The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-12 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The peacemakers are pursuing their
harmless vocation with their habitual industry. It
cannot be said that there is not a call, for America
has delivered itself over as a prey into their hands.
If they did not speak now they would have to hold
their tongues for many a day. Yet the extremity
itself shows the impotency of peacemaking done
in this fashion. In three weeks more than three
hundred thousand good people have given their
names to in address entreating the Federals to
let the Confederates alone and part in peace.
Nearly half of the signatures are Irish, obtained
through the influence of the Roman Catholic
priesthood. There is nothing new in the address,
nor need there be, for all that was wanted was
to express the natural feelings of almost every
Englishman at the successive stages of this miserable
affair. Time brought out both the strength and the
merits of the Confederate cause ; their heroic re-
sistance compelled attention to their arguments,
and at last we have most of us come to the same
conclusion as these peacemakers—that the Fede-
rals will never conquer the Confederates except
by a process which will destroy two Federals
for one Confederate, leaving to a mangled tail the
reversion of a hideous anarchy. To wish for more
progress or more success on either one side or the
other is simply to wish for carnage, for it is evident
the Confederates will sell their lives very dear. Of
course lovers of sport will wish to see the quarrel
fought out, If two ruffians or two dogs have a stand-
up fight in our streets the public: instantly make a
ring, and upon some fanciful ground or other the
several bystanders choose their sides. They become
partisans, simply to add a zest to the amusement ;
but if the combatants killed one another they
would not take it much to heart. We are
disposed to think that most English, and we hope
also Irish people, have passed through this phase.
They have had enough of carnage. Its very
sameness is wearisome. So by this time all would
be rejoiced to hear of a settlement, amicable or
not. These enthusiasts profess to be of opinion
that the Federals have nothing to do but stop
fighting, and all is settled, so they preach and pray
to the Federals to do this and restore peace to
America. Expressions of this sort are so common, so
familiar, and generally so useless that we simply re-
gard them as the ejaculations of weakness, or indif-
ference, or contempt. Neighbours in private life can
do a great deal, if they will he only just and kind,
honest and sympathetic. When they see people
going wrong, an ill feeling growing, or an error
taking root, a multitude of reasons inclines them to
do nothing. They don't want trouble; they wish net
to offend; they will take no side; they don't object
to see pride preparing for itself a fall; they are not
displeased to see those who are too defiant to be
advised and too strong to be punished in the way to
punish themselves. No doubt, too, most people feel
a pleasure in everything which proves their neigh.
boars worse than themselves, and themselves better
than their neighbours; so they let things take their
course, and things do take their course with a ven-
geance. It is needless to particularise the many
oc3asions of social life in which a quarrel is per-
mitted, without the least interference, to grow
slowly out of a trifle till it becomes an intolerable
nuisance to the neighbourhood, and the misery, if
net the ruin, of the parties themselves. When
matters have come to the worst and are irreme■
diable, when two tempers and positions are utterly
damaged, then the peacemakers come in with their
barren pity and their moral inanities. They do
nothing, indeed; they only make long faces and
talk :—" What a pity these neighbours can't
agree ! "Why cannot they shake hands, and con-
fess that there have been faults on both sides P
Let them forgive and forget. It is due to the
neighbourhood." Such language, even if it
reaches those concerned, which it often does not,
cannot make the least impression. When a
man feels himself injured in his character, his posi-
tion, or his prospects, he is not likely to care much
for the advice of peop'e who are indifferent, if only
indifferent, to these wrongs, and whose true wish,
if they would only be so candid as to avow it, is
that he would be so good as to take himself off and
be never heard of again. These 300,000 peacemakers
can hardly be believed to care more for the matter
than our supposed bystanders in a private quarrel.
There is a mystery, indeed, about the Irish signa-
tures which we don't pretend to fathom, for the fact
of 130,000 Irish peacemakers is hardly consistent
with the evidently Federal sympathy of Ireland, as
seen in the extensive emigration to the North and
actual enlistment in the Federal cause. The priests,
it is true, cannot wish to see their flocks scattered

far away or butchered in the desperate operas
Lions of war, specially assigned by the Federal
Generals to raw recruits and hundred days' men,
so we may reasonably expect that the Irish priest-
hood take a more sensible view of the American war

than the political agitators with whom they are
otherwise ready to act. But as a matter of mere
peacemaking what does this address come to ? Just
nothing. Ii does not profess to enter into the rights
of thequestion, much less its difficulties. It does not
suggest how the miracle is to be accomplished, ex-
cept, indeed, by the miracle of a simultaneous and
instantaneous disarmament, followed by an equally
miraculous forbearance and contentment, to be
showa by two neighbours of incompatible tempers
occupying territories geographically dovetailed into
one another, and with numerous questions neither
settled nor capa'ale of settlement. We are sorry to
describe the case as thus hopeless, but we see in it
a melancholy reason for resigning ourselves to
the only possible solution of these problems—
the die of war. When the United States, North
and South, cast that die four years ago they
appealed in fact to the tremendous power which
has founded the States of the Old World, and left
us as we are and what we are. War has made Eu-
rope and us who inhabit it ; war founded our
dynasties and institutions; war diffused and mixed
our races ; war, as much as mountains, rivers, and
seas, has laid down our boundaries. That frame of
society which contributes so much to the formation
of character, the preservation of peace, and the sta-
bility of institutions, owes its origin to war. The
subordination of classes, the rights of property, and
the respect paid to masters and proprietors may be
traced back to the period when all society was a
military organization in which it was necessary for
every member to have his place. Europe has
passed through this ordeal. All her nations,
Crowns, families and institutions have been
baptized in blood. Every gentleman among
us does but occupy the place of a feudal
superior, bound to render military service and
empowered to exact it. History does not,
indeed, repeat itself in identical forms and phrases.
We cannot forecast the shape in which America will
come out of the furnace. But she has only just
stepped into that pit of violence and rapine in which
Europe lay for ages, and, terrible as the process of
social regeneration was and is, we cannot doubt that
America will be the better for it in the end.
POST:--Favoured by brilliant autumn weather,
the Prince and Princess of Wales have seen the
grand scenery of Scandinavia to advantage, and
made acquaintance with a nation which has played
a great part in the affairs of Europe. While partak-
ing of the regal and generous hospitality of the
Swedish Court, they have been introduced to a
brave and warm-hearted people, and the impressions
produced will we trust prove abiding and mutually
beneficial. The visit is now drawing to aclose, and
the reception the Prince and Princess have every-
where experienced calls for some expression of the
sentiments of pride and gratitude it has inspired in
this country. To say that it has exceeded the most
sanguine expectations would be to convey in a trite
farm only half the truth. It will be more exact to
avow that it has realised hopes which were never
uncertain. There could be no doubt about the sym-
pathy that subsisted between England and Den-
mark, but we naturally desired to remove any mis-
apprehension of our conduct which had arisen out
of political complications. We felt that we were
judged harshly. Our reason advised us that the
reproaches which 'were apparently deserved were in
reality unjust. Still, the question did not admit of
ordinary argument. The Danes were not in a con-
dition to be argued with. They had been cruelly
wronged, and the disappointment to which they
succumbed ha% aggravated their suffering. Under
these circumstances the Prince and Princess of
Wales represented the public opinion they accu-
rately comprehended, and a visit that was purely
private served to interpret the national emotion,
and to dissipate the misgivings which were more or
less entertained to our prejudice. This is a matter
for hearty congratulation, and, if such a wish might
be expressed, the people of England would, we are
sure, esteem it a privilege to be permitted to bear
the expense of a journey which, besides the pleasure
it
has
afforded the Prince and Princess, has contri-
buted to the better understanding of their inten-
tions. The royal parting must necessarily, in the
present state of things, be painful. Denmark is
still struggling against the exactions of a powerful
and ruthless foe. The invader is still occupying
and plundering her territory, and while Prussian
extortion prevails King Christian must reign, not
by sufferance as they affect to think at Berlin, but
on conditions that are manifestly incompatible with
independence. His throne is safe, indeed, and the
loyalty of his subjects has answered to the emer-
gency ; but these securities are not immediately
available, and a Sovereign whose alliances may be
fairly said to be formidable has been compelled to
resign all hopes of obtaining justice, and is pleads
ing in vain for mercy. On the other hand, however,
it is impoesible not to perceive that Denmark has
established a title to consideration which the Powers
that suffered her spoliation Fen not refuse to recog.
nice ; and though the recognition may be a question
of time, and_must be regulated by policy, it is as

firmly assured as any engagement of the kind ca¢
be, and perhaps all the more so because ants es
.not
been paraded in protocols. Step by step, rnallq
through the action of France, the Governments 91
Europe are coming to apprehend the situation I.a
a
_l
which they have placed themselves. Even Prussia
must be aware that the day of reckoning cannot ba
much longer postponed; and Austria, we may be
sure, will embrace the earliest opportunity ot s.et._
hug herself right as regards a transaction wlllO5,
has simply inrreased the difficulties it was accepted
as a means of reducing. Danmark, therefore, ha!
no cause to despair for the future, and she can 10"'
forward with the confidence a clear conscience im-
parts, which is more than some apparently stronger
Powers can do. There is sort: even in 1..
Scandinavian manners and cusiuLas which indicate'
power. It is evident that the people are, es t(b„el„
have ever been, a hardy and warlike race. ludy
heartiness of their welcome, their manly sportse.
their social freedom, all witness to the qualitle
that form' the stability of Stetes. These ele
virtues which grow, and are not made. They eE.1,1,10
not be manufactured to order. In Germany
segregation of classes has tended to diminish for
force of patriotism, and the Governments rely on
,_a
paid soldiery. Denmark, also, departed from tueo
ancient traditions, and is now probably awalre.,th
the mistake she made in attempting to cope virl".
two great military Powers with their own weaPeal
The conflict could have been rendered more eload
by, ruder means, and the breech-loaders and
riff
cannon which we have heard so much about 01.4"1
possibly have proved less effective in a
struggle carried on without regard to the usages ?!
modern war, and without reference to diplonlat.l,ll,
countenance. As it is, the Danish Government. vino'
have to revise its defensive armaments, and stems,
army could be organised on our volunteer syste.rot
but preserving the old Scandinavian characteristico,
and enlisting the peasantry by remunerating thedril
for the loss of time they would not be able to aftbr.r:
the object that should be kept primarily in view tie
a country so situated—the education of the peq„
to defend themselves—might be inexpensively e'd
nations.
tamed, But Denmark's right arm has been, ilat
must continue to be, her fleet, and in the equipraeahn
of her ships, and in the training of her sailors,
should, on the contrary, discard all old-fashioned:
ideas. There her security consists in the adoption ed`
every improvement that has been discovered, Of
no money that is spent in adding to the efficiencY,ae
her navy will be thrown away. On the ocean Bud
ought to be able to defy the power of Austria 020
Prussia ; and on that, their proper element, for
Danes should provide themselves according to W.,
requirements of modern warfare. The old Seat
Kings would stand no chance in a naval engagement
with iron-plated frigates and rifled guns.
ashore it is otherwise. There, if a people have "0
contend with superior forces, they must rise as °s
man, and fight—as the Confederates in An3erieo
fought in the first year of the war—with any arse
that can be obtained, and as they are best able. ni
safety of a country depends on its patriotism, na,i.
when, as in Denmark, nationality is a living sen".o
ment as well as a cherished souvenir, though it
be defeated, it cannot be destroyed. A Szandinavmh:
Union is not required to preserve the spirit Of t,„'"o
northern nations; but living together on the ball,'
of the Baltic, they can scarcely forget what the,:
once were, nor fail to see that, if their indePti
dente is necessary to Europe, it ought to be usel"
to themselves.