The Express.
London, England, 1864-01-20 00:00:00

frontier, and the least in extent measured from
esm to wed. In other weeds, co the west there
i• the North Se*, on the emit the Baltic ; the in-
terval must be filled up with troops and defensive
works, and of course the smaller this space is, the
better for the Dana.
Now from Kiel on the eastern oust of Holstein
northward there are a series of harbours of more
or lees value, according to their size and capacity.
Some of them rim far into the land, and thus
materially diminish the distance between the
eastern and the western shore of the Danish pro-
' montory. Thus the She, like the Firth of Forth or
the Thames, cuts into the country, so that the town
of Sleerig, which stands at its inland extremity, is
even more westerly than Rendsburg, which lies
about 20 miles to the south. It follows, therefore,
that by taking Shaw* as the most easterly point
of the line of land defence the Danes may trust
the defence of the kingdom eastward of that
point to the gunboats of the navy in Slei harbour.
But Sleswig has other advantages. Drawing a
line from that town in a south-westerly direction
it will strike the fortress of Frederickstadt, which,

in we have mentioned, lies in the angle formed by
the junction of the Preens and the Eider and
about 25 English miles south-east of Sle!swig.
Considering the flat nature of the country and
the extraordinary improvements in artillery, it
would not perhaps be difficult to defend a line so
extensive. But fortunately peculiar circumstances

- - .
have enabled the Danes to attain their object
at a more moderate expense. The Preens, as
we have observed, comes down from the north-east,
and joins the Eider just after washing the northern
walla of Fredexickstadt. And the Danes have

taken advantage of this river to establish a com-
plete system of inundation in case of national
danger. By sluices and damming back the water
of the Treene they are enabled to flood the whole
country between Frederickstadt and Hollingeted.
HoUingsted stands about half way—that is, 13 miles
—on the line which we have supposed to be drawn
between the towns of Frederickstadt and Sleswig,
so that the only part of the line which would re-
main undefended would be the 12 or 13 miles
between Sleswig and Hollingated. But this is the
point at which begins the celebrated Deane-
wirke. The disconnected fragments of the old
wall, as it runs east and west along the
heights, prove conclusively the importance of the
position and the antiquity of the struggle between
the rival combatants. These celebrated heights
have again been crowned for four miles by defences
in the form of earthworks, which, we are assured,
" for general skill and perfection of detail must
" command the admiration of all who have seen
" them." Between the most easterly of these
earthworks and Sleswig it does not appear whether
there are any defences. But it is obvious enough
that, unless the frost destroys the inundation de-
fences and the defence of the Slei, the difficulties
which the German armies will have to overcome
before they can penetrate between Hollingated and
Sleswig will be very considerable. To take either
Sleswig or Frederickstadt will be almost impos-
sible, because neither of them can be invested.

The disastrous attack br the Germans on •`'-
wr
lumen in iB5O, in which the garrison of 2,400
men with 8 guns defeated an attacking force of
5,000 and 56 guns—although the fortifications were
of the simplest kind—proves the difficultyof such an
enterprise. To attack the forts on the Dannewirke
without investing them would seem scarcely less
difficult ; whilst, if the Germans should attempt to
push on, neglecting these works, they would infal•
libly have their communications cut off and their
commissariat intercepted.

At the beginning of the war in 1848 the
Danish army did not exceed 10,000. But in July,
1849, it numbered more than 40,000 men. It
does not appear to what extent it has since been
increased. The time which has already elapsed,
and which must still elapse before the Austrians
and Prussians come up, may enable the Danes to
occupy the lines of defence which they have con-
structed with rare skill, and to drive back with
crushing loss the invaders of their country.