The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-22 00:00:00

DENMARK AND GERMANY.

(From the Special Correspondent of the Vines.)
ELSINORE, July 17.

There is news in circulation here this evening
about an armistice being concluded between the bel-
ligerent Powers up to the end of the present month.
Likewise, it is said, that the preliminaries of peace
have been agreed upon, thanks to the good offices
and friendly mediation of the Emperor of the
French. The Danes, we are given to understand,
consent to raise the blockade by sea ; but we do not
hear either that the Germans are :o withdraw from
Jutland, or that they are even to give up the " civil
d ministration e., spoliation and oppression of
that luckless province. After the fail of Ale, be it
remembered, we had already a most perfect de facto
armistice; the new agreement, if the intelligence is
confirmed, will impose upon Denmark far harder
terms than were allowed to her during the negoti-
ations of the London Conference.

Germany has for the present the game in her own
hand. The Schleswig-holstein difficulty has ceased
to be either a Danish or an European question ; but
it has become essentially and formidably German.
Very great exertions are made by the agents of M.
Biemark in the Duchies, with a view to bring a de-
claration of popular suffrage in favour of annexation
to Prussia. Strong appeals are addressed to some of
the most advanced and most influential leaders of the
Danish party in Schleswig,and chiefly in Flensburg,
to represent to them, what is, indeed, too true, that
the Duchies are irreparably and for ever lost to
Denmark, and to impress them with the ncleion that,
under such circumstances, it is for the interest no
less than for the honour of the Schleswig•Hol-
steiners, rather to belong to a great compact mon-
archy like Prusda, which can hardly fail within a
very short period to extend its sway over all Ger-
many, than to set up an Augusten burg or an Olden-
berg of their own—a beggarly Kinglet, whose very
existence could only be insured by his submission to
the supremacy of some of the great Powers. The
Prussian Mephistopheles has no
great hesitation in
showing the cloven foot. Elated by his portentous
political no less than military success, he-throws out
clear hints of his intentions both to snub the Frank-
fort Diet,and to crush the National partYi so as
equally to ground its
imperial sway on the annihi-
lation of the revolution, and the subjugation of the
minor States. Prussia holds, for the moment, f°the
sword by the hilt," and there is nobody to dispute
her will throughout Germany, either in the field or
the Cabinet; nobody with the exception of her
ancient rival Austria,
who, moreover, can be always
held in check by France, whenever Prussia may
deem it necessary to propitiate the latter power by
the tempting bait of that " mere slip of territory on
the valley of the Sarre."
All this is, however, very high
play, and P russia
may still find that she has too far presumed on her
calculation of chances. A Prussian party is not
ago, before the spiked helmets had
easily to be got up in the Duchies. It was not easy
five months go,
shown themselves to the north of the Elbe and the
Eider ; it is far lees easy now, since Schleswig-Hol-
steiners have had opportunities to appreciate the
regime of the
Prussian Commissioners. Whether
we may sympathize with them or not, we cannot
deny that a large party of Schleswig-Holsteiners,
perhaps merely out of regard for their engagement
and the sacredness of their word, continue staunch
to the cause of Augusten burg. The cannon and the
bayonet alone will have powerto Prussiantze them ;
and M. von Bismark may best know to what extent
he may venture upon
imposing himself by main
force upon the Duchies, viz., to what extent he may
feel equal to the task of treading out the last
embers of German national aspirations, both in
those Dachies and throughout the extent of
Vaterland.

In the interests of peace and order, in the inte-
rests of German unity itself, it would, no doubt,
seem natural to wish the strong-minded Berlin
statesman a happy fulfilment of his dark and daring
policy. M. von Bismark, to give him his due, seems
to be the cnly man in Germany well aware of what
he is driving at. Ho is a man of absolute tenden-
cies, overbearin ,unscrupulous ; but there is only
one instance in Europe of a nation being brought
any other
g
together by agency than the strong will
of an unsparing, unprincipled despot. May be,
M. von Bismirk is destined to be the Louis XI.
or Henry VII. of Germany ; destined, that is to
say, to tread down all discordant elements of
the Princes and people of the Confederacy,
as those monarchs levelled with the ground
all the inequalities of old French and English
feudalism, Germany, as she is now, is cer.

tainly an anomaly and an anachronism in Europe,
and the end of so absurd a state of things must
needs be brought about either by a tyrant or by a
mob. Were Bismark to fail, German convulsions
may perhaps take as much space in the annals of
the latter part of the 19th century as French com-
motions occupied in the historical page of the close
of the 18th.

As to what concerns Denmark, there seems to be
little doubt that M. von Bismark is the only man
from whom she may expect endurable terms. In
the great task that the Prime Minister of Lag
William has taken upon himself, no man can aid
him so efficiently as King ChristiAn IX. It was
less to the dynasty or to the State of Denmark
that Prussia declared war than to what is gene-
rally called the " Copenhagen mob." Democracy
has shown bat little tact, understanding, or gene.
rosity in these Northern climates ; it is for the
interest of Denmark, no less than of Germany, that
it should be put down. Upon terms of a cordial
co-operation in this reactionary work, the Danish
Government may obtain as advantageous peace,
and on no other conditions. There is reason to be-
lieve that the new advisers of the Crown here are
aware of the real bearing of the situatiox, and pre-
pared to act accordingly.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE,

RAILWAY BILLS.

Yesterday the committee of the House of Lords eon-
chtded its inquiry into the bill for the Metropolitan (Trinity-
square Extension), and passed it. The bills passed in other
committees, after a formal inquiry, were those for the Lon-
don, Brighton, and South Coast (additional powers); Neath
and Brecon Extension; South Eastern (No. 4 Bill) ; and
South Wales Mineral Railway. The Piers and Harbours
Confirmation Bill was considered in the Earl of Devon's
committee, the case being stated by Mr Mandell.

MANCHESTER. SHEFFIELD, AND LINCOLN•

SHIRE

The report of the directors states that the acoounts for the
past half year show a total revenue from all sources of
£379,519, a total expenditure of £l7l, t7O, and a balm:too ot
uet profit of £208,348, which, with the balance of £5,483
from the previous half year, gives a total sum of £213,832
available for interest and dividend. The debenture and
other interest chargeable against the revenue of the half
year amounts to £59,826, the canal annuities to £ 14,143,
and the dividends on the various classes of preference stock
and shares to £84,713, making a total charge of £158,682,
leaving a balance of £55,150, out of which the directors re-
commend that a dividend be paid at the rate of 21 per cent.
per annum on the ordinary stock of the company. leaving a
balance of £1,249. The traffic receipts for the half year
amounted to £334,538, for the corresponding half of 1863 to
£.82 428, showing an increase of £52,110. The local traffic
amounted to £173,021, and the foreign traffic to £161,517.
The Grimsby Dock dues and wharfage amounted to £3,279
for the past half year against £3,456 for the corresponding
half of 1863, showing a decrease of £i77. The quantity
of coal shipped at Grimsby was 62,639 against 65,747,
showing a decrease of 3,108 tons. The falling off in
the shipment of coal during the half year is attri-
butable to the lockout of the collieries in the
South Yorkshire district. The company's share of the net
profits of the South Junction Railway amounts to £9,353
against £8,184, showing an increase of £I, 09. The revenue
ot the canals shows an increase of net profit ot £3,464 as
compared with the corresponding period of last year. Toe
working expenses amounted to £,56,451 against £152,359,
showing an increase of £10,902. The act for leasing the
undertaking of the South Yorkshire Company received the
Royal assent on the 233 June, and the workirg of the rail-
way and canals has been consolidated with that of this com-
pany since the Ist inst. During 14 weeks of the half-year
11 out of 18 of the colliers on the South Yorkshire Railway
have been locked out, and a much less amount of coal traffic
has in consequence been carried; but, notwithstanding
these disturbing canoes, the traffic for the half year shows
an increase of nearly £5,000 over the corresponding period
last year. The expenditure on capital account during the
half year amounts to £212,258, of which £61,923 is for sub-
scriptions to other companies, £67,999 for works and sta-
tions, and £53,575 for new rolling stock. The Garston and
Liverpool line was opened on the Ist of June for public
traffic. The total expenditure on capital account to the 30th
of June amounted to £10,427,272, leaving a balance of
£23,570.

ASSIZE INTELLIGENCE.

HOME CIRCUIT.—LEwEs, July 21,
CROWN SIDE.
(Before (Mr Baron Martin.)
THE EXTRAORDINARY CHARGE OF ARSON.

Mrs Margaret Grant, a laiy •like looking person, very
handsomely dressed, and stated in the calendar to be 39
years of age, the widow of Major Grant, late paymaster to
the 61st regiment, who was kil.ed at Delhi during the
Indian mutiny, surrendered to take her trial upon an in-
dictment for felony, the offence alleged against her being
!hat she did feloniously and maliciously set fire to a dwel-
ling house in her occupation, with intent to injure and
defraud the owner of the premises.
The Hon. G. Denman, Q.C., was specially retained, with
Mr Roupell, to conduct the prosecution. Sergeant Ballan-
tine, Sergeant Parry, and Sir G. lioneyman, were specially
retained on behalf of the prisoner.

Sergeant Ballantine, when the case was called on, made
an application to the court for the postponement of the trial
to the next assizes. He did so upon au affidavit made by
Mr Teesdale, of the firm of Maples, Teesdale, and Co.,
solicitors for Mrs Grant, which stated that certain officers
belonging to her Majesty's ti Ist Regt., to which the husband
of Mrs Grant was in his lifetime paymaster, were essential
and necessary witnesses for the defence, to prove the cir-
cumstances in which the prisoner was left at the death of
her husband, and also to speak to her character, and that
as the regiment had been ordered for Ireland, it was im-
possible to procure the attendance of these officers at the
present assizes. Upon this ground the learned counsel ap-
pealed to the court to postpone the trial.
Baron Martin said he was unwilling to postpone any trial
unless good and sufficient cause was shown fur doing so, and
in the present case it appeared to him that evidence of the
kind alluded to by the learned sergeant would not be ad-
missible or relevant upon such a charge as arson, and that
the character. or at all events the circumstances, ot the pri-
soner had nothing whatever to do with such a charge. Ebe
absence of witnesses to speak on these matters, it appeared
to him, therefore, was no ground for a postponement of the
trial.

Sergeant Ballantine said he should venture to suggest
that, with reference to one of the counts of the indictment
imputing to the prisoner an intention to obtain money by
the act imputed to her, it was most important and essential
to show she was possessed of ample means, and had con-
siderable property, and that it wss therefore vary improbaole
that she should have been actuated by any such motive as
that imputed to her. He would remind his lordship that in
ordinary cases of this description, it was the common course
to bring forward evidence that the party accused was under
pressure, and in debt, as a reason why it was likely that he
should endeavour to obtain money by the commission of
such an offence, and it appeared to him to be open to a pri-
soner to show that no such state of things existed, and that
evidence of this description was most material in a charge
of this kind.

Baron Martin said he was still of opinion that evidence
of the character alluded to could not be received, but he
should be glad to hoar what Mr Denman had to say in re-
ference to the application for a postponement.
Mr Denman said that he and his learned friend were in-
structed to prosecute by the authorities of the town of
Brighton, and the only object they had in view was that a
full inquiry, and such a one as would be likely to be satisfac-
tory to the public, should take place. Under these circum-
stances, and a representation being made that witnesses were
absent whose evidence would be material on behalf of the
prisoner, he did not feel himself called upon to resist the
application, and he should leave the matter entirely in the
hands of his lordship.

Baron Martin then said that he would allow the trial to
be postponed, but he wished it to be understood that he
would not have consented to the postponement if the couneel
for the prosecution had not agreed to such a course being
adopted. His lordship then inquired into the present amount
of the recognisances into which the prisoner had entered
fur her appearance to take her trial ?
Mr Avery, the officer of the court, informed him that the
present recognisances of the prisoner were—herself in £5OO
with two securities in £250 each.

Baron Martin said that the prisoner would be again ad-
mitted to bail, lout he thought the recognisances ought to
be increased, and that she herself should enter into a re-
cognisance in the sum of £l,OOO and fiud two sureties in
2500 each.

In the course of the morning the required sureties were
entered into, and the prisoner was then discharged from
custody, and left the court accompanied by her daughter,
an elegantly dressed young lady, and several of her friends.
A prisoner named Job Snook alias James Macey, was
then placed at the bar to receive judgment.

lie had pleaded guilty to a charge of feloniously setting
fire to a stack, and it appdared that he had been previously
convicted of a similar offence, and sentenced to penal
servitude. When he was broaght into the dock, the pri-
soner conducted himself in the most violent and outrageous
manner. Ile raved like a madman, and shrieked out,
" Why don't you hang me—hang mo at onco—l want to
be hanged—you can't do worse to me than you have done ;"
and it required all the exertions of two of the county con-
otabulary and a warder belonging to the gaol to hold him
in the dock.
Mr. Linton, the governor of Petworth gaol, stated to the
Court that the prisoner had been perfectly quiet down to
he present time, and that he had no doubt that his present
fit of violence was entirely assumed.
Baron Martin said he was of the same opinion, and he
then addressed the prisoner, and said that be bad pleaded

guilty to a very serious offence, that of wilfully setting fire
to and destroying the property of a man who had never
done him an injury, and that he had been solely actuated
by a feeling of revenge and malice against all the world.
He found that in addition to this he had, while in the army,
been p mished no less than a dozen times for different acts
of insubordination, and that he had been at length dis-
charged as a worthless character, and that since this he had
been also convicted of the crime of arson. He felt it his
duty, under these circumstances, to order him to be kept
in penal servitude for the space of ten years.
The moment the sentence was pronounced the prisoner
appeared to become almost frantic with rage. He kicked
and bit at the officers, who were endeavouring to restrain
him, and yelled out, " I have been flogged a dozen times,
you can only flog me to death. I want to be hung ; hang
me at once." With great difficulty he was carried to the
cells below, where it appeared that he tore off the whole of
his clothes, and it was found necessary to handcuff his
hands behind him, to prevent him frona doing further
mischief.
This concluded the criminal business.