The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-06 00:00:00

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United Stetee, and dismiss with a sneer t
Southern people as the "so called" Confederak
States. All this time the Government speaks of its -
neutrality. It were a work of supererogation to
point out that, instead of being neutral, we have
from the beginning done all we can to assist the
stronger party, and disoblige the Power which,
being confined to its borders and struggling for ex-
istence, has scant opportunity of vindicating its
rights abroad. The oppressive power of the execu-
tive has been exerted a l'autrance in the seizure and
detention of the steam rams of the Messrs. Laird,
during the seven months since the beginning of last
September, and in the prosecution which has driven
from court to court the owners of the Alexandra, at
enormous cost to them and with impunity to their
persecutors. No case can be established against 11:e
Alexandra, no evidence has been discovered weicik
can fairly implicate the builders of the El Tolleson
and El Monassir. These proceedings are in open
defiance of the rights of British citizens, they have
been denounced as without legality and without ex-
cuse. The Government perseveres in them, and Par-
liament has refused to condemn them. What are the
rights of Englishmen when put in comparison -with
the respect which is owing to the high and mighty
potentate who sits like Arimanes on his throne in
the northern Pandemonium ? To please him the
sailing of the Alabama has been deplored as a cala-
mitous event, and a law officer of the Crown, from
his place in Parliament, has stooped to use language
which may well be understood by the Federal Go-
vernment as implying a promise of full compensa-
tion to be paid by us for her ravages on Northern
commerce. We strain to the limits of its tether the
elastic Foreign Enlistment Act to oblige the Peck-
rale. Public men, when urging respect to it, speak
of it as if a municipal enactment were actually part
and parcel of international law. But how do we
carry out its provisions when it is the Confederates
and not the Federals who are to be served by our
loyalty ? Is it not a fact that thousands of
wretched Irishmen have been cajoled into emigra-
tion by Northern agents, and impressed into the
Federal army, almost immediately on landing at
an American port ? Has it not been proved that
the Irishmen who were induced by an American
consul to go on board the Kearsage, were regularly
examined by the surgeon of the ship, and enlisted
as sailors, and when brought back to Queerstown,
at the urgent instance of MY. Adams, were delivered
up to the authorities in the Federal uniform, with
which the too-confiding captain had suffered them
to be clothed ? The case of the Gibraltar, at Liver-
pool, is another flagrant instance in point. It has
been stated that an official of the Government, the
collector of Customs at the part,ref used to allow two
heavy guns to be shipped, for fear lest they should.
fall into the hands of the Confederates ; that at the
same time he volunteered the admission that if they
had been intended for the Federals it would have
been another thing altogether, as shipments of guns'
to Northern ports were matters of constant occur-
rence. This statement has never been denied.
It seems that from the Premier and the Foreign
Secretary down to the very lowest subordinate of
the Administration, all are leagued in a disgraceful
conspiracy to strain the laws as much as possible
in favour of the North, and to deny to the South
that simple justice which it demands. The circum-
stance attending the dismissal of the British cone
suls in Southern cities were brought forward last
night by Lord Clanricarde in the House of Lords.
The policy of habitually ignoring the authority of
the Confederate Government on its own territory
was never pushed more outrageously than when the
representatives of the British Government, and the
guardians of British interests at Charleston, Mobile,
and Richmond, as well as at New Orleans, were re-
garded as subject to the exequatur of the Northern
Government, which had lost all authority at these
places. If precedent had been wanted the example
of Mr. Canning would have been sufficient, who ac-
credited consuls to the South American revolutionary
governments long before their independence had
been formally recognised. In choosing to pursue an
exactly contrary plan Lord Russell made the posi-
tion of these British consuls so difficult that it was
aluaost insufferable. While pretending to protect
Englishmen in the ports where they resided, they
were forbidden to enter into relations of any sort
with the Confederate Government of the place.
Thus Mr. Bunch, the consul at Charleston, at-
tempted to forward dispatches to his Government
by way of New York, where his messenger was
seized and thrown into prison. Mr. Seward apolo-
gised for the outrage, but withdrew his exequatur
from the consul, whose functions thereupon ceased
by desire of the British Foreign Minister. It is dif-
ficult to see how the exequatur of the Northern
Government should have been in any way necessary
to him in his altered position. Consul Moore, at;
Richmond, was very properly dismissed by the
Government of Mr. Davie, for having been guilty
of disrespect to the Confederate authorities, and
advised British subjects who had been enlisted to
desert when in face of the enemy. But the treat-
ment of Mr. Magee at Mobile is perhaps the most
glaring act of injustice of which Lord Russell has
been guilty in his dealings with the South. He
was called upon in 1862 to facilitate the shipment
of some money due from the state of Aleb.maa to
its creditors in Eugland. He wrote to his col-
league at NcVi Orleans suggesting that an Eng-
lish ship of war should call at the port of Mobilo
and take charge of the specie. Mr. Mare ape
proved of the plan, and the Vesuvius put in at
Mobile for the purpose. The consent of Commodore
Hitchcock, of the blockading equadron, was mean-
while obtained for the shipment. It seems that
the day after the shipment, and when the Vesu-
vius had sailed, a letter was received from Lord.
Lyons forbidding it:as an infraction of the block-
ade. When the transaction came to his know-
ledge, Lord Lyons, supposing that his orders had
been disobeyed, wrote in complaint to Lord Rue.
sell, who at. once summarily dismissed Mr. Magee.
Lord Lyons acted through a fatal misunderstand-
ing, and both he and Lord Russell owe the fullest
reparation to an able and honest public servant, to
whom they have done a great injustice and injury.
The British Minister at Washington was guilty of
the further absurdity of sending to Mobile, as act-
ing consul, a gentleman accredited by the Northern
Government. Mr. Davis consulted his own dignity,
in at once declining to recognise any such nomina-
tion within the limits of his government; Since
then we have had no British consul at Mobile.
There is no one to protect British citizens within
the boundaries of the Southern States, no represen-
tative of England who can enter into relations of
any sort with the Confederate Government. The
imbecile obstinacy of the Ministry has utterly cut
us off from all communication, direct or indirect,
with six millions of brave and enterprising men
who are most anxious to extend to Englishmen the
right hand of fellowship, and whose manful defence
of their liberties and vindication of their rights of
British ancestry and kindred have rendered them
most worthy of a consideration which has been
scornfully denied them. The day is not far distant
when rulers and people will have cause to lament
this error, and seek in vain to atone for it by a late
repentance.

PRICE ..4d.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Successive telegrams have for three days
told throughout Europe that the Danish city of
Sonderborg is under a process of deliberate destruc-
tion. First it was announced that the Prussians
had, without any previous warning, or any notice
to remove the women and children, commenced
thro wing shells into the city. Next day London
and Paris and Berlin and Vienna heard that nearly
a third part of the town had been burnt down, but
that the cannonade had ceased. Then it was told
that the intermission had not been of long continu-
ance; and the succeeding account was that Sonder-
borg had been bombarded for 48 hours, and that 80
townspeople, women and children, had been killed
or wounded, and that the city was then deserted.
If it be true that the non-combatants who were not
killed are all driven out, it is, perhaps, of less im-
portance that the bombardment should now be
stayed; but we have no reason to be certain that it
is not at present going on, and the probabilities are
that Sonderborg is still being battered into a mass
of rubbish by way of practice to the Prussian ar-
tillery. This is not a fable imported from the
other end of the earth, it is a reality passing before
the eyes of Europe. These people, who are killing
women and children, and burning eir habitations,
and these poor wretches, who are being burnt in
their homes like bees in their hive, are among us.
We can almost hear the guns that are doing the
butchery ; we might communicate by telegraph in
a few minutes with the actors. The King of
Prussia, or the Emperor of Austria, or the Empe-
ror of the French could in an hour send a tele-
graphic message into the Prussian camp which
would explode with greater power than any shell
there and blow away the seige itself. This story of
death and wounds, and rushing away for safety, is I
not a fictitious tale of woe, to be mourned over in
maudlin tones of sympathy; it is an acting atrocity,
which might have been stopped. It is a continuing
series of cruelties which Europe has allowed to
go on under the eyes of all, and which is even
now passing without a protest. It is a hard,
disagreeable fact. It would be easy to dress up
a rhetorical picture of the scenes that are occurring
in the city of Sonderborg, and it would not be diffi-
cult to imagine in horrible detail the events of a
bombarded city. But we do not care to appeal to
people who must be moved by sensation writing,
and can only act upon sensation impulses. We hope
that the great bulk of the people of Europe will be
able without any such aid to came to the conclusion
that as the bombardment of a city must be either a
dreadful necessity or an execrable crime, the bom-
bardment of Sonderborg, being without necessity,
can only be a crime. It may be unavoidable to
bombard a city, or even to raze it to the earth. If
war did not pursue its objects without consulting
tlfs dictates of humanity, there could be no war. If
a city stands in the way of the object of a war, it
would be useless to protest against its, destruction.
Such an act must be, no doubt, the most ungrateful
task to which a soldier can be set ; but if the
necessity occurs ho must do it. It is scarcely pos-
sible, however, to imagine a case in which a Com-
mander can be placed under the necessity of choosing
between his duty towards his cause and his duty to
give such full notice of his intention to destroy a
city as may enable the non-combatants to leave it.
There are no examples nowadays of a city being
shelled intentionally without full previous notice
being given. If some rare instance should happen
in America, we apprehend that even General Butler
would not undertake to defend so cruel a blunder.
We accept, therefore, the statement that the bom-
bardment of the city of Sonderborg was commenced
without notice only as a grave accusation, which it
behoves the Prussians to disprove, under pain of
universal condemnation, but which we shall not
completely believe until the opportunity for disproof
has been neglected. But let us suppose that the usual
conditions of civilised warfare were observed by the
Germans. Let us suppose that it is entirely by their
own fault that these obstinate Danish women and
ehitdren, clinging pertinaciously to their firesides,
have been killed and wounded. Let us believe that
the intention of the Prussian went no further than
to drive them to bivouac in the clear northern air
while he levelled their houses for some strategic
' purposes. Even this mild exercise of the rights of
war would seem to require for its defence that it
should not be done in tne mere wantonness ofpower,
or in the mere lust for the infliction of human suf-
fering. It needs not, perhaps, a good object, or a
moral object, or a wise object to rescue a military
operation from the category of a mere odious cruelty,
but still it ought to have some object. What possi-
ble objcct, however, can the Prussians serve by de-
stroying this city, and the people inside it? The
war itself has ceased to have an object. Every shot
that is fired is fired in pure waste ; every death that
occurs is a human sacrifice at a shrine which has
not even an idol. There is not only no object in
this war, but there is not an excuse for any military
operations of the commonest kind. It may be ima-
gined, perhaps, that, even without any defensible
military object, if two squadrons of Danish and of
Prussian horse were to meet in the open, the
instinct of fight, old hatreds, and recent emulations
might send them on each other cleaving and pierc-
ing. Hot blood and high passion would excuse
this in the eyes of Europe, although, after the con-
flict was over, the residuum of all this effervescence
would be sad and repulsive enough. But to pour
shot and shell into a town for forty-eight hours, to
burn houses, and mutilate a wretched little village
crowd, all in cold blood, and to do this when there
was nothing to be decided by war, and the whole
matter had already been submitted to arbitration—
fie upon it—it is an abuse of the privilege of a belli-
gerent to be brutal. How is it that such a waste
of wickedness is committed ? The Germans are
not naturally a cruel race, loving cruelty for its own
sake. Why should they inflict such useless woes
upon these poor Danes ? Perhaps, a reason may be
found in the pretension of the Prussians to be not
only a very military but also a very philosophical
nation: Their military philosophy takes the form
of ingenious, subtle inventions. They have artillery
cast on the most profound philosophical principles ;
they have strategic problems which have been only
as yet half reasoned out. Beautiful in theory. their
arms and their tactics have not for half a cell.
tury had the advantage of actual exercise. These
poor Danes are to the Prussians what his dogs were
to John Hunter and his frogs to Orfila. They pro-
pose to practise vivisection upon them. Up to this
time the result has not been especially satisfactory.
The rifled cannon may be very good, and, indeed,
the best opinion is that they are very good ; the
breech-loading rifle is supposed to have answered
very well in the field, and some of ns are rather
envying the Prussians their invention ; but, not-
withstanding this, the character of the Prussian
army was never at a lower ebb than it is at this
moment, and lookers-on are apt to calculate with
some dismay that if they can do no better than this
against a little victim, what would they be able to
effect against a gigantic oppressor ? Is there no one
to lift up his voice against this European scandal?
Is it only when they have something ridiculous to
propose, or some fictitious enormity to denounce, or
something 'preposterous to ask for, that the gene-
rous sympathies of our Humanitarians are awake
and active ? Here is a case of wilful waste of.
bloodshed, it is capable of being whipped up into
any quantity of froth, and it is red enough to create
and to warrant more than the necessary point of
horror. Why is it that this absolutely unnecessary
warfare is going on without a protest ? Here is a
legitimate opportunity for the interposition of the
public opinion of Europe. Voices raised in this
cause would have their echo, and words well spoken
would have their result. Shall it be said that while
every baseless story that finds its way from the ex-
treme East has its rhetorical exponent, a city in the
very midst of Europe can be deliberately pounded
into dust while no one calls attention to the per-
sistent outrage, and no one makes a call upon our
human sympathies ? We have never taken service
with the professional Humanitarian s, but we have
no hesitation in this instance. It is not a proposi-
tion to be argued, but a truth self-evident, that the
continuation of this bloodshed in Denmark after the
Conference has been agreed upon is not only a
European scandal, but a great public crime.
HERALD.—We receive every day fresh and more
painful illustrations of the neutrality of the British
Government in the American quarrel. The impar-
tiality of Lord Russell is shown chiefly by a feeble
compliance with every act of usurpation of the
Northern faction—Et concession of every point which
may be claimed to their advantage—a cringing de-
ference to the tyranny of the most disreputable
Government of modern times. Whenever there is
any matter at issue between North and South in
which the British Ministry is compelled to decide,
there seems to be no question of its decision being
given in favour of the only Power which it allows
to be in existence between Canada and Mexico. I,
is difficult to say what the Northern people have
done to deserve this at our hands, that while the
world at large recognises in North America two
Powers contending on very equal terms, each exer-
cising in their own territories the functions of sove-
reignty, our officials should yet speak of the Govern-
ment at Washington as the Government of the

MELANCHOLY CASE.—There is a very
melancholy
c
case now before the Chief Baron at the Kildare
Assizes :—Patrick Cosgrave, a relieving officer, was indicted
for the manslaughter of Rosanna Doyle. It appeared front
the evidence that there are a number of unfortunate women
(to which class the deceased belonged), who live in the
bushes and behind the ditches in the neighbourhood. of the
Currah Camp ; that they live there day and night, unless
in case of sickness, when they go to the poor-house until
they are well, and then retain to their old quarters among
the bushes, and their old mode of life. The Acts for Relief
of the Destitute Poor in Ireland afford the means of stip-
in
Doyle
plying relief out of the house in all cases of sickness which
prevent removal and in cases of urgent necessity, and
sick
ae eases,
this an d
re-
lieving officers are appointed in every district with a fixed
salary
imwmheodeieateduretyliefft. Rosanna
is
to
was such
place, near the camp, on Saturday, the 17th October last,
and was unable to go to the workhouse. A policeman
afford
learned this, and left a note with the prisoner informing
him of her state. He did not go to see her, but on Sunday
morning went to one Bergen, who kept a donkey and cart
for the removal to the workhouse of sick people, and gave
a ticket of admission for Rosanna Doyle, telling him to
bring the donkey for her. Bergen did not go till
Monday, when he found her in a very sad state,
lying on the bare ground by some furze, and without any
covering except an old sack. It took nearly two hours to
get to the workhouse, and rain poured on the poor creature
the whole way. As soon as the hospital nurso saw her she
feared that she was either in a fit or dying, and had the
doctor sent for immediately. Not more than ton minutes
elapsed from the time she arrived at the workhouse until
she died.
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