The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-14 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TIMES.—It seems certain that Denmark has soli-
cited a suspension of hostilities, and desires to enter
upon negotiations for peace. Although the Liim
Fiord has just been passed by the Prussians, and
the extreme northern towns of Jutland have been
occupied, there is nothing which need prevent these
negotiations from being successful. Peace, indeed,
seems now so inevitable that we can hardly refuse to
credit that it has already arrived. Such an event
will give heartfelt satisfaction to every one in this
country. We feel too well the humiliations of Den-
mark from the shadow they have cast on ourselves.
We understand the greatness of the sacrifices endured
by its people from the agitation which the mere spec-
tacle of them has caused among neighbouring na-
tions. Of these calamities there can be no end as

long as the war lasts. Denmark now stands alone.
No Power will move a step to save the provinces
which have been the cause of war. France, for

reasons of her own—either to inspire confidence in
the German States, great or small, or to show her
resentment of England's alleged discourtesy—has
abandoned the ally of the Great Napoleon, and has
all but encouraged the violence of its adversaries.
Russia's only interference has related to a mere
dynastic question, and the new alliance or under-
a ending between the three Northern Courts forbids
the Government of Copenhagen to hope for any aid
from the Power which in 1848 was so zealous a
fiend. As for England, there is no more need of
advice, and there never was any chance of assist-
ance. During the last fortnight the agitation in the
country has subsided, the errors of the Government
have been condoned, the spiteful delight of foreign
society and the foreign press has been borne with
equanimity, and the nation has now definitively
abandoned its part of mediator or partisan for that of
a calm spectator, wishing well to the cause ofjastice,
feeling for those who suffer from military violence,
but fully resolved not again to take part in discus-
sions where arguments go for so little and artillery
goes for so much. The Danes being thus left to
themselves, what can they do batter than follow an
example which Prussia and Au-tria have both set
them within the present century, and accept a peace
dictated by the conqueror ? They have not yet
undergone the last humiliation of an overmatched
people ; they have not yet seen their capital taken,
the palaces of their Kings occupied by domineering
General, their museums ransacked, their treasury
plundered. Bat any one of these things might
happen to them through persevering in a defiance
which they could not support by resistance. The
allies have no taken possession of all Jutland—
they have established there their own regulations
and their own officials—they have taxed the people
to an excess which is a disgrace to them, but which
has at last broken the spirit of their victims. The
whole Peninsula is in their power—they may at
any time cross to Funen, and thence carry the war
into Zealand itself. The Danish fleet, whatever its
efficiency and the courage of the seamen, can do
little against the powerful armament which Austria
can send into the Baltic. In such circumstances
what can be more wise than to yield to fortune and
ask terms of peace from those who have conquered
by means of so immense a disproportion of strength?
This is what Denmark has now done, and it is pro-
bable that a few days more will bring a suspension
of hostilities, and a statement from the German
Powers of what they demand as a reward of the
war which they have undertaken. Various reports
are current abroad as to the course which these
negotiations have taken. It is said that the Danish
King at first addressed himself to the Emperor
Napoleon, not asking his mediation btween Den-
mark and the allies but his advice as to whether it
would be expedient to make direct overtures to one
or both of the allies for the purpose of obtaining
peace. It was in accordance with the Emperor's
advice that the King's brother was despatched on
his late mission, and there was, it is asserted, a pro-
mise given by the Eaaporor that he would do his
best to insure the Prince's success. There is,
however, little doubt that the French Govern-
ment recognises the necessity of a cession of the
two Duchies. Whatever engagements may have
been made by the two Powers at the outset of
the campaign, with whatever pretexts they may
have covered their first acts of invasion, whatever
arrangements may been suggested or half
accepted at the Conference, it appeals to be the
opinion of the French Government that the fortune
of war has decided all questions in favour of the
Germans, and that it now only remains for them to
appropriate formally the conquest which they have
made. Whether an Oldenburg or an Augusten
burg shall inherit, whether the popular vote shall
be taken as suggested by France and strongly ob-
jected to by Austria, or whether the Government
shall be supposed to pass by the grace of God to the
nominee of the allies and the Diet are purely Ger-
man questions ; all that concerns Denmak now is
to acquiesce formally in the expulsion of its troops,
and to obtain back Jutland as the price of this and
other concessions. It may be that the extraordi-
nary demands said to be made on Denmark by the
German Powers are exaggerated, but no one can
hope that the latter will be very placable or gene-
rous. Victory to them is too rare an event, a war
successfully ended is too novel in their annals,
for them to be likely to display the chivalrous
virtues. Denmark will, no doubt, have to pay in
territory and in gold, and the only limit to the
exactions of the enemy will be her ability to
satisfy them. The present year will certainly close
on a diminished and impoverished kingdom, with
nearly half its territory gone, and what remains
exhausted by the maintenance of armies, friendly
or hostile, and by the payment probably of a large
indemnity. It is a sad spectacle, and may well cause
a pang to those who brought a nation so weak and
so utterly unprepared for war into a conflict with
two great Powers. The British Government, how-
ever, may justly feel that it is not responsible for
these consequences. For many weeks the Danish
Government have known that they had nothing to
expect from this country or indeed from any other ;
and yet, in spite of this, they insisted oh continuing
the war with an obstinacy which seemed like hero-
ism, but which the event now shows to have been
merely foolhardiness. While making every allow-
ance for a nation which has been the victim of
such injuries, we must regret that the Danes
did not show themselves more reasonable during
the later part of the Conference, and avoid the
defiant resumption of a eampaign which they
have now been obliged to terminate abruptly by
suing for peace. They would then have kept a part
at least of Schleswig ; they will now lose the whole
of it, and, it may be, find German influence extended
into Jutland as the consequence of the occupation.
But they must now make the best terms they can,
and we can only express a hope that the German
Powers will refrain from inflicting on them the
worst humiliations of the conquered. The change
of Ministry and the possible dissolution of the Rigs-
read show the altered counsels of the King ; if they
are met with some degree of fairness, this most un-
happy war may soon come to en end.
POST.—The decision of the English Government
to render no material assistance to Denmark bids
fair to be followed by events which everyone who
has studied the peculiar relationship existing be-
tween Danmark and Germany must have anticis
pated. 'haat they were anticipated by the English
Cabinet is best evidenced by the unremitting
exertions made by it to effect a pacific settlement of
the Dano-German dispute, and that they were dis-
regarded by the other neutral Powers is to be ac-
counted for, not by any want of perception on their
part, but by motives of policy which at the present
moment it may be difficult precisely to define. In
order to make intelligible to our readers the line of
policy upon which the Danish Government have
now apparently entered, and the consequences to
which a persistence in it may possibly lead, it will,
however, be necessary to recall to their minds the
position which Denmark held in Europe at the ac-
cession of its present Sovereign a few months since,
and the modifications which during that period it has
undergone. When. Frederick VII. died in the month
of November last, the Danish dominions included
the islands of Zealand, Funen, and other smaller
ones on both sides of the Great Belt, together with
the province of Jutland,
and the Duchies of Schles-

wig, Holstein, and Lauenburg. We here dismiss
from consideration the small and comparatively'
unimportant colonial dependencies. The entire.
population might be set down at two millions and
a half, of which about three-quarters of a million
inhabited Zealand and its adjacent islands. Such
were the possessions to which Christian IX. sae'
ceeded by virtue of the Treaty of 1552, and which,
though small in comparison with the territories of
other continental Sovereigns, constituted a monarchy
which held no unimportant place in the map of
Europe. No sooner, however, had he ascended-
the throne than his rights to the Duchies were
called in question, and a war with Germany ensued,
which has resulted up to the present time in de-
priving him of all his possessions on the mainland.
Without proceeding to consider in detail the
causes which led to that war, or the ostensible
motives advanced by the German Powers, we may
without danger of contradiction say that hostilities
were dictated by a spirit of aggrandisement and by
a wish on the part of Germany to secure possession
of a seaboard which would enable her to become a
great naval Power. But Germany, regarded as an
aggregate, stood to Denmark in a relation very dit-
ferent from that in which France would stand to.
England, or Italy to Austria, if either contemplated
the invasion of the other. Germany is a Cor.'federa-
tion of independent States, and though she threat.
aned Denmark with invasion, her objects could be
ensured by the consent of the latter to enter into
the league of which she was composed. By such a
proceeding Denmark would not lose her indepen-
dence, except in so far as she would become amen-
able to the jurisdiction of the Diet, a jurisdiction to
which Austria and Prussia nominally submit them
selves. But it so happened the Duchies of Holstein
and Lauenburg actually formed part of the Confedee
ration, and in respect to them that the Danish King
was amenable to the decrees of the Diet at Franke
fort, and consequently he had the best means of
judging of the effect of making all his dominion sub.
ject to the jurisdiction of the Confederation. It was
under these circumstances, then, that the Danes
German war commenced. Now, without carrying
our readers back to the year 1815, it may be suffi-
cient to state that at that time the European Powers
recognised the necessity of entrusting the islands
and the peninsula commanding the entrance of the
Baltic to a third-rate maritime Powei. When the
plenipotentiaries at Vienna occupied themselves in
remapping Europe, and taking slices from this
State and from that State, they took care to leave
the Danish islands and peninsula intact. The ex-
pediency of maintaining the integrity of Denmark
has from that time constantly been recognised;
and in order to guard against a contingency which
threatened to dismember that monarchy, the
Treaty of 1852, establishing the right of the present
Sovereign to succeed to all the possessio nseof his
predecessor, was formally concluded betwe en Den.
mark and the neutral Powers. Such being the case,
the Danish Government found themselves placed in
a position of peculiar difficulty when, on the acces-
sion of the present Sovereign, the German Powers
threatened to strike a blow at the integrity of the
monarchy by demanding, as they virtually did, the
cession to Germany of the Duchies. Denmark had
not only her own personal interests to regard, but
those of the neutral maritime Powers, and had to
regulate her policy according to the supposed 'wishes
and interests of other nations than herself. Al-
though the war with Denmark was N,vaged by Pruse
sia and Austria in the name of United Germany the
Danish Government, as well as the Cabinets of the
neutral States, were well aware that the aggressive
Powers, and more especially Prussia, wer e actuated
by motives not merely distinct from, but in some
respects antagonistic to, those which prompted the
Confederation to assume a hostile attitude towards
Denmark. The Diet simply asked for the union of
the Duchies under a German prince, together with
their enrolment in the Bund, whereas the 1 eading
Powers of the Confederation sought the subs 'ersion
of those liberal institutions which the Danish l people
enjoyed, and Prussia hoped that the Duchies, if not
the entire peninsula, might become part of he r own
dominions. Threatened from two quarters, I'mt at
the same time trusting to the strong interest pos-
sessed by the great maritime Powers in the la) sine
tenance of their independence, the Danes accepted
a war the issue of which, if they stood alone, ei lutd
not be doubtful, and looked to England, France,
and Russia for that assistance which they considt .red
motives of self-interest would induce them to g ive.
But they looked is vain. The war proceeded—abe
Duchies were occupied by the invaders—the pro-
vince of Jutland shared the same fate, and still
their Allies made no sign. At length the islands
and the capital were threatened, and then, an ,d not till
then, was Denmark told that she must not I ook
abroad for material assistance. At this last mom ent,
with absolute extinction imminent, with a territory
reduced to a few islands and a population of three
quarters of a million, Denmark naturally .castS
about to discover some means by which she‘ can
satisfy her foes, short of the annihilation of hi 3V na-
tional existence. That overtures for peace have been
made by the Danish Sovereign to the Ge rman
Powers there can be no doubt, although with their
precise nature we are as yet unacquainted. It ewould
of course be open to Denmark to propose to et iter
bodily into the Germanic Confederation, but to s uch
a step France, if not England, would raise a dect ded
opposition ; otherwise, treating with Prussia ale us,
Denmark might cede to her everything south of the
Schlei, and remodel her institutions in conformity
with the wishes of the Cabinet of Berlin, retaining
her political independence. Or, again, either of
these schemes might of course be variously modiiied.
We simply furnish these indications, as showing
bow far from final settlement the Dano-German dis-
pute is, and how serious the complications to wtaich
it may /et give rise. But all this has been 1 ong
foreseen, and it must be confessed that the Eng lish
Cabinet endeavoured to form an alliance w hich
would have prevented these results. As for Den-
mark she is fully justified, when she finds he twit'
deserted, in taking any course which promises to
avert her destruction. It now remains to be seen in
what manner the Western Powers will regard the
last phase on which the Dano-German question has
entered.

COUNTRY MARKETS.