The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-12 00:00:00

what the Danes, the S wedes, and all the rest of
Europe have to say to it. I shall touch on that
subject in a subsequent letter.

" JAN. 31,

"The conviction that diplomatic interference can
do nothing for them, that the atm:oe is both in-
evitable and imminent, and that they will have to
bear the brunt of it alone, gains strength among
the Danes. There is a strong party here, indeed,
who have faith in the Swedes, and expect to see
these Northern allies coming to the rescue at the
aleventh hour, These sanguine people belong to
what is called the Scandinavian Party,' a set of
men who cherish the notion of a union of the t'aree
Northern kingdoms under one sceptre„
and think
the present straits of Denma,: it most likely to
call forth such sympathies on the part of their
Swedish and Norwegian brethren as may hasten
this, to thez, moat auspicious combination. This
party has its main strength among the well-educated
RAid strictly national party, and rallies, I am told,
round the Swedish hlinistry, Count Hamilton, a
gentleman of ancient Scottish descent, a personage
of the highest distinction in his own country, and
enjoying the highest reputation in this. These par-
tioans of what one might call young Scandinavia,'
evince the most profound respect for the memory
of the departed King, because he was a Dane,' a
reflection upon the present Monarch, who is almost
a stranger in the country, and whose strong German
accent when he speaks Danish grates most un-
pleasantly upon the nerves of the more fastidious
part of his subjects.
" AScandinavian kingdom in the North of Europe,
a German Empire in the centre, with Switzerland
and Italy in the South, would, these people con-
ceive, constitute such a strong line of natural allies
as would best check the restless ambition of Franee
on one side, and the towering might of encroaching
Russia on the other. With a view to some such

future arrangement, these Scandinavians would be
fain to meet the Germans half-way, so far at least as
to give up Holstein altogether, retaining the Eider
as the natural frontier of the Northern kingdom.
On the other hand, however, there is a set of more
thorough and uncompromising Danish patriots who
cannot dissociate the love they bear to their country
from the duty they owe to their King, and to these
the project of a united Scandinavian kingdom ap-
pears not only a disloyal and treasonable scheme,
but a mad, impracticable dream, against which, they
say, all the bloody traditions of the past, all the
present antipathies of the lower classes of Swedes
and Danes, and all the interests of the great Powers,
chiefly of England and Russia, would be arrayed.
These are of opinion, not only that Denmark should
continue to exist, but that it should remain as it is,
or was, and are loth to listen to any proposal not
only as to the cession of any part of Schleswig, but
even as to the surrender of Holstein. The bounda-
ries of the Danish Peninsula, to their mind, were
traced by nature at the Elbe; Denmark should fight
for the whole of it to the last drop of her blood.
Time enough to surrender to hard necessity what
may be lost after a decisive defeat ; but so long as
the strength of the monarchy is unbroken to talk
of concessions, of new combinations, of the extinc•
tion of a nation which boasts so many centuries of
glorious history, is a wickedness hardly to be ex-
cused on the ground of insanity.
" Such, I believe, are the different feelings with
which the various parties of th;s brave D finish
people are about to meet their German foes in the
field. This divergence of opinion, I need hardly
add, is purely theoretical and speculative. Practi-
cally, the Danes will no less be of one mind as to
their duty to their country and Sovereign. Even
those who would wish to come to terms with Ger-
many by the sacrifice of Holstein are most unshaken
in their determination not to give up one inch
of Schleswig territory. Schleswig is an integra
part of Denmark, and were it even desirable and
possible to join Denmark in one great Northern
State, it would surely be bad policy, the Scandi-
navians' think, to give up the Danish bride's
dowry, or part of her dowry, at the very moment
of her contemplated wedding with her Swedish
bridegroom.