The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-14 00:00:00

THE RELIGIOUS MOVEMENT IN

-
GERMANY.
FnaNKFonT, Ocr. 7.—lt appears that the King of Prussia,
towards the close of the audience which he granted on the
2d inst. to the Berlin Court of Aldermen and Town Council
(who presented him with the celebrated address rescecting
the religious movement in this confederation), expressed a
wish that no publicity would be given for the present to the
proceedings of that day. Hence the silence of the Berlin
journals—not a word on the subject appearing in them up to
the 4th instant, although they had not fotagotten to state, at
the proper time, that the town council had taken upon thez-
selves the joint responsibility for the address which was draWn
up by the Court of Aldermen. Important portions, however,
of the King's reply have somehow found their way into the
journals of this city and of Cologne. It appears the alder-
men received orders to present their address at a solemn
audience on the 2d instant. They accordingly proceeded to
the palace in their robes, and with all the outward appear-
ances of civic dignity. They were very graciously received
by their amiable Monarch, who ordered the chief burgomaster,
Krauswick, to read the address; which, after eulogising the
present religious movement, and asserting that it might lead
to much good if the state would undertake to guide it, briefly
alluded to the two 'great religious parties at present existing
—" the old historical one, with its literal faith and exclusive
orthodoxy; and the movement one, which will not be re-
stricted by human ordinances, but will seek the spirit of
truth in its very source"—and concluded by beseeching his
Majesty to convoke a committee from all the provinces of the
state, in order to draw up a system of Church Government
in conformity with the public spirit. The King, in his re-
markable reply, stated that lie had delayed receiving the
address in order to give the chief authorities of the city
ample time to consider whether they ought to venture upon
such a step as they had taken, for he could not admit that
they had a positive right to come to him on such an occa-
sion. It must appear to all very singular that the head
magistrate of Berlin should hand him a theological docu-
ment. As the Reformation had rejected the supreme
head of the Church, the reformers had conceded his eta
to the state. Those rights were accordingly those
of the Crown, the burden of which uas thereby increased ;
he longed for the time when he could make over that burden
to the Church itself. It was one of his principles that the
Church should be formed by itself. His father, whe was
now in his eternal rest, had left the Church a precious jewel
—viz., the Synod. The late Minister of Public Worship had
considered the Synod worthy of little attention, and so the
convocation did not take place. The present Minister and
himself (the King) were not afraid of the light and of publi-
city. If the Synod would speak out, then lie should do the
same. If they remained silent, he should follow their example.
He could not admit that theboardof aldermenladsufficiently
considered the interestsof the Church or maintained the Pro-
testant brotherhood. Under Frederick the First the 70,000
inhabitants of Berlin had more spiritual pastors than its pre-
sent population of 400,000. Even when the want of church
accommodation was greatly felt, the civic aulhorities had
raised difficulties in the way of the renewal of it. An Eng-
lish community had asked fur the joint use of a church ta
the city patronage, and been refused, whilst the sew Dis-
senters had two churches granted to them without, as he
believed, even making this demand. With respect to the
contents of the address, he was sorry to find that they had
called the believers in the Church a party. " Gentlemen,"
continued his Majesty, " you are the first who have ventured
to give that name officially. And yet those believers are
men who have taken an oath, and who wish to keep it.
There are, on the other haud, ecclesiastics who have volun-
tarily and openly taken certain oaths in holy places, before
the very altar of God; but who have broken them, and have
gone about the country in order to stir up the people. These
things you have not mentioned, and I must, therefore, ex-
press to you my serious displeasure. Gentlemen (concluded the•
King), you are my friends, and lam your true Mend. The
bond which, during more than four centuries, has connected
the prince and the city, will keep us still longer united. Such
is my hope, and with it I now dismiss you in peace. These
important remarks of the King made, as might be.expected, a
serious impression on the minds of the auditors. The de-
putation shortly afterwards left the palace. On their appear-
ance in the courtyard of the Royal residence, they were
greeted by the assembled crowds with great cheering.

LICENSES roR KEEPING BILLIARD TABLES.—At
Greenwich Petty Sessions, on Saturday, held for the hun-
dreds of Blackheath and Little and LessnesamTlication was
made by Messrs. Suter and Bristow, solidi/fig on behalf of
several persons for licenses to keep billiard and bagatelle
tables, &c. Mr. Bristow, on behalf of his clients, (Amerced
that under the Act of Parliament which came into operation
on the previous day (10th October), he had to apply for
licenses. He was aware that there was a difficulty in the
case, as the eighth section of the Act specified that notice of
all such applications should be given; such notices to be
placed on the doors of the pariah church, and also on the
doors of the premises of the person so applying for licenses,
on three consecutive Sundays, in the month of July, the
same as if the parties were applying for a license for a new
ale and spirit house. If the magistrates took that view of
the case it would be a great hardship upon those parties for
whom he applied ; as, in the event of their permitting such
tables to be used, it would leave them open to the persecu-
tion and extortion of common informers, who wouhl, no
doubt, be on the qui vice to sue for the penalties under the
Act. Similar applications had been made to the bench
of magistrates at Canterburv,who, although they had taken
this view of the case, and refused to graitt the licenses, bad
tacitly given their consent to the parties applying to use
such tables until the usual period of the ensuing year (1846),
for making such application. Mr. Suter then, on bdialf of his
clients, made a similar application, urging upon the atten-
tion of the magistrates the manifest intention of the Legisla-
ture, when they passed this Act, to have been that temporary
licenses should be granted for the protection of the public, but
that through inadvertence some such clause had been omitted
in the framing of that Act. The Bench then called upon Mr.
Finch, their clerk, for his opinion, when that gentleman,
having read the ninth section, which enacts " That such
licenses shall be granted only on the usual general annual
licensing day, or the adjournment day thereof, for the district,"
&c., observed that he was decidedly of opinion that the Bench
had no power under the Act to grant any such licenses excegt.
on the above-mentioned days, which must be fifteen days Of
the 25th of August in each year. That, although the effect
,d‘ this would be to prevent persons keeping public billiards,
&c., for hire, and those who kept them for tie amusement of
their customers, it would not by any means affect title License*
Victuallers, who were specially exempted by this Act, a4d,
were permitted to keep the tables, subject, of cour4e, to sertall.
penalties under 9th George IV., cap. 61 (the old Games and
Wagers Act), which was not repealed, if they knowingly
suffered gambling for stakes or liquors to be carried on in
their houses. The Bench expressed their great regret at their
inability to accede to the applications which had been made,
all of which were accordingly, much to the chagrin of the
several applicants, refused.
ALARM OF FIRE AT THE OLYMPIC THEATRE.—
During the performance of the first piece on Friday evening,
the screams of a female, and a rushing noise, resembling the
sudden escape of gas, was heard, which caused some persons
to raise a cry of " Fire." The effect was an instantaneous
rush of a great portion of the audience towards the doors.
Tke confusion and alarm was, however, speedily checked by
the presence of mind of Mr. J. Browne, the stage-manager,
who came forward, and assured the audience that there was
no danger to be apprehended; and that so far from the house
being on fire, the entire alarm had been caused by water.
The fact was, that one of the attendants in the pit-saloon,
requiring some water, had turned by mistake the cock of the
large pipe in the pit passage, from which the water rushed
with such violence as to terrify the poor woman, and send
her screaming for help with all her might. So that, instead
of being roasted to death, the people in the pit ran a much
greater risk of being drowned.
THE ZOLLVEREIN DUTIES.—It is, no doubt, known
to our readers, that the congress of the Zollverein has been
sitting at Carlsruhe for some time, to consider certain pro-
posed alterations in the duties on yarns and manufactured
goods ; and, amongst others, a proposal for greatly increas-
ing the duties on cotton, linen, and woollen yarns. We now
learn that the deliberations or the congress on these importar
questions have been brought to a close; and that, for the
present, the duty on yarns (cotton, linen, and worsted) will
not be increased. It is understood that Prussia, the great
opponent of the increase, had consented, by way of compro-
mise, to an increase which would raise the duty on cotton
twist to 3 1-3 d Prussian dollars per centner (about I Os. per cwt.
English); but this offer was refused by the deputies of tlie smaller
States who insisted upon a much higher duty, and who, no
doubt, will again bring forward the subject on the first fa-
vourable occasion. Though.= change has been made with
respect to yarns, we are sorry to learn that a very great in-
crease has been made in the duties on figured worsted, and
cotton andworsted goods, which, from the Ist of January
next, are' to be raised from? 30 to 50 Prussian dollars per
centner (L e. from 4/. 10s. to 71. 103. per cwt. En 9h). This
class of goods comprises all the fancy fabrics made in Brad-
ford and Huddersfield, such as figured Orleans, merinos, Pa-
ramattas, pantaloon stuffs, &c., and a great many other arti-
cles passitnhgese fabricsunderdi hasnames.fferentlatterlybe
As thee flarge
tr adew
extent,itit
Ger-
many is
to be feared that the important increase of duty above men-
tioned will be a severe blow to the Yorkshire manufacturers.
—Manchester Guardian.

DISTRESSING CASE.—A train of very common-place
circumstances have led to the tragical death of a respectable
wife and mother at Braehead, Carluke. Mrs. W—.—.. whose
husband was in serviceprivilege
of Braehead-house, had the
herself with pot-herbs from the garden; but it
came ppmsuetolyng
be suspected
.that she had put forth her hand upon
some of the superior kinds of fruit, and 5.,13e was instantly
commanded to leave the place at the ensuing term. This
affront affected her so strongly., that she became melancholy,
and somewhat disordered in mind ; and though upon mature
investigation she was cleared of all blame touching the fruit,
still her mind did not recover its usual tone, and on the
morning of the 29th ult. she was found lying on toe blood,
with a razor near at hand, just expiring i . n a pool of blood.
After her funeral the authorities judged it proper to hive the
body disinterred for the purpose of its undergoing a surgical
operation, and the result is, that her husband has been com-
mitted to gaol on suspicion of murder.—Glasgow Courier.
FRAUDS ON CHEMISTS AND PERFUMERS —Oat Sa-
turday evening, a person of rather gentlemanly address and
appearance was apprehended, who has for some time past
been victimising the chemists and perfumers in different
quarters of the town. The following will show the prisoner's
usual mode of procedure. Upwards of a month since, he
called at the shop of Mr. Rodd, in St. Martin's-le-Grand,
and, having selected some bottles of macassar oil, announced
himself as Mr. Lawrence, the assistant secretary to the
General Post-office, and carelessly observed that the bill
might be sent t i his office there for payment, as he had not
money in his pocket to pay without changing a cheque. He
took the small package with him, and the bill was afterwards
sent to Mr. Lawrence, but that gentleman of course knew
nothing of the transaction. Tyrrell, one of the Post-office
officers, being sent to inquire into the matter, ascertained that
the individual in question had no sooner obtained the
macassar oil from Mr. Rodd than he took it to the shop of
Mr. Keeling, in St. Paul's Churchyard, stating that he had
purchased it there some time previously; but that his phy-
sician would not allow him to use it on aceount of a peculiar
state of health, and, it being useless to him, he re nested
that they would return him a portion of the price 'paid for it.
Part of the money was accordingly paid to him ; and the
officer found that he had practised the came kind of trick upon
numerous other tradespeople. On Saturday evening, he re-
peated his visit to Mr. Keeling, who, however, recognised him,
and handed him over to the police. He had then with him a
large skin bag and sponge, and other things, which had, no
doubt, just been obtained from some of the trade. He will be
examined before the aldermen at Guildhall this day.

POTATO PANIC.—The reluctance evinced by the
farmers in the neighbourhood of Appleby, to depose their
potatoes for sale, noticed in last week's Journal, still con-
tinues. There was again but one cart-load in the market on
Saturday last, and which was sold at an exorbitant price.
We imagine the growers are entertaining the idea that the
disease raging amongst potatoes in the country V* create
such a scarcity as to enable them to dispose of theirs in a
short time, because they have steered clear of the malad
at whatever price their conscience will allow them to
They strongly remind us of the foolish man in the fable,
killed the goose that laid him a golden egg every day, in e
pectation of becoming as rich as a king at once; the moral
derivable fromwhich is, that "those who covet great riches
are often too sharp for themselves, and eo bectrae poor."—
Carlisle Journal.