The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-24 00:00:00

THE DANISH QUESTION,

VIENNA, Sept. 20.

The newly established Liberal organ, the Neue
Freie Presse, publishes the following interesting
article upon the latest turn taken by the peace ne-
gotiations

‘ Widely spread reports impart increasing proba-
bility to the belief that the opposition of Denmark,
and the diplomatic interposition of the other Cabi-
nets in her favour, have not remained without in-
fluence upon the great German Powers. The state-
ment recently made with some positiveness could
otherwise hardly have arisen. It is to the effect that
the Cabinets of Vienna and Berlin have already made
a series of concessions, and were now upon the point
not only of evacuating Jutland, but also of ceding to
Denmark a considerable portion of North Schless
wig, consisting of the town of Christiansfeld, and
some four square miles of territory upon the eastern
and western coasts. This was the announcement
flashed to us yesterday and to-day by telegraph from
Copenhagen, with the addition that all these fine
things had already been called by resolutions of the
Conference. We learn at the same time the Eider-
Danish organs are not even content with these, we
trust hypothetical, gains of Danish diplomacy.
Daybladet takes the Government very sharply to
task because the stipulation as to the four square
miles to be given up by North Schleswig to Den-
mark is not sufficient. Denmark should have at
least the whole of North Schleswig returned to her.
These are the hopes at present entertained in Copen-
hagen, so greatly has Danish arrogance recently in-
creased. The list of highly disquieting rumours to
the German cause is, however, not by any means
exhausted. Copenhagen is no longer contented with
the allies evacuating Jutland and giving up to Den-
mark a good portion of North Schleswig. Public
opinion in the Danish metropolis goes a few steps
further, and ventures—upon the ground of reports
from Herr von Scheel-Plessen, the plenipotentiary
at the Vienna Conference—to entertain the hope
that_the efforts of foreign countries in favour of the
Danish cause will succeed in conducting the ulti-
mate solution of the Duchies question gradually
back to personal union.
" Some time ago, when the first symptoms of a
diplomatic intervention of the Western Powers and
Russia came to light, the General Correspondenz
stated, in very decisive terms, that the preli.
minaries of August 1 constituted an unaltered and
unwavering basis of the peace negotiations. This
semiofficial statement appeared to many not merely
an avant courier of replies of the Cabinets of Vienna
and Berlin to the Anglo-French representations in
favour of Denmark declining all foreign interven-
tions, but also as a method of appeasing distrustful
public opinion. In the latter respect the object was
certainly attained, for people have generally grown
tolerably weary of the SchleswipHolstein question;
and who could suppose it possible that two military
Powers like A-astria and Prussia, after the success
which has attended their arms, should permit even
the slightest change in the preliminaries they had
conquered ? Nevertheless, the reports of concessions
of the great German Powers to Denmark assume
daily a more serious shape, and if we are to credit
the news from Copenhagen the preliminaries of the
18th August, declared unalterable some days ago
with semi official pathos, have already ceased in
their most important points to constitute the basis
of the definitive peace to be concluded with Den.
mark. Mark well I Denmark first declared she
would only prolong the armistice provided she
obtained the cessation of the occupation of Jutland
as an equivalent for the abandonment of the blockade
of the German ports stipulated by that armistice ;
then she demanded the return of a good portion of
North Schleswig to cover the flank of Funen ; and
now she actually hopes to render the preliminaries
altogether illusory, and get back the Duchies by
means of the personal union advocated by Russia
and the Western Powers. Are the diplomatists
really to destroy in this question, as in so many
others, that which the sword appeared to have vic-
toriously decided ?
" We do not say that the Danish hopes will be
fulfilled ; but it appears to us hardly matter for
doubt that the situation has become far less favour-
able to the great German Powers than it was some
weeks ago, and that the Conference negotiations
have hitherto yielded either no results at all, or
only unfavourable results to Germany. Despite
all her reverses and humiliations, Denmark, reckon-
ing upon German patience, has contrived, with her
old faithlessness, to protract the negotiations ; and
since the heir to the Russian throne has betrothed
himself at Fredricsburg to King Christian's second
daughter, the influence of Russia—who only aban-
doned her claim upon Holstein under condition that
a blood relation of the Russian Imperial House should
ascend the Schleswig-Holstein throne—has become
all powerful at the court of Copenhagen. France
also endures with illsconcealed anger the incorpora-
tion of Schleswig-Holstein with Germany; and it is
well known that England would even prefer Russian
to Ciermuu sway in the Duchies on the Elbe; Weigh.