The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-23 00:00:00

their own mind, the question as to the future
destiny of those provinces is already settled, but
it is for time and the Provisional Government to
work it out. The management of the affairs of the
Duchies is to be entrusted to Commissioners ap-
pointed by the two great German Powers—a Prus-
sian Commissioner and an Austrian Commissioner.
Perhaps the junta may be a triumvirate, a third
Commissioner being named by the Frankfort Diet.
But even should the Federal principle obtain so
much as that, its representative would still have the
odds of t to one to contend with, and there is no
doubt but, so long as the two Great Powers agree,
no will but their own would have the force of law
in the Duchies. Dow it does so happen that Prus°l2
and Austria are at the present moment of one mind
fur what concerns the Duchies. A cordial under-
standiug between those two Powers on any point Is
a strange phenomenon, and has, been accounted for
either by the dependence of Austrian on Prussian
help, in the event of Italian complications, or by the
forms cf a compact between between Northern Powers reconstituting the Holy Alliance ; but,
may be the cause, it is a fact not only that Austria
is going hand-in-hand with Prussia in this matter,
but also that the former State is willing that the
latter should reap all the benefit of their cesium°
enterprise.

If a crafty and steady policy have power to a?.
complish anything, it seems certain that Prussia
will extend her dominion over the Duchies; it little
matters whether this is done directly by immediate
annexation, or, indirectly, by the creation of a Bo'
ordinate and vassal State. I fancy I can see everr
where symptoms of a disposition on the part of the
Frankfort D:et, and of the lesser and least State°
of G&many to knock under. Not only are they
unequal to a contest with the combined efforts °r
the two Great Powers, but they evidently feel, and
all but acknowledge their impotence. The helplesB•
ness and dilatoriness of that poor Frankfort Diet
are in themselves sufficient to give the game let°
the hands of any adyersary. The minor Goer's'
al ways wriggling and shuffling, are giving in one 111,
one; and Saxony, who would seem to evince great
stubbornness, takes up such absurd grounds as to
call down upon her the ridicule of her very par
She gravely tackled -Austria and Prussia for "6c
cepting Denmark,s cession of Holstein and Lsee .
c.
berg, as by such an accptance they virtually adolo
ted on the part of Denmark a right on those Daelil
which never existed."

As it becomes more and more obvious that Flls.
sia has carte blanche in the Dachieq, both on the
part of willing Austria, and on that of reluctant
Gern.any, it appers also evident that the dig:l°l
n-
on of mind of the &hies wig-Holsteiners has abated
from its former hostility to that designing reviel,
"The Schleswig-Haisteiners," it begins now to be
argued, ",are committed to no irrevocable course'
Prince Frederick of Augustenburg was hailed at
Kiel, at Schleswig and Flensburg, as the elect of
the people. But in a community, however small'
where anything happens suddenly to "ale the,
authority of the Government, where," "it Is ""f
asked, " where is the people The petty townso
Holstein and Schleswig have never even gone
plebiscite;
through the vain forms of athe rural
districts have made no sign whatever. r
Ivhatev e
the merits of Prince Frederick may bib however
ready the country might be to pronounce in his
favour, he is as yet," reople begin to
find out,
"only a mob candidate. His name has been Pre'
claimed; deputations have come to him; weetwg,,s
have been held in his interest; bat all these have
been mere individual acts, the acts of men without
call or mission, whom the presence of an armed
force secured from all opposition. The people at
large have had no chance to speak out; it is always
the most worthless wheel in the cart that creaks)
and nothing is easier than to bring a multititude to
cut its own throat."

AMERICA.

(REUTER'S EXPRESS.)

NEW YORK, AUG. 10.

The Southern papers announce the appointment
of the lion. George A. Trenholm, as Secretary of
the Treasury, iu the place of the Hon. C. G.
Meminger, resigned. Mr. Trenholm is a native of
Charleston, about 55 years of age, and tha senior
partner of the firm of John Fraser and Co., of
Charleston, which, with its Liverpool branch--
Fraser, Trenholm, and Co.—has been extensicelf

engaged in blockade-running entcrprises since the
beginning of the war.
A gent►eman, long a resident of Mobile, and
familiarly acquainted with the topography of that
port, gives the following particulars of the lccality
of the late naval victory gained by Admiral Far'

ragut :
" Forts Morgan and Gaines are situated about 33
miles from the city of Mobile, and command from
opposite aides the entrance to the bay of the same
name. Th!,, entrance is about 2 miles wide. Fort
Powell commands another entrance, or rather nor
row artificial pass, called Grant's Pass, into the
same bay from the Mississippi Sound. The true
harbour of Mobile, locally called the anchorage,
a few miles above these forts, under the lea of
Dluphin Island, and about 25 miles from Mobile.
Only vessels of small draft can come to the wharves
of the city, which is approached by
tortuous channel averaging nine feet of water, never
exceeding 11. The most difficult portion of the
channel is at a point called Choctaw Pass, about
five miles distant from the city.
" it is not believed that the city is a narrow and
in any danger
of capture from a naval attack. A succesafal land
and the
attack would require at least 15,000 men,
approaches in that case would not be from Dauphin
Island but from Pascagoula. The object of Admiral
Farragut's operations is, therefore, probably--drat,to destroy the Confederate fleet in the bay ; and,
secondly, to more effectually close a pert which,
from its large cotton exportations, had recently be 4
come of considerable importance to blockade-ill
ners. These objects attained, the situation wil
not be very dissimilar from that sit Charleston,
except that the distances between the outer
snd
inner lines of harbour defences are greater."

MORE ABOUT THE CONFEDERATE CiltrlS!it
FLonrnA.—By intelligence received yestereay at LloY" SP
through the Preston, Captain Wakeham, just arrived at
the
Liverpool from Bombay, it appears that vessels 61,°k8
in lat. 36,
Confederate cruiser Florida on the 25th of July,
long. 36, on the look-out for prizes. The Florida steamed
up alongside the Preston, and having ascertained her
nationality, put a number of letters and late newspapers on
board her, the latter containing accounts of the destruction
of the Alabama by the liearsage. Further communica-
tions were about being interchanged; when a vessel bearing
the United States flag
hove in sight, and the Florida
steamed off in pursuit.
FATAL ACCIDENT.---AU accident', terminating in
loss of life, has
just held the population of Saila-
manches (Haute-Savoie) in a state of painful suspense for
A. well sinker Lamed Perier was being
nearly four days.
let down into an old well nearly sixty feet deep, for the
purpose of effec ing some repairs, and had already reached
within a short distance of the bottom, when a stone at the
side on which he had for a moment placed his foot, gave
and brought with it the whole of the masonry work
liningi the sides of the shaft. Assistance was protuptli
obtained, and after about fourteen hours' labour, nearly
twenty feet of the stones and rubbish were removed'
and the voice of the unfortunate man could be heard ;
although closely pressed by the ruins, he bed 11'3
received any serious injuries, and was able to breathe
ir,cesly. Two mornings after, the removal of the
was
rubbish
so far advanced that the workers had reached
to within six feet of the Perier, and some broth was passed
to him through an elastic tube. The work had, 11°wtver'
now become more dangerous. Twice the shoring
gave way, and the clearing-out of the materials had to b°
recommenced. On the evening of the next day the lobe seat
in the well called cut that the unfortunate man
length reached, and at the same time asked for a cord to belet down, in order to draw him to the surface. Alltjther
moment and he would have been rescued, but the sides one°
wore gave way, the man again disappearing beneath 01
stones. Three hours Jeer the rubbish had been clear'
awry from Perier's head and shoulders, but it was nOW too
late, as he had succumbed from suffocation, after remain
lag buried for 56 hours. partially