The Express.
London, England, 1864-06-20 00:00:00

MOR WAITS AT V./ADDS MIMIC

TRH DAT Weida& lb. 172 t.
TO-110111.0W Moraine. 2h. 4121. . .Mlawasel. 3h. 4a.

LONDON, MONDAY, JUNE 20.

THE long and wearisome deliberations of the
Conference have nearly approached their term,
the present week being destined in all probability
to end the painful and humiliating suspense in
which the great interests of the country have been
kept with regard to the policy of the Government.
It is to be feared that Earl Russr.u, instead of
having to inform Parliament on this day week that
preliminaries of peace have been arranged between
the Powers, will simply have to announce
that negotiations have been totally broken off, and
the war resumed. While it is impossible not to
deplore the prospect of renewed hostilities, this
abortive result of the Conference would hardly
excite much surprise. It will be a relief,
at all events, to be assured that the failure of
negotiations is wholly due to the violence and
obstinacy of the aggressors in enforcing their exor-
bitant demands. This may be asserted with con-
fidence from what is already publicly known of
the proceedings in the Conference. All the mem-
bers having accepted the principle of dividing the
disputed territory, the neutral Powers proposed a
line of division which they considered liberal towards
Germany and essential to Denmark, as giving
Germany far more than she had any mason
to claim, and leaving Denmark barely sufficient
for her continued existence as an independent
State. Pressed by the neutral Powers, Denmark,
in the interests of the general peace, accepted this
proposal, reluctantly consenting to the heavy sa-
crifice which such a loss of territory would involve.
On the other hand, the German Powers have not
only refused the peaceful proposal, but persisted in
the refusal in a spirit of insolent defiance and inti-
midation that 1 little hope of any ultimate
agreement. The responsibility of defeating the
pacific efforts of the neutral Powers, and involving
Europe once more in war, will thus belong exclu-
sively to the aggressive Powers who, without any
just cause, in pursuit of their own selfish and rapa-
cious ends, first drew the sword.

There is certainly little prospect at present of
the Conference leading to any other result. The
meeting of Saturday last was an unusually long
one—mating upwards of four hours; but, after all,
nothing was really done, and the divergence of
views, if not absolutely greater, appeared at the
close more hopeless than at any previous sitting.
The discussion wan, moreover, throughout marked
by a tone of bitterness and recrimination from
which until then the proceedings had for
the most part been happily free. The
German plenipotentiaries may almost be said, in-
deed, to have anticipated in the Conference the
prompt resumption of hostilities, as they conde-
scended to indulge in language of defiance mid menace
sufficiently ill-judged and unjustifiable on any
hypothesis, and which is intelligible only on the
supposition that the Powers they represented were
resolved at all hazards to prosecute the war. They
intimated that on the resumption of hostilities the
German Powers were determined, in defiance of
the more just and humane oode adopted by
the great Powers at the Treaty of Paris in 1856,
to resort to the barbarous system of privateering,
and prey on Danish commerce by means of licensed
adventurers. This course will, however, be at
least consistent. it will be in perfect harmony'
with the system of military exaction in Jut-
land, which no civilized belligerent, except the
Germans, has in recent times adopted. Should
the war recommence, therefore, the German ope-
rations at sea, as well as those on land, will be so
opposed to modern usage as to be beyond the pale
ci what is now recognised as civilized warfare.
Whether it was prudent, on the chance of fright-
ening Denmark, to announce this fact to
the neutral Powers may be fairly open
to question. The announcement was, however,
in harmony with the arrogant, inaultiog atti-
tude which the German plenipotentiaries were
apparently instructed to assume. At previous
meetings of the Conference, for example, the Ger-
man representatives had modified their original
line of division so as to leave a larger portion to
Denmark. But, on Saturday, instead of main-
taining this more conciliatory attitude, they coolly
resumed their original proposal, and intimated their
intention of abiding by it. For the rest, the
formal business of the Conference consisted
of a proposal on the part of the
neutral Powers to refer the division of
Sleswig to arbitration, some neutral Sovereign
to be chosen as arbitrator. The Garman repre-
sentatives formally undertook to refer the pro-
posal to their respective Governments, and the
Danish plenipotentiaries to report it at Copen-
hagen. The Conference meets again on Wed-
nesday.

THE meeting of illustrious personages at Kissen-
gen and Carlsbad has very naturally produced a fl utter
of excitement in the various circlesof court newsmen,
and strained official journalists to higher and more
solemn flights of speculation than usual. Some, in•
deed, reverently anxious, it may be, to preserve in-
violate the veil of sacredness and mystery which
shrouds Imperial intercourse from vulgar eyes, con-
tent themselves with pronouncing the meeting one
of simple courtesy—of disinterested friendship and
mutual regard. Others, unable perhaps to conceive
the possibility of such exalted luminaries moving
from their accustomed orbit without raining down
potent influences in their course, predict important
sublunary changes from the august conjunction.
Monarchs, especially monarchs who are either vir-
tually or actually absolute, occupy of noses-