The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-14 00:00:00

chief engineer, to the Cumberland, for the Bombay; James
Coope, chief engineer, to the Orlando ; George Wasson,
chief engineer, to the Indus, for the Brisk; Christopher T.
Francis and Owen H. Bentley, midshipmen, to the Re-
search; Thomas H. Simpkins, Edward S. Evans, Arthur
Hutchinson, and Henry E. Walters, midshipmen, to the
Gladiator.

with Austria and Prussia toeether, hut by ell means
get one of them to defend it'against the other. The
army of Denmark did observe the rule in 1850,
Austria came for ward then, as she does now, rather
to outrival and eclipse Prussia in the north, than to
act as a true ally, and therefore, in the final settle-
ment, the Danish Government negotiated with, and
Austria almost exclusively. These
made promises to,
promises may have been ill judged and imprudent
to make, but Ferdinand VII. made them, and the
point ought to have been either to observe them, or
in breaking them, to convince the Austrian Govern-
ment that it was impossible to avoid it. Had the
Danish Government last summer been sufficiently
cautious it might have perceived that Austria was
engaged in absolutely courting the minor powers of
Germany for some purpose, and that the Court of
Vienna was likely to show itself ultra-German for
the nonce. The Danish Government took no heed
of this, and Mr. Hall went on chaffering as before,
like another Mr. Seward, except that he had no
doubt a patriotic sense of right and a good cause.
But the important consequence was the complete
alienation of Austria from Denmark. At the present
moment to what power might Denmark most hope-
fully look for fair and moderate terms ? To Austria
certainly. And yet it is with Austrian troops that
the battles are fought which fill the Danes with
exultation and pride, but which really are most
hurtful to their cause. Had they sallied from
Duppel and inflicted a severe defeat on
the Prussians, every one would have ap-
plauded, but by the prolongation of the war in
fierce encounters with the Austrians the Danes are
rendering their question very hard to solve. It is
true that they have not now, as they once had, the
choice of their antagonist, and pity 'tis 'tis true.
The Danes fight while they can. Our hearts go with
them, for they do what Englishmen would do in
the like case. If there had been any strong im-
pulse of popular English feeling in the direction of
a common action with the Danes, it would have
found, we believe, leaders among the chiefs of either
of the great English parties. But when this country
goes to war, it is not a Ministry that draws the
sword, it is a people ; and if the people do not find
sufficient reason for the breaking of their peace, it
must remain unbroken. The Danes still hope that
the wrong they suffer may provoke a European
struggle. Yet how is it to arise in a manner likely
to diminish the pressure upon them ? If Napoleon
interfere in favour of the German Diet it is plain
that he must embrace the anti-Danish policy of the
Diet. Russia, Prussia, and Austria seem to have
renewed a kind of alliance. And England, hesitat-
ing at the first to interfere, is now less tempted to
do so than ever, partly because the conquest of
Slesvig is an accomplished fact, possible to have
been prevented but very difficult to be undone—
partly because any attempt to undo it by force
might place England at the head of European coa-
lition against France—its old position—but with
France at the head of a European coalition against
herself. We must say, after looking over the re-
cently published volume of diplomacy, that its
efforts seem to have been often wasted on vain work.
There is a great deal of menace and objurgation
employed towards the smaller court of Germany,
which are deeply and passionately interestel in the
quarrel, and upon which, in consequence, our re-
monstrances fell idle. They excited ingenious
evasions from Bismark, or rude retort from Beust,
without having made any useful impressions
upon :either. Had our endeavours been more
constantly and adroitly directed towards the South,
we cannot but think that Ausiria and Wurtemburg,
and even Bavaria, might have been persuaded that
they were not pursuing a wise or national policy in
seeking to dismember Denmark.
LONDON REVIEW.—There is no indisposition in
any quarter at present to depreciate the splendid
services of Sir Rowland Hill. But his recompense
has as yet been altogether disproportioned to his
labours and his genius. He gave many years of
anxious and arduous toil to the inception and
working out of the plan of the penny postage. The
obstacles, both public and private, which he had
to surmount were stupendous. At last the Mel-
bourne Government gave him a subordinate post in
the Treasury. The Der by Government sent him adrift
altogether, He was afterwards placed in the Post-
office as Secretary to the Postmaster-General; but
the vexatious and obstacles against which he had
to contend were by no means at an end. The full
salary3of the office he has resigned is only £2,000,
while the pension allowed to him by the superan-
nuation rules of the Civil Service will be something
under £6OO a year ! Of course the rules which re-
gulate the civil servants were never meant to apply
to cases like his. A world-wide stigma would
attach to the nation which rewarded services so
transcendent with a beggarly pension of £6OO a
year. The only question, we trust, is whether the
Legislature shall secure him by Act of Parliament
his full salary of £2,000 a year, or whether, consi •
dering Sir Rowland Hill's age (69), and the shat-
tered and precarious state of his health, it would
not be still better to vote him one lump sum, on a
scale in some degree commensurare with his ser-
vices. Harrison received £20,000 from the House
of Commons for his chronometer which determined
the longitude. There is another precedent still
more to the purpose in the Post-office itself. Par-
liament gave a pension of £3,000 a year for life to
General Palmer, who originated the system of mail
coaches, and it also voted him a special grant of
£50,000. No friend of Sir Rowland Hill's need con-
tend that this was an extravagant reward for a lireited
yet important service. But the great postal revolu-
tion of which he was the author, his signal adminis-
trative skill and faculty for organisation, and his
incessant labours for a quarter of a century, place
him, as a public servant, upon an infinitely higher
pedestal than General Palmer, and he ought to be
crowned with at least an equal recompence. We are
glad to observe that the Postmaster-General, Lord
Stanley of Alderley, in his place in the House of
Lords on Tuesday, bore generous testimony to the
unexampled benefits, commercial and social, con-
ferred upon his countrymen by Sir Rowland Hill.
Lord Stanley of Aldertey expressed his opinion that
the establishment of the penny postal system was
not only one of the greatest improvements of the
present age, but had perhaps conferred more benefit
upon mankind than any other invention, Birming-
ham has gracefully taken the lead in doing honour
to Sir Rowland Hill, who spent his early life in
that town. The men of Birmingham, in public
meeting assembled, have determined to erect a
statue to his honour, and are signing a petition to
the House of Commons in favour of a fitting national
grant. If Sir Rowland Hill were a member of some
great aristocratic house, his " order" would be justly
proud of him, and his family would receive from the
State a substantial if not splendid reward. Let the
British public remember that Sir Rowland Hill is
a " man of the people;" that the middle and lower
classes have pre-eminently benefited by his genius ;
and that it is their duty to strengthen the hands of
the Government in voting a fitting gift from a great
nation to one who has ennobled the name of Eng-
lishmen throughout the globe.
SPECTATOR.—There is a little cloud in the horizon
which thirsty Danes will watch with longing eyes,
but as yet it is only a cloud. It almost seemed
on Tuesday night as if Earl Russell, the man
who could command the Channel fleet or under-
take an °aeration for the stone, were at last sated
with humiliation ; but the fleet is in harbour still.
England has only just reached the stage when,
feeling her blood on fire, she begins screaming " I
will not fight," in order to re-assure herself of
her own pacific intentions. Her heart is growing
very hot, and a look corning into her eyes which
wrong-doers do not like; but the Northman blood
is still in her veins, and that cannot thaw at once.
The steps by which England nerves herself to begin
work which, once begun, must be finished are trans-
acting themselves after their way; the short ques-
tions in Parliament and the curt replies which tell
the questioner less than silence, the desperate efforts
at negotiation, the rapid interchange of views with
an ally, the rumours of Cabinet dissensions, the
sort of cheer sent forth from the Peers, half discore
dant because it sounds like a premature word of
command, the awakening attention of the people,
all the creakings with which the vast mass
prepares itself for launching, are audible in the
air. The last and most certain sign of action,
the clear assertion of the nines that action is
impossible, has already been heard, and the
final resolve is evidently very near at hand. It
is not taken, however, and while it waits the op-
pressors have for the moment their own way. Step
after step has been taken this week towards the
subjugation of Denmark, the final abandonment of
the pretexts with which the war began. Holstein
was occupied that King Christian might be com-
pelled to keep his word, and the occupiers imme-
diately welcomed his rival. Schleswig was invaded
that the Constitution might be abolished, and, before
Denmark has refused to obey, the Imperial and
Royal Commissioners have abolished the coinage
of the Kings their Courts are daily pledging the n.
selves to recognise—have actually mad
Ger-
man coins legal tender throueho
-D a non German
province. This, however. itll
declaring war, with
hostility outside the cause for
1.4 it.seds:
tthrelti et.
two
Withoutpowe
rs
pleading any
have now passed jet° Jutland and COlh-
menced the pleasing
independent State. Retask
.e gutting an
steal Von Wrangel, if
Jutland,"
wi be levied in
.11 quisitiorms,". says Mar-
and so the free little Peninsula, where there is no
poverty, and no discomfort, and men talk without
tear of spies, and write what they think fit, and
dare smile at a subaltern without being cut down
for the atrocity„;e
-
to be ravaged that its invaders
may be fed, and thatD "Denmark may never again,"
Claefisa defiant eofKGreernmz Zaneyit7al`chbe in a position to appear
world' btu of courset right'tgoivruiVitingrisltaot,l4l4le.