The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-27 00:00:00

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riority of numbers, unequal to the task of iflefii4Fl7 A
Alsen and Dsbbol they should, without7eit 4.,-47,---- vk*--,-,
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much as trying one assault, seek easierlicii,.. L::,5*'1ti5.4p.,..,
Elsewhere, and try to strike Denmark iCis—esic,
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vulnerable part, shrinking from no ungetietWe Wel e,ee-se,
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measure to put the screw upon her, and brines" 2 - - -
to terms by all means in their power, and with all ''' S
possible speed.
It is certainly not in the power of Denmark to
guard all the frontier of Jutland, and the Austro-
Prussians will find it as easy to overrun it to the
very end of the peninsula as they found it to Occupy
all Schleswig after the fall of the Dannewerk. But,
on the very frontier of that province, at Fredericia,
there is a position as likely to brave their efforts for
a length of time, es Alsen and Dybbol have evidently
stemmed the tide of their too ready victories in.
Schleswig. The fortress of Fredericia, together with
the little Peninsula in which it rises, aided, like this
place, by inlets of the sea favouring the naval ope-
rations of the Danes, is, as it were, a third D ,nne-
eerk, offering no greater temptation to en unenter-
eriaing enemy chary of his blood tnan the place
Defore which the Germans are now skulking with
far more discretion than valour.
The Danes are evidently anticipating great feats
of arms on the Jutland frontier, and they are strain-
ing every nerve to throw the best of their forces
into Fredericia. You are aware that the best part of
their cavalry, in their retreat from the Dannewerk,
never came in here at all, but marched on from.
Flensburg through Apenrade and lladersley into
Jutland. Since then 4,000 men at first, and sub-
sequently the whole of the third division, were
shipped off from Sonderburg to Fridericia, and I
saw this morning a beautiful regiment of dragoons,
nearly the whole of the cavalry that we had here,
embarking for the same destination. Alsen and
Dybbol are at present all but disarmed and power-
less for offensive purposes, and although the 12,000
men, infantry and artillery, that we still have
here are more than sufficient to hold the place
against all odds, still it is not a little to be regretted
that, in the event of an attack by the enemy and of
his defeat, no means should be at hand for efficient
pursuit. Probably the removal of all these troops
with such reckless haste to the North reveals an in-
tention on the part of the Danes to carry on opera-
tions on the open field in Jutland. The disparii., of
numbers, and even the inferiority of weapons, par-
ticularly rifle and cannon, would seem to preclude
the hope on their side of any warfare on a large
scale. What they could not accomplish behind the
Dannewerk bulwarks and the deep waters of the,
Schlei they can hardly expect to do on the wide
plains of Jutland. They may harass the Germane
with a few weeks' petite guerre, truly; but even for
that kind of work their somewhat unwieldy infan-
try and heavy cavalry do not seem well suited..
Sooner or later Fredericia and her peninsula will be
as closely invested as Alsen and Dybbol.sow are,
and, that being the case, it remains matter of un-
certainty whether the Austro-Prussians will try
their strength against Fredericia any more than
against this place, or whether they will not rather
mask both places, and, by avoiding all conflict
themselves and putting all conflict on the part of
the Danes out of the question, lord it all over the
peninsula from Kiel to Aarhuus.
I do not think there can be any doubt as to the
power the Germans have of driving the Danes
utterly from the field if they choose to put forth
sufficient forces for that purpose, although the
Danes themselves fondly believe that the subject
admits of dispute. The position at Dybbol and the
peninsula at Fridericia present but a narrow ap-
proach to the invader; but that very narrowness of
approach, favourable as it is for defence, is no less
unfavourable for offensive purposes. The garrison,
shut up in its corner, and caught, as it were, in a
trap, can only attempt a sally in ono direction, and
there the enemy awaits it on a strip of ground
almost as narrow as the approach of the fortress
itself. Posted on the neck of the Sundewitt penin-
sula, for instance, between Adsbol or Batlegaard, or
even nearer us, between Nybol and Sandbjerg, the
Austro-Prussians have a line of only five, or, in the
latter case, three miles to guard against the Danes.
Supposing the Germans to be no more than 20,000
on this line, they would always be as two to one
against any force that could attempt a sortie from
Alsen and Dybbol; and the isthmus of the Frede-
ricia peninsula would be even a closer field for
A sallying garrison to try its strength on. Were
even 20,000 men insufficient to completely mask,
invest, and shut in the fortresses, the Germans
might easily sit down before each of them with
40,000 or 50,000, and they could still command
50,000 more for the easy subjugation of the unarmed
population. The Danes seem inclined to put their
trust in ships, and think that, while Leaving in
their two strongholds a sufficient number of de-
fenders, they could land small forces here anad there
so as to harass the enemy on many points and wear
him out by incessant desultory warfare. All this,
however, would not lead to a happy termination of
the struggle in their favour ; it would .not put au
end to the foreign occupation of all their main-
land. The siege of the two fortresses and a series
of guerilla exploits would be all that Europe
might look forward to for six or eight months or
a year to come. At the end of that period the
Danes would still be where they were a fort-
night ago ; they would still have to repurchase
their own peninsula, or such part of it as the Ger-
mans might feel inclined to restore, by accepting
such conditions as a conqueror has ii! in his power
to dictate. Without achieving their vie,terY by the
reduction of Alsen and Fredericia the Aust:ro-Prus-
sians would reap all the benefits of compleis
9 suc-
cess. They are under no necessity, and it certainly
is not for their interest, to shed another drop of
blood by their own act, and such injury as the
Danes might still inflict upon them would have no
greater effect on the vast body of their troops than
the sting of a gnat on the huge bulk of an elephant.
Still, the Danes reckon, and very reasonably
too, on the chapter of accidents. The in-
vasion of Jutland, they think, has filled the
measure of their enemy's iniquities. The in-
dignation of Europe cannot long remain passive
in sight of so flagrant a violation of all legality.
Nothing can be stronger than the conviction in the
hearts of those poor Danes that help must turn up
for them from some quarter or other. It grieves
me more than I can tell to 'be addressed by officers
and soldiers, when they think they have made it out
that I am an Englishman, with such words as,
" Why should England suffer us to perish ? Why
do not the English come to the rescue ?"
The Danes, however, have something to look for-
ward to more promising to their cause than the help
of foreign nations, and that is dissension among the
Germans themselves. Jealousy between Austria
and Prussia, the attitude of the Band, the ambition
of the minor Princes, the revolutionary tendencies
of the German people, everything engenders a belief
that their enemy
cannot long act unanimously
against them, if they Will only persevere to the end ;
and with such prospects before them there is no
doubt that the Danes will fight on and endure.
Their position does not appear to them more hope-
less than it Was in 1849, when all was lost and all
was eventually regained.
There has been some trifling encounter of patrols
to-day as usual, in which one man was killed and
one wounded. The wounded yesterday were three;
none killed.
I am told that the Germans have been collecting
a large number of boats in the Gelting Bucht, across
the Flensburg Fjord, with the intention of attempt-
ing a landing on Alsen, whenever such an attempt
may be act as a diversion to s contemplated attack
on Dybbol. A Danish ship-of-war, however, has
sailed this day for the Bucht, and will, no doubt,
soon give a good account of the boats there as-
s
i sembled, if the report turns out to be correct.

NEW LlFEBOATS.—Yesterday some interesting
trials were made with two new lifeboats belonging
to the National Lifeboat fastitutim, is the Regent's Canal
Dock, Limehouse. One was 36 feet long, and the other
2S feet. The larger boat is to be sent to Palling, Norfolk;
and the smaller one to Greencastle, ear Londonderry. The
self-righting qualities of the boats ewers perfect, and the
water they brought beck with them in recovering their
centre of gravity was self-ejected through patent valves in
about 30 seconds. Tito Palling lifeboat is the gift to the
institution of Messrs. Came and Co„ Parsee merchants, of
Gresham House, and that for Greencastle, of J. D. Allcroft
Esq., of Wood-arett.