The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-25 00:00:00

.ANTIARY 25, ISM.

ourselves and depopularise King George, by becom-
ing parties to an arrangement that gives us the
island disarmed and mortified. The Greeks allege
that they elected their monarch on the understand-
ing that the lonian Islands were to be ceded to them.
They could not foresee this cession accompanied by
humiliating circumstances. They say they have
been so far tricked, and they must take care to right
themselves. They will sign no treaty by which the
destruction of their forts and the neutralisation of
the Islands are insisted on as conditions. In that
case, quoth England, I must keep the islands. That
will only make your breach of promise more fla-
grant, saith the Greek. Since you won't have the
islands by the only way in which we can part with
them, we are determined to keep them, quoth Eng-
land, and keeping them we shall preserve the forti-
fications intact. The work of destruction has, there-
fore, not been proceeded with, and Great Britain is
still saddled with the maintenance and government
of a very recalcitrant and oddly placed set of sub-
jects. In the midst of this, a very ably drawn up
act of accusation against England, for its malversa-
tion and mismanagement in the lonian Islands, has
been made by a Ft ench gentleman named Le Nor-
mant, and printed in the Revue des Deux Mondes.
In this the English are accused not merely of mis
rule and of abuses in their political administration,
but even in their fiscal and economical manage-
ment of the islands it is affirmed that they have
committed worse blunders in the lonian Islands
than the most retrograde Government in Europe.
Our boasted improvements are declared to be mere
deceptions; our roads scarcely get half a mile out of
the great town before they are lost in the open
country. Our export duties were es high and as
barbarous as those of Greece itself, or of Turkey,
and our system of taxation ground the poor and
exempted the rich. We do not credit the truth or
justice of this virulent French impeachment. But
some one competent to do so ought really to take
the trouble to expose the fallacies and refute the
errors of this calumnious accusation. In the Revue
des Deux Mondes it is addressed to the tribunal of
Europe. There should be some one who would take
the trouble to reply.
LONDON REVIEW.—The last hope of preserv!ng
peace seems to have vanished. The Austrian and
Prussian troops are already on their march to
occupy Slesvig, and on the frontier of that duchy it
is well understood they will meet the only reception
which it is possible for Denmark to give them, with-
out placing her independence at the feet of the
German Powers. All that remains doubtful is the
extent of the conflict and the issues which it may
involve. Defeated in the Federal Diet on their
proposition to occupy Slesvig as a means of com-
pelling the Danes to withdraw the Constitution of
November, Austria and Prussia have taken the
settlement of the pending dispute into their own
hrnds. In their view, the step they are adopting
is a pacific one ; but although it is possibly as little
as they could do, in the present temper of the Ger-
man people, it obviously constitutes a direct act of
war, and threatens us with ail the consequences
which, in the present state of Europe, such an act
may involve. There is no doubt, however, that the
policy and the avowed aim of these two States
are completely at variance with the claims which
their own subjects and their Confederates in the
Bund desire to urge. The popular demand in Ger-
many—the demand of the secondary States who
have so lately been, the object of the suspicious at-
tentions of the Emperor of France—is, that the
Treaty of London should be at once set aside, that.
the Diet should declare the rule of the Danish kings
in Schleswig and Holstein at an end, and that the
whole power of the Tectonic race should be em-
ployed in erecting these Duchies into a State under
Prince Frederic of Augnstenburg. The conduct of
Austria and Prussia is based upon an altogether
different principle. As signitaries of the treaty of
1852, they are not prepered to violate its stipula-
tions ; as great European Powers, they are sensible
of the danger of embarking on a war for the aggran-
disement of Germany. They, therefore, acknow-
ledge that the treaty in question confers upon
Christian IX. the succession to the Duchies ; but
they allege that a certain contemporary understand-
ing has been violated by the Constitution already
referred to, and they are preparing to enter Schles-
wig, not with a view of separating it from Danmark,
but as a mode of extorting the repeal of this ob-
noxious constitution. It would not be difficult to
prove that the negotiations of 1851-2 furnish no
ground for these complaints, while they are still
further from lending any justification to so violent
a method of enforcing them. Had Austria and
Prussia been as much in the right as we think them
lin the wrong. the mode in which they pressed their
demands on Denmark—their peremptory summons
Ito that Power to surrender at twenty-tour hours'
notice—is hardly cosssistent with a sincere desire
for the peaceful settlement of points which diplo-
macy may possibly have left eSteen. We cannot now
stay to consider the real bearing' of the negotiations
of ten years ago. The discassieen of historical
details would lead us far from our peesent object,
which is to show the radical discrepancy that
exists between the wishes of the Germans and the
course of Austria and Prussia. Indeed, the letter
are not now acting as German but as Europeais
Powers. In that capacity they have overruled the
Diet ; and if they are successful, they will have
demonstrated once more the utterly feeble and useless
character of the organisation which assumes to re-
present the nationality of the Teutonic race. It re-
mains, however, to be seen whether they will be
successful. Their course is beset with difficu'ty and
danger. In the first place, the Governments both
of Austria and Prussia will be driven to violate the
Constitution of their respective countries •, for the
Prussian Parliament has refused, and the Austrian
Reichsrath seem on the point of refusing, the sup-
plies necessary to carry out a policy which falls far
short of the national wishes. But, in addition to
this, they will be placed in a position of antagonism
towards the other German States. We should not
be disposed to estimate very highly the difficulties
likely to arise from either these causes could we con-
fine our view to the Fatherland. But, as we pointed
out last week, there is reason to fear the appearance
of another, and a more energetic actor, upon the
scene. The recent note which the French Emperor
has addressed to the secondary Powers can have no
other object than to incite them to throw off the
leadership, or rather the dictatorship, of Francis
Joseph and William I. There is no knowing to
what extent the small kings and princes may go
under the encouragement of such powerful patron-
age. It is at least premature to talk of a civil war
in Germany ; but thoughtful politicians do not con-
ceal their apprehensions of a possible tendency to-
wards a new Confederation of the Rhine. If the
resistance of Denmark—assisted, as we trust she
will be, by Sweden and other powers—be suffi-
ciently protracted, the division which exists in
Germany must be embittered, with every month
of struggle. We do not pretend to forecast the
policy of Louis Napoleon, but it is certain that he
will not lose the opportunity of extending his in-
fluence, and profiting by the quarrels of his neigh-
bours. Ignorant ee we are of hie precise intentions,
it is utterly impossible even to guess at the probable
course of events, after a cannon has once been fired
in hostility on the banks of the Eider. We have,
indeed, the disagreeable conviction that his Majesty
does not really desire peace, because, had he done so,
he could easily have procured it by frankly ca-ope-
rating with England for the protection of Denmark.
Unfortunately, if he deems it his interest to prolong
a European war or to foment European confusion,
the means are not likely to be wanting. The prospect
before us is of the most threatening character. Nor
hmanly which
and
can we look with satisfaction sepon anything
ing
has recently transpired, except it be the
high-spirited address in which the lienish Rigsrad
has just pledged itself to maintain at an: sacrifice
the integrity of the kingdom.
SPECTATOR.—The Maori war has given rise to a
scheme magnificent in conception, and which if exe-
cuted may be entitled also to be called beneficent.
The leading men of New Zealand propose to stud
the North Island with villages of military settlers,
so distributed upon great lines of communication that
they will constitute a complete and well-knit sys-
temaaunot
rf
yd ewf
tnhc ec,
usl et gi
vraetei ae
nt e. t hTe
To
ae e e natives,n pal
ins
hd
tc
ho vi
se rt
ht
eh
ye
will require 20,000 men and a loan of two millions
and a half. The figures are large, but the project
looks feasible; and if it be carried out,
..few greater
works will have been done, with premeditation, this
century. By some such process alone can the Maori
race be saved from extermination. What the colonists
desire is the cessation not only of war, but the fear of
war with the savage tribes on the fringes of whose far
spreading but desolate lands they dwell. They have
tried the laissezaller method, they have tried empirical
plans of conciliation and nursing ; both have failed.
Neither non-intervention nor the bribes of Sir G.
Grey have sufficed to raise the Maories to that state
which we call civilisation, and which would render
the land habitable.
notion that it is practicablelheMteaosreitesuphaavikei
rb
tdh
self governed anindependent ; aniclan2fiei
king-
dom,
is
right to act on wgh.at
they are fightin, They
thhaevye
please;, f co u
butrse, iat
is
plain perfect
ideas
that a Maori kingdom, a daßeitish colony cannot
subsist side by •
side. No Maori kingdom imaginable
of a British
could limit the growth
colony. Persist-
ence in the Maori idea
means perpetual war, and
perpetual war means extermination,
sooner or later,
of the Maori race. But
.f
a skilful occupation of
the country,the Maori 1 by
can be made to feel at once
weakness and the benefits which flow from thriving
settlements, then his idea
may be extinguished; he
too may settle down into the eaceful cultivator, and
thus be saved. Oth • P
Otherwise, as it appears to us, not.
For in a series of
wars he must lose, and finally pass
away and be seen no more. Wherefore: it is not less
for the benefit
4 of the Maories than for the benefit
of the colorists that no pains should be spared to

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make this war the last, by making it,
time, the means of binding together the whole
de:
the settlements in the northern islands Nvi Eh ban n
of warrior agriculturists. There is something -17`;
f sidlic _
man in the project, the authentic details o
we have before us. It proposes to do a definite Veil
of work at once and for ever. It proposes Eli dot.
in a large and effective way. Instead of leavieeee
at the saint
tlement to chance and irregular and cruel WW:
it proposes to make settlements on a plan based n_.':
the military topography of the country. It proPh.r:
the preice•
to make the land itse'f pay the cost of
in part, and looks to the effects of increased p01)°,1a;
tion upon revenue to pay the remainder. This is
Word
scheme of pacification which merits the _
e thorough." It is, of course, the reverse of te.us
bootless measures of Sir George Grey, Which llif
admirers call " wise and beneficent. It is, of
course, based on " confiscation," which so elicceha
gentlemen who have signed them emorial te `__.
Governor. But, with all but due respect for thaw.
and in opposition to them, we say it is a statescase,.
like scheme, and the only one which includes
.9leu.
faintest chance of saving the Maorics from 0t113,14
tion. If the lands held by the Maories were higu,4
cultivated estates, and it were proposed to se'n.
them, we should agree with the memorialists in,ccevr
demning confiscation. Then confiscation in ror
Z:.aland would be like confiscation in Lithoell'Et;es
Ireland. But the land is a wilderness. The ge°l'ea
can make and do make no use of it.
from them it would be no loss to them--wch
Abstracted
Id 04.4
be absolute gain, for the ample tracts of land
value. Which
would remain to them would then acouire a o
Thus confiscation, instead of deprivfng he° 01
something, would really be adding to their teete!ool
wealth, and the result of confiscation, Co
would bring among them taw and order, the esBthe
tial conditions of civilisation. It is onlY higher
assumption that the Maori is incapable °f lfol•
development, that those " bitter fruits " W°?hd the
low from a "policy of confiscation'' Whir., he
memorialists deplore. On their prinoilmeu otlo
Bwould be as surely pressed back by
ritish colonist, and finally extinguished, se fllBf,ed
Indian or the Carib. lf the Maori can be cn-ceit
and saved, here is the unly plan whereby ti'll'
be done.
the eneritited