The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-21 00:00:00

1 SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

iii:eat crisis at which the country
TittEg......Tn
has now arrit`ed if is 'latent tee:: the leadert.3o.f the.
Opposition should seek to itetfn
every retneut that has reached them it le ennail,
natural that Ministers, Who know how warily they
must take every step, should shrink from utter-
ingthe aetth:nticity.of
a word. which may interfere with the irre-
vocable decisions any day may require of them.
These considerations explain the little debate on the
Conference in the House of Commons yesterday,
which showed the Conservative leaders more than
usually peremptoryi and their Ministerial opponents
quite as evasive as, usual. The truth is that every
one who cares to inquire can learn the main inci-
dents which have marked the last few sittings of the
Conference, and the Premier was unwilling to enter
into details which could hardly be separated from
an explanation of the future designs and policy of
the Government. We can well admit that it is
the duty of an Opposition, when such rumours
are abroad, to endeavour to obtain for the country
the most complete and truthful information possible;
but all that is necessary to be known had already
been given to the world in the statement that at the
last meeting of the Conference, on Saturday, the
British Government, in accordance with the resolu-
tion come to at the Congress of Paris in 1856, pro-
posed to refer the disputed boundary between the
two German Powers and Denmark to the decision
of a friendly arbitrator. It is difficult to conceive a
case in which this principle of arbitration might be
more fitly applied. As a general rule we have little
faith in it. Where there is a clear, definite issue
between the two parties—something that both can
understand and do perfectlyunderstand—something
that touches national honour or national existence—
it is of little use to send the matter before an arbitra-
tor. To think of referring such a question as the union
between England and Ireland, or the right of the
Federals to invade the Confederates is plainly
absurd. The parties would never commit their
dearest interests to the judgment of any man or
Cabinet; and if they could be brought to consent,
it is certain that the party decided against would be
irresistibly tempted to repudiate the award. But
in this case there is no similar difficulty. It is just
such a question as may be examined by a competent
authority and fairly solved. It is one of detail, and
nothing more. It has been agreed on both sides
that the principles which should guide the decision
are the prevalence of the Danish or the German
population in such and such districts of the Duchy,
and the securing of a convenient frontier between
the Germanic Confederation and what would then
become Denmark Proper. There is nothing in
dispute but the nationality and language of certain
districts, which can be easily ascertained by inquiry,
and the districts then partitioned accordingly. A
frontier line capable of serving as a barrier as well
as a limit between the two countries may also be
drawn by any Sovereign or statesman who makes
himself acquainted with the country. All that is
to be done is to decide how a debatable zone of
thirty miles in width, inhabited by a mixed popu•
lation, shall be disposed of. That any Govern-
ment should prefer the chance of war to the
judgment of an impartial arbitrator on such a
question is hardly to be believed. If, however,
that should appear to be the case—if Prussia and
Austria, which were actually parties at Paris to the
enunciation of the principle, reject it on the first
occasion that it can be advantageously applied—it
will indeed appear that violence and ambition not
only bear down the defences of weak States, bat re-
pudiate the humane conclusions at which the great
Powers have arrived with regard to the government
of Europe. It is said that the proposal of arbitra-
tion was referred by the respective Plenipotentiaries
to their own Governments, and that to-morrow they
will announce their decision. To-morrow, then, we
are likely to know whether this last chance of peace
between the contending parties is to prove fortunate.
The matter rests principally with Prussia, for it is
not likely that Austria, if left alone, will refuse any
fair proposition for concluding a war in which she
has no direct interest, and the continuance of which
exposes her to the gravest dangers. It would be
pleasant for us if we could express a confident ex-
pectation that the German Powers would show
themselves wise and moderate at the eleventh hour;
but the past behaviour and present temper, of the
Prussian people do not encourage a belief that they
will yield. There is, it is said, a violent war fever at
Berlin, an exultation which is caused by the
conquest of Duppel, and which makes those sube
ject to it look upon their officers as pre-eminent
in skill, their soldiers as models of spirit and
courage. While, then, earnestly desiring
that better counsels may prevail at Berlin.
that some memories of international justice and of
his own declarations to England six months since
may induce M. von Bismark to refrain from the
schemes which he has adopted from Bavaria and
Saxony, it is-we think time that this country should
make up its mini what its course must be if all its
overtures are rejected, all its advice despised, and
the unhappy people in whose behalf it has acted still
remain the victims of German violence and ambi-
tion. To-morrow the Conference meets—it may be
for the last time. Oa Monday next, if in the mean-
time no ffelngs of humanity or prudence prevail,
the war will begin again. On that day, assuredly,
new extortions will be made iu Jutland, new prep--
rations will probably be made for carrying the war
into the Islands, and no doubt the first political act
of the Allies will be to declare the whole of Schleswig
and Holstein permanently severed from the Danish
Kingdom and erected into an independent sove-
reignty by right of conquest. Together with these
wrongs to Denmark,there will be a demonstration of
defiance and derision towards ourselves. All the
patience and courtesy of the last half-year will be
ascribed to weakness. The speeches of our states.
men, the cheers of our House of Commons, the
articles in our newspapers, the manifest sympathy
with Denmark evinced by all classes of society
will be taken to show that we are earnestly bent
on something which the vigour and boldness of the
German rulers prevented us from attaining. Nor
can we be surprised that foreigners should take such
a view when Englishmen can hardly refrain from it
themselves. The humiliation and the consciousness
of failure which afflict the public mind are the mea-
sure of the exultation of those whose policy has pre-
vailed so completelyover our own. No onewho knows
what has passed can fail to see that if this country
allows the Danish war to begin again, and to be
carried to such an end as the German allies propose,
not only a grievous wrong will have been perpe-
trated in Europe, out the just influence of England
—an influence always of late years used in defence
of freedom and national independence—will be
seriously impaired. It is evident from the language,
and still more from the reticence, of Ministers that
they deeply feel the importance of the present crisis,
and are convinced that they can retain power only
by upholding the dignity of the country. What
their first acts may be we cannot presume to pre-
dict. But this is plain—that since England in her
capacity as a first-class State and a party to the
Treaty of 1852 entered into these transactions, and
was recognised by the belligerents as having claims
and interests of her own, we have now a right to
demand the forbearance of the two German Powers,

Whether it be prudent or not to interfere at once,
whether Schleswig, or a part of it, could be deli-
vered by British aid, are political or military ques-
tions which will require anxious consideration. In
the meantima we think that a suspension of diplo-
matic relations should be the immediate result of

the rejection of our last proposition for peace, There
can be no benefit in being represented at Courts
which have treated England with such contumely.
When this step is taken the Government will be
able to determine in what way material effect may
be best given to the protest on which they may
have resolved.

HERALD.—The House of Commons witnessed a
scene last night for which even the most indefati-

1 gable searelL:r into parliamentary history can find
no precedent. The members of the house had heard
from different sources accounts which, although not
official, were apparently authentic, of the proceed-
ings of the Conference on Saturday. They had
been informed that at that meeting the belligerent
e
maintained pretensions which were utterly irroecn_ng
cileable ; that the English Government, abandoning
its dn'
again a position upon which it had professed
re-
solve to take its stand, had made a
proposala was virtually rejected by all parties,t
no-
minally accepted ad referendum: that
which
represen-
tatives of the German Powers ht the
indulged in the most
intention, in the event of
and even announced their
unseemly threats against .Deninark and England,
the resumption of the war, to issue letters of marque
in defiance of the enrgement not to do so which
they made eight years ago at Paris. The members
flocked to the house to ascertain from the responsi
ble Ministers of the Crown whether these grave an-
nouncements were correct. The leader of the Op-
position rose at the time which the custom of the
house has consecrated to such inquiries, to ask
whether the Prussian Minister had made the
threat attributed to him, and whether hostilities
would recommence on the 26th, in the event of
the Conference breaking up on Wednesday. He
put his question without any comment; he made
no effort to "exploit" the painful situation
against the Ministry ; he gave them an opportunity
of which men conscious of the rectitude of their
conduct and resolved upon their policy would
have gladly availed themselves. But the Ministry
were determined not to give any information, and
they thought that the best way to refuse it was to
keep the Premier out of the house, and pretend
that nobody else could answer a question upon
such an important subject. The Premier, there-
fore, was kept out of the house, but in its neigh-
bourhood, so that if the "dodge" should not answer
he could come to the assistance of colleagut,,s who