a form ; to assert her position among the
Powers of Germany, or to balance for ever between
" I dare not" and " I would ;" to rely on a policy
which may conciliate to him the feelings and aspi-
rations of large masses of mankind, or to go on in
perpetual see-saw where every step is the formal
negation of that which went before it.
We cannot even venture a conjecture; we can
only express an opinion, that never was there a
period in which Prussia might with more solid
benefit adopt a manly and, above all things, an in-
telligible policy. Russia is thoroughly crippled,
financially as well as militarily, by the results of
the war in the Crimea. France has incurred so
much distrust as seriously to diminish her influence.
Austria is bankrupt in finance, and apparently on
the very verge of dismemberment. Germany needs,
above all things, a leader, and the leadership now
obtained might easily, perhaps, be preserved for
centuries. The revolution of Italy has given a vast
impulse to the Liberal cause throughout Europe,
and has convinced all men that in the days in
which we live the advantages of absolute power are
more than compensated by its instability. The
downfall of the temporal power of the Pope has
given a considerable impulse to Protestantism, and
the prosperous finances of Prussia may bear an
advantageous comparison with the ruined exche-
quers of the great military monarchies. A tho-
roughly constitutional State in the north of Germany
might at the present moment exercise a power of
attraction which timid politicians little dream of.
Before the irresistible prestige of free Piedmont the
jealousies and animosities of the most divided
nation of Europe has been hushed into silence. To

.
note Gem lany under one head would be at ones
an 1/4(asier • and a more enduring triumph. All this
might!, be if the King of Prussia could only be
induce a 7neartily and sincerely to wish it ; but as
yet he makes no sign, and we must not be disap-
pointed tO Bee this opportunity also buried in the
same g. rave which has already engulfed so many
others.— -lime&

7R(1.111 THE GAZETTE OF LAST NIGHT.

LORD CHAMBERLAIN'S-OFFICE, JAN. 8.

Orders for the Court's going into Mourning on Thursday
next, the 10th instant, for his late Majesty the King of
Prussia, viz. :
T he Ladies to wear black silk, fringed or plain linen,
whi.te gloves, necklaces and ear-rings, black or white shoes,
fans, and tippets.
The Gentlemen t 8 wear black full-trimmed, fringed or
plain linen, black swords and buckles.
The Court to chstnge the Mourning on Thursday, the
24th inst., viz.:—
The Ladies to wesr black silk or velvet, coloured rib-
bons, f:Lns and tippets, or plain white, or white and gold,
or whits and silver stuff A, with black ribbons.
The Gentlemen to wear black coats, and black or plain
white, or white and gold, or white and silver stuff waist-
coats, full-trimmed, coloured swords and buckles.
And on Thursday, th e 31st inst., the Court to go out of
Mourning.

WHITVHALL, JAN. 7.
The Queen has 'been pleased to order a conge d'elire to
pass the Great Seal, empowering the Dean and Chapter of
the cathedral church of IV o►"center to elect a Bishop of that
See, the same being void by tile death of the Right Reverend
FathCr in God, Doctor Henry Pepys, late bishop thereof ;
and he .r Majesty has also been pleased to recommend to the
said De.qn and Chapter, Henry Philpott, Doctor in Divinity,
to be by them elected Bishop of the said See of Worcester.
DOWNING-STREET, JAN. 7.

The Queen has been pleased to appoint Samuel Creelman,
Esq., to be a Member of the Legislative Council of the
Province of Nova Scotia ; and Andrew Nicol, Esq., to be a
Member of the Legislative Council of the Island of Ceylon.
MASTER OF THE HORSE'S OFFICE, JAN. 1.
The Queen has been pleased to appoint Arthur Henry
Paget. Esq., to be Page of Honour to her Majesty, vice
Phipps.
%VAR-OFFICE, PALL-MALL, JAN. 8.
BREVET.
- -

The undermentionedpremotions to take place conse-
quent on the promotion of Colonel A. B. Stranshaw,Royal
Marines, to be Major-General in succession to Lieutenant-
General James Irwin Will's, Royal Marines,_ deceased :
Brevet .Colonel William Clendon, on the Retired List of
the Royal Marines, having at the date of his retirement
been senior to Colonel Stransham on the effective list of the
corps, to have the honorary rank of Major-General.
Brevet LieutenAnt-Colonel Nathan Smith Gardiner,
Major half-pay Unattached, to be Colonel.
Major George Mein, Depot Battalion, to be Lieutenant-
Colonel.
Captain Richard Atkinson, 12th Foot, to be Major.
The undermentioned promotions to take place conse-
quent on the death of Major-General Samuel Brandram
Boileau, on the 23d December, 1860 :
Lieutenant-Colonel and Brevet-Colonel John Rowland
Smyth, C. 8., from Inspecting Field Officer of a Recruit-
ing District, to be Major-General.
Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Wells, C. 8., 23d Foot, to be
Colonel.
Brevet-Major George E. Hillier, half-pay bth Light
Dragoons, to be Lieutenant. Colonel.
Captain Henry William Goodwyn, half-pay Unattached,
Staff Officer of Pensioners, to be Major.
The undermentioned promotions to take place consequent
on the death of Lieutenant-General Henry Rainey, C. 8.,
Colonel of the 23d Foot, on the 26th December, 1860 :
Major-General Thomas Perronet Thompson, Lieutenant-
Colonel, half-pay Unattached, to have the rank of Lieu-
tell ant-General.
Major-Ge.neral Edward Wells Bell, Colonel of the 66th
Foot, to be Lieutenant-General.
Brevet-Colonel William James D'Urban, from Lieu-
tenant-Colon el half-pay Unattached, Colonel on the Staff
at the Cape of Good Hope, to be Major-General.
Major and Brevet-Lieutenant-Colonel Henry George
Hart, half-pay Depot Battalion, to be Colonel.
Major Anthony Ormsby, half-pay Unattached to be Lieu-
tenant-Colonel.
Captain Edwarti John Dickson, Staff-Captain at the Isle
of Man, to be Major.