The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-13 00:00:00

The State and Prospects of Parties,

(From the Spectator,)

It is one of the great advantages which the Con-
servative party secure at the price of many need-
less errors and much wilful blindness that their tra.
ditional way is broad and the few gates in it wide
—like another way of which we have heard, which
was, doubtless, also in the strictest sense, Conser-
vative—and eo offers comparatively few opportu-
nities for missing the way. On the other hand,
the Liberals are always having, as it were, an em-
barrassing choice of turnings, all of them, possibly,
without deserting a policy which, in some true sense
at all events, may be called Liberal; and thus we
are constantly beholding the painful sight of some
Liberal members turning off down this defile, and
others filing up that narrow and difficult ascent, in
the exercise of an individual discrimination which
it is part of their duty as Liberals to make, but
which too often disintegrates the party, and may
in some conjunctures almost grind it to powder.
Such a crisis is, we fear, the present one in Den-
mark. It is clear enough how the question of our
duty to that free and courageous little State
will act upon the Conservative ranks ; it is by
no means so clear how it will act upon the Li-
beral ranks ; but it is pretty certain that while
its tendency will be to cement the former, its ten-
dency will equally be to scatter and sow dissen-
sion among the latter. Towards the side of Den-
mark all politicians will naturally be drawn—first,
who take pride in England's standing and influence
abroad; next, who value a practical constitutional
liberty, such as Danmark possesses, more than the
mere intellectual raw material,—the professional
enlightenment and indifference of popular govern-
ment,—which pervades the German States ; finally
who value positve contract and distinct engage-
ments, even when they are not all we could wish,
more than the vaguer "natural rights of race." Now
all these preferences are clearly and specifically
Conservative preferences, though all of them may be
claimed, and espeeialiy one of them may be claimed
even with one more right, as principles dear to the
Liberal party. The country power has always
striven to hold high the power and influence of
England abroad, though never to involve it in need-
less quarrels. The Conservatives have always con-
trasted, with something oven of insular self-
righteousnes, the constitutional self-government
of England—and in this respect Denmark is like
England—with the mere soft, unrnanufactured fibre
of educated thought in Germany. The Conserva-
tives, lastly, have always professed themselves
wholly unable to understand a priori " natural
rights of race which the Liberal party have often
endeavoured to preach,—and have taken a con-
stant pride in insisting on the clear duty of per-
forming intelligible contracts, and on the danger of
searching for unintelligible principles why we
should evade them. On all these grounds, there-
fore, the natural drift of the Conservative party is
towards the Danish side of the quarrel. England's
engagements are all on that side, and England's
protest against their violation has been put aside by
Austria and Prussia like so much waste paper.
Denmark has a practical self-government, and the
German Confederation only one in theory at best.
Finally, all the positive law is against this shame-
less invasio❑ of Schleswig, and against both Austria
and Prussia for never having fulfilled their uncon-
ditional engagement under the Treaty of 1852, by
acknowledging King Christian as Duke of Schles•
wig and of Holstein. Though isolated members of
the Conservative party, therefore, may fall off, there
can be little doubt that the normal political cur-
rents will take over the bulk of the party to the
Daniah side.

On the other hand, there is no such prospect of
unity for the Liberals, and unless there be in that
partymore of that statesmanlike instinct which found
on Thursday night such masterly expression from
Mr. Goschen, we fear for them a term of paralyzed
existence.