THE PRUSSIANS IN HANOVER.

West Coast Times, Issue 309, 19 September 1866, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE PRUSSIANS IN HANOVER.

A correspondent says :—": — " On taking possession of Hanover, the Prussians appeared to act very leniently, but are now beginning to show the cloven hoof. Very severe orders have been issued at Hanover and Stade, which will certainly not tend to conciliate the inhabitants. Among other acts, the Baron Von Bock-Wulfingen, a chamberlain of the King of Hanover, and Royal commissioner at Nordeney, a bathing place on the coast, generally the summer residence of the Royal Family, has been arrested on the charge of being concerned in secreting the regalia and crown jewels, and smuggling them out of the kingdom. For this offence he has been sent to the fortress of Minden, and will be tried for high treason. If he was guilty of the charge, he did nothing more than his duty towards his own legitimate Sovereign. . I have reason to believe that he succeeded in his object, and that the valuable property in questiou is now deposited for security in the hands of General Manzuroff, the Russian ambassador at the Hague."

The following is an extract from a private letter, dated Hanover, July 8 :—: — 11 For some time past I, and not I alone, surely have read with impatience and distaste the imperfect, inaccurate and totally false accounts and telegrams of the proceedings of the last three weeks iv this

part of Germany. I have not thought of contradicting them publicly, hoping every day for contradiction from abler quarters; but, in the absen6e of tiiese, I must really tell you something of what has been passing here. In the fii'st place, it is entirely false (as intimated or insinuated in the " Satur- , day Review") that His Majesty tho King fled from Hanover, leaving the Queen and Princesses exposed to the humiliation of a Prussian occupation of the capital. The King did not fly ; he went, after deliberate counsel, with his son, the Crown Prince, to join his army at Gottingen, and try to effect a junction with hi 3 allies, the Bavarians. It has been written and rumored that the Queen and Princesses had abandoned the capital and their people, and sought refuge with her Majesty's father. I am in a position to state that such a step was never contemplated by her Majesty — indeed, almost all Hanover might bear, witness that her Majesty and the two Princesses drove, unguarded, into t*»e town themorning after the King's departure for , his army, and walked for some time at the Theater Plata, telling every one to whom they spoke the glorious fact of his Majesty's ' departure to his post of duty,and of her own intention of abiding in her palace, from which,! may notice, she even dismissed every sentinel, from a tender and womanly wish of keeping them from Prussian insult, and also sending every man to swell the army of the King. I cannot write to yon of military or political events,butlmay briefly and inadequately advert to the entirely vmworthy, meagre, and false accounts which have hitherto been published of the battle of- LaugensalV* — a battle, if not decisive, vet most glorious for the Hanoverian army, waking up warlike memories of Hanoverian valor of fifty Spears back. The numbers on both sides have been ridiculously falsified. lam in a position to get' certified for your satisfaction, if you please, that the real numbers | were as follow : — The Prussians 17,000 men (infantry), of which nun-ber 14,000 . belonged to the regular Prussian field army, the remaining 3000 only being Landwehr. They had four .batteries, of six guns each, and three squadrons bf cavalry. The Hanoverians had not over 16,000 fighting men. The Prussian troops were armed with the needle gun, the Hanoverians with the old-fashioned ,Brown Bess. Do not let it be omitted that the blind King und his son were in the front of the army all the time of the action — that the btrllets flew aiound them, and that all the privations' of. the troops were shared by their Royal leaders, they both wanting food, and sleeping on the ground. This is not an unimportant fact in this 19th century, when war is so much made by proxy. The troops almost worshipped their King. My language may seem enthusiastic, but 1 only say what I hear said by the soldiers and officers here. But what Ido indeed desire to write to you of, because it has come more unde"r my immediate view, is the conduct of Her Majesty the Queen in this crisis — a conduct the more noble and judicious from the fact that her life hitherto has not been of a kind to call forth tljese or like efforts. When the Prussian General Falkenstein waited on Her Majesty for the (to her) painful purpose of formally announcing to her that her capital was henceforth under Prussian rule, those only who witnessed, the interview can do ' justice to the feeling and dignity with which the announcement was received. This general himself told a friend that he retired from, Her Majesty '.s presence without having had presence of mind enough to say the words he had prepared himself to say to her. Another Prussian general has seen the Queen since. Her only desire to him was that every possible go6d treatment should be secured for her subjects who had fallen under his control. I must not allow myself to try your patience by dwelling on what I could with perfect ■ truth say of this Queen's domestic virtues and her perfections in her family, and of the devotion with which she is regarded by those who surrouud her ; but these are facts which should not be entirely unknown to the outer world at a juncture like the present. From her private purse I saw her send, in her own drawing-room, in a private manner, 8000 thalers by a private hand to her son the Crown Prince 'to give to the army with her love, and also since the b.attle of" Langensalza, her Majesty has established sixteen additional beds at the Henrietta Stift for the wounded soldiers ; and it would do your heart good to see her give up her time and open her heart to the officers who flock from the army to pay their duty -to their beloved Queen. Of her firmness, of her goodness, of her tender womanliness, all those who surround Her Majesty would be only too eager to bear their testimony*"