The Sun. — 1863-07-16 (London, England)

HERALD.—We see no reason to doubt the genuineness of the remarkable correspondence between the King and the Crown Prince of Prussia which we published a few days since. The Frankfort newspaper in which it first appeared was established to advocate the interests of Prussia in Southern Germany. It has close relations with the Prussian liberal party, and in the existing condition of the Prussian press, is just the vehicle which the Crown Prince would select—for if the correspondence is genuine it was published with his authority and by his orders—for the explanation of his opinions and position. The speech he delivered at Dantzic showed that the Prince wished that the people should know that he was opposed to the violation of the constitution ; and actuated by that desire, he is very likely to have resolved upon giving a fuller explanation of the course he has taken and of the policy he intends to pursue for the future. There is nothing in the letters themselves to throw any doubt upon their authenticity ; and until the Prince gives them a categorical repudiation the public may fairly accept them as genuine. The publication is calculated to exert a most happy influence upon the conflict now waging in Prussia. The people have known before that the Crown Prince did not approve the glaring violation of the constitution perpetrated by the decree against the press, but they will now learn that he has from the first opposed, with as much vehemence as was consistent with his position, the reactionary policy of his father. He objected to the dismissal of the Auerswald Cabinet, and was tauntingly told by the King that he had an opportunity of enacting the usual part of a Crown Prince. As far as he could he resisted the subsequent steps in that downward career upon which William I. then entered. He made no parade of opposition, and courted no popularity by censuring his father. But a l his influence was employed to disabuse him of the prejudices and errors instilled into him by the reactionary clique which surrounds him. At last, on the 31st of May, before setting out for his military tour, after the session of the Landtag had been closed, but before the ordinances were issued, the Prince addressed his father a firm but respectful protest against any invasion of the law. It had no effect. The King signed the decree, which, in one of the letters of this series, he describes as being in accordance with the charter. This decree determined the Prince to keep silence no longer. He addressed a formal protest to the Cabinet against the decree, which he declared illegal and injurious to the state and the dynasty, addressing at the same time a private remonstrance to the King, and a day or two afterwards took the occasion to make public his sentiments offered by the speech of the Burgomaster of Dantzic. These proceedings seem to have brought upon him a severe rebuke from the King, which provoked a firm and dignified reply, in which the Prince declares that he owed it to his conscience and his position to pro fess in the face of the world his .pinion of a measure which imperils his future and that of his children, avows his determination to retract nothing, and makeas courageous a stand for his future as the King was making for his, but offering at the same time to resign his commission in the army and his place in the Council of State, and reside abroad. The conduct of the Prince, as thus sketched by himself, was alike prudent and honourable. It must confirm the Prussians in their hope of a great and a free future under his government, whilst it will encourage them to bear with patience and firmness all the provocations of the King and his advisers. Irritating as it must be to them to see their constitution shamelessly set at naught, to feel their liberty of ,speech and of writing illegally curtailed, to be ridden roughshod over by a handful of poor and proud lordlings and renegade democrats, they will have the resolution to bear these annoyances, to stand upon the legal ground they have chosen, and refrain from any of those impatient and suicidal outbursts to which the soi•elisant friends of liberty in this country taunt them, in the conviction that the system of illegality cannot last long, and that when it falls law and liberty will be established upon foundations which cannot be shaken. They know that the Crown Prince will' revert to the constitution and concur in its development as soon as he obtains power, and they know that they will not have to wait long for that ; whilst his influence will be continually directed to the end of bringing the King back to the constitutional path. And whilst the exposition of the Prince's feelings and purpose will inspire the Liberals with encouragement, it will paralyse the efforts of the reactionary party. These men will not care to commit themselves irretrievably lo a cause which they know can, at the best, triumph only for a few months. They will not incur the hatred of a people and the scorn of the man who must in a few years be their King merely for the small advantages to be gained by the favour of a monarch who, in the natural course of things, has not long to live, and who may, for aught they know, yield in a few days or weeks to the remonstrances of his wife and son. The leading principle which actuates King William in all these illiberal measures has been, as he has often said, and we have no doubt with perfect truth, his determination to preserve the imperishable rights of the Crown for his successors. Might not his Majesty, who assuredly would be glad to be on good terms with his subjects, and is, as it is known, painfully afflicted by his present unpopularity, reflect that it is of very little use taking measures to preserve rights for a son who has declared his repudiation of those rights and his resolve to surrender them. The King is embittering the last years of his life and imperilling the interests of his family to preserve for his son privileges which the latter desires to see abandoned. Of what avail is it for the King to establish the Royal right to dispense with the constitution if his successor is determined to abandon it ? His Majesty may not see the absurdity of such an effort, but his councillors will. Much as they may hate liberal institutions, t hey love their own safety more. Herr Von Biemark and his colleagues do not confine their hopes of life or even of power to the reign of King William. The emphatic declaration of the Crown Prince will soon put an end to the unconstitutional regime. It w'll deprive the King of the instruments necessary for the execution of his plans.