The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-16 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, AUGUST 16, 1864.

It has long been decided that the age of chivalry
is past, and surely if any confirmation were wanting
to the fact the Dano-German war has furnished
proof positive to that effect. From the commence-
ment to the close of this unequal struggle we have
witnessed nothing but extravagant extortion and
cruel aggression on the part of the German Powers.
Their course has been unparalleled in the annals of
modern times for rapacity and revenge, and this,
too, on a harmless people who had done them no
injury. Whatever there has been to denounce cn
the part of the Russians in their conduct towards
Poland, and to deplore in the sufferings of that
wretched land, it is certain that where once des-
perate natures have held sway they era not likely
to lose their hold without making a most desperate

resistance. The prey once grasped is still han-

kered after, and it is no easy matter to make the
spoiler yield his prize, however unlawful might
have been the means that once put it into his pos-
session. This reason, for it cannot be called an
excuse, does not in any way hold good in respect
to the attitude assumed by the Germans in regard
to Denmark and the Danes. They never held
dominion over the place they now so ruthlessly
attack, nor ruled over the people they relentlessly
persecute. Their vehement course, their violent
demeanour, and their fierce fighting for territory
show the bent of their grasping minds and the want
of consideration that actuates their course. If any-
thing could have aroused the inaction which un.
fortunately seized upon Europe at the time when
the united armies proceeded on their cruel expedid
tion, surely it mast have been the manner in which
the theories were put into practice, and the designs
executed by the aggressors. It was bad enough
to go to war at all, but to carry on the contest in
such a style us has been chronicled was outrageous
in the extreme. In times when honour was more
thought of an universal outcry from all the nations
of Christendom would have been raised against the
deprecators, who in plenitude of power and pride
of possession marched on to carry desolation into
smiling provinces, and make the homesteads of
happy peasants the scene of slaughter. It would
appear from the testimony of all witnesses
and the general aspect of affairs, as if the
desire of the Garman Powers had been to erase
Denmark altogether from the map of Europe, and
so incorporate her ravished territories with those
of her enemies, that the next generation would have
had nothing of a tangible nature to remind them of
the existence of that gallant little kingdom which
Seat forth such brave armies to meet the advances
of a Powerful and pitiless fee. Doubtless the
gocerai expression of public opinion in England,
and tLe strong language
employed in the great
aLbat© on for:10 affairs towards the close of the
session, in some Measure contributed to stay the
c
sacrifico and modify the catastrophe. In France,
also, although for political reasons nothing was
done of a meterial nature to afford assistance, the
sympathy of the press and people Were warmly ex-
pressed on behalf of the assailed State; and all
these secondary interpositions combined to elle.
viete the horrors of the final scene. Yet, when eee
reflect upon the tidings that reached us of the mode
is which the warfare was carried on, the unneces.
sary violence added to the inseparable horrors of
war, the brutality in which the Prussian troops in-
dalsed, ai,d the tUofilles into which thole officerd