The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-08 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

This day at Two o'clock
__ __

---
Barometer-29.66,
Wind—N,W.; moderate, and cloudy.

fc-lwr P
4143 g
""•-•

LONDON, MONDAY, FEB. 8, 1864.

Left in the lurch at the eleventh hour, after being
openly encouraged to expect support of e, very
4` material" kind during the ten hours (so to speak)
immediately preceding, Denmark, although flushed
with sudden hope by her first success, is nom
Ifithdrawing before, if it is very far indeed from
having yet succumbed to, the vastly superior
powers opposed to her. The contest, it should be
borne in mind, is not simply as it were, a struggle
between a dwarf and a giant—it bears more of a
resemblance, strictly speaking, to a brutal on-
slaught all ee
dam by two giants upon a heroic
pigmy. The whole population of Denmark, let it
be remembered for a moment, is considerably less
than the aggregate of the population of our own
capital! And it is against this minor kingdom that
the combined armaments of two of the great Powers
of Europe are now being directed energetically and,
by previous concert, simultaneously. Isolated as
the Danes are, therefore, when assailed thus by the
Austrians and Prussians, it cannot possibly be any
smatter of surprizeto us that, although heartened on
by the first brilliant success achieved by the Danes
on the earliest encounter of the belligerents, the
soldiers of Denmark—we should learn by the news
fleshed to us from the seats of war, bit by bit in
eluiost momentary telegrame—are becoming the
setore in events very different, indeed, in their
Miesunde, for example, before
which the assailants were signally worsted for
while at that first encounter, hes been even-
tea 'ly eleandoned. As might, in truth, have been
eticipated. As was, indeed, for that matter, just,
in one word, inevitable. Not only has it been thus,
however, between the belligerents, but—the rite de
pent at Missurale, hiving been blown up, the Danes
have been pursued in the direction of Flensburg,
several guns having been captured during
that pursuit. An engagement of a rather san-
guinary character is known, moreover, to have
taken place at Idstedt. And, a pontoon bridge
having beet thrown across the Schlei at a point

cllaracter.

between Arnis and Cappeln by Prince FREDERICK
CHARLES, at the head of his division of Prussians, the
Danes, startled into a retrograde movement by that
proceeding, at 12.30 a.m. on Saturday abruptly
evacuated the city of Schleswig, abandoned the Dan-
newerke with the whole of the material of war there
accumulated—included amongst this all-important
material of war sixty heavy pieces of artillery !
The Austrians thereupon, of course, entering the
city of Schleswig (as it appears at seven o'clock on tke
evening of Saturday), and taking possession of the
Dannewerke, together with the sixty guns, etcetera!
And, not only doing this right promptly and ener-
getically, but afterwards pursuing the retiring
enemy in the direction of Flensburg. Pursuing
them thither so hotly and determinedly, that
between Schleswig and Flensburg, consider-
ably nearer to the latter than to the former,
at a place called Oversee, a battle has teen
fought, in which the Danes were signally defeated
by the Austrian forces under General GABLENZ,
the Commander-in-Chief. In this battle, it appears,
Colonel the Prince WILLIAM of WIIRTEMBIIRG was
severely wounded, one lieutenant-colonel also being
wounded, two hundred Danish prisoners being cap-
tured, and with those prisoners six cannon of
heavy calibre, together with a considerable
portion of the baggage trains and ammu-
nition. The mere announcement in the
Danish capital of the evacuation by the national
troops of the Dannewerke, with all the ma-
terials of war there delivered up no less
completely and unreservedly than the city
of Schleswig itself to the German invaders—
has already, it would seem, created the greatest
excitement and indignation at Copenhagen. The
popular indignation, there, being mainly directed
against the Danish Commander-in-Chief. And
the depression upon public feeling because of
these last events being so profound and excessive
that a proclamation subsequently issued by the
newly enthroned. Patriot King CHRISTIAN TX,, so far
from reassuring the multitude, has, it would actually
appear according to one of the telegrams, " produced
an unfavourable:impression.° While the complica-
tions of war are thus becoming every day more
serious as between Denmark and Germany, what,
in simplest truth, really is to be the policy of the
PALMERTON Government between the belligerents ?
The House of Commons, the People of England
pause for a reply !

Few catastrophes impress the public mind more
deeply and painfully than accidents by fire. The
suddenness of the alarm, the imminence of the
danger, and the fact that in the ordinary routine
of daily life we are all more or less liable to it,
enhance the consternation occasioned by the
agonising and fatal nature of the accident. Of
late years, thanks to the extravagance of fashion
and the wilful recklessness of its votaries, such
disasters have been distressingly common. At a
recent inquest ou a lady the Coroner stated that
40,000 persons had died from burns in the last
15 years, being at the rate of eight a day. We
have heard so often that the repetition, though
always painful, is no longer surprising, of happy
festive meetings turned into funeral assemblies,
of family gatherings round the winter's hearth
converted into ghastly tragedies of the young,
the lovely, and beloved arraying themselves in gay
attire like victims decked for slaughter, only to
perish by the most terrible of deaths. But there
is something especially startling in such a catas-
trophe when the victim has incurred the danger
which has led to her destruction in efforts for the
public amusement ; when we propose to pass a
light and pleasant evening of diversion and recrea-
tion, and are suddenly called upon to witness an
appalling holocaust. The shock of poor CLAnA
WEISSTEIL'S melancholy death Created a deep and
wife spread feeling of horror and regret, and
steps were immediately taken to prevent the re-
petition of such a tragedy. Unhappily the danger,
although diminished, is by no means overcome,
and from time to time some poor sufferer, usually a
ballet dancer, falls a victim to imprudence
or misfortune. A case of this kind has very lately
taken place, and combined with the dreadful catas-
trophe at Chili, has called public attention with
renewed earnestness to the matter of theatrical per-
formances and risks from fire. However lamentable
may be the sacrifice of a single victim, the scene
and its consequences are far more terrible when the
whole body of spectators are involved in one com-
mon danger, when the risk of suffocation, of broken
limbs and mangled bodies, cf death from the tramp-
ling feet of an affrighted multitude, are superadded
to the terrors cf the wreathing flames. The thought
that naturally presented itself to the mind of every
English reader, after the first moment of horror and
commiseration, was, " What would be the result of
a similar accident in one of our theatres ?" Nor is
the danger restricted to theatres alone; every large
music-hall and place of assembly would tell the
same tale of many complicated turns, of narrow
passages, of few and small sized doors. Any one
who has sat in the middle of Exeter-hall on a
crowded night, must, if the thought of fire pre-
sented itself to his mind, have wondered how that
living mass would struggle out of that vast space in
a moment of sudden panic. The Lord Chamberlain
very prudently has not contented himself with
moralising ; he has determined, if possible, to do
something to mitigate the danger at present existing
to individuals and to communities, and has therefore
convened a meeting of the principal theatrical mana
gers of the metropolis, for the purpose of considering
the best means of preventing such lamentable acci-
dents. The gentlemen who appeared in answer to
this summons unanimously expressed their desire
to provide in every way for the safety of the ballet
girls employed in their establishments ; but de-
clared that the difficulty was to deal with the care-
lessness and indifference of the girls themselves,
Various plans had been tried, some managers even
threatening dismissal if the rules were infringed.
In answer to the Lord Chamberlain's inquiry as to
the possibility of enforcing the dipping of the
dresses worn in ballets in an uninflammable solu-
tion, it was explained that such a precaution was
of little use, as it was generally the mass of light
gauze under petticoats—often 13 or 14 in number
—which caught fire. The girls always neglected
to use the material for underclothing even when it
was supplied to theni, and were habitually regard-
less of the regulations about passing near lamps,
&c. We suspect, however, that if the plan adopted
by Mr. CAVE, of the Marylehone Theatre, were
extensively followed, and several girls actually fined
or discharged for breaking the printed rules, such
inattention would be less common. It is not sur-
prising if the girls themselves, who would be the
victims of their own folly,
Ix little
busy and engrossinl; cannot be made to show
more prudence, that managers amid all their
occupations are not very pre
cise in enforcing
litich rules. Nevertheless this
accident will probably startle many of them
into renewed vigilance and greater severity. Bat
it is evident that it will not do to reckon
upon the security of the dresses being
uninflammable ; the security must lie in having the
lights well guarded. had the light which ignited
the poor Columbine's dress at the Pavilion been
protected by a wire network, the accident could not
have happened, and the public have a right to ex-
pect that managers should take this simple and in-
' expensive precaution. A rigid adherence to rules
should also be insisted on, and no one should Ve