The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-10 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC' JOURNALS

----IP.-
lIERALD.—=.I he blood which Austria and Prussia
have shed so wantonly cries kJ-leaven for vengeance.
The brutal butchery which, with the approval of
the Crown Prince of Prussia and his cousin, has been
committed by the Anglo-Prussian army since the
abandonment of the Daenewerke, will earn for the
two great German Powers the execration of all civi-
lised communities. Wanton enough was the invasion
of Schleswig, when the object which the Austrian
and Prussian Governments professed to seek was
secured to them. The withdrawal of the November
Constitution might have been obtained without the
sacrifice of a single life. But that outrage upon law,
that violation of common humanity, pales before the
infamous massacre which the overwhelming forces
of the allies have perpetrated in Angeln, in the
streets of Flensburg, and are continuing along the
roads running northward from that town. When
the Danes retired from the Dannewerke the pro-
fessed object of the Austrian and Prussian Govern-
ments was accomplished. Schleswig was theirs. The
purpose of the Danish army was to escape from the
Duchy as fast as it possibly could. It abandoned its
material of war ; it sought to pass into Jutland or
cross over to Funen, and thence to Zealand, If the
allied commanders had been animated by the spirit
professed by their Governments they would have
contented themselves with achieving this result, and
would have allowed the Danes to escape. But, with
a ferocity which reminds one of the worst days of
German armies, they fell upon this retreating force,
with which they hardly profess to be at war, and
slew as many as they possibly could. Watch the
Danes out, force them out of the Duchy, that would
have been fair enough. To annihilate them, as the
Anstro-Prussian commanders have sought to do,
was sheer savagery. Fast as the Danes retreated,
the Anstro-Prussian " braves" were faster. The
small and shattered Danish army was attacked
again and again by forces far outnumbering
it. No losses it sustained satiated the fury
of the victors, who seem resolved not to stay
their bloody work until they have put to the sword
every Dane. Is this slaughter a satisfaction for the
humiliations of 1850 ? Are the ])anes butchered to
satisfy the Austrians for their discomfiture in Italy,
and the Prussians for the contempt with which
France has treated them ? The Prussian army was
sent to Schleswig fifteen years ago, by the avowal
of the Prussian Minister, to restore its character.
Is it sent now to inspire it with confidence ? The
relentless cruelty with which the present King of
Prussia suppressed the outbreak in Baden was in
its day the subject of general reprobation. It would
seem that the ferocity imputed to him as exceptional
is a family trait. His son and two of his nephews
share the glory of the bloody work which was done
on Saturday and Sunday in the pleasant land of
Angeln, in the ow skirts of Flensburg, and which is
being zealously carried on to Apenraade, For
glory it will be deemed in Germany. The greater
the slaughter of the Danes the greater the satisfac-
tion amongst Radicals and Reactionists. The more
scalps the army has to show the better it will be re-
ceived by that pseudo-civilised community, the
louder will its heroic deeds be sung by the countless
bards. Saxons and Hessians, Swabians and Bava-
rians, will burst with envy to think that they were
not engaged in the glorious encounter. We shall
hear much from Germany about the valour of the
Germans, but it is a valour which will not be ac-
cepted out of that country. Three men will always
be brave when they have only one to oppose them,
and the poor fellow is wearied out and anxious to
make his escape. There is nothing for Germany
to take credit for in the massacre of thirty-five
thousand men by eighty-five thousand. How-
ever, the last Danish soldier having been mur-
dered, the Duchy will be at the disposition of the
Austrian and Prussian Governments. Will they
be satisfied with the slaughter they have made,
and now, having invaded Schleswig with the best
intentions to wards Denmark, restore it to her with
a new constitution of their own framing ? If
we could place the faintest reliance on their profes-
sions we should assume that they would do so ; and
having chastised King Christian in love, put him
anew in possession of the states which they acknow-
ledge to be his. But we cannot plaee any reliance
upon their professions. They are satisfied that
England will not interfere; they feel sure of France,
whose consent at the worst they can purchase at the
expense of some of the small states which have been
annoying them; and they have already given hints
that they mean to consider the treaty at an end.
The explanations of Lord Palmerston are anything
but assuring. Of what use is it for Earl Russell to
protest against the doctrine that the resistance of
the Danes annulled the treaty. His protests will
be treated with contempt. The official organ of the
Prussian Ministry roundly declares that Austria and
Prussia have not expressed the intention to uphold
the integrity of the Danish monarchy ; and although
this;statement is probably premature, its appearance
in such a journal indicates sufficiently that if they
have not yet made up their minds to repudiate the
treaty, they have a strong inclination to do so. The
language employed by the Crown Prince of Prussia
—whose part in this monstrous iniquity we will not
trust ourselves to characterise—in answering an
address at Rensburg, is significant, as showing that
his influence will be given to promote the violation
of the treaty and the establishment of the pretender
upon the throne of Schleswig-Holstein, if it should
not be found quite convenient that Prussia should
retain possession of the Duchies. Governments
which have not scrupled to shed such torrents of
blood upon so trifling a pretext will not now be
bound by a treaty which they have already violated,
and to which they only pretended to adhere so long
as there was a chance that England might act the
part which her honour and her interests called upon
her to take. They are satisfied now that England
will put up with any humiliation rather than go to
war; and they will consult their own interests only
in the disposition of the country which by a crime
fouler far than the partition of Poland they have
wrested from Denmark.
POST.—The amendment of the 3d and 4th Vic-
toria, cap. 54, proposed by Sir George Grey, consie
derable as it was made to appear, is in reality, look-
ing at it practically, very small indeed. The
alterations which are suggested in the mode of
ascertaining the insanity of a prisoner are, that the
certificate of lunacy must be signed by two visiting
justices of the gaol in which he is confined ; that the
two medical men by whom the prisoner is to be exa-
mined and the certificate made are to be selected by
the visiting justices, and they must be physicians
or surgeons duly registered under the Medical Re-
gistration Act ; and that the Secretary of State, on
receipt of the certificate, may, in cases where he
entertains doubt, order a further inquiry. Now,
reading the act as we have all along read it, as
permissive and not mandatory, in so far as it defines
the duty of the Secretary of State, this last and
most important provision is, in point of law, scarcely
required. It may serve to explain, but it certainly
does not, as we submit, change the subsisting
enactment. With respect to the selection of the
medical men who are to conduct the examination 1
of the prisoner end make the certificate, there are, 1
we apprehend, few if any objections that apply to
the magistracy as a body which are not equally ap-
plicable to visiting justices; and as the irresponsi-
bility of magistrates for any official act not legally
corrupt has been so remarkably exemplified in the
case of the justices who signed the certificate
favour of Townley, this provision alone appears to
present no sufficient safeguard against the undue
influence a sharp attorney could bringare
r uon
the visiting justices of a borough ga
l. to Thee
members in the present House of Commons who
could, if they pleased, give Sir George Grey in-
stances from the boroughs they represent oft.at-
torneys who are as able to bias visiting jus
which
as they are to control the corporation.s .to .
they act as clerks. So, also, the provision which
men sl
requires that the subscribing me
registered physicians or surgeons dical
hal
, though right
enough as far as it goes, is obviously dependent on
the honesty or discretion of the selected justices.
It offers some security, and it will be said, as good
security as is given in the signature of ordinary
' certificates of lunacy ; but Sir George Grey himself
' is evidently not satisfied with it, and he therefore
reserves to the Secretary of State the power to make
further inquiry ; and, in fact, on that reservation
the proposed amendment of the act will have to be
tested. Practically, there will be no difficulty in
obtaining a certificate of lunacy from visiting jus-
tices and registered medical men. Human nature
and psychological theories will operate generally
as they operated at Derby. If these amendments
had been in force, would they have prevented the
attempt to defeat the ends of justice, which unfor-
tunately succeeded, and has suggested them ? The
visiting justices must have ordered an inquiry into
the state of Townley's mind. It would have been
their duty to do so. But they might have selected
other medical men than those by whom the inquiry
was actually conducted ? Sir G. Grey has been very
particular in explaining that he believes the certi-
ficates he has received were made bona fide, after due
inquiry,and on positive conviction. We will assume,
ihowever, that this would have been a case in which
doubts might have suggested themselves to the Home
Secretary, and that, in the exercise of the discretion