The Express.
London, England, 1864-02-03 00:00:00

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LONDON, WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 3.

A MORE serious or more difficult task was never
mposed upon a Government than that which has
for the last few days occupied the British Cabinet.
It is no less than to convey to Parliament and
the country the sentiments, and by consequence
the intentions, of the Crown and the Government
with regard to the dispute which, after having
smouldered so long, has now burst into the
flame of war in the Danish peninsula. How
express the universal feeling excited by the
breach of a solemn treaty without outraging or
offending Governments, an understanding with
which is indispensable in order to maintain the
peace of Europe? A due sense of the conduct of
Austria and Prussia may indeed be expressed in
forcible and significant, if not in absolutely
menacing words. But how are other Governments
to be mentioned, which, after having signed the
Treaty of 1832, still profess a certain adherence
to it, but avow a disinclination to act upon and
enforce it ?

The omission of all mention of France, or
allusion to its Government, would suggest itself
as the moat obvious way of meeting the diffi-
culty. Silence itself, however, under certain
circumstances, is significant. When it was ob-
served that the Emperor NAPOLLON, on the occasion
of his solemn reception on New Year's Day, did
not address a word or a look to the Ambassador
of England, the inference was at once drawn that
there no longer existed the desirable accord be-
tween the two Governments. Were the Speech
from the English Throne to be equally silent with
regard to our great neighbour, lately our ally, the
very reticence would be regarded as ominous.

There is one thing which the Speech might, and
probably wir:l, express. It is, that if even three
of the Governments which signed the Treaty of
1832 had come forward iu time with a frank and
solemn declaration of their full adhesion to that
treaty, and of their determination to uphold it by
all the military and naval means at their disposal,
that declaration must have stopped the march, and
even the formation, of that German army which
has now crossed the Eider.

The Euiperor NarotzoN affects to wash his
hands of all complicity in the oppression of Poland,
and to meet all accusations of supineness in the
cause, by adducing his proposal for a Congress, and
pleading that England's backwardness to join in,
that scheme utterly marred his designs for the
regeneration of Poland. How • Congress in
which the three partitioning Powers of Poland
were to take part could be expected to further
or fulfil Polish aspiration; is a question which we
will not discuss. But to make reprisals for our re-
fusal to join in a crusade for Poland, with which
we had no treaty engagement, by another refusal
to join in the maintenance of the Danish kingdom,
provided for by treaty, is as irrational and as in-
defensible a line of conduct as any potentate,
however proud, might avow.

We perceive that the official French press, no
doubt from Imperial suggestion, rallies the English
nation and Government for showing no more action,
and for not sending at once a military expedition
to Sleswig. Tao employment of military force was,
however, not contemplated by the Treaty of 1852.
Comprising, as it did, all the military Power' of
Europe, in the view of that treaty the common
engagement of its siguataries was quite sufficient.
Had but a few of them remained faithful not a
musket shot need have been fired, nor a battalion
advanced. A Grua resolution on the part of Eng-
land, France, and Russia—perhaps even of the two
Powers alone, would have been quite sufficient. But
France would not join in any useful common
action. It, on the contrary, chose the mo-
ment to pat forward in a diplomatic circular
its profound sympathy for nationalities. And that
circular was the signal for the advance of the
Austro-Prussian forces.

The Sleswig-Holstein question was, we may
say, not discussed in the debate on the Address,
which has just closed in the French Chamber.
The feeling of even the Opposition was to leave the
hands of the Government completely free upon
a question which it may be able to turn to ac-
count. A British Government is not in the same
position, and cannot expect the same indulgence.
England cannot use the Danish dispute as a means
to any *shish ends. Pesos and the maintenance
of the balance of power are our sole objects.
But, of course, a Ministry is open to Parlia-
mentary attacks, directed against the measures it
has adopted, and the steps it has taken for attain-
ing these great ends. We shall thus have warm
debates about Sleswig-Holstein. And both the
QUEEN and the Ministers mast speak to a British
Parliament with much more frankness than is
expected of a French ruler, or the bench of
official orators that adorn a French Chamber.