The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-08 00:00:00

TILE SUN, LONI)O

stated to have been trifling. As regards that of the
previous day at Missunde, although the fog rendered
it impossible for me to discern its details so well as
I could have desired, the information I have since
received does not show anything of importance to
alter or add in the short account I wrote of it upon
the same evening. The fficial statement of loss is,
as I heard 55 dead and about 200 wounded. Nobody
seems to know exactly why the fight took place.
The natural conjecture was that it was intended to
ascertain the strength of the Danes at Missunde,
with a view to a more serious attack on the follow-
ing day, or else as a diversion, to be followed early
the next morning by an attempt to force the pas-
sage of the Schlei nearer to its mouth. But this
was not done, and I have pretty good grounds for
believing that nothing of importance is going on
to-day either on the left or centre of the Austro-
Prussian line. So that really it is difficult to see
the utility of the Miesunde affair, although we must
presume the Generals to know beat. Prince Fre-
derick Charles is reported a dashing and eager
officer, and perhaps he thought he could not too
soon give his young soldiers the taste for blood, try
their mettle, and accustom them to the sound of
round shot. They seem to have behaved very well
in this their first:little trial, and doubtless you will
see prodigious eulogiums heaped upon them in the
German papers, as I already hear them uttered
around me. But the affair, as you will perceive, was
a trifling one, in which there was no opportunity
for the display of any wonderful temerity. The
Prussians did their duty, and he is said to be a good
soldier who always does that. A number of officers
were killed and wounded. A young aide de camp
of Prince Frederick Charles—Count Groeben I
think is the name—was killed by a cannon shot
while conveying an order.

Lord Carlisle on the Condition of Ireland,

Speaking at the Lord Mayor of Dublin's banquet
on Thursday night, Lord Carlisle thus referred to
the condition of Ireland :—lt would be a much more
agreeable subject of contemplation if we could wit-
ness the simultaneous boast of wealth and popula-

tion. I cannot, indeed, go along with the pathetic
complaint of the pleasing poet, with whose statue
we have lately adorned our highways, when he
says—
11l fares the land to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.
I believe there would be much more truth in the con-
verse, and that worse would fare the land where
men accumulate and wealth decays. (Hear, hear,
and No, no.) The gentlemen below wish for more
mouths and less food to fill them. (Hear, hear, and
applause.) This state of things is not desirable;
and least of all do I wish, and much do I regret,
that Ireland should part with any of her hardy and
generous sons—(hear, hear)—merely to supply food
for the vultures which hover over the Lethean
plains of Virginia and Tennessee. But with respect
to the general course and current of emigration,
whilst any attempt forcibly to arrest it 'would be
impossible as it would be cruel, I for one am not pre-
pared to rapine at it until the general average rate
of wages in this country shall amount to at least
10s. a week. (Cheers and hisses.) This is very far
from being universally the case at present. I cer-

tainly am not prepared to follow the Lord Mayor
into the details of the political questions, some of a
very delicate nature, of which he has laid the heads
before you. I think that one great want of Ireland
is what sounds of a very homely and prosaic cha-
racter ; bnt I believe one great lever of Irish im-
provement would be found not so much in any great
principle or doctrine, or in any adjustment of rival
creeds and races, so much as in the adoption, the
general adoption, of a better system of farming.
(Hear, hear.) Let her children attend to her fertile
soil ; let them consult the genius of her mild but
variable atmosphere; let them readily and with
alacrity seize upon such openings as the extension
of the linen trade, and the opportunity for flax cul-
ture now offering to them ; and without presuming
to guarantee any sudden or startling results, I think
there is every hope for sure and progressive ones.