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    Portugal in the affair of the Charles et Georges , his iournals would easily convert it into a triumph over British philanthropy , and another step gained towards liberating the world from England s police of the seas . In this way we may account lor the Virulent- language used by many of the Paris ' newspapers , within the last ten days , hi speaking of the 4 V * It is further to be noted that M . Walewski , who has his own grudge against us for the resistance offered by our Parliament to his uncivil demands of January last , has latterly exer ted more influence than usualif appearauces are to be believed ,

    , over the mind of the Emperor . The Foreign Minister of France is emphatically a man swayed by passion and pique . If he had had his way six months ago , the misunderstanding between the French and English Governments would not have been so quickly or quietly arranged . It took all the strong sense and strong will of Louis Napoleon to quench the numerous sparks which liis Minister had scattered , and it was a bitter dose to the CountV self-love when he was compelled to indite the conciliatory despatch in reply to Lord Mahncsbury ' s , in which he substantially withdrew the offensive and overbearing language regarding

    the necessity of a Conspiracy Bill , which Lord Clarendon had suffered to go unrebuked and unanswered . The seizure of a French ship by the Portuguese no doubt appeared to M . Walewski ¦ a propitious occasion for doing something arbitrary ail resistance to a policy of which England is undoubtedly the author and primary mover . Were M , de Tersigny in his place he would probably have given very different advice to his master ; but while he has been the guest of Lord Malmesbury in Scotland , and stiH more recently of Queen Victoria , his rival and competitor in imperial favour has been characteristically engaged in making as much mischief as possible , lleiice the appearance of the Austerlitz and the Donawcrth in the Tagus .

    And what will come of it all' ? . Negotiations are known to be still actively carrying on at Paris for a pacific solution of tlib difficulty ; and the Emperor ' s return from Rheims is favourable thereto . It is said Portugal has offered to give up the captured ship , provided the French withdraw their vessels of war previously . No doubt this would be to concede nearly the whole question as it stood a month ago : yet what is a small power to do when thus menaced by one of first-class strength . All the fine talk at the Conferences at Paris in 1 S 5 G about

    leaving questions to arbitration plainly comes to nothing when the parties are unequally matched . And so it will continue to be until a league of constitutional States shall be found for purposes of mutual defence against the bullying and aggressive tendencies of Absolutism . Till this be done , and so long as England shows by her conduct that she values the friendship of despotic France and despotic Austria above all other things in continental policy , it is vain' for the smaller constitutional kingdoms to expect eiucicnt support at her hands . The interests of Wallachia have been sacrificed to

    please Turkey ; those of Piedmont for lcar of giving umbrage to Austria ; must we add those of Portugal sooner than raise a conirovcrsy with France V

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    THE LONDON POSTMAN'S DOUBLE KNOCK AT THE DOOR OF JUSTICE . The postmen have a grievance , or at least a bundle of small grievances which , when brought together , make out a caso of formidable dimensions . They appeal , to the public for help , finding Ilmt the perpetrators of alleged injustice arc deaf to tho voico of reason and humanity . The London district lottor-carricrs thus state 1 lioir case : They are overworked , being engnged in their duties from eight in the morning until half-past nine , or sometimes eleven o ' clock at night . They arc underpaid , their weekly wages being- only 23 a . They have been defrauded

    founded , a strong case is made out for the inculpation of Lord Colchester , the ornamental Postmaster-General , and Mr . Rowland Hill , the practical manager These public servants receive large sums yearly from the public purse , they are thus highly p aid because it is assumed their offices involve creat responsibility , and that they discharge their duties ¦ faithfully . But an accumulation of such complaints as we have enumerated indicates the existence of great negligence somewhere . Ihe public can only look to the heads of this public establishment for its proper and efficient management , and , if necessary ; call upon the Government to suspend the governing authorities until they have set

    purged away the imputation of laches , and rigtit that which appears to be unmistakably wrong . There can be no possible excuse for underpaying the men who do the work ; there is no absolute necessity for conver ting them into mere drudges and machines , by requiring such a sacrifice of their time as to leave nothing for recreation or improvement There is no reason why the rule of promotion should not be simple , rigid , and defined . And last of all , there is no justification for insolence or tyranny on the part of the superior officers to those humble , but useful , public servants . The public do not tax themselves , or permit themselves to be taxed , merely to afford easy berths for a few lucky people . The public do not desire to countenance a system that enables a few to ride

    in their carriages after showing themselves tor an hour or two in their offices , and that condemns the many to taskmaster ' s toil for a bare subsistence . Above all and before all , the public will never stand quietly by and see a body of men , calling themselves freeb'brn , degraded to the condition ot slaves by acts of petty tyranny . The complaints may be well founded or exaor <* erated ; at all events they must be fully investiga ed . . It is a national scandal to allow , these statements in reference to practices in a public establishment to remain unanswered , and , perhaps , unvedressed . ' '

    We hold an opinion connected with the Postoffice shared only by few . We doubt the propriety of ¦ makin g' the Post-office an instrument for augmenting the revenue . It is this mistake that causes much of the outcry against the management of this establishment , and lies possibly at the root of many or all of the complaints of the London District Pos tmau .

    of certain compensation money , in defianco of tho recommendation of tho Post-oitteo Committee of 1 S 5-. L , and by a picoc of trickery they have not only sustained a reduction of pay , but have been obliged to submit to an augmentation of labour . They are unfairly treated in tho order of promotion ; ' the alleged rule of " promotion by merit" is a mere sham , other influences being permitted to operate to placo young hands over the hoods of their seniors ; and lastly , they are intolerably oppressed by tho overbearing conduct of some or tho superior officers . . . Now , if all or any of theso complaints oro well

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    PORTRAITURES OF THE ROYAL FAMILY OF PRUSSIA . the ritixcE op ritrssiA . Sikce ve first sat down to give these portraits to the public , the heir-presumptive to the throne of the Hohenzollerns , Frederick William Louis , or , in the accepted Court parlance of BerJin , the " Prince of Prussia , " has assumed the Regency , With his advent , tho mcdiceyalist Kreuz faction vanishes from the scene . It is succeeded , or in the course of being succeeded , by a bureaucratic party of less visionary notions , but which , in questions of popular freedom , will prove an equal impediment to progress . The appointment of Flottwcll , for

    instance , in the place of M . Von Wcstphalen , can only bo considered as good if we keep in mind the egregious vagaries into which the clique represented by the latter nobleman occasionally launched . In itself , the introduction of Flottwell into tho Ministry of the Interior is undoubtedly an act of a strictly conservative policy . With him . is to bo found redtapo in its most iinniiligutcd form . In his former quality as Minister of Finances , as well as in his recent ollico of President of the Province of Brandenburg , ho always displayed marked bureaucratic preferences . The same is to be said of Messrs . You Witsdobpn , Von Uochtrilz , Von Schlemuller , and 'of M . Von Sehloinit / ., the President of the

    Province of Silosin , who arc all spoken of as likely to aasumo higher functions under the Prince Regent . It may be , however , that the lato " Gotha party "—at least its aristocratic portion—will also furnish a small contingent for governmental use . But then it ; will bo such snl ' o men as Herr Von Aucrswahl , Horr Von Patow , Herr Von Bothmann-Hollwog , and other scdhjidts of the rmigt portion of mild , inoffensive const itutionaliem . To enlist them in tho ranks of tho Court may bo considered by tho Prince- as advantageous to his intoreats ; for it must bo borne in mind that , even now , tho Regoney is held by him on rcvocablo torms . Probably , if Prince William had the sceptre positively in

    his own grasp , he would value but lightly the support of the Conservative-Liberals . We will now return to the delineation of the man such as he has appeared during bis long lifetime . We mentioned in our last article the defiant attitude which he assumed in 1847 , when refusing to take the oath of allegiance to that apology of a constitution which the King at that time had betrayed * The unpopularity of the Prince was then culminating towards its zenith . He was looked upon as the very incarnation of an absolutist of right divine . This measure of odium , however , became downright abhorrence when , during the famous days of 184 : 8 ,

    he gave orders for a relentless massacre as cruel as it was impolitic . Through his obstinacy , the struggle in the streets of Berlin became a very carnage , which ended in the retreat of the royal troops and the precipitate flight of the Prince . Soon after the street battle was over , a curious revelation oozed out . It was reported that the Prince , in the last hours of the insurrection , had proposed to his brother to withdraw the military from the capital , to march with them into Eastern Prussiaand there to await the arrival of a Cossack

    , auxiliary corps , with which Berlin was then to beattacked anew . The King and the Queen , not wishing to run this risk , refused compliance . The Prince thereupon hastened to leave Prussia , and take refuge on English ground . His name was execrated by the people of Berlin , who bestowed upon him the epithet of the " grape-shot Prince . " Men were exasperated at his escape from the handsof retribution . His palace , however , was spared from destruction by some revolutionists writing oa its walls the talismanic words . " National

    property . " In the early months of the March Ministry , so hated was the name of the Prince that it was not thought safe for him to return to Berlin .. Hia prolonged absence was explained by the palace falsehood that . " he was charged at the Court of St . James ' s with a special mission from the King . " The Government journals , then in the hands of Constitutionalists , also indulged , from time to time , in a slv-ioke at his expense , gravely : asserting that the

    Prince was " assiduously pursuing his studies on the representative system . as existing in England ! ' * Time , at last , canned the angry waves of thepopular movement . Negotiations were then entered upon for allowing Prince William to return to thecapital , in order to take his seat in the National Assembly , to which he had been returned by some obfuscated district of the most benighted part of Pomerauia . Before , however , he was permitted to re-enter the Prussian dominions , he had to address

    a letter to the public journals , in which he made a sort of recognition of the existing revolutionary state of things . This letter he wrote , no doubt , with smothered rage in his heart . When penning it , he probably consoled himself with the prospect of revenge likely to be afforded him , if lie , for the time , bowed his head to the tempest . So he signed and sealed the document duly , and transmitted it to the powers whom he so ardently longed to have beneath his heel . Henceforth he impatiently awaited the hour of revenge . the curious intri which the

    We pass over gues Prince , in the summer months of 18 iS , concooted against the democratic elements of the capital , by making use of certain false brethren of the democratic cause . It is a sad and disgraceful story , those intrigues . The most discreditable part in it was played by the Prince ' s wife , the ambitious Augusta of Saxe-Weimar , her unscrupulous husband all tho while reaping the mean advantages of these accointances . These princely wiles and dirty stratagems proved but too successful ; and by their moans the unity of the popular party was broken up . We will not dwell ou the guilty share which tho Prince had in the Berlin coup dri ' tat of November ,. 18-JS . AVo hasten to that master coup against the liberty of Germany which he made in tho summer

    of T . SJ .-9 . The authority of the National Parliament at Frankfort having been openly dolled by the Gorman Princes , tho people of Baden and Rhonish Bavaria rose in support of the falling cause of freedom . A great number of tho soldiers of tho Palatinate , as well as the whole army of Baden , joined 1 tho movemont . The entire count ry of t ho Uruud-Duko-Leopold , from tho Bodenseo to the Neckar , was ra tlfo Ifnuds of -the democrats . Thd movement assumed national proportions . Every one who still cherished a hope of liberty for Germany hastened to offer his services to tho popular Government at Carlsruho . To crush tins uprising tho Prince of

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    No . 447 , ( tottm 16 . 1858 . 1 » E REAPER . 1099

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 16, 1858, page 1099, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2264/page/19/