The Sun.
London, England, 1850-11-08 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.

To know exactly how much mischief may be ven-
tured upon'with impunity is knowledge sufficient for a little
great man.—Eliza Cook's Journal.
MANCHESTER THADE E EroRT, TIIUR:..DAY, NOV.
7.—There is no change in to-day's market. Holders of
goods and
Yarns are very firm, but little business has been
OW/.

" A rigorous system, nearly in e very respect pro-
hibitory, was enforced by that soveereign. An expen-
sive army of preventive custom- house agents was
stationed around the frontiers, and monopolies of
trade and manufactures, to be earn id on by Govern-
ment, or by individuals, were estal dished. Of these,
the monopoly of sugar granted tot :ertain individuals,
and the monopolies of salt and tole icco, as managed
by the corrupt employes of the Het/hammer (finance
department) were the most ruinous to the treasury.
" The late revolution, for we c annot consider it
under any other term, was caused by the denial of
those political, and representative rights, which the
progress of civilization, and the diffusion of know-
ledge, among the middle and indus,;trious, rendered it
impossible, either for the sovereign or the aristocracy,
longer to withhold. The financial history of Austria
is too instructive for us to cast it aside, when inquiring
into the condition of Germany.
" Maria Theresa, rather than free her empire from
the barbarous shackles of restriction, and consequently
increase her revenue, descended to the humiliating
expedient of public begging in the churches ; and so
far was she reduced in her finances., that, to secure, in
her need, the alliance of France, she condescended to
correspond and pay court to Fari Della and Madame
de Pompadour, both royal misti.esses ; and, both of
whom the virtuous, and chaste, empress would no
doubt have immured in a convent, if she had had them
at Vienna.
"The first wars of the French revolution, not only
soon emptied the treasury, but the public debt was
increased by every possible expedi t lit, to an amount
which was cleared off by the most; discreditable coup
de main on record.
"Count Wallis, called by the Emperor from the post
of Oberst-burg-graf in Prague, -was appointed Mi-
nister of Finance in Vienna, for the whole empire.
He soon perceived that the fin ancial measures of
Counts Sauran, Zichy, and O'Donnell, from 1790 to
1811, were mere temporary expedients for momentary
distress, and not calculated for permanent income to
provide for future exigencies. Voluntary contribu-
dons had been demanded; the silver of the churches
had been used; a base currency, intrinsically of half
its nominal value, had been issued • the exportation
of the precious metals had been prohibited ; a com-
pulsory loan of seventy-five millions of florins had
been exacted, to diminish the exorbitant amount of
imperial bank-notes which were issued ; additional
enormous duties had been laid upon sugar and all
tropical produce ; the post-move y had been raised
two or three times ; a property- tax of one-half per
cent. had been levied ; and the :Emperor, who had
publicly promised to issue no imperial bank-notes
for the future, was again compel'Led to have recourse
to that ruinous expedient. All was in vain I The
following statement has become history :--
"The floating benke notes had irn perceptibly risen to
1.060,000,000 of florins (106.0005000/. sterling) ; the
amount of the interest paying debt was not exactly
ascertained ; it was, doubtless, even; more considerable.
the Fealties of all public officers and the expenditure
of the state had risen enormously en proportion to the
depreciation of currency ; all ttmse evils were now to
he remedied by the bold project of the determined
Count Wallis.
"Toe coup d' &at which that minister carried into
execution was approved of by his late Majesty the
Emperor Francis. On the lleh of February, 1811,
the orders were printed with the' greatest secresy in
the Imperial printing-office ; a copy of the warrant
was sent sealed to all the governors of the empire,
who were to open it at the same hour, on the 15th of
March, 1811 ; these orders were instantly to be acted
upon, without remonstrance, and without the assent of
the states; and they were promulgated amidst the roll
of military drums. This master-stroke consisted in
the substitution of quittances for bank-notes, so that
five florins of the latter were pl2id by one florin of the
former, in all public and private. engagements.
" The whole financial system. of the empire was
thus changed; the usual notion of right and property
was entirely violated by a general national bank-
ruptcy. vThe war of 1813 drew forth a fresh issue of
212,000;000fl. in paper, besides anticipation-scheine
(notes issued to be paid by anticipated lands) to three
times that amount. When Count Stadion succeeded
Count Wallis the paper money became so valueless
that he found it necessary to reduce it from 250 to
100. In consequence, the property of minors, hos,
pitals, all institutions, and capitalists, was reduced
from one hundred to twenty by Wallis, and from
twenty to eight by Stadion—that is, in the two na-
tional bankruptcies, creditors of all kinds received
only eight 113rins in state paper for every hundred due
to them in silver. Yet all this was of no comparison
to the corruption of morals introduced amongst the
people. Every one endeavoured by all or any
means to make up for his unmerited loss. The per-
manent disadvantage to the state was still greater.
It was compelled to borrow, after the peace, first
20,000,000, and afterwards 38,000,000 from Roths-
child, and soon after nearly as much from other con-
tractors."
Twice afterwards the Government we-e guilty of
acts that nearly, though not ao flagrantly, dishonoured
the national faith.
In 1831 a loan of near 100,000,000 florins was con-
tracted ; and unfortunately the expenditure of Austria
has ever since exceeded the receipts : while Prussia,
under far inferi9r natural advantages, paid off an im-
mense amount of her national debt, and will, if neces-
sary, be in five years altogether unincumbered. No
one can tell the present state of the Austrians, further
than that the land is overflowed with a paper circu-
lation not worth a twentieth of its nominal value
there is little doubt that the Empire is threefold in
a state of bankruptcy.
No calamity can ever justify the national bank-
rup cy of a respectable Government.
A French wrier contended "That in an absolute
Government like France, the reigning prince has only
a temporary interest in the revenue of the state, and
consequently that it would be not only a prudent, but
even a legal operation to annihilate the public debt at
the commencement of each reign." This diabolical
maxim may have been read b).. Count Wallis?, but he
should have remembered, as 'imperial Minister, whtt
1 King John of Prance declared, "That if honour had
fled the world, it ought still to be found in the bosom
of princes."
If Austria were as clear of financial difficulty as
Prussic ; and it a liberal revenue system of commer-
cial and financial legislation were established, we
might still consider it possible that the integrity of
the empire, with the exception of the Lombardo-

FROM THE MORNING PAPERS OF THIS DAY.
TIMESe—The Prussian game is now almost
played out. The fall of M. de Radowitz is the signal
of the defeat, and, we hope, the abandonment of that
policy of the Court of Berlin which had sacrificed
the just influence of Prussia in the Confederation,
and her national weight at home, to a chimerical
union of the minor German States, which prolonged
the Danish contest by a singular mixture of vacillao
ticn and bad faith, and which threatened at last to
embrof I the whole of Germany in actual war. Like
M. Triers in the autumn of 1840, the Prussian Mi-
nister has lost his footing at the very moment when it
became necessary to resort to the most extensive mili-
tary preparations to support his policy ; but there is
this important difference between the two cases—
that in France the King perceived the danger of his
position, and turned out the Triers Ministry by his
refusal to authorise their armaments; whilst in
Prussia Frederick William has himself been the
most eager partisan of this desperate and im-
practicable line of conduct, and the check which
has removed M. de Radowitz from office
falls with equal, or even greater force, on
the person of the Sovereign. In this respect the mo-
derate members of the Prussian Cabinet have gained a
constitutional victory over the heated and violent ad-
visers of the Court, end Count Brandenburgh, with
M. de Manteuffel have rendered fresh services to the
stability of the monarchy and the peace of Europe.
The plans which M. de Radowitz had brought for•
ward and promoted for a time with so much eagerness,
had, in fact, crumbled under his feet before the late
crisis; and his position became the more ludicrous
as he was rushing to the verge of war in defence of
a project which bad already lost all shape and cohe-
sten. The question was, in fact, reduced to a mere
point cf personal vanity and consistency. Individually
AI. de Radowitz could not recede from the position to
which he had pledged himself ; but his resignation
happily removes the principal difficulty which de-
layed or prevented the settlement of these differences.
There seems to be no doubt that Count Branden-
burgh was authorized to propose at Warsaw the
abandonment of the scheme of the Prussian Union,
and to accede, under certain conditions, to the reor-
ganizetion of the Germanic Diet. A negotiation
was opened upon these terms, and Russia declared
herself adverse to the rejection of them. If, as we
hope, there exists on both sides a sincere desire to re-
store the federal union of all Germany, the conditions
cannot present any invincible difficulty, and the Aus-
trian Government would be highly reprehensible if it
attempted to avail itself of the present turn in the
affairs of Germany to impose any sort of onerous
conditions on the Prussian party, or to assume a tone
of recrimination end menace. In the meantime the
Federal party and the Frankfort Assembly have
shown that they are quite prepared to act in support
of the authority they chins The mission of the
Austrian officer to Kiel, which has recently been ad-
verted to, was intended to convey to the Stadtholderate
the terms of that resolution of the federal authority
which was taken on the 26th of October for the termina-
tion of the war, and published by ourselves a few
days afterwards. As we had anticipated, the mission
of the Prussian agent, General Hayn, proved a com-
plete failure, for what he recommended under the
shape of ass armistice was, in truth, a prolongation of
the burdens of the war without any prospect of a de-
finite result. The intimation of the Frankfort au-
thority is of a different character, for it is, in fact, that
summons to desist from hostilities which we have so
long hoped for, proceeding in this instance, from the
federal power which is competent to enforce it, with-
out any violation of the territorial rights of Germany.
It becomes a matter of perfect indifference, under
these circumstances, whether Lord Cowley's signa-
ture of the ratifications recently exchanged is or is
not a recognition of the Power with which he
signed. For, happily, the time is past when the
dilatory and nugatory mediation of this country
can be made a pretext for prolonging the hostilities
Lord Palmerston bad undertakers to terminate.
It is very much to be desired that the German
States themselves should take effectual measures to
heal the wounds and repair the injuries which have
mainly been caused by their guilty connivance ; and,
if the obstinate resistance of the Kiel Stadtholderato
should render any armed intervention necessary, the
presence of federal troops in Holstein is infinitely pre-
ferable to the invasion or occupation of any part of
the Danish dominions by any foreign Power. It
would even seem possible that, in the event of a posi-
tive interference, Prussia would herself anticipate the
march of the federal corps by preparing to occupy
Holstein, as she has done a part of Hesse. We have
no doubt whatever that Lord Palmerston will even-

tually recognise the restored Germanic Confederation,
but it will he with this difference, that he will be
compelled by the force of events to accept with re-
luctance what he might have promoted with eager-
ness i for, if the part he has taken in the affairs of
Germany had been as far-seeing and practical as it
has been blind and petulant we should not now
have to regretdeoversiretththheee htweurhmmoilileni aaottifino6n, extension
pacificationf
f:
cotre
Danishd should
oluvl
war,de
we have any reason to deplore
beene means by which
of thee
ascendancye ven
sincerely this
and of the unhappy dissensions
andwhich have now for
many months tarn asunder weakened the prin-
cipal German States. will have etrhman
As to those objects, there can
be no difference of opinion between
an English states-
man and the Emperor Nicholas himself. But the
question was, and is, whet'
these objects are. to be
effected in a manner favourabler to the advancement
of liberal principles and to the
4,connexion of Germany
m ith England, or whether result is to be at-
tained by the sacrifice of liberalila principles, and by
an increased subserviency of German interests and
powers to the policy of Russia.oThe result is, un-
happily, one which he who
runs may read. Judged
by, that result, the whole policy of those who es-
tranged this country from
the Austria and Bavaria,
and staked their credit an
schemes of Prussia, is asuccets of thevislona jays,
total failure, since it
ended in the ruin of the
cause our Government affected
to favour, and the triumph of an authority essentially
opposed to our own. In the various emergencies
which may arise, either in the East or in the West of
Europe, the prodigious diplomatic aivance which
made Russia has indubitably'or later,
prove will, sooner
prove to he an event of the most serious importance.
If her attention were again actively directed to the
Ottoman Empire, we have lost, and she has gained,
the support or acquiescence of the Germ= Pow ers in
that quarter of the globe. If events in France should
give rise to another change less favourable to the
maintenance of peace, the Emperor of Russia would
find himself without an effort at the head of a conti-
nental coalition of the most formidable character.
We are at a loss to discover any advantages which
this country has derived from its marked deviation
from our traditional policy, and we are persuaded
that the Emperor of Russia owes a great portion of
his ascendancy in Germany to the eccentric and un-
friendly attitude of England. Lord Palmerston
courted, it is true, the revolutionary party and its
leaders with incredible eagerness and credulity. He
based the alliance of the two nations on the duration
of their ephemeral power, but when they lay buried
under the ruins of their own topheavy schemes, be
found himself without a friend among the regularly
constituted authorities of the nation. We hope that
with the cessation of these projects and the overthrow
of that dangerous policy of which M. de Radowitz
was the ostensible leader, we may enter upon a more
rational period. It is impossible, for their own dig..
nit y and security, that the German States can cherish
the idea of a strict Russian alliance ; and, even now,
a skilful and friendly policy on the part of this coun-
try would remind them that Great Britain is not less
concerned in their union and their welfare. With
Prussia, especially, we mg renew the most amiceble
relations whenever she abandons or discards the men
and the measures which have suspended our confi-
dence and forfeited our esteem ; and we should view
the position of danger and humiliation in which she is
placed by the enormous forces opposed to her on the
Russian and Austrian frontiers with more sympathy
and apprehension, if we could forget that she has ac-
cumulated these impending calamities by her own
folly and iajustice on her own head,
DAILY NEWS.—The abandonment of all the
popular principles of German unity, and the sacrifice
of all independent and constitutional system of go-
vernment in Germany, having been consummated in
"Warsaw, in accordance with the desires and congratu-
lations of our contemporaries, it is quite misplaced of
them to continue to commiserate Prussia, or to repre-
sent it, as the Times does, threatened by a dismem-
berrnent of Silesia. Let it not he supposed that it
accords with either Russia's policy or interest to
weaken Prussia. All that Russia requires is, that
Prussia should be, like herself, absolutist and military,
and in the concerns of Europe, that the voi •
ce and the
weight of Russia, of Austria, and of Prussia should
go together, as they were wont to do in the good
old times. This triple alliance being fully
restored,
Russia, instead of seeking to curtail the territories of
Prussia, will be inclined to extend them. The events
of the last weeks have formed a kind of *campaign,