The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-05 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—Mr, Stansfeld has taken the only wise
and honourable course that was open to him. He has
reeigned the office which he held in the Adminis-
tration, and laA eiiening his denial of the charges
against him was made in the earfe:trity of a private
Member of Parliament. We feel sure filet Mr.
Stansfeld *ill ne+ea have cause to regret this de-
termination. Standing adaiii tts an independent
man, responsible to no colleagues, and tin longer
making his colleagues responsible for him, he was
able to speak with energy and freedom, and to re-
pudiate the construction which had been placed
on his e.cte by the French lawyers. Of Mr.
Stansfeld/a intimacy with Mazzini, and the cir-
cumstances which brought his name into the late
trial, enough has now been said. We think that
he was guilty of a grave indiscretion in aiding the
Italian refugee's correspondence, and of a greater
indiscretion in calogising him at such a time and
in such a place. But at last we have his clear and
positive denial, not only of all plots against the
French Emperor, but even any knowledge of the
plotters themselves. In the most formal manner Mr
Stansfeld declares, not only that he is free from all
participation in the crime of-Greco and the others
—a declaration which was scarcely needed—but
also that he wes a stranger to them, end was not
concerned with them in any political schemes what-
over. From this time, therefore, we may consider
the matter as settled. Mr. Stansfeld has cleared
himself in public opinion from any culpable partici-
pation in the acts of these men, and all that can be
objected against him is that, like many of his coun-
trymen, he has allowed his enthusiasm in a good
cause and his admiration of an enthusiastic revolu-
tionist to carry him beyond the limits of prudence.
But however favourable may be the verdict of the
public in respect to the graver charges brought
against him, the retirement of Mr. Stansfeld from
the Government was a necessity. It is no secret
that the Opposition was preparing to attack the Go-
vernment through him, and with great chances of
success. The spirit which animates the Conserva-
tives was manifest last evening, when the Opposition
benches were left empty at the time of Mr. Stens•
field's explanation. Having, through their leader,
denounced him with a fierceness seldom witnessed
in the House of Ccmmons, the Conservatives
thought proper to absent themselves almost entirely
when it was known that he was about to offer his
defence to the House. That the attack on Mr.
Stansfeld and on the Government would have been
made with all the energy and bitterness of which
the Tory chiefs are capable there can be no doubt.
Why, then, should Mr. Stansfeld draw upon him-
self and others such a conflict ? ILI well knew
that the only reason why the Opposition made so
much of the matter was that they might damage
Ws colleagues, and, as he observed last night, he was
likely to become a cause of embarrassment to them.
By resigning he at once frees himself and the Go-
vernment from the attacks of a pertinacious Oppo-
sition. As an independent member whom it will ad-
vance no political interest to attack, Mr. Stansfeld
is likely to have a fairer judgment, and to find his
conduct more leniently viewed. Now that he is again
a private person, he will only 'be thought of with
regard to Mazzini as a single-minded enthusiast
whose confidence was too unguardedly given. In a
short time the affair will probably be brgotten, and
Mr. Stensfeld may be again able to serve the State
in any capacity for which his talents fit him.
Mr. Stansfeld now has the advantage that every.
thing is known respecting his connection with
Mazzini, and that ea etything that can be said
against him has been said already. If, then, at any
future time he is offered a political post, it will be
with a full knowledge of his previous history. This
will be a far better position than he recently held,
for it must be acknowledged that neither Lord
Palmerston nor any member of his Government had
any idea, when Mr. Stanefeld was admitted as a
colleague, that he was making his private address a
cover for M izzini's correspondence. Any Premier
who now off,,rs Mr, Stansfeld office will take him
with his former revolutionary sympathies a well-
known fact, and witl only have to demand of him
that they shall not lead him into further impru-
dence.

POST.—The fifth and last instalment of the Danish
correspondenco has now been published, and the
story of the many and varioue negotiations tc
which the Dano German dispute gave rise may
now be considered complete. The correspondence
is brought down to the last days of March, and
the assent of the belligerents as well as of the
chief neutral Powers to a Conference, with the vie 7
to the re-establishment of peace, is the last event of
importance which is recorded. Those who are de-
sirous of canvassing or criticising the foreign policy
of her Majesty's Government in respect to the
Danish war are now furnished with the materials
which they have so anxiously sought for, and can
no longer excuse themselves under the plea of igno-
rance from pronouncing a deliberate judgment.
The instalments in which the correspondence has
been published have not inaptly marked the several
stages through which theDanosGerman dispute has
successfully passed. First came the stage of nego-
tiatione between the German Powers and Denmark,
is which Federal execution in Holstein was the
gravest contingency which either of the disputants
:appeared to contemplate. Then followed the stage
of feverish excitement into which Germany was
thrown by the death of the Danish King, and the
vexed question of succession in the Duchies to
which it gave rise. Then c.llllO the phase in which
diplomacy gave way to force, and the o,drainistra-
tien of the Duchy of Holstein was seized by the
representatives of the German Confederation. In
the fourth stage Germany ceased to be united, the
leading States practically seceded from the Confe-
deration, and in their capacity of European Powers
threatened war under the flimsy disguise of seizing
a material guarantee. Lastly came the period of
actual war, of sieges, of battles, of occupation of
captured territory, and of retreats; and beyond
this point we have not yet passed. The next stage
should be one of treaty-making and of peace, but
it is one which is as yet but dimly shadowed forth.
What has been the policy of the English Cabinet
under these constantly shifting circumstances, and
how that policy has been met by the Governments
of the belligerent States, is set forth in the papers
now before Parliament with a particularity and an
amplitude of detail which leaves teething to be
desired save possibly the condensation of' their
mutter. What has taken place in the North of
Europe, and what Great Britain did in order to
avert those occurrences, are now matters of history.
It only remains for the dispassionate inquirer to
say whether the policy which she pursued was the
best calculated to attain the ends she had in view.
The first letters in the series of papers just published
bear date in the last week in January. At that
time Holstein was administered by Federal n,rn
misdoners, every Danish official had been dismissed,
the chief towns in the Duchy were occupied by
Saxon and Hanoverian troops, and an Austro-Prus-
sian army was massed upon the left bank of the
Eider. Federal execution in Holstein had been
carried out, and the invasion of Schleswig by the
allied armies was momentarily threatened. The
mission of Lord Wodehouse to Copenhagen had
then ended in failure, The constitution of Novem-
ber still remained unrevoked, and the Governments
of Austria and Prussia formally declared that the
non-revocation of that constitution would be made
a casus belli. Such was the position of affairs
at the close of January; and accordingly we find
that. at that time commenced those negotiations,
unfortunately unsucceasful, in which the English
Cabinet, in conjanction with those of Paris and St.
Petersburg, urged upon the German Powers the
expediency of postponing hostilities until the
Danish Parliament should have had an opportu-
nity of revoking the obnoxious constitution. These
negotiations virtually came to an end on the
29th of January, when our Minister at Berlin
transmit ted. to Earl Russell the refusal of the Prus-
sian Government to suspend hostilities, even
though an engagement were entered into by the
chief neutral Powers binding, Denmark to rescind
the November constitution. On the Ist day of
February the allied armies entered Schleswig, on
th© 4th the Prussians - made their unsuccessful
attack upon Mieeunde, and on the 6th the Dane-
wirko was abandoned, and the Danish army retired
upon Duppel and Frederrcia. From this point
there is little deserving of notice in the mass of cor-
respondence until the 11th of February, when the
Danish Minister in London made a formal demand
upon the British Government to assist Denmark,
basing this demand upon the engagements entered
into by Great Britain in 1720, and on the expe-
diency of maintaining tho Treaty of London.
Almost at the eame time commenced the negotia-
tions set on foot by the British Government, cud
supported by France and Russia, with tho object
of obtaining a suspension of hostilities as a preli-
minary to a Conference—negotiations which were
immediately cut short by the abrupt refusal of the
Geeman Powers to consent to an armistice. The
most important, and at the seen time most interest-
ing, despetehes however, be found at the close
of the series.' Foiled in their endeavours to secure
an 'armistice, the English Cabinet next sought to
induce the belligerents to assent to a Conference
without a cessation of hostilities. To this proposal
the German Powers almost immediately assented;
but, in the then state of public feeling at Copen
hagen, the Danish Cabinet found itself under the
necessity of asking time for consideration. At a
later period (March 7), and pending the decision of
the Danish Governmetat, the German Powers is-
sued their proposals for an armistice upon the basis
of the preservation of the military status quo, or the
simultaneous evacuation of Jutland and Schleswig
by the Germans and the Dance. These proposals
were pressed upon the acceptance of the Daniels

Government by Earl Russell in a despatch dated
March 9, but were at once rejected, on the ground
that, with Jutland completely at the mercy of the
allies, the status quo did not admit of definition,
and because the course which affairs had taken had
rendered an armistice much less favourable to Den-
mark than it would have been when first proposed
by England and rejected by the German Powers.
The assent of the Danish Government to the Con-
ference is finally notified to Earl Russell on March
17; and, although it is accepted on the basis of the
Treaty of 1851-2, an intimation is given that " its
adoption will not preclude the discussion of other
modes, if arrangements can not be come to on that
basis." Virtually, then, a Conference has been ar-
ranged; but upon no particular basis, unless Earl
Russell be correct in terming that a basis which is,
in truth, but an end•—namely, the restoration of
peace in the North of Europe. The representatives
of the belligerents and of the chief neutral Powers
will meet in consultation, but we search in vain in
the papers before us to discover the precise subject
matter of their deliberations.