The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-09 00:00:00

THE WAR IN DENMARK

(Front the Times Special Correspondent at the Danish
Head- quarters.)
ULKEBOL, April 3.

The final day has come for poor Sonderborg, and
I have been fairly routed out of it. I closed my
last letter at about 7 o'clock in the morning, sad
being anxious, according to my wont, to post it with
my own hands, I sailed forth from the Hotel Hey-
muth. To walk from this place to the lower town
was an enterprise of no trifling danger. What is
calved the " Royal," or town, .pcst•office had been
struck with two shells and was a mass of ruins.
The jeld, or military post, was fucking in breath-
less haste, with no great chance of avoiding the same
fate. The furious cannonade of yesterday afternoon
had wrought far greater mischief than we were
aware of. I stated that the dead and wounded
among the townspeople were last evening at 9 o'clock
about 22. Their number before the night was over
had risen to 57. Since daybreak the shower of shells,
had recommenced with the utmost violence, and the
shells, which had hitherto spent their fury among
the buildings of the lower town, now took a bolder
flight above the whole extent of its habitation up to
the height of the towering windmills. There was no
safety in any part of Sonderborg. The head quarters
were packing hurriedly, and General Gerlach, with
all his Staff, was making ready for a flitting to
Ulkebol, where the hospitality of my good friend
Parson Meyer awaited them. The terror and
desolation of the town had reached its climax.
A great many pf last evening's fugitives, turn-
ing from imminent danger without a thought of
the future, had only quitted their houses in the
maritime quarters of the town to repair to the
friendly the people in the upper
town.
higher regions had become in the
dwellingsat of
morning as unsafe as the rest, and the train of the
fugitives was swelling at every minute. Only one
or two tenements were in flames in the course of
yesterday afternoon, and the gallant Copenhagen
fire brigade had been able to stem the violence
of the flames and prevent its spread. This morning
no less than 20 houses were burning, and as the wind
freshened there was every prospect of a general
conflagration. The number of houses all but levelled
with the ground began to be appalling. The
Itadhuns or Council house, the Holsteinishe Haus
and the Alssund, two mean hostelries of the lower
town, were mere wrecks, The Burgomaster and the
head officer at the Board of Health had been driven
from roofless dwellings. The apothecary's house, a
large building where the head-quarters had been
established, was clean gone, and the same fate had
befallen the adjoining watchmaker's. As we heard
these particulars of yesterday's havoc, the destruc-
tion of to-day gained ground upon us. The advance
of the shells was overwhelming us like the progress
of an irresistible tide. There was nothing left for
the most obstinate to do, but ge, and the signal for
my own departure was of course given by the re-
moval of the headquarters.

Sonderborg is gone or going, and it seems as if the
Prussians had deter mines not to leave one stone of
it upon another. Yesterday's cannonade was mainly
directed against the Dybbol bastions, and the shells
that assailed the town from the batteries of Broager-
land seemed to be fired almost incidentally by way
of wanton amusement, and were apparently in-
tended rather to frighten than to do much real harm.
But this morning the whole rage of the Prussian
cannon spent itself on the devoted town. Disap-
pointment at their ill success in Sundewed seems to
have made the assailants perfectly savago against
the helpless capital of Alsen. Unable to show their
bravery in a storming attack upon Danish bayonets.
the Prussians did not shrink from the unprofitable
sacrifice of an open town. The Danes are furious at
what they call a " dastardly outrage, a breach of all
the laws of war, and a departure from all the prin-
ciples of modern civilisation. It was to retrieve their
character as a fighting nation," they say, " that the
Prussians, after being worsted in so many encoun-
ters, solicited the post of honour before Dybbol,
and reared against that position such a force
of artillery as ought to have blown it and its defen-
ders to atoms. Yet they were not content with
achieving by a cannonade what they durst not effect
by assault; but their very cannon are not pointed
at the breasts of men standing up in their defence,
but against a miserable crowd of women and chil-
dren almost as much at a loss how to fly as they
are unable to fight." _

I have been willing to make myself the interpret.
ter of this universal outcry of the Danes, because,
neutral as I endeavour to make myself on all their
subjects of dispute, I really believe it would be dif-
ficult to find a good excuse for the behaviour of the
Prussians in this bombardment of Sonderborg, even
if they acted on the necessities sometimes imposed
upon a weaker party by the natural laws of self-
preservation, and even if the war were on their part
a defensive, instead of an aggressive one. The gene-
ral in command against Fredericia did not open the
bombardment of the city without a timely intima-
tion to its inhabitants, allowing them 24 hours to
withdraw from its walls; yet Fredericia was a for-
tified place, and the people who remained in it
might be thought to have cast their lot in with
that of their
part garrison,
of the while Sonderborg is hardly
an integral
Dybbol line of bastions, all
which might be taken before any necessity arose to
offer Sonderborg the alternative between surrender
and destruction,

them and the
as
a thousand
garrison,
You must imagine the whole of the 2,000 inhabi-
spread along every road and lane in the island, ap-
plying for quarters at every farmhouse, f mensudd eannl yd
o t affinctear so f
billeted Sonderborg,
upon
vil-
lage, hamlet, and but, already for the last nine
weeks as full of military guests of every de-
gree as houses, stables, barns, and straw-lofts can
afford, and then consider what probabilities there
may be of a stranger applying for lodgings with
success from door to door, especially if this luck-
less stranger happen to have six other house-
less fellows, who must needs be taken in with him
or sleep with him in the open. All I can say, by
way of illustrating the condition of this little island
io the present straits, is, that by a ruse de guerre,
perfectly justifiable under the circumstances, I and
each of my companions, with a view to insert the
thih edge of the wedge, presented ourselves singly
before as many of the masters of the little fishing
boats moored at the piers of Horup Hay, and asked
if they happened to have room for one in their narrow
hold, and the answer was that they had all been
bespoken—some for two, some for three families of
Sonderborg citizens, and that they were not at
liberty to dispose of one inch of ground either on
deck or below.

....161......

THE BOMBARDMENT OF DUPPEL.
(REUTER'S EXPRESS.)

COPENIUGEN April 4.
The following are the latest reports from head-
quarters
received at the Ministry of War :
April 2, 7 p.m.-Advices from head-quarters to 5 p.m.
report that the bombardment of the position at Duppel con-
tinued. The fires which had broken out in Sonderborg were
of some extent. Our loss in wounded was less to-day.
April 3, Noon.—Advices from head. quarters to 10 45
a.m. announce that single shuts only were occasionally
directed against the town and the position during the night.
Several alarms were given at various times along the line of
outposts. Attacks were made upon patrols, upon the sen-
tries, and upon the parties guarding the trenchPs, but after
slight skirmishing the enemy withdrew. Two men of the
10th Regiment were killed. The fire in Sonderborg has now
been extinguished.
April 4, 10 45 a.m.—The bombardment of Sonderborg
has ceased since 6 o'clock this morning. A third of the town
has been burnt, in addition to which numbers of houses in
a wide circumference have been damaged by shell. Several
places are still in flames. The Town.hall is burnt down.
A few shots have only been directed at Duppel.
April 5, 9 15 a.m.—The artillery engagement at Duppel
was continued yesterday with energy, but the bombardment
of Sonderborg has been discontinued. The enemy has
thrown up several batteries upon the northern shore of the
Alsen sound, from one of which, at Petersdal, he kept up
a violent fire yesterday against the war vessels lying in
Slesvig. A pontoon train has been seen in the vicinity of
Ballesgaard,"
The screw corvette Heimdal, from the Sound, ar-
rived here yesterday evening, with a screw frigate,
built for war service, but without guns, and under
jury-masts. The Heimdal sighted this vessel car-
rying the English fl ig in the neighbourhood of
Elsinore. As she presented a most suspicious ap
pearance, she was ordered to lay to, but disregarded
the order, whereupon the Heimdal fired a shot
acmes her bows and brought her up. The Captain

stated that he was bound for Copenhagen to offer
the ship to the Danish Government, bat, as there
was reason to suppose her intended for Dantsic or
some other Pru9sian port, the Commander of the
Heimdal thought it best to bring the suspicious
stranger into this port.

DECLARAT lON OF THE HOLSTEIN

ESTATES.

KIEL, April 5.

A large majority of the members of the Holstein
Estates (40 out of 49) met to-day in extraordinary
Session, and unanimously passed the following de-
claration :

" We, the undersigned Deputies to the Holstein
Assembly of Estates at present consisting of 49
members, solemnly declare, with regard to the Con-
ference of European Powers about to assemble in
London, as follows :

" We protest against every, decision may be come
to at the above Conference, respecting the future
of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein, and
in especial with regard to the person of the suc-
cessor to the throne vacated by the death of the King
Duke Frederick VII., without the opinion of the
country being first taken as to the hereditary right
of his successor. We further declare every recogni-
tion of any such successor by the European Powers
without the previous consent of the country as not
legally valid and binding upon the same.
" We declare, moreover, hereby as the rights of
this couutry before God and man
"1. That the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein
are independent States, inseparably connected with
each other for ever.

" 2. That by lineal succession and primogeniture
the male line of the Oldenburg Royal House is ex-
clusively called to the throne.
"3. That Christian IX., King of Denmark, is
therefore in no way rightfully entitled to the throne
of the Duchies, being excluded by agnates of nearer
claims, but that the London Treaty of May 8, 1852,
together with the Danish succession law of the 31st
of July, 1853, are not legally binding upon the
Duchies ; the former because foreign Powers in no
way possess the right of disposition over a country
not belonging to them, and the latter because not
ratified by the assent of the Schleswig and Holstein
Assembly of Estates, the agnates, and the Germanic
Confederation. _ _

"4. The nearest claimant among the now living
Princes of the House of Oldenburg, after the re-
nunciation of his father, is Duke Frederick of
Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderborg-Augustenburg,who
has already declared that he has assumed the Go•
vernment as Duke Frederick VIII. of Schleswig
and Holstein.
"We further declare that the voice of the coun-
try, agreeing herewith, has unmistakably expressed
its desire, in numerous petitions to the General
Federal Diet, and in addresses of devotion and
deputations to Duke Frederick VIII. from the
Schleswig-Holstein nobility, the University, the
clergy, the teachers, and the towns and rural districts
of Holstein as well as Schleswig, to recognise Duke
Frederick of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderborg-Au-
gustenburg as the sole and only rightful successor
to the throne, and has testified the readiness of the
people to sacrifice life and property in his service es
their legitimate Sovereign.
"Finally, we here by protest most solemnly against
every arrangement of the European Powers by which
an illegal ruler shall be forced upon the Duchie?,
contrary to their expressed wishes, and by which
the connexion with the kingdom of Denmark Mai-
tiveiy severed by the de,:th of Frederick VII. shall
be restored by force. We cast upon the originators
of any such arrangement the responsibility of the
inevitable disadvantages and dangers to the tran-
quillity and peace of our country, of Germany, and
of Europe,
"Kiel, April 5, 1864."
(The signatures follow.)

The Armstrong and Whitworth Trials,

Yesterday the competitive trials betweon the
Armstrong and Whitworth 12-pounder field-guns
were continued at Shoebury, in the presence of an
unusual number of distinguished visitors. His
Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, with Earl
de Grey, Sir John Burgoyne, Sir Edward Lugard,
General St. George, Capt. Galton, ILE., General
Rumley, the chairman of the Special Committee,
and all the members of the Committee, Lord Tor-
rington, Admiral Talbot, Sir William Armstrong,
Mr. Whitworth, Colonel Boxer, Colonel Gambier,
Colonel Lefroy, and a large number of other offi
cere, both naval and military, were present on this
occasion.

Before stating what was effected yesterday we
may inform our readers that the programme of the
trials to be gone through with the guns in the course
of the competition involves every possible contin-
gency, mishap, and accident which could by any
means, short of utterly disabling the pieces, occur to
them in the roughest and most rapid service. Each
competitor is represented by three guns of each kind
allowed to compete—namely, 12-pounders as field-
guns, and 70-pounders as guns of position. Sir
William, therefore, comes forward with three 12-
pounder breech-loaders, and three muzzle-loading
shunt guns of the same calibre. Mr. Whitworth, as
bringing forward only one species of gun, has only
three 12-pounders, rifled on his hexagonal principle.
Sir William's are built guns on the wrought-iron coil
plan, while those of Mr. Whitworth are cast of the
homogeneous metal (which is only a hard name for
a very soft steel) strengthened by coils of the same
metal, forced on outside the gun by hydraulic
pressure. These pieces, as we have said, are to be
tested in every possible and almost impossible man-
ner for range and accuracy—with solid, shrapnel,
segment, and common shell; against earthworks,
embrasures, and itockades ; for ricochet, point-
blank, and long-range firing; how they will bear
embarcation and disembarcatiun, how they will
answer in boats,how against abattis,brushwood, and
villages. Boxesof the ammunition are to be sent tra-
velling byland and sea all over and round the kingdom
to see how they each bear transport ; and at one part
of the trial the guns will be upset in a wet ditch
and left for a night, in order to ascertain, when got
out next morning, which is soonest cleaned and ready
for quick service with shot and shell. Above all, the
trials are to include what will be the most severe
test of all—that of seeing which of the guns will
break down under continuous discharges as rapidly
as the pieces can be loaded and fired. When we say
break down, we of course do not mean burst, but be-
come strained, injured in their rifling, or damaged
in any way. When all has been gone through,
3,000. rounds are to be fired from each gun, which
is then to be burst with gradually increasing charges.
It will be seen, therefore, that it would be next to
impossible to devise a more exhaustive system of
trials than those which have to be carried out, and
whoever wins will not win without having effected
every known purpose to which a gun can be put in
the field, with many others to which it was never
intended to put guns at all.

The competition commenced on Monday last, but
the first trials, though of course forming part of the
programme, have hitherto been of such a merely
preliminary nature that their results in detail would
be almost unintelligible, and certainly uninteresting
to our readers. Nothing has as yet been effected on
either side to point to the probable issue of the
contest, and it would therefore he quite premature
to attempt any expression of opinion on this subject.
One thing, however, may be said—that, as far as
this week's firing goes, the contest between the Arm-
strong shunt gun and the Whitworth has been very
close—so close, indeed, that until the official returns
are made out it would be hazardous to say which has
had the best. Whether they will maintain this
equality at longer ranges and under different condi
tions of trial remains to be seen, but up to the pre-
sent, as far as accuracy is concerned, it may be fairly
said they are both perfect guns. The Armstrong
breech-loader thi; week has unquestionably shot
the worst of the three ; in fact, it is stated that this
gun, specially made for the trial, shoots below the
average accuracy of the field guns of the same kind
in the service. The defect is attributed to some
minor alterations introduced specially into this
piece for the competition, which have not turned
out so successful in practice es it was thought
they would prove. It is said that at shell practice
this gun will carry all before it; and, in fact, the
result of yesterday's firing proves this to be mainly
a true opinion. But in respect of accuracy with
solid shot, its performances have been below
those of Sir William's shunt gu❑ and the Whit-
Worth, and between these ordnance, therefore,
the contest for supremacy during the week has lain,
without any superiority being shown by either on
which it would be safe to base predictions for the
future. Yesterday, after a few shots at targets of
1,300 yards (an almost impossible range for the old
, smooth-bore field-guns), the experiments were con-

firmed, to show the Effect of the three guns on
earthworks, the ordinary field fortifications behind
which armies intrench themselves against superior
forces. For this purpose they were trained at
the same range cf three.quarters of a mile upon a
small fieldwork, surrounded with a strong abbatis
or chevaux-de jrise of felled trees, behind which
was a palisaded ditch—that is, a deep, dry fosse
with a high, strong wooden fence in the centre, but
out of sight of the attacking forces tilt they should
be actually in the ditch itself, Two of the embrasures
were formed of gabions on Sergeant Major Jones's
plan—that is, of gabions of bands of galvanised iron
woven round stakes, like basket-work ; while one
embrasure was built up on Captain Tyler's plan—a
mere open cylinder of thin iron, filled in like the
others, with sand. In the embrasures were placed
three unserviceable guns, while the artillerymen
that would be required to work each piece were re-
presented by six dummy figures, made of deal, and
placed in their proper quarters at each side of the
ordnance, though, of course, as in actual service,
under cover of the earthwork.

The guns commenced on this with solid shot at
1,300 yards, firing five rounds each,when the damage
was inspected and the attack resumed with segment
shell, with percussion and time fuses, and so on
again at a range of 900 yards. It is, of course,
quite needless to particularize the individual shots
of each gun ; it is enough to say that with all
three, and with the Armstrong shunt gun and
the Whitworth most especially, the practice was
almost marvellous. From where the guns were
stationed the openings of the embrasures were like
mere specks, like the mathematical definition of a
point having no dimensions; yet shot after shot
was sent through them at almost every round, in a
way that made officers stare and ask each other how
long a work could be defended under a fire from
many such pieces. The old fault of the Whitworth
hexagonal shot, however, was sometimes shown
when sufficient elevation was not given to the gun
and its shot touched the ground in or near the
abbatis in front of the work. When it did so its
peen/lir hexagon form made it screw itself up out
of the earth almost, to judge by the sound, at
right angles with the point at which it entered
and go " whirring" up into the air high over
the battery. After the solid shot firing was over
an examination of the work showed that the aim
had been too true with nearly all the guns to have
done much damage to the work itself, as the best
laid shots had passed through the embrasures.
Where they had struck the sides, however, the
balance of mischief was certainly in favour of the
Armstrong guns, bath of which tr.cl ripped the turf
revetments, whereas the holes made by the Whit-
worth were mostly clean cut. One of IVhitworth's
shot had passed along a gun so evenly as to groove
it where it touched, and cut clean picces out of its
ornamental mouldings near the breech.

With the shell firing the practice of all was really
wonderful as to accuracy. The two time shells of
Sir William and that of Mr. Whitworth , burst
almost in a lino full in front of the embrasures,
Mr. Whitworth's shell has, however, only just been
completed, and more practice is evidently wanted
to insure its perfection, :as one of the time fuses
was put out by its touching the ground in front in
consequence of the gun being laid too low, and one
of the percussion fuses failed to explode on striking,
while none of Sir William's missed bursting,
though not always with the same precision as
to place as the three we have alluded to. These,
however, as regards Mr. Whitworth, are compara-
tively minor matters of detail, which no doubt Col.
Boxer, who has made his shell, will be easily able
to rectify with more practice in its use. Mr.Whit-
worth's shell contains contains 72 pieces, a few seg-
ments, but the great majority having ordinary
leaden bullets. Sir William's shell contains about
the same number of pieces of iron segments, but the
bursting charge of Sir William's is nearly twice as
great as that of Mr.Whitworth's. An examination
of the battery after the shell work had been gone
through showed all the dummies at Mr. Whit-
worth's embrasure to be uninjured by his shells,
while the dummies at the two embrasures opposed
to Sir William were badly hit—one in particular,
having a large hole through its chest
and half its gun head gone. The figures
at the part at which the breech-loader of Sir
William was levelled were most punished of any,
showing that the confidence of its friends in its
power of firing shell had not been ill-founded. The
targets placed at some little distance in rear of each
embrasure, to certify by holes to the effect of the
shell after it had passed the work, were in favour of
Mr. Whitworth, his target showing 17, either per-
forations or hits, while one of Sir William's showed
only six, and that which collected the splinters of
the shell from the shunt gun only one. The para-
pets and embrasures were more cut about by Sir
William's shell, and, as we have said, his missiles
did execution among the dummy figures of the
gunners. One curious fact, however, was brought
out by these experiments, which speaks volumes
against the use of either Sergeant-Major Jones's
or Captain Tyler's plans of iron bands for
gabions. This was that one of the wooden gunners
was badly hit on the chest by an iron splinter
from one of these bands, and the piece left pro-
truding from the wounded wood. Other pieces,
also, were scattered inside the work—not many,
certainly, but enough in size and number to prove
that the use of these gabions, unless where no
wooden ones can be got, as was the case in the
Crimea, where they were invented, is to be avoided
wherever possible.

After this the guns were moved up to a range of
900 yards from the battery, and the pieces, which
had hitherto been laid with ouch accuracy by Major
Milman, were given over, by request of the compe-
titors, to their civilian assistants. The result by no
means justified the wisdom of the alteration which
Sir William and Mr. Whitworth had made, for, to
judge by the loose and almost wild firing which
now often took place, one would have fancied that
the guns had been moved 1,000 yards further off, in-
stead of 400 yards closer into their mark. It was
attempted to account for this by saying that the
extreme dryness of the keen east wind dried the
fouling of the guns into comparatively hard ob-
structions, but the opinion of nearly all on the
ground was simply that the pieces were not as well
laid as they had been before. Except for this im-
portant difference as to accuracy, almost all the re-
marks we have made on the trial at 1,300 yards
apply to this at 900. The Whitworth shot when
it struck the ground in front again turned up clear
over the battery, appearing to confirm all that has
been urged against this form of projectile by its
opponents, that it cannot be relied on for a plung-
ing or ricoshet fire. In all other respects the result
was N ery similar to the previous trial, though the
earthwork was, of course, more cutup. Sir William
again punished his dummies severely, and again
Whitworth failed to injure his, though the state
of his target behind the battery showed that his
shell only requires that adjustment which can be
gained from practice alone to become formidably
effective.

After this Sir William Armstrong's 600 pounder
was fired agrinst a box target. This target had
an outer plate of 61 inches of solid iron, backed
up by 24 inches of teak, lined with an inner skin
of iron 1 inch thick, making 71- inches of iron and
24 inches of teak in all. Big Will" was loaded
on this occasion with only 701 b. of powder, but with
a conical steel shot of 6121 b. weight. The result of
the contest, therefore, excited not the least interest,
as this gun only a few weeks since, when loaded
with 901 b. of powder, smashed up one of the best of
John Brown's 11-inch plates with a steel shot of only
3501 b. weight. The gun was beautifully laid as to
accuracy, though as the distance was only 200 yards
there was little merit in this. 'When the signal was
given it belched forth its cloud of flame and smoke,
running slightly backward as it did so, and sent its
shot smash through the target, from which the
massive splinters flew like chips. It, of course,
went clean through the mark. The outer plate,
though one of the best specimen of John Brown
and Co.'s manufacture (which is almost Equal
to saying the best plate that can be made), was
where the shot struck driven in before it bodily,
through teak and inner lining,
and everything—in
fact, that part of the target was destroyed—and no
more remained to ba done. With this last tremen-
dous exhibition the experiments of the day ended,

and his Royal Highness and the rest of the visitors
returned to town.

Next week the contest between the guns mill
go on at a stockade, and in firing at increased
ranges, and during the latter part of it, the real
and most important trial of all, the question of en-
durance—the iffirts to break down the guns by
rapid and continuous firing—will be made. Such
experiments as those of yesterday are very subordi-
nate to the real test of all—endurance. In other
matters the guns arc equal, as far as the trials have
yet gone; for, as we have said, until the official re-
cords are made out it is almost impossible to say
which has had the best, the Armstrong shunt gun
or the Whitworth. But the whole issue now de-
pends on which can be injured first by rough and
rapid work at constant firing, and this test will be
applied next week.

SECOND EDITION.

SUN OFFICE, HALF-PAST 4 O'CLOCK.

SP AI N.

MADRID, April B.—According to the Epoca,
partisans of Mazzini have left the principal towns
of Italy to attempt to revolutionise Spain and
Portugal. Their place of rendezvous is said to ha
Gibraltar.