The Sun. — 1860-06-16 (London, England)

MOB MELTING OF KINGS.  There are times in the lives of all men when they have a claim to our pity, and just now the man with most claim to it is the Emperor of the French. He is encountering almost irresistible temptation: But the other day it was arranged that he should go to Baden Baden to meet the Prince Regent of Prussia, in order, it was said to renew the mutual confidence shaken by some expressions in a private letter which a busybody had got hold of and taken to Paris. The Emperor must see the Prince of Prussia, and receive from his own lips the assurance that no Minister could be authorised to convey. So the Prince of Prussia arrived at Baden on Thursday evening, and the Emperor WAS expected to arrive last night. The story, as told, affected nobody else, and there was no reason why the two should not despatch the business in half-auhour, and be gone their several ways. But Germany does not give Emperors so scant a measure of civility. When a great pike comes into her waters every minnow must come to greet him. There they all are—such a conflux as one never thought to see till the Archangel gathered them. The Grand Duke of Baden, the King of Bavaria, and the Grand Duke of Saxe Weimar had already arrived yesterday afternoon. There were expected the Kings of Saxony,' Wurtemberg, and Hanover, the Grand Duke of Hesse Darmstadt; the Dukes of Coburg, Gotha and Nassau. All the Kings, and it is not said how many other Sovereign Princes, are to assist at the meeting between the Emperor and the Prince Regent. What can all this mean ? One certainly has read of the like before. It used to be said that "history never repeats itself," but an older authority says " there is nothing new under the sun." If you open a window in a summer evening you have a similar result. Moth after moth emerges from the outer darkness, flies at the candles, wheels a giddy circle or two, is absorbed in the fiery vortex, and falls to the table writhing and spinning in unavailing agony. All these people are just doing what their fathers did before them. It runs in the blood. A great English naturalist affirms that trout inherit from their forefathers a horror of the hook and a scepticism as to bait. The German trout love the hook and rise at the coarsest bait. Nothing deters them. The German crow sees his father nailed to the barn door, and flies into the selfsame toils.  The visit of the Prince Regent to Baden is, of course, casual. He happened to be going there by the invariable ill-luck that is always taking a certain class of persons into harm's way. The Emperor of the French, hearing of his visit, invites himself to share the pleasure of the excursion. The Prince Regent is afraid that the smaller Powers of Germany will put an ill construction on the interview, and conclude, in fact, that in return for the Rhenish provinces the Emperor is about to present Prussia with a sackful! of little crowns. Nothing, however, would please the Emperor so much as a personal interview with the numerous victims of these morbid suspicions. So they are all to be present—ostensibly to see that they are not sold in their absence, but we should think also with the idea that positive advantages are not altogether out of the question, The man who can destroy them can do them good, if he thinks fit. The map of Europe is disjointed ; landmarks are removed ; there is giving and taking; a State threatened with absorption may reasonably plead not only for existence, but for a modest degree of aggrandizement ; so every crowned head in Germany, except Austria, is to do honour to the Emperor of the French. How pleasant it must be to be reminded of the events not quite two generations back ! Would they like another Confederation of the Rhine ? The gambling-tables aro opened on that familiar scene, and principalities are the stake. Is it to be roulette or rouge-et-noir ? We should like to see them all put down their title deeds on the table, and to watch their countenances as the Imperial croupier rakes them all into his heap. It is scarcely possible to pity those who invoke their own doom, and commit felo de se in the act of dishonest expectation. The Emperor's feelings can only be those of a modern sportsman as he enters a well-stocked preserve, and sees the foolish birds bustling about on all sides. Let us put ourselves amon& the bystanders at this new " Conversation House," as they call the place at Baden, and bet how many rouleaux the Emperor will win, and how much small change he will fling back to the Prince of Prussia. He really cannot help it. "It is the curse of kings to be surrounded." We need not say that Austria is delighted. The meeting at Villafranca was nothing to this, for how could the Emperor of Austria help the stupidity of his generals ? Indeed, he made the best bargain he could, and certainly did not court his fate by obsequiousness. Nothing, however, but an actual appetite for self-humiliation could !ming Prussia, with a crowd of small sovereigns, to attend the levee of a French Emperor at Baden ! For our part, we are sorry to see the material of which Central Europe is composed. We seem to be surrounded by illusions. They seem to flutter round a substantial Emperor in flesh and blood as the shades gaped and gibbered about iEneas in the infernal regions. It is of no use to have even wishes about such people. they must go their own way, for good or for evil. If they simply disappear, it can make no difference, and certainly will not diminish the stock of European virtue.—Times.