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

DENMARK AND GERMANY.

(From the Special Correspondent of the 7imes.)
ELSINORE, Jaiy 17.

There is news in circulation here this evening
about an armistice being concluded between the bel-
ligerent Powers u) to the end of the present month.
Likewise, it is sail, that the preliminaries of peace
have been agreed'upon, thanks to the good offices
end friendly mediation of the Emperor of the
French. The Dates, 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 ttey are even to give up the " civil
administration "—g. C., spoliation and oppression of
that luckless province. After the fail of Alf., 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 his become essentially and formidably Gelman.
Very great exertions are made by the agents of M.
Bismark in the Duchies, with a view to bring a de-
claration of popular suffrage in favour of annexation
to Prussia. Strong
'nettle •are addressed to some of
the most advanced and
most influential leaders of the
Danish party
Sen.e6wig,ano chiefly in Flensburg,
to represent to then, what is, indeed, too true, that
the Duchies are nreparably and for ever lost to
Denmark, and to impress them with the no`ion 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 Prussia, 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 Oiden-
barg of their own—a beggarly Kinglet, whose very
the supremacy of some of the great Powers. The
existence c )uld onlPruqeian Mz.phistoPheles has no great hesitation in
y be insured by his submission to
showing the cloven trot. Rated by his portentous
political no less than military success, he throws our
clear hints of his intentions both to snub the Frank.
fort Diet and to crush the National party, so as
Equally to ground
i's imperial sway on the annihi-
lation of the revolution, and the subjugation of the
minor States. Prussia holds, for the moment, "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

All this
the valley t
calculation 'if
a: the Sarre."
five months ago,
may still find that she has too far presumed on her
is, however, very high play, and Prussia
easily to be got up in the Duchies. It was not easy
chances. A Prussian party is not
before the spiked helmets had
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
of Schleswig-Holsteiners,
perhaps
we may sympathize with them or not, we cannot
deny that a large party
merely out of regard for their engagement
and the sacredness of their word, continue staunch
to the cause of Augustenburg. The cannon and the
equal
ofat Gto
bayonet alone will have power to Prussianize 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
t.:lbe er
of treading out the last
e
rtuhica n
tanational aspirations, both in
those Duchied and throughout the extent of
Vaterland. . .

In the interests
seem natural to wish
of peace and order, in the inte-
rests of n
—erman
ty
the strong-minded Berlin
unity itself, it would, no dou,
statesman a happy fulfilment of his dark and daring
Palley- M. van Bismark, to give him his due, seems
to be the only twin in Germany well aware of what
he is driving at, lie is a man of absolute tenden
eics, overbearing, unscrupulous ; but there is only
one instance in Europe of a nation being brought.

tevber by any
other agency than the strong wil;
of an unsparing, unprincipled despot. May be,
M. von Bismark is destined to be the LouiA XL
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 ilogiisn
feadalism. Germany, as she is now, is cers

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
trdm whom she may expect endurable terms. In
the great task that the Prime Minister of K:ng
William has taken upon himself, no man can aid
him so afielently 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 " Copenhage❑ mob." Democracy
has shown but 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 an 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 situatiow, and pre-
pared to act accordingly.

RAILWAY INTELLIGENCE,

RAILWAY BILLS.

Yesterday the committee of the House of Lords con-
cluded 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 Mundell.

MANCHESTER. SHEFFIELD, AND LINCOLN,

SHIRE

The report of the directors stateethat the acoounts for the
past half year show a total revenue from all sources of
£379,519, a total expenditure of £171,170, and a balance of
net 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 charge dile 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 £81,713, 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 2/ 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
halt of 1863, showing a decrease of £177. 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 £1,z.09, The revenue
of the canals shows an increase of net profit of £3,464 as
compared with the corresponding period of last year. Tee
working expenses amounted to £.56,451 against £152,359,
sh,wing an increase of £40,902. The act for leasing the
undertaking of the Si,uth Yorkshire Company received the
Royal assent on the 23d June, and the working 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 cut of 18 of the colliers on the South Yorkshire Railwey
have been locked out, and a much less amount of coal traffic
has in consequence been carried; but, notwithstanding
these disturbing causes, 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 £81,923 is for sub-
scriptions to other companies, £67,999 for works and sta-
tions, and £53,575 for new rolling stock, The Gersten and
Liverpool lino 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 ENTRAORDINARY CHARGE OF ARSON.

Mrs Margaret Grant, a iady.fike 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 Gist regiment, who was kilned at Delhi during the
Indian mutiny, surrendered to take her trial upon an in-
dictment for felony, the offence alleged against her being
That 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 Roupel!, to conduct the prosecution. Sergeant Ballan-
tine, Sergeant Parry, and Sir G. Honeyman, 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 an 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 61st 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 eharac,er, 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 for 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, of the pri-
soner had nothing whatever to do with such a charge. the
absence of witnesses to speak on th(se 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 very 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 hear 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 counsel
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
fL r 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.