The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-25 00:00:00

ourselves and depopularise King George, by becom-
ing parties to an arrangement that gives us the
island disarmed and mortified. The Greeks allege
that they elected their monarch on the understand-
ing that the lonian Islands were to be ceded to them.
They could not foresee this cession accompanied by
humiliating circumstances. They say they have
been so far tricked, and they must take care to right
themselves. They will sign no treaty by which the
destruction of their forts and the neutralisation of
the Islands are insisted on as conditions. In that
case, quoth England, I must keep the islands. That
will only make your breach of promise more fla-
grant, saith the Greek. Since you won't have the
islands by the only way in which we can part with
them, we are determined to keep them, quoth Eng-
land, and keeping them we shall preserve the forti-
fications intact. The work of destruction has, there-
fore, not been proceeded with, and Great Britain is
still saddled with the maintenance and government
of a very recalcitrant and oddly placed set of sub-
jects. In the midst of this, a very, ably drawn up
act of accusation against England, for its inalversa-
tion and mismanagement in the lonian Islands, has
been made by a French gentleman named Le Nor-
mant, and printed in the Revue des Deux Mondes.
In this the English aro accused not merely of mix
rule and of abuses in their political administration,
but even iu their fiscal and economical manage-
ment of the islands it is affirmed that they have
committed worse blunders in the lonian Islands
than the most retrograde Government in Europe.
Our boasted improvements are declared to be mere
deceptions; our roads scarcely get half a mile out of
the great town before they are lost in the open
country. Our export duties were as high and as
barbarous as those of Greece itself, or of Turkey,
and our system of taxation ground the poor and
exempted the rich. We do not credit the truth or
justice of this virulent French impeachment. Bat
some one competent to do so ought really to take
the trouble to expose the fallacies and refute the
errors of this calumnious accusation. In the Revue
des Deux Mondes it is addressed to the tribunal of
Europe. There should be some one who would take
the trouble to reply.
LONDON REVIEW.—The last hope of preserving
peace seems to have vanished. The Austrian and
Prussian troops are already on their march to
occupy Slesvig, and on the frontier of that duchy it
is well understood they will meet the only reception
which it is possible for Denmark to give them, with-
out placing her independence at the feet of the
German Powers. All that remains doub'ful is the
extent of the conflict and the issues which it may
involve. Defeated in the Federal Diet on their
proposition to occupy Slesvig as a means of com-
pelling the Danes to withdraw the Constitution of
November, Austria and Prussia have taken the
settlement of the pending dispute into their own
hrnds. In their view, the step they are adopting
is a pacific one ; but although it is possibly as little
as they could do, in the present temper of the Ger-
man people, it obviously constitutes a direct act of
war, and threatens us with all the consequenceb
which, in the present state of Europe, such an act
may involve. There is no doubt, however, that the
policy and the avowed aim of these two States
are completely at variance with the claims which
their own subjects and their Confederates in the
Band desire to urge. The popular demand in Ger-
many—the demand of the secondary States who
have so lately been the object of the suspicious at-
tentions of the Emperor of France—is, that the
Treaty of London should be at once set aside, that
the Diet should declare the rule of the Danish kings
in Schleswig and Holstein at an end, and that the
whole power of the Teutonic race should be em-
ployed in erecting these Duchies into a State under
Prince Frederic of Augustenburg. The conduct of
Austria and Prussia is based upon an altogether
different principle. As signitaries of the treaty of
1852, they are not prepared to violate its stipula-
tions ; as great European Powers, they are sensible
of the danger of embarking on a war for the aggran-
disement of Germany. They, therefore, acknow-
ledge that the treaty in question confers upon
Christian IX. the succession to the Duchies ; but
they allege that a certain contemporary understand-
ing has been violated by the Constitution already
referred to, and they are preparing to enter Schles-
wig,not with a view of separating it from Denmark,
but as a mode of extorting the repeal of this ob-
noxious constitution. It would not be difficult to
prove that the negotiations of 1851-2 furnish no
ground for these complaints, while they are still
further from lending any justification to so violent
a method of enforcing them. Had Austria and
Prussia been as much in the right as we think them
in the wrong. the mode in which they pressed their
demands on Denmark—their peremptory summons
to that Power to surrender at twenty-tour hours'
notice—is hardly consistent with a sincere desire
for the peaceful settlement of points which diplo-
macy may possibly have left open. We cannot now
stay to consider the real bearing of the negotiations
of ten years ago. The discussion of historical
details would lead us far from our present object,
which is to show the radical discrepancy that
exists between the wishes of the Germans and the
course of Austria and Prussia. Indeed, the latter
are not now acting as German but as European
Powers. In that capacity they have overruled the
Diet ; and if they are successful, they will have
demonstrated once more the utterly feeble and useless
character of the organisation which assumes to re-
present the nationality of the Teutonic race. It re-
mains, however, to be seen whether they will be
successful. Their course is beset with difficuly and
danger. In the first place, the Governments both
of Austria and Prussia will be driven to violate the
Constitution of their respective countries ; for the
Prussian Parliament has refused, and the Austrian
Reichsrath seem on the point of refusing, the sup-
plies necessary to carry out a policy which falls far
short of the national wishes. But, in addition to
this, they will be placed in a position of antagonism
towards the other German States. We should not
be disposed to estimate very highly the difficulties
likely to arise from either these causes could we con-
fine our view to the Fatherland. But, as we pointed
out last week, there is reason to fear the appearance
of another, and a more energetic actor, upon the
scene. The recent note which the French Emperor
has addressed to the secondary Powers can have no
other object than to incite them to throw off the
leadership, or rather the dictatorship, of Francis
Joseph and William I. There is no knowing to
what extent the small kings and princes may go
under the encouragement of such powerfui patron-
age. It is at least premature to talk of a civil war
in Germany ; but thoughtful politicians do not con-
ceal their apprehensions of a possible tendency to-
wards a new Confederation of the Rhine. If the
resistance of Denmark—assisted, as we trust she
will be, by Sweden and other powers—be suffi-
ciently protracted, the division which exists in
Germany must be embittered, with every month
of straggle. We do not pretend to forecast the
policy of Louis Napoleon, but it is certain that he
will not lose the opportunity of extending his in-
fluence, and profiting by the quarrels of his neigh-
bours. Ignorant es we are of hie precise intentions,
it is utterly impossible even to guess at the probable
course of events, after a cannon has once been fired
in hostility on the banks of the Eider. We have,
indeed, the disagreeable conviction that his Majesty
does not really desire peace, because, had he done so,
he could easily have procured it by frankly co-ope-
rating with England for the protection of Denmark.
Unfortunately, if he deems it his interest to prolong
a European war or to foment European confusion,
the means are not likely to be wanting. The prospect
before us is of the most threatening character. Nor
can we look with satisfaction upon anything which
ca
thu
tt
ahten Duet nai
an
hy Rs
aiegrsi
fir ae de
has recenti; transpired, except it be the manly and
high-spirited a:ldreseslfintow
has just pledged 11;5
the integrity of the kii:Tdom.
i war has given rise to a
ih
SPECTATOR.—The Maot:
scheme magnificent in concepion, and which if exe-
cuted may be entitled also to be called beneficent.
The leading men of New Zealand propose to stud
the North Island with villages of miliLary settlers,
so distributed upon great lines of communice: tion that
they will constitute a complete and well-knii!' sys-
tem of defence, segregate the natives, and cover Che
country with cultivation. To accomplish this they
will 2Toh,oeofiClgmuernesaaerde alaland organe, obfutt
wthoemirlolijoencyst
lookscweenrtk fu
works
century.
Blb
hlyea feasible;
oeamned beens iuf
such
be
ht
done,pr
0 wecarriediststta o
lo nute c,
premeditation, wt
h egreaterthis
i
race be saved from extermination. What the colonists
dweasri r
we ist thewith
th ec
savagees cessation
ti ori
ibt nottribes
sonly
theo
fringes f
war,
rges b
sit.
, whose far
utethe fear of
spreading but desolate lands they dwell. 'They have
tried the lazssezaller method, they have tried empirical
plans of conciliation and nursing ; both have
.failed.
Neither non-intervention nor the bribes of Sir G.
Grey have sufficed to raise the Maories to that state
which we call civilisation,Th and which. would render
the land habitable
notion that it is .
self governed practicablee Mtea set su
ph aavi‘elao imbibed a
rightt e atroe
act fighting.eu
king-
dom,andTh independent; and for this
that a Maori kingdom have, of course,
.a perfect.
subsist side by side. N
what ideeays they please; but it is plain
could limit the andl‘i aB. ii.tish colony. cannot
Persist-
ence in the Maorib idea
maeaureitish
..rowthoet. Maori
British
imaginable
perpetual war means extermination, perpetual colony.
wars and
or later,
rminatio.nl sooner
of the Maori race. e.But if, b a skilful occupation of
the country, the Maori can be made to feel at once
weakness and the benefits which flow from thriving
settlements, then his idea be extinguished; he
too may settle down.intohma
peaceful cultivator, and
t e .
thus be saved. Otherwise,appears to us; not.
as. it
For in a series of wars he must lose, and finally pass
away and be seen no more. Wherefore it is not less
for the benefit of the Marries than for the benefit
of the colonists that no pains should be spared to

make this war the last, by making it, at thew me,
Whole n:
time, the means of binding together the
the settlements in the northern islands with t%nu
of warrior agriculturists. There is something •L!'°:
man in the project, the authentic details of v;11.101'._
we have before us. It proposes to do a definite pi e e,..
see
of work at once and for ever. It propose,s to de::
in a large and effective way. Instead of leaving. '
tlement to chance and irregular and cruel Vgdrlblrot;
it proposes to make settlements on a plan baseuoses
the military topography of the country. It Pr°l3;oet
to make the land itself pay the cost of the pi,.
in part, and looks to the effects of increaersed poiPs is;
don upon revenue to pay the rema aphis
scheme of pacification which merits the
of
,‘ thorough." It is, of course, the roverse,nhf this
bootless measures of Sir George Grey, Whic' of
admirers call " wise and beneficent. It is, 0
course, based on " confiscation," which se 811°.tcv,
gentlemen who have signed the memorial tn, 0.,
Governor. But, with all but due respect for tue 0.;
and in opposition to them, we say it is a thestatesina
like scheme, and the only one which includes ._
eitishui,
faintest chance of saving the Maories from
tion. If the lands held by the Maories were hig ~J 0
cultivated estates, and it were proposed to seize
them, wo should agree with the memorialists ie„,7o
demning confiscation. Then confiscation in of
Zealand would be like confiscation in Lit.he,ali'tiries
Ireland. But the land is a wilderness. The ina°,t-ed
can make and do make no use of it.
from them it would be no loss to them— Abetrei,.
be absolute gain, for the ample tracts of land .oe.
would remain to them would then acouire a i" of
Thus confiscation, instead of depriving therprisl
something, would really be adding to their :400,
wealth, and the result of confiscation, colonizaso,
would bring among them law and order, the °the
tial conditions of civilisation. It is 0019, tabei
assumption that the Maori is incapable el °,7/01.
development, that those " bitter fruits " Nous. the
low from a "policy of confiscation" schic,ll, be
W uid rash
memorialists deplore. On their prineiPtetio
would be as surely pressed back by the ennted
British colonist, and finally extinguished, as
tnised
Indian or the Carib. if the Maori can be
011.1 cos
and saved, here is the only plan whereby WI"
be done.