The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-07 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

SATURDAY REVIEW.-- The Oppo.di ion un-
doubtedly tikes up with great feree any point on
which it happens to tasten, because its leaders have
now the strength of a great following, and because,
if a contest is provoked, it feels the pleasure of con
scious power. It criticises the administration of
affairs, not only from a vague sense of duty and in
the interest of the nation, but because it thinks its
turn for adminietering affairs may come soon. Nor
can it be said that mere criticism of this sort ends
in very little, and that the Opposition has no solid
and tangible standing-ground unless it is prepared
to advocate, and if in office to pursue, a totally dif-
ferent policy from that to which the Government
has adhered. It is true:that it is a misfortune to the
Conservatives that they have no distinct policy,
and this is in some measure the fault of the princi-
plea they profess and the chiefs they serve under;
but it arises in pert from the leaders of the Conser-
vative party being brought at present under in-
fluences which equally affect the leaders of the Go-
vernment, and to which loyalty and respect fur
sorrow dispose them, as politicians, unduly to yield.
But even although no distinct policy may be pro-
posed, it is still open to the Opposition to contend
that the administration of affairs is such as to call
for the disapprobation of the house. The present
Government came into office mainly on the ground
that the relations of Lord Derby's Ministry with
France were not sufficiently cordial. Lord Palmer-
ston did not contend that England ought to have
adopted a different policy in the Italian war.
He did not wish we had landed troops at Venice
or crushed the Austrian fleet, but he induced his
supporters to think that we ought to be more
friendly with France and to show our sympathies
with her more plainly. In the same way, at the
present time, the Opposition may agree that Eng-
land is not called on to fight Germany, and that
Danmark must be left to herself as Poland was, but
it may contend that a change ought to be made in
our way of treating continental nations, and that
we should not give reason to suppose that we in-
tend to afford our friends material assistance unless
we are quite clear that this is our intention. There
is as much ground for saying that this would be a
basis of policy distinct from that of Lord Russell, as
there was for supposing, when the present Ministry
was formed, that Lord Palmerston's policy towards
France would be different from that of Lord Derby.
At the same time, although the Opposition may
make it clear that the administration of affairs, and
especially of foreign affairs, admits of a palpable
distinction being drawn between that which is and
that which should be, and although this is quite
enough justification for an Opposition, it by no
means follows that; even if on this particular point
they are right, it would be for the benefit of the
country they should oome into ofc©. A change of
Ministry is at any time a very serious thing, and,
with so many clouds hanging over both th New
and the Old World, a change of Ministry would be
more serious than usual. In this particular de-
partment of foreign affairs the Conservatives hap-
pen also to he especially weak, They would have
to face either the glaring incompetence of Lord
Malmesbury or the deep distrust of the character of
Mr. Disraeli which prevails, not only in Parliament
and in the country, but in the Conservative party
itself. Nor is it to be denied that, however con-
vinced Lord Darby may be of the necessity
of maintaining our present neutral attitude,
there would be a general feeling that a war would
come more easily if a Conservative Governa-sent
were in office, and that the very anpraiseusien of
this is itself an evil. It is reasonable that a party
so strong nninerieally as the Quneervativee should
' feel themselves entitled to their turn of power, and
the country would gain b 5, the many able men to be
found on that aide having the advantage of official
experience; but for the present it may be doubted
whether, either for the country or the Corsereatiees,
there is anything better than thet they should still
be the Oppoeition, lint a powerful and vigilant
Opposition. An accidental circumstance also eantri-
butes to make it just now more nerenseeei than testae)
that a vigilant and veseerfal Cyposition -1
exist. The I),.rnee 'sae ceased to haveeaould
of its own. Whatever Lord e any opinions
colleagues say it one' raimerston and his
ertnauds ; whatever they do it
proves to be right in the very nature of things;
whatever 'nt
ttGeers or faults they commit it excuses
or passes by in silence. The motives which have
led to this complete identification of the limes with
the Cloyerument are, we may be sure, of the most
honourable kind; nor, if personal feeling intervenes,
is it any disgrace to pay the tribute of even an ex-
cessive respect to so old and distinguished a states-
man as the occupant of Cambridge House. But it
is a priblio lose that a journal which deservedly
stands so high, and which contributes so largely to
the formation of public opinion, should have been
induced by zeal, or admiration, or gratitude, to
give up altogether the task of criticising a parti-
cular Ministry. When, in the course of time, a
Conservative Ministry takes office, we may hope that
the Times will feel the invigorating effects of
the change and return to that attitude of impar-
tial criticism which alone is worthy of the highest
order of English journalism. The Conservatives
well deserve to have a fair trial, and to be treated
with the respect due to a body of men who repree
sent so much of the wealth and force and so many
of the traditions of the country. But we may be
sure that there will be plenty of room for fair cri-
ticism iu the conduct of a party which is led by
men so dangerous as Mr. Disraeli and so weak as
Lord Malenesbury and Lord Chelmsford, and which
necessarily, from its very constitution, stand to some
degree in antagonism to that great though vague
and sometimes dangerous movement which de.
rives its impulse from the advancing thought of
the modern world.
SPECTATOR.—It cannot be said that there are
any explicit promises of help to Denmark in the
despatches now presented to Parliament, but there
are many statements which would certainly rouse
a very reasonable hope of help in the mind of the
Danish Minister. On the 24th November a memo-
randum was read to the Prussian Minister which
used this language, "Should Federal troops enter
Holstein on purely Federal grounds, her Majesty's
Govenment would not interfere, but should it ap-
pear that Federal troops had entered the Duchy on
international grounds, her Majesty's Government
may be obliged to interfere." Schleswig was not
then even threatened, but after such a statement it
was certainly not unreasonable for the Danes to
hope that the invasion of Schleswig on "inter-
national" grounds wonld be resented by us. Again
in a despatch dated December 10th, Sir A. Paget
" strongly urged" on the Danish Minister to evacu-
ate Holstein without resistance,on the plea that" if
an attack upon Schleswig was made, the other
Powers could then interfere on ground which was
Incontestably beyond the limits of the Confedera-
tion,"—and again, " that Denmark would, at all
events have a better chance of securing the assist-
ance of the Powers alluded to by retiring beyond
the limits of the Confederation, than if she pro-
yoked a war by resisting what might be considered
the legitimate authority of the Diet on Federal ter-
ritory." There, certainly, the hope of aid was held
out as a motive to retire. Finally, Lord Wode-
house, in urging eagerly on the Danish Minister
the duty of suspending the " common Constitu-
tion between Schleswig and Denmark which
the German Powers choose to make the casus belli,
said, "It was my duty to declare to him that if the
Danish Government rejected my advice, His (Her ?)
Majesty's Government must leave Denmark to en-
counter Germany on her own responsibility." Den-
mark very reluctantly yielded to the weight of pres-
sure thus applied ; the Ministry was changed ; Den-
mark conceded everything she was asked as to the
new Constitution, on condition of six weeks' delay,
to convoke the Rigsraad, and all to no purpose—Sir
Buchanan reporting, after an interview with M. de A.
Bisrnark, "that until Germany has actually shown
that she is not afraid to draw her sword in a cause
which she considers to be just, and has forced Den-
mark by arms to remove the grievances complained
of, the King will not concede that enough has been
done for the national honour." And England, mean-
while, who has wrung out these concessions—flrst
the cancelling of the patent of March lust, then the
evacuation of Holsteien then the withdrawal of the
Schleswig Constitution, all with the tone of a pro-
tector who is going to give something in return—
when will England consider that enough has been
done for the national honour Apparently when
Lord Palmerston has made a few speeches in " the
Oambyses vein," and the people have spent a few
thousand pounds on salve for Danish wounds and
English consciences. That we have contemplated
much more serious resistance, and been frightened
into neutrality, we believe the despatches will abun-
dantly prove. Lord Napier, in a despatch 6th
January, says he told Prince Gortschakoff " that an
attack upon Schleswig appeared imminent, and if
that attempt was made, it seemed not irepre'oable '
that the Germans might find themselves confronted
by the armed intervention of Great Britain." But
a wet blanket seems to have been thrown on these
intentions by the blank refusal of France. 01 the i
24th January Lord Russell wrote to .:(Jerd Cowley
that her Majesty's Government "seek the
concert and po operation of Franca, Russia, and
Sweden, in order to give, if necessary, material ,
as- istance to Denmark in the resistance of dismem-
berment." This despatch wee answered on the
28th January, in a visit from the French Ambassa-
dor here to Lord Russell, in which ho stated that,
for various reasons—sympathy with nationalities
and offended pride about the Congress are the chief
—"the Government of the Emperor will not take'
at present, any engagement on the subject of Den-
mark." Since then, we imagine, the zeal of her
Majesty's Government has collapsed. The Anglo-
.
German despatches have been very carefully edited,

but Mr. Layard has passed over a sentence which
will give rise to some discussion. On the 7th of
January our Ambassador at St. Petersburg writes
to atri Russell, reporting a conversation with
Prince Gortschakulf. (Page 504.) In that conver-
sation toe Prince remarked, "it we in his opinion
must desirabM that the action of Austria and
Prussia should not be separated from England and
Russia in any question of moment; the four Go-
vernments happily- now thinking and acting in
harmony on a question still more important than
that of Holstein and Schleswig ought not on this
matter to be split into two camps opposed to one
another." What is this question—Turkey, or
Poland, or the Rhine? Has our Government really
been reinvigorating the Holy Alliance, as the Em-
peror of the French seems in another despatch to
think? Russia, Austria, Prussia, and England act-
ing in concert—what on earth does it all mean ?

- -
LONDON REVIEW,—In answer to a question in
the House of Commons, Mr. Layard, on Monday
night, made a farther revelation of the position
which we have taken up in reference to the Dano-
German conflict. Denmark, it seems, has a ship of
war in course of construction in a private yard in
this country. When hostilities were impending,
the Danish Minister informed our Government of
the fact., and offered to stop the work if we desired
it. Our Government did desire it, and orders were
given to that effect. On the remonstrances of the
shipbuilder, however, the vessel was allowed to be
launched, subject to the Danish Minister giving his
word of honour that she should not leave this coun-
try without the leave of the authorities. The con-
duct of Denmark in the affair had been, Mr. Layard
observed, marked by the most perfect good faith.
There is no doubt that it was marked not merely
by good, but by chivalrous faith. Denmark went
oat of her way to inform us of what we might
possibly, though certainly it could not be supposed
that we should probably, regard as a breach of
neutrality, from which eventual embarrassment
might spring. But the question for us is, whether
we are in this case bound to be thus neutral or not,
and if we are not, the next question is, by what
motive this position of neutrality is forced upon us ?
Now, as to the first question, it is to bo observed
that the Dano-German war is not one of those in
which we can profess to stand wholly aloof, hold-
ing nothing but an abstract opinion on its merits,
or a barren sympathy with one of the combatants.
It is caused by infraction of a treaty is which we
were parties. It is an assault, in oar avowed belief,
utterly unprovoked, upea a State with which we
are bound in ailianee. We may decide for our-
selves that we are not so far involved as to be
obliged to draw sword in the quarrel, yet we are
certainly not therefore neutral. It is not raerely
our opinions that are ranged, with abeealute unani-
mity, on the side of Denmark, in regard to the
justice of the quarrel. But it is that engagements
solemnly entered into by us, in concert with other
powers, have been deliberately trampled underfoot
by the German States, It is admitted on all hands
that we have in these circamstancee an ample casus
bells, if we think fit to exercise it. This is
admitted even by our Ooveenment, which long age
warned the intending invaders that if they took up
arms" Denmark would not te found alone." Now
we may choose to leave Danmark alone. But it is a
wholly different 'tiling to say to her that we will
not only tglit for her, but that we will not suffer
her to obtain ships and arms by purchase from us.
When we have declared the attack unjustifiable in
the eye of public law and of European interests, it
is certainly a very strange proposition to lay down
that we shall give to the breakers of law and dis-
turbers of Europe all the benefits of law and all ahe
encouragement of impartiality, and shall preens
the weaker party, the victim of violence,
l:com pro-
curing the means of defence. If, tten,
neutrality
is pushed to such excess in such
a case not called
for by law, we may next ago, why we have adopted
it answer
will The frank ansill be given, that it is be-
cause, if we had
have decle- a not, Austria and Prussia would
to dee' ,ed war against us. We may take leave
- • ,eot that assertion. Each of these Powers has a
good deal too much to do at home without declaring
war against Great Britain. Both together are un-
able to crush Denmark, whose total population is
less than that of London. It is not very probable
that, with Poland and Venetia in their rear, they
would proceed to declare war against Great Britain.
But supposing they were really to make such a
threat, what then? Is this country really sunk so
low that she dare do nothing, however right and
just it be, if a foreign despotism announces that it
will consider the act a cams belli ? We know,
indeed, that we are already in that position as re-
gards Russia. A Government despatch, declaring
our recognition of Poland as a belligerent, was
stopped lry telegraph because Russia announced
that she would regard its presentation as a casus
The lesson has not been lost. The Germans
know that we have crouched, like a whipped hound,
beneath the crack of the autocrat's knout, and they
too threaten us with their casus belli if we give
con atenance to the gallant little nation for which
a new partition is in preparation. And it seems
Lard Pahnerston's Government shrinks back at the
menace, and gladly accepts Danish magnanimity as
our protection from the danger. How much lower
are we to sink before we have drunk the full cup of
humiliation ?

EXAMINER.—CoIoneI Crawley has found a worthy
champion in Lord Longford, who claims for him a
general sympathy he will certainly not obtain.
Lord Longford complains of the pension granted to
the family of Sergeant-Major Lilley, thinking it a
wrong to Colonel Crawley. And he truly observes
that the public naturally put their own construc-
tion on the restoration of Captain Smales. Lord
Longford would have had Lilley's family left to
beggary, and Mr. Smales denied the reparation to
which be was entitled ; for it seems that justice to
anybody was somehow or other prejudicial to the
peculiar case of Colonel Crawley. It was not
enough that a good soldier's death was, at least,
hastened by an illegal punishment, his family
should have been left to want, and Captain Smales
should have been ruined by an unjust sentence, all
to serve Colonel Crawley. The ruin of six or saven
persons of different ranks, which has actually been
worked, is not enough to satisfy this man's champion.
These and other similar extravagances of Lord
Longford did not surprise us, bearing in mind the
old maxim sinuli gaudet, but we confess that
we read with amazement the last words of Lord
Shaftesbury in answer to a reproach levelled at
him for his most praiseworthy part in bringing
about the court-martial :

"Every private soldier has now seen that no injustice
can be done even to the rank and file of the army without
moving both Houses of Parliament, and putting into opera-
tion all the powers of the State, to inquire into the wrong,
and, if it be proved, to redress it,"

Why, this is precisely what has not been seen. It
has been seen that a soldier could be illegally kept
in confinement where confinement is punishment
injurious to health, and that this wrong, compassed
conjointly by his Colonel and two General Officers,
has been suffered to pass wholly unpunished.
" What safety is there for me ? asks a noble Gene-
ral iu the House of Lords; but "What safety is
there for me ? " is the more real question of every
soldier and non-commissioned officer in the service.
The articles of war which rule the soldier are also
designed for his protection, but of what force in
Lilley's case was that most imposiaut article which
stands in the army in lieu of the security of the
habeas corpus. The unfortunate Lilley has passed
beyond reach of redress, but the pernicious example
remains of a deliberate infraction of the articles of
war, and what was done by the two Generals and
Colonel Crawley in India may be repeated elsewhere
with the same cruel consequences and impunity.
The evil precedent is established, and the soldier
feels that the articles of war so rigorously binding
upon him are of no force to restrain the unjust will
of his superiors. The inquiry into the treatment of
Lilley without cognizance of the main point, th'e
illegal imprisonment, was nothing better than a
juggle. What would be thought of sepv:ating the
fact of a false imprisonment from the circumstances
of the treatment of the injured party, and. resting
the issue Or the question. whether or not there
was unnecessary severity ? none whatever, no
detention of any sort, being justifiable.
Would it be any answer to a charge of false impri-
sonment that the aggrieved was kept in actual
luxury Could an acquittal be claimed on the ground
that ne was not subjected to torture ? 111-treatment
F would be an aggravation of the cffence, but the
contrary would be no defence. The taking away of
liberty is the substantial wrong, and comparatively
immaterial are the circumstances, the sort of prison
and duress. The question, indeed, of necessary or
unnecessary severity was stark nonsense with rcife-
rence to an illegal imprisonment. la fact that ques-
tion implied that the confinement was legal, which
it notoriously and confessedly was not beyond the
eighth daY. The issue of which Col. Crawley has had
the benefit was a false issue, and hence the greatest
scandal to military justice of our time or perhaps
any other. When the Mutiny Act is before the House
of Commons. we trust that the article violated in
Lilley'a ease will be the subject of special considera-
tion with a view to giving it more stringency, if
more it wante, or if not, of raising the question why
its infraction was suffered to pass unpunished in the
lamentable instance at Mhow. It is not, perhaps,
generally known that the writ of habeas corpus does
not run in the military services, and that the security
for liberty in lieu of it is the important article which
was overruled by the sic vo/o, sic jubeo of military
tyranny in Lilley'si sad case. We rest our trust in
the House of Commons, because it is too clear that
in the House of Lords there is not the spirit or the
disposition to cope with the Waster and swagger of
Mites Gloriosus. In the Commons there are true
soldiers who need not, like Lord Longford,prcclaiaa
themselves soldiers, because their gallant services
have sufficiently dune that for thon; and the sym-

pathies and care of these men will dzscend below
their class, e.nd he the greatest for the humblest and
weakest in the ranks.

Naval and Military Intelligence.

THE NAVY.

The iron fri,Jatc Achilles, G,070 tons, 1,250 horse power
(nominal) having had the whole of her engines and ma-
chinery fitted on board, got up steam for the first time on
Saturday, at her moorings in Chatham harbour. The trial,
which was under the superintendence of the leading mem-
bers of the firm of Messrs. John Penn and Sons, by whoa
her engines were manufactured, was in the highest degree
satisfactory. With the screw propeller disconnected the en-
gines averaged 70 to 75 revolutions per minute, the boilers
giving an abundance of steam, and the whole machinery
working with the greatest smoothness and regularity. The
engines were kept working for some time to enable the
dockyard officials—Capt. Stewart, C. 8., Mr. Ibker, chief
engineer, at Chatham-yard, and Mr. Moore, first assistant
master shipwright, to report upon the result of the preli-
minary trial of the machinery. There is still work to be
done in the way of fitting and completing the Achilles be-
fore she will be ready for the pendant, and however san-
guine the Admiralty officials may be, there is little doubt
that the summer will be far advanced before she will ba
ready to take her maiden cruise. The Achilles new waits
instructions from the Admiralty relative to the trial of her
engines at the measured mile, Maplin Sands.
The Ariadne, 20, 3,214 tons, 800 horse power, Capt. E.
W.Vansittart, is ordered to be paid off in Chatham harbour,
and afterwards placed in the third division of the steam re-
serve at that port.
During the last few days nearly 40 shipwrights, all of
them skilled mechanics, have taken their discharge at Chat-
ham dockyard, the reason assigned being the smallness of
the wages given at her Majesty's dockyards as compared
with the amount which is now to be obtained by first class
mechanics at private shipbuileling establishments. It is
stated that there are still a number of hands in the dock-
yard who are only waiting the first opportunity to transfer
their services to private yards.
FATAL ALPINE EXCURSION,

- -
On Sunday morning, Feb. 28, a young Russian gentle-
man, M. and an English friend, Mr. set out
on an Alpine ascent of some difficulty. Accompanied by
four guises, and well provided with all the necessaries for
a similar excursion, they left Sion at 2 o'clock a.m., and
proceeded to a village called Arden, whence they com-
menced the ascension of the Dent d'Ardon.
Owing to the heat of the sun and under the influence of
the warm wind which prevailed the snow was exceedingly
soft, and on nearing the summit it became almost impossible
to advance. Still persevering, however, in their hazardous
enterprise, the travellers waded, so to say, through the,
yielding snow, when suddenly the mass on which they were
gave way and dashed down the side of the mountain with
fe-rful velocity. At the time of the accident all were pro-
perly attached by a new rope. made on purpose for the
ascent. Ia some unaccountable manner the rope snapped
in two places during the descent, so that when the•
avalanche reached the valley below, after a slide of 600
metres (or 1,800 feet), the travellers were no longer roped
together. The two gentlemen and one of the guides were
entirely buried in the snow, another guide partly so, and
the only two uninjured were the remaining guides, who
were attached to the two ends of the rope.
Notwithstanding the most heroic efforts of these two
men, only two of the party could be got out in time to save
their lives. Mr. B- was found dead in a recumbent,
position, with his head downwards, and it was only after
two says' continued search that the missing guide's body
was found.

This sad affair has thrown a gloom over the surrounding
neighbourhood, and those who knew Mr. B- will long
remember the deep impression that his untimely fate has,
left behind,

The funeral took place on the 3d inst., at Lausanne, in
the Ouchy burial ground.

---
It is but right to add that the inhabitants of the Valais
took the most kindly interest in the affair, and had it not
been for their prompt and eager assistance the bodies of the
unfortunate sufferers would most likely still have been
where they were buried alive,