The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-27 00:00:00

SPIRIT OP TEE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIM Es.—By putting forth all their strength, and
making full use of the resources which a long study
of the art of war hea given them, the Prussians
have attained the object for which they persevered
in the campaign of Schleswig. This object was
the maintenance of their military reputation. Pro-

bably when they first entered the Peninsula they
had no strong desire to push the Danes to the last,
or to inflict upon them a humiliation which might
set lasting enmity between the two races. In spite
of some enthusiasm on the part of this Royal family,
the Government cif Berlin entered into the war more
to take the matter out of the hands of the King of

Bavaria and the Duke of Sase•Coburg than With

•
any wish to destroy the Danes. M. von Bismark's
Ministry acted because it was necessary to do some-
thing, and the occupation of Schleswig was the best
antidote to the excesses of the Federal army and the

vagaries of the Prince of Angustenburg: But as
the war advanced the honour of the Prussian army

became involved. Chance, the superior activity Or
the more complete readiness of the Austrians, took
from the Prussians the opportunity of distinguishing
themselves in the early part of the campaign. No-
thing remained but to conquer Dybbol. But Dybbol
was strong, it was energetically defended, and the
world was becoming unpleasantly interested in the
contest. The Danes defied their opponents, and a

belief spread that their boast of being able to hold the
place indefinitely was not without foundation. The
Prussians hurried up more troops, with heavy guns
and all the materials for an important siege. The

more they brought the more necessary was it that
this powerful force should not return unsuccessful,
If the Conference met and proposed an armistice, it
might be that the campaig❑ would come to an end
while the Danish flag still floated over Dybbol. In
such a case there would be no end to the taunts

against the Prussian army. If even the matter
ended in something like a surrender by Den-
mark of the chief points in dispute, it would
ever remain in history that the Prussians had in-
vested ti line of Danish works and had been unable
to take them. The Danes would have boasted of

the impregnability of their stronghold, and the
world would have been apt to believe them. It
can be easily imagined that a people so sensitive as
the Prussians looked at this prospect with appre-
hension. Accordingly the approach of the Con-
ference only roused them to redoubled energy. Not
even the French could have pushed a siege with
more activity and a faller determination to be
stopped by no obstacles. All ranks felt that the
thing had to be done, and that the campaign must
be carried on at any cost until the piece was
taken. This has now been accomplished. Happily
for the reputation of the Prussian arms, the Danes
were as obstinate as their opponents. Bishop Mon■
rad and his colleagues repelled the proposed Cone
ference until the enemy was ready to take his full
vengeance upon them. They took care not to disap-
point the invaders by a timely concession. They
decided that Dybbol must be held at all hazards,
just as the Prussians were resolute that it should be
taken at all hazards. The consequence has been that
all King William or his subjects could desire has been
accomplished. The Conference begins its sittings
amid the blaze of a Prussian victory; the Prussian re-
pro sentative will speak in the name of a Power which
holds the Danish Peninsula at its mercy, the pride of
the Copenhagen Government. will be abated, and the
Prussian army will be regarded with respect even if
its achievement does not quite extort our admiration.
Although the Danes are said to have again re-
fused to concur in the proposed armistice, and are
willing apparently to try their fortune still further,
yet it will be a good thing for all parties, and we
verily believe an honour to Prussia, if the campaign
be now allowed to come to an end. If it be allowed
to find any consolation in such a melancholy event
as the slaughter at Dybbol, we may say that it
makes the settlement of these questions somewhat
more easy. It would be a cruelty to the Danes to
encourage them to rely further on their power of
resisting the invader. The German Powers have
shown that they are entirely masters of Schleswig.
They have 70,000 or 80,000 men, and can increase
their numbers indefinitely, while the Danes have
probably (- nly some 18,000 or 20,000 in Alsen. The
Sound is narrow, and can be crossed with ease by
the Prussians, supported as they are by such tremen-
dous artillery. If the campaign continues, no-
thing can be expected but the destruction of
the remains of the Danish array by an over-
whelming force. It is a child struggling in
the grasp of two strong men, and though the
courage of the weaker party deserves all ad-
miration, yet to counsel resistance would be a
crime in a neutral ; to take advantage of it to in-
flict further chastisement would be ungenerous in a
belligerent already victorious. Why, then, may not
the campaign now cease ? Every one will acknow-
ledge that Alsen can be conquered, and if the Allies
h:Ad their hand now, Europe will give them full
credit for having virtually conquered it. If they
could not recede with reputation before the assault
on Dybbol, that cruel point of honour is now
satisfied. They may concede an armistice, and
stand higher than if they killed a few thousand
more overmatched D Ines in tht it last eefuge in Alsen.
We are glad to find that the proclamt;tion of the
King of Denmark does not command any acts of
impossible valour, or declare that the war shall be
indefinitely prolonged. Its tone is becoming, but
the dccument has one fatal defect—it is not issued
at Sonderborg by a King sharing the dangers of
those who are fighting in his cause, but is dated
from Copenhagen. The defence of Dybbol will,
as his Majesty says, be memorable not only on ac-
count of the inequality of the contest, but also for
the heroism which the beaten army displayed. We
trust that it' the resistance of the Danes be still
continued it will be under circumstances which will
allow their heroism a chance of better fortune.
That this can be found by continuing to resist the
Allies in Alsen we can hardly believe. Happily, the
actual armistice does not depend on the consent of
the Danes. Stung by their wrongs, and believing
that the representatives of Prussia, Austria, and
the Diet will insist on concessions as fatal to Danish
independence as conquest itself, the Danes natu-
rally desire to keep their fate in their own
hands as long as they can. They think, perhaps,
that they can insure their own free action and
-reserve a chance of deliverance only by appearing
to 7.,,ititain themselves in the field as a bellige-
rent Power:- To give up the right of slrilaing a
blow would be, pernaps, in their opinion, equivalent
to an abandonment
of their due share in the settle-
ment of the questions ii, debate. But in spite of the
;nwillingness of Denmark, the actual question of
an armistice rests entirely witi2 the Allies, who are
answerable to European opinion, acrd can best satisfy
it by abstaining from the further shedding of blood.
Let them only refrain from an easy and inglorious
victory over the few thousand men who are now
left in Alsen, and an armistice would prevail even
without any formal agreement.
HERALD.—The case of the Tuscaloosa, which
last night engaged the attention of the House of
Lords, is a fair illustration of the systematic partia-
lity which the Government, whilst professing to be
neutral and impartial, have shown the Federals
throughout the war. The Conrad, a barque sailing
under the Federal flag, and belonging to Federal
owners, was captured last June off the coast of Brazil
by the famous Alabama. Captain Semmes put
some guns on board his prize, and fitted her out as
a Confederate cruiser. Under that character she
entered Simon's Bay to repair and refit, and became
the object of the anxious attention of the British
naval commander, the notorious' Sir Baldwin
Walker. Sir Baldwin was of opinion that the Tus-
caloosa, in entering Simon's Bay, violated the pro-
clamation of the Queen, forbidding ei!her of the
belligerents to bring their prizes into her pe'rts ; and
further, that as the Tuscaloosa had not beet; con-
demned by any court she was no legieimate prt:.ze,
and should be seized oy her Majesty's Government
and restored to her original owners. The Attorney-
General of the colony, to whose authority the Go-
vernor acceded, was of a different opinion, and the
Tuscaloosa, having obtained what she wanted, sailed
away unmolested. The circumstances were, how-
ever, reported to the Home Government, whose at-
tention had in the meantime been called to the
su,,iect by Mr. Adams, and the Duke of Newcastle
wrote o Governor Wodehonse, expressing his dis-
agreement with the opinion of the colonial legal
authorities, a:: hough without giving any special
instructions for 1 2'e governor's future guidance.
;
Instructions, however, nrepared by the law officers
of the Crown were sent out subsequently to the
commanders of all her Maje,,lty's naval forces, Sir
Baldwin Walker amongst then': which directed
that in any similar cat.e the vessel stn:uld be seized.
Unconscious that he had been the oe'vicat of so
much correspondence and controversy,"tb: com-
mander of the Tuscaloosa revisited Simon's e.
ay
some four months afterwards, and the vessel
was then seized by Sir Baldwin Welker. The
Confederate lieutenant protested against a proceed-
ing so unjust and unfair even if it were legal, and
her Majesty's Government found themselves in the
end constrained to release the ship. So far, there-
fore, as the Tuscaloosa is concerned, the Confede-
rate Government has sustained no more damage
than the brief detention of the vessel. But all the
ports of her Majesty's dominions are closed by
!nano of these instructions to any cruisers which
the Confederate Government or its duly constituted
agents may equip out of their prizes, and the
British navy is ordered to the assistance of the
Federal navy to capture them. If these instruc-
tions, however, were based upon well-established
principles of international law, however hardly
they might bear upon the Cenfederatee, to what-
ever degree they might convert our professed neu-
trality into a practical assistance to the Federale,
Ino one would complain. The fact; however, is—as

Lords Chelmsford and Kingsdown proved--the,l
these instructions are thoroughly illegal ; that well
recognised dectrins-s of international law have been
violated in order to satisfy the Federal Gavern.7
ment, and that the law officers of the Crown hevt;
allowed the political necessities of their chiefs
mislead them into stating as international las, that
which was clearly not so. Lord Chelmsford 000'
tended, and he challenged contradiction from
has The
Government, that all that a neutral which
fused to allow prizes to be brought into its
do, if one of the belligerents violates that prohibi
tion, is to order the offending vessel away--teseig'
and detain it was clearly indefensible—and that the'
Tuscaloosa, as a ship of war in the charge of
legally commissioned officer of a belligerent power,
not only ought not to have been warned, but Noe
entitled to the usual hospitality accorded to vessels
of war. Lord Russell did not venture to deny either
of these propositions. He admitted, in fact, that the
ports can.
instructions were incorrect, and that the seizure'
of the Tuscaloosa was indefensible. When.
a Minister admits that his measures " are open tua
further consideration," and that it is a " nica point
as
whether they were justified or not, he maXes
ample a confession of the justice of the censor°,
passed upon him as is consistent with minister
nature. But his lordship defended Sir Baldwin,
Walker's opinion upon a question of internationa,
law on the ground that it was " common sense,"
..11
system of interpretation which, if it were admitted,
rtewould enable any man to make out of any law
what suited his interests and prejudices; and 14
volunteered an opinion which will be interesting ta
lawyers, that naval officers, having the instructions,
of the Government and works upon internationa•
law by them, were very excellent authorities upon
x
that law. Commodore Wilkes wi I be delight
with the noble lord's dictum. That ill used JOT
de! e
found by his books that Messrs. Mason and Sli'
were contraband of war, and took them out of th
mail packet Trent. A torrent of indignation at 1116
presumption was his reward. Lord Russellhas novr
justified him. His error was the venial one cowmen
to all lawyers, if error it be, of sometimes taking
different view of a law from that which obtales
with the judges. Let us hope, at least, that if eur
admirals and pat captains are to set themselves 131)f
as authorities upoa international law on the faith°
their study of text books, they may be furnished
with every edition as it comes out. Sir B. WalW
had, it seems, founded his opinion upon a passaget,
which appeared in the first edition of Wheaton, a,
which he had a copy, bily which had been le'
out as incorrect in all subsequent editiout
The remarkable speech in which Lora
Kingsdown laid down, with irresistible cogeO to li
the true doctrine relative to captures, comp le P
disposed of the last excuse of Ministers. Lord Elint:sls'
down did not consider it necessary to ioquire
whether the Tuscaloosa was converted into a sh'Pf
of war. He proved the illegality and injustice °
her detention, and the proposed restoration of her t:
her original owners, by showing that those owner.s
had ceased to have any property in her—their righ`
only reviving in the event of recapture. The On-
tention of Sir Baldwin Walker, adopted by the'
Government, was, he observed, that a prize remainct
the property of the original owners until condetnna
by a prize court, and that any Government colli
seize and restore it, but that contention was eits
gether unwarranted and against the clear letter "
v
international law. The obligation of condeninat,in;p;
said the noble lord, quoting the highest authonti
in his support, only exists with regard to cess—,
sailing under a neutral flag. The capture is
elusive as soon as made; and, as between he','";
gerents there is no occasion for condemnation, t'a
captor can destroy his prize. When he cannot Willi,
that prize into port nothing, indeed, is left to hi n/,6
but to destroy it—nay, it is his duty to do so,
of law which fully justifies the course which ,t'"
Alabama and her consorts have taken in destrosl
their captures. So far, therefore, as the Briti,,e9
Government is concerned, it is bound to treat t%
prizes of the Confederates where made upon th,
Federals as Confederate property ; and in seizill
and restoring them to their original owners it 'Nu'
commit a flagrant robbery. In vain the Lord Chou;
cellor attempted, by quoting cases which were 11°,5
pertinent, to weaken the effect of Lord Kingsdos' 0
powerful argument. Even the Government benrhet
felt that it was unanswerable; and a debate modamaging to the Government closed with the
claration of the Lord Chancellor that the instruc.
lions of which the Opposition complained are to,bhe
recalled, and fresh ones more in accordance Wit'
law and justice issued.