The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-09 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

THE " SPECTATOR" ON TIIE DARKENING HORIZON.
rtle horizon is darkening fast. Almost every in-
cident recorded this week points to a rapidly ap-
proaching crisis, the outbreak of that European war
which we have for five months foretold as certain if
England shrank from her clear duty of enforcing
justice as well as peace. Had we fulfilled the Pre-
mier's p'edge, accepted the Swedish offer, and sent
ten regiments of the line to the Dannewerke as
proof that we were in earnest, there would have
been no war, and we should have dictated a compro-
mise which by doing justice at once to Denmark
and Germany would have removed all heartburn-
...

ings. The Ministry or the Court, whichever it was,
shrank from that just course, and now the nation
must pay the penalty which always falls on those
who will not submit to injustice, yet are not prompt
to demand redress. The Conference after two post-
ponements met at last on the 29th of April, but as
we predicted the very first proposal was made an
excuse for delay, The Germans, forsooth, had no
idea that any one would ask for an armistice, no
instructions whether to accept or reject it, and

though the telegraphs are in order waited three
days more. When the instructions arrived it was

discovered that they covered a great deal too much,
that Prussia in particular was striving to dictate
terms as to a conquered foe, and the consequent re-
monstntnces furnished one more excuse for another
appeal for fresh orders. Conference therefore stands
postponed to Monday next, by which time we doubt
not Count Bernstorff will have the gout, or Herr
von Beast will bs recalled to arrange pressing Saxou
business, or Count Apponyi will feel it necessary to
Inquire at Vienna what he is to do if

the Prussian should chance to disagree with him.
The game now visibly playing is one of delay,
delay intended to allow Prussia to occupy all
Jutland, and Austria to send her fleet to the Baltic.
If the allies could but gain three clear weeks undis-
turbed, Jutland would be swept bare, Funen entered
by the Prussian army, and the Austrian fleet an-
chored off Copenhagen. Fortunately for Denmark
and Europe, however, there are limits to the for-
bearance even of the British Government. It is clear
amidst all the guarded official statements that this
last insult overcame the Foreign Secretary's pati•
ence, and that Vienna has been assured that if, in
spite of promises, the Austrian fleet quits the North
Sea the Austrian fleet will cease to exist. The
Aurora has been despatched to watch its progress,
and a squadron ready for action lies waiting in the
Dawns. Austria, it seems probable, will on this
point give way to an irresistible mandate ; but the
collision has not tended to diminish the irritability
of diplomatists, or the inexplicable arrogance and
security which are expressed at Berlin. The official
journals of Prussia not only talk of the final absorp-
tion of Schleswig into Germany, not only demand
compensation for all the expenses of a war of inva-
sion, but inform Germany that should the British
fleet sail the Prussian Envoys will be at once q' it h-
drawn. Marshal von Wrangel not only permits his
soldiery to ravage Jutland, but has demanded a
" requisition" after the fashion of Napoleon 1.," the
first instalment" being £96,000, and transported
the municipalities which objected to the extortion.
The fortifications of Fredericia are sentenced to
destruction, and in short the Prussians deal openly
with Denmark, upon which they have never declared
'war, as a conquered country. The chatter about the
Prince of Au,ustenburg has entirely ceased, the
Prussian Chambers are silent and content with some

expected development, and if the signs visible on a
hands may be trusted, Herr von Biemark iatends to
insist on terms which would make Holstein and
Schleswig and Jutleni provinces of Prussia. As-
sured, as he thinks, that England will not inter-
fere, and prepared to defy France, he talks of the
"sacrifices made by the Monarchy" and the justice
of compensations as if already convinced that
Europe had sentenced Denmark. Arrogance of
this kind when manifested by the Minister of a
despotic State whose armies are in motion points
almost invariably to war. These are serious signs,
but more serious still is the change which is Pass`
ing over English opinion. Parliament is, as is usual
before action, quiet to apathy, just as audiences sit
hushed when the music tells them the denouement
is at hand ; but there is a kind of low growl coming
up audibly from every side. The country is wearied
out. Originally very apathetic,
almost unable to
understand the quarrel, and full of traditional be-
lief in German inertness, the English people have
watched the incidents of the campaign, the gallant
resistance made by men in whom they recognise,
themselves, the needless slaughter for the sake of
military display, the cruel requisitions upon unre-
sisting farmers, the yet more cruel insults poured
upon men who died defending their own soil with
an ever-increasing indignation. Men sympathise
acutely whenever they can entirely understand the
suffering, and there is not a country gentleman in
England but reads of the destruction of homesteads
like Ravnhavn,
the breaking up of parsonages, the
devastation of farms as like those of Lincolnshire
as if the people of Boston still spoke Danish, with
a sense of personal pain. That pain is the sharper
because it is felt at last that there runs through
all these acts a spirit of insult towards England
as well as Denmark, that this country is being
humiliated in the face of the world. Though too
proud to be $, susceptible," unable even to
concei ;re why
place to Prussians should resent a
monument recording a fair defeat, our countrymen
fast
through the land,
i
are not at heart delighted with others' scorn. A
feeling that it is almost time that words should give
action is spreading
and will very speedily makeitself heard in unmis-
takeable tones. The Cabinet, hampered byea hun-
dred difficulties of which Parliament never talks,
has waited for support, and now there is no course
of action, so be it decided, of which the country will
j
not approve. If France will oin to secure the weak,
the alliance will be accepted with pleasure; but if
not, it is not from the Tuileries that England re-
ceives her orders. Finally, the tone of the Danes
will, wo suspect, acce!erate the decision of states-
men. The politicians of Copenhagen seem at last
to perceive that a great cause is in this world no
security against a great wrong, and are talking in
their despair of schemes as dangerous to Europe as
their annihilation would be. With Schleswig gone
and Jutland ravaged, the islands have scarcely a
political existence, and may es well reap the advan-
tages of their inevitable dependence. "We must,"
says M. Hall, through the Dagbladet, " apply direct
' to Berlin," and terms obtained from Berlin will iu-
volve the permanent dependence of Denmark on the
great Power which grants it peace. Germany
ruling the Baltic—that is a change which may not
be dangerous, but which the older statesmen of
Fur, pe, men like Lord Palmerston, who know that
unless the Baltic is free Russia is supreme in the
I North, and like -Napoleon, who remember that
Sweden is really an arm of France, will undoubtedly
hold to be so, With rulers alarmed and populations