The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-23 00:00:00

GREAT WESTERN OF CANADA.

The loss on exchange by the conversion of American
money received for the carriage of through traffic from the
commencement of the current half-year to the 6th February
amounted to the sum of £42,405, and at that date there was
a further sum of American funds still remaining to be con-
verted of £130,764.

THE WAR IN DENMARK.

(From the Times' Correspondent.)
BERLIN, Feb. 20.

It is probably superfluous to tell you that no
credit is to be attached to the reportsof negcciations
and an armistice quite recently circulated in nume-
rous German papers. There seems not the least
probability of any such pacific change coming over
the present sentiments of the belligerents, who, on
both sides, are very determined to carry on the war.
If this appears to be at a standstill—with the ex-
ception of insignificant outpost affairs, dwelt upon
by German correspondents in the absence of anything
more important to record—it is because the Prus-
sians, who are now in front, have discovered that
Duppel is not a place to be carried in a canter, and
are making preparations for a regularsiege. Duppel,
it appears, is to be the Sebastopol of the campaign.
Trenches are being opened, and the usual regular
approaches will be made as for the siege of a fortress.
The consequent delay is doubtless irksome to certain
eager and confident gentlemen who reckoned on the
whole of Schleswig being cleared by an irresistible
rush of the allied forces; but to these best able to
judge it appears inevitable. The Prussians are
very youthful soldiers, the greater part of them
mere beardless lads, and it would be hazardous to
hurl them point-blank against the strong defences
and heavy ordnance of the Duppel intrenchments.
With veteran troops the thing might be possible, of
course at the sacrifice of many lives ; but young
soldiers, going for the first time under fire, are apt
to be demoralised by the sight of their comrades
falling thick about them, and it would not do to
risk a repulse. So the pioneers and fatigue men are
at work, and hard work it must be, especially now
that frost has returned, rendering the ground almost
impenetrable to pick and spade. At Hamburg there
are five degrees of cold and fresh ice in the Elbe.
Some heavy artiLery has gone up from Magdeburg,
and more is said to be going, but some days are
likely still to elapse before fire can be opened.
Letters of the 17th from Rendsburg speak of the
daily passage through that town of Prussian troops
both by rail and marching; the special military
trains quickly succeeding one another. Heavy guns
were also expected. The number of Prussian troops
now in Schleswig must be very large,and I am assured
that there are 10,001) men either in Holstein or close
to its frontiers. North of Flensburg, in the district
of Sundewitt or its immediate neighbourhood, there
must be at least 30,000 Prussians. It is believed
that, simultaneously with the operations against
Duppel, something will be undertaken in another
quarter, and there is talk of an attack upon Frede-
ricia, which repulsed one made upon it by 16,000
Schleswig-Holsteiners in the last war. The island
of Fanen might, perhaps, also be menaced, Of
course, if the war be once carried beyond the limits
of Schleswig, it entirely changes its character, but
not until then, although I see by this morning's
telegrams that the Paris journal La France enume-
rates the siege of Duppel among the causes which
it considers to bring the Danish question into its
" European phase." As it also includes among
those-causes "the projects attributed to Austria and
Prussia," we perhaps ought not to attach great im-
portance to an article which allows such weight to
mere rumours. There is not, that lam aware, any
present reason to believe that Austria has other pro-
jects than that of reducing to a personal union the
connexion between Denmark and the Duchies. To
M. von Bismark, it is true, other designs are im-
puted, but the imputation rests partly on conjecture
and partly on expressions that have escaped him.
He talks so much, and in so random a manner, that
some people think he thereby conceals his real mind
more effectually than he could do by the utmost re-
serve. It is, perhaps, on something he has said that
the idea is founded that Schleswig-Holstein might
possibly become a Prussian province under an here-
ditary viceroy or stadtholder—a dignity which
might be offered to Prince Frederick of Augusten-
burg, were he likely to accept it. You may not be
fully aware how greatly the idea of territorial acqui-
sition flattens the Prussian mind. All parties would
combine to support a Government which took that
for the main object of its policy. The Prussians feel
that they are not only the smallest of the great
Powers, but the one most exposed to aggression by
reason of its scattered territory and comparatively
defenceless frontiers. This makes them ambitions
of increase. They desire both extension and greater
compactness. The Duchies would be a most popular
acquisition. But, however much Prussia may want
or imagine that she wants them, the taking of them,
or at least their retention, is very different matter.
A Frederick the Great might do it, maintaining his
prize, against all corners. But those days are gone.
France and Austria would of course expect a corre-
sponding gain, and where is it to be afforded them ?
The matter is hardly to be managed, at least for the
present. M. von Bismark may be willing and daring
enough to make the attempt, but great skill, power,
and prestige would be necessary to carry out the
enterprise. Mean while the very large force sent
northward attracts attention, and especially the
number of battalions in or close to Holstein excites
mistrust and jealousy. It looks more and more as if
the determination were to elbow the Federal troops
out of that Duchy. If the allies go into Jutland,
one reason assigned will be the embargo laid upon
German ships by the Danish Government. The
Hamburg commercial deputation has been officially
informed that the Danish Minister for Foreign
Affairs, M. de Quaade, had notified to Count %Yes-
dehien; the Prussian Secretary of Legation still at
Copenhagen, that the Danish men-of. war had orders
to capture all German ships. Denmark probably
thinks that she cannot be harder bested with al!
Germany against her than she is with Austria and
Prussia, and the countenance and protection afforded
by the Federal troops and commissioners to the
proclamation of Prince Frederick throughout Hol-
stein is a violation of right that may be taken
fully to warrant a declaration of war. All the asse-
verations of M. von Beust and the Saxon Commis-
sioner are worth very little in opposition to notori
ous facts, and to the evidence of people's u,,tt senses.