The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-24 00:00:00

The Weather—Sun Office, March 24, 1864.

THERMOMETER.
This day at Two o'clock 4O

Barometer-29.91.
Wind—East; moderate breeze, and fine.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THis DAN.—Morning, 2h. 49m.—Afternoon, 3h.. 3m.
l'o-moßßow.-Morning, 3h. 18m.—Afternoon, 3h. 36m.

c. 31,
4 .4$
Sults,

LONDON, THUR DAY, MARCII 24, 1864.

The Conference is reported to have been defini-

tively accepted by the Austrian and Prussian
Governments. Accepted by them without any de-
tailed basis, and, of course, without any prospect
even of an armistice. The intimation that such is
the understanding comes to
.us ominously together
with rumours of further and fiercer fighting be-

tween the belligerents before Diippel. Statements
were even put forth freely in Paris last evening to
the effect that Diippel had been actually carried by
storm at the cost of a very heavy sacrifice of life
both to the assailants and assailed, by the Austro-
Prussians. The veracity of this flying rumour,
however (doubtful at the time of its vacillating
movement hither and thither among the Parisian
newsmongers), has since then been very generally
discredited. Yet, no matter what may chance to be
the veritable situation of things in that part of the
invaded territory—there at Duppel, confronting
each other in arms, are, beyond a doubt of it, the
belligerents. Holstein has long since been com-
p'etely overrun by the German soldiery. Schleswig,
saving only one small and comparatively insigni-
ficant portion of the province, has been taken com-
plete possession of by the Anstro-Prussians. Inso-
much, indeed, has it been seized and monopolised by
them that the Danish functionaries have, one and all
of them, given place to duly appointed subjects of
one or another among the Sovereign houses com•
posing that Diet, whose capital is Frankfort-on-the-
,Nraine. Added to which, as a'token of the com-
pleteness of this Germanic seizure of Schleswig, the
Danish liizigdage`hilbere been, as:far 'as might be
in any way
.practicable, set aside, aliogethen as a
"tongue so far illegal that. it ia,knuwn to be,, nay, for
that matter, is. virtually announced to be; under a

sort of a tabOo-4-the- grand guttural-German
lapguage being substituted ' it, .',llor is
this all Jutland itself, as Europa generally

knows but too well, has been invaded, has had its
frontiers overrun, and though there was a rumour
for a brief interval to the effect that the Prussians

had been, on second thought©, withdrawn from

Jutland; that rumour turned out only all too sodn
to have been wholly without any foundation. There,
in Jutland, as previously in Schleswig, and before
that in Holstein, the German invaders have
taken up a distinct position. And it is
while such, in truth, is the actual situa-
tion of things, yonder in the Danish seat of war,
that Austria and Prussia consent auspiciously to
the proposed opening of a Conference—without an
armistice ! The territorial integrity of the Danish
monarchy under the present dynasty is to be main-
tained, no doubt. Austria and Prussia, in point of
fact,premise as much while agreeing to this proposed
Conference without an armistice. Yes, the territorial
integrity is to be maintained—but, the invasion of
the Danish territory is to be maintained also; the war
is to be continued. The arguments of the diploma-
lists at the council board of the Conference are liable,
all the while the Conference is sitting, to be in•
erfered with, interrupted, rendered nugatory,
rendered it may even prove to b., at any moment
during the existence of t'ae Conference, absolutely
ridiculous—by the sheer force of the feats of war
accomplished by the rival commanders-in-chief.
The futility of Conferences holden during a war,
holden while war is in actual progress, holden
in other words without the all essential prelimi-
nary of an armistice—the futility of Conferences of
that dubious character, has long and long ago come
to be proverbial. It is for all the world like—what
shall we say ? Well, let us say, it is like arguing
as coolly as may ba in any way practicable, as to the
probability of being able to put a stop to a confla-
gtation already commenced—arguing thus (as far as
may b 3 in any way practicable) coolly while the
floors under our feet and the walls around us are
hot and crackling with the advancing flames. Nay,
it is a more wilfully irrational proceeding in its way
than even that would be, It is arguing at a council
board, the lights at which are stuck in open barrels
of gunpowder. So auspicious, under the actual
circumstances, is this acceptance by the Austrians
and Prussians of a Conference—without an armistice.

Clouds of ominous portent are gathering thickly I
round the present Administration. Not only is their
immediate course beset with difficulties—not only I
have they fallen into contempt abroad, and arrayed 1
against them the general feeling of the public at
large and the patriotic sense of both Houses—not
only are they perplexed by their own vacillation
and inconsistency which causes them alternately to
do too little and too much—but they have the satis
faction of seeing their opponents slowly but surely
gaining strength, rallying their forces, raising their
standards, and preparing their plans for the coming
campaign. The Conservative reaction is no longer
a vision or a theory, but an actual fact, indicated
no less certainly in the altered tone of the adherents
of that party than in the e:eetion returns. Instead
of mourning over ancient losses, they now busy
themselves in reckoning up prospective gains ;
instead of anathematising the injustice which drove
them from office, they discourse, half triumphantly,
half scornfully, on the mistakes and errors of thtir
rivals. The dislodgement of the present unlucky
occupants of the Ministerial benches is confidently
spoken of, and it deserves to be especially remarked
as indicative of the causes of their rapid declension
in popular favour, that the grounds of their coming
dismissal are by no means purely Conservative.
Oar foreign policy, that ingenious science of msd-
dling and muddling by which Earl RUSSELL has
contrived to abandon De imark, to crouch to
America, to fan the flame of war between Russia
and Poland, without ranning the risk of being
scorched himself, to incense France, to encourage
Prussia on the road to ruin, to proolaim universal
peace, while Englishmen were fighting in Japan,
Chins, India, and New Zealand—this new RUSSELL
code is undoubtedly foremost among the reasons for
the Ministerial decline. But with regard to
domestic matters they do not escape scathless. Re-
form, that wonder-working word, which was at one
time the strength and the war-cry of the Whigs,
has long since become their weakness and their
begbear. At one time the cry of Reform was suffi•
cient to rally all the wavering supporters of the
House of RUSSELL. At present it points the
sharpest arrow which can be aimed at our ennobled
l'oreign Secretary. The advice to " rest and be
thaeikful" may be very welcome and appropriate
when the mountain top is gained, but the guide

who p roffers it by word and example when only
half way up is likely to be looked upon with irrita•
tion an,i suspicion. The public, disgusted with the
Liberaliom which avoids the questi,,n of the frau-
Wm; tuui wicontlitioaally rejects t e,biliWty