The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-26 00:00:00

LONDON, FRIDAY, FEB. 26, 1864.

On the very face of it, the acceptance of this
Proposition for a Conference to be held in London
open the Dano-German Question gives promise of
proving but very little better than a flagrant di-
plomatic fiasco. And it does so quite manifestly, if
for no other reason, for this exceedingly simple one,
that the acceptance of the Conference is not ac-
companied by the acceptance of an Armistice.
Hostilities are still to be continued although
the proposal of a Conference is accepted.
While the Conference is sitting, the bloodshed
now desolating the soil of Danmark is to go on
uninterruptedly. Jutland is yet at this moment the
standing-ground of the Prussian soldiery. So far
from that province being evacuated by the German
invaders, the latter have apparently no intention
whatever of withdrawing from it. Yet, in this
most lamentable position of things between the
belligerents, we are expected to exult as at a
most auspicious advance towards a termination of
the war, upon the announcement of this accept,
ance of the offer of a Conference without an Armi-
stice such as could really, alone render any such
Conference feasible as a means towards a pacifloa-
tien. Even supposing the telegraphic rumour to be
confirmed, the rumour now intimating categorically
as the bases of tEe Conference proposed by Eng-
hod—First, that the European Powers do really
guarantee the autonomy as well as the indi/ isi-
; and, Secondly, that it is
biiity of the Duchies
stipulated by them that the territorial arrangements
So
hitherto existing are to undergo no change—
long
as it is undcntood, no less distinctly, that the war is
to ho fi.,,recly continued among. the belligerents,
all the plenipotentiaries are sitting in
conference herein London—the guarantees aforesaid
,
go just absolutely for nothing. Who can foretell
what stage may not have been
time
at, in the
development of the war, by the tline the conference
should be preparing formally to announce its do.
oisioa ? In the then embittered state of feeling of

the belligerents, it is probable that all the guaran-
tees in the world might be set aside alike by the
Danes and by the Austro-Prussians. At the best,
the augury to be drawn from this proposed and
accepted Conference is very doubtfully auspicious
indeed. It rests upon so many vague, and shifting,
and unimaginable contingencies. It rests its
chief reliance, in effect—as does the present
Cabinet of England for that matter—upon the
Chapter of Accidents. " Vive la Bagatelle," almost,
one might take to be the watchword of the Ad-
ministration. And so—Ministers are evidently
exulting, as at a signally triumphant mancuuvre,
over this left-handed acceptance of the offer of a
Conference, the war itself still continuing.

Lord PALMERSTON showed his usual tact and dis-
cernment in . coming down to the House last night.
It showed that the noble lord understood the exi-
gency of the case, and was willing to conform to
the expression of opinion so decidedly expressed
by members on both sides of the House. The
Premier had also good intelligence to communicate
relative to the Tuscaloosa. Here, again, Ministers
have yielded to the pressure of circumstances, and
relinquished their unfair and unjust attempt to in-
terfere with thd rights of other nations. Credit is
due to them for sending out those orders for setting
her at liberty, which the noble lord referred to last
night; and it is satisfactory, of course, to obtain
such information. At the same time, it cannot bat
occur to the mind, on the receipt of this intelli-
gence, that it would have been better to have acted
with less haste, and to have studied the bearings of
the question a little more carefully before proceed-
ing to such extremities. It is not consonant with
the dignity of the country, it is not consistent for
the reputation of our Government, to be constantly
changing about in this manner. Precipitancy on
one side end recusance on the other, a general dis-
cussion and confusion all around, heartburnings and
murmers of discontent seem to mark the progress of
our Administration. There is one thing reassuring
at all events in this affair, and that is the encourage-
ment given to independent minds to persist in
ferreting out these unjust machinations, and in
setting forward the true state of the case in the
light of day. Had there been a timorous course
pursued in this matter restitution would never
have been made, and a gross injury would have
been perpetrated by our authorities. Lord R.
CECIL very properly asked whether compensation
would be given for the injury, but Lord PALMER..
STON would not be compromised into giving an
assurance to that effect. This must be the nest
.casus belli, and the champions of international
rights should strenuously insist on justice being
done to the parties who have sustained a loss by
the hot haste and misjudged partiality of their
assailants. Many may think that too much fuss
has been made about this case altogether, but
nothing can be small which concerns truth and
justice, nothing unimportant that relates to the
honour of our country, and nothing not worth
striving for that results in rendering justice to any
Power or State which has been oppressed or wrong-
fully injured by any mistakes—real or intentional. If
the Ministers hope in any way to retrieve a portion
of their damaged reputation they must finish their
task of making the amends honorable, and imme-
diately bestow that compensation which the Con-
federates have a right to expect. The possession of
that moral right should be as powerful to insure its
reception, as if armed hosts could command the
restitution, or hostile fleets were bound to enforce
the claim.

Lord DERBY last night called attention to the
very strange manner in which the Government are
acting in regard to the production of the papers
asked for by various members in both Houses of the
Legislature. The general result proves, as the
noble Earl remarked, that there is a want of come
munication between the members of Her MAJESTY'S
Government. It is, indeed, a very peculiar manner
of conducting the affairs of the State, and its effects
must be very prejudicial to the interest of the pub-
lic service. It is very essential that we should have
the papers which have been laid before the Ameri-
can Congress, and Lord DERBY again requested the
Foreign Secretary to state on what grounds he re •
fused to comply with this reasonable demand.
Lord RUSSELL made one of his extraordinary re-
plies. He said that he only withheld those that
related to a question now pending before the courts
of law. The Attorney-General had advised him
not to produce these documents, but he believed he
had since changed his opinion. Can anything be
more unsatisfactory than this dilly-dallying with
questions of so much moment. Lord CHELMSFORD
very properly asked to know when the change bad
taken place. This, however, he was not permitted
to know. It is idle for Earl RUSSELL to attempt to
get himself out of one difficulty by plunging into
another, and he is only laying himself open to re-
newed attacks and redoubled criticism. One
House is refused to be allowed to see the
papers relating to the Saxon, and the
other is put in possession of them. All
this beating about the' bush cannot possibly
serve the turn of Ministers, and must sooner or
later overwhelm them with discomfiture. There
are many months of the session yet to run, and it
is preposterous to imagine that the most dexterous
jugglings and complicated combinations can put off
all awkward inquiries, and keep the pertinacious
questioners at bay. Public inquiry will not be
stifled in this fashion, and the voice that now feebly,
perhaps, is heard, will be raised to a pitch, and be
endued with a meaning that Cabinets must hear and
heed. It will not benefit the position of the Govern-
ment.to put off the evil day now and alight on a
worse one some weeks hence. They had better
totally alter their tactics, and like men of spirit face
the worst, and not give their opponents such a
handle against them as to say that private interests
are sacrificed to political prejudices, and the dignity
of the country compromised to keep one particular
set of men in office to carry out notions which
militate against the spirit of the age.

Thanks to the spirit of daring and adventure
which especially characterises Englishmen, there
will soon be few spots in the habitable globe with
which we are not in some degree familiarised.
Within the last few years the savage tribes who
inhabit the central tracts of Africa have been
visited for the first time by white men, and the
sandy wastes which stretch across the great
Southern continent have been explored by a band
of daring colonists. Englishmen have descended
the Russian mines, have ridden the wild horses of
the Kirghis, have penetrated the mysterious empire
of Japan, and left habitable land behind them on
their voyage northwards. The proceedings of the
Royal Geographical Society have become no sine-
cure, and its meetings have lately become deeply
interesting. It is but. a few weeks since the
assembly listened with breathless interest to the
account of the " hairbreadth 'napes and snares"
of Captains SPEKE and GRANT in their expedition
to Lake Nyanza. The recital of the dangers they
encountered from the crafty and covetous kings of
some of the tribes, the risks through which their
firmness and tact carried them safely, una the
strange scenes and habits of the savage people they
went among, enthralled the attention of the
liateners, who thus learned from the words of an

eye-witness his impressions of those races and
countries where a white man was hitherto un-
known. At the meeting at Burlington House on
Monday evening, the audience were transported to
what might seem almost to be part of another
world. Instead of the rude and primitive usages
of Central Africa—the rough huts and want of
almost the common necessaries of life—there
was called before them a vision of mosques, bazaars,
and handsome cities, of stables full of Nedjed steeds,
of worshippers kneeling to the glowing sun of the
East. Despotism as strict as that of the African
kings prevail in these sunny Arabian scenes, the
tyranny of Islam, supplying the place of the irre-
sponsible will of the black monarch. Mr. PAL-
GRAVE, the son of the late Sir FRANCIS PALGRAVE,
whose name is well known to English literature, has
passed the last eighteen years in journeying across
the northern part of Are.bia, from Gazo in south-
ern Syria to El Khatif, on the Persian Gulf, and
hence to the kingdom of Oman at the eastern
corner of Arabia. This, expedition, whose exploits
and adventures were happily described by the pre-
sident, as the thousand and second Arabian Knights,
was full of danger and difficulty. A sufficient proof
of the rarity and danger of such a journey is afforded
by the fact that Mr. PALGRAVE'S experience con-
tradicts nearly all the little we were supposed to
know about the countries in question. The general
notion of the more distant parts of Arabia is a wild
expanse of sandy desert, where wandering Bedouins
pitch their tents, and the whole life of the inhabi-
tants is nomadic and desultory. In place of this we
find large and populous cities full of shops, bazaars,
and all the accessories of Arabian life in the better
known districts, with houses of two and three
stories, built with a degree of taste that eclipses
European competition. Nevertheless the ignorance
and misapprehension on these points is not
surprising, for so great is the jealousy with
which the Arabs regard the intrusion of
any Europeans, that it is by no means an uncommon
thing for travellers who have ventured so far to be
put to death. Mr. PALGRAVE assumed the charac-
ter of a wandering doctor, and his medical know-
ledge stood him in good stead. The whole party
had to disguise themselves at Gaza, and were by
no means reluctant to accept the explanation gene.
rally given of their journey—that Mr. PALGRAVE
committed some civil crime, and had fled from his
native Damascus; In his medical capacity Mr.
PALGRAVE achieved some striking successes, and
once nearly got into serious trouble by doing so.
He had cured a case of partial paralysis by a careful
external application of strychnine. He was then
in the Wahabite territory, and the KING, who heard
of the wonderful cure, sent for him to beg for some
of the marvellous powder. A refasal, founded on
its danger in unpracticed hands, produced no effect,
his MAJESTY hinting that its fatal qualities would
by no means diminish its utility as a political agent.
A stormy scene ensued, after which it was thought
moraprudent for the party to effect a secret escape
from the country. At the Wahabite capital, before
this contention, the supposed doctor had been called
upon to attend to one of the Royal steeds, and had
consequently an opportunity of inspecting those
celebrated stables where the finest of the Arab horses
are collected. These beautiful creatures are described
by Mr. PALGRAVE as the beau ideal of the horse. The
state of Oman, at the extreme east of Arabia, is
es strange to E iropean visitors as the wildest dis-
tricts of Central Africa, being entirely cut off from
the rest of Arabia by vast deserts. It is, according
to his description, the most beautiful part of
Arabia, with a climate resembling that of India,
and traces of the old fire•worship of the country
left lingering among the people. Mr. PALGRAVE
has collected a vast amount of information, as yet,
of course, only given in outline,,respecting, the reli-
gious, political, 'and social condition of the people.
In addition to the dangers he met with from hostile
natives, he passed through perils by land and
water, narrowly escaping death in a simoom in the
desert and a shipwreck on the coast of Oman.
Fortunately, however, he has reached home in
safety, after an absence so protracted that his
native tongue has grown strange to him, to be
warmly welcomed by his countrymen, and to add
his rich and varied experience to the stores of our
geographical knowledge.