The Sun.
London, England, 1864-07-05 00:00:00

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SPIRIT OP THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.--The lecture which Mr. Disraeli
propsed to read her Majesty's Government on the
folly of idle threats and the cruelty of empty
promises hos ended in a singular exemplification of
both of these errors. His supporters and his
opponents had a right to expect, if not a good case
against the Government, at least a good story, con-
sistent in itself, well told, well spiced, and only
requiring proof to be damnatory. Had Mr. Disraeli
' wished to insinuate, without holding himself at all
answerable for the suggestion, that the Emperor of
the French, seeing the Danish mischief coming on,
and being exceedingly indisposed to go to war with
Germany then, had devised his impracticable idea
of a Congress just to pick a litt:e quarrel with us,
and to get out of obligations, real, fanciful, political,
or moral, erisiog out of the Treaty oC 1852, be could
hard:y have done so mere c'everly and successfully.
Just at the very nick of time, when it became
necessary to say what we would do for Denmark,
the Emperor, according to Mr. D:sraeli, prJpounderk
a scheme for the settlement of the alai
and all other European difficulties, by
matists sitting round a table at Paris. P; Ell F
littk how httch a proposal wa enswered, so as there
was no intentional incivility. All ways of meeting
it, acceptance itself, come to the same thing in the
home that Lord it was inipN:sible,
ceonnteivlatbc:eo.uldwrooet
arebe atd, it
Rus-
sell ought to have accepted the offer, end left to
events, or the French Government, or the actual.
experiment, to establish the fact, foreseeing from
the first that the thing was impossible and the con-
ception a dream. Lord Russell thought is simpler
and better, and much more fair for all parties, to
say that the thing was impossible, and to give good
reasons for this. To call this the reason why the
Emperor flew away altogether from his Treaty
engagements, whatever their value, is nothing more
nor less than suggesting that he fabricated the ex-
cuse and resolved to make and take convenient
offence_ The Schleswig-Holstein quarrel stood by
itself and admitted of being treated upon its own
merits. It required no Congress; it had nothing
to do with Poland. Denmark need not be now
destroyed because Poland was dismembered a cea-
tury ago and the Poles are now oppressed. Mr.
Disraeli's view of the matter is equivalent to an
admission that England alone was faithful, true,
courageous, and even wise; ready to act with the
other Powers, and to advise on the supposition that
they felt the sense of honour; and only failing, as
Denmark herself has failed, by the default of her
Continental neighbours.
HERALD.—The House of Commons listened yes-
terday to two remarkable speeches. The first, Mr..
Disraeli's, which carried eloquence to its highest
point, was a subtle and most masterly unravelment

fficulty

v di

_ .
of our whole diplomacy on the Denmark question,
rising to its conclusion with a fervid and scathing
censure of the Government. The second, Mr.
Gladstone's, was an ingenious attempt, the in-.
genuity of which, however, was considerably
marred by its frequently obvious blunders to beg•
the entire question. Mr. Disraeli gave its due
weight to the national German sentiment which
prompted an intervention in the Duchies, and to
the circumstance that there alone could it find
practical expansion. But how pitifully Lord Rue.-
sell took up the argument upon this bAeis, elahos
rating despatches from a dozen different points of•
view, holding up treaty law one day, end discuss.•
ing possible modifications another ; appealing,
threatening, reminding, pressing, now arrogant,
now suppliant, and oscillating always between op-
posite extremes. At first, Franca was cordial and

voluntary in her joint action with us. Why did
that invaluable mutual understanding come to an
end ? Mr. Disraeli tells the plain truth. It was

not that we refused the Conference, It was
that we refused it, through our Foreign Minister,
insolently. It was that we would not take up
the affairs of Poland. It was that, after brag-
.ging about our high intentions, we sank into
an abject apathy. And yet, with that example of
difficulty and even impossibility, before our eyes,
we must needs go blustering into the Danish
quarrel, in defiance of the distinct principles enun-
ciated by Lord Palmerston in 1831, and by Lord
Russell in 1855, both statesmen having diverted
their policy into one which begins in bullying and
ends in surrender. What followed " the stimulating
proposals" of Lord Russell to Denmark and the
Powers of Europe? Toe Continent was agitated.
We were treated with haughty Bercesm at St.
Pteereburg; we were met with a civil sneer at
Penis ; empty nctes brought us evasive rep;ies; over
and over again we confessed to obligation Whence
we is often retreated; and, all the while, Lord
Russell persevered in his histcricil paraileir,
his promises not meant to be and
his vaunts at which Europe had now learnsa
to lough. The death of the littlish King-, thee
efili;s of the constitution, the proposal by Franc&
ot a Congress, and the rejection of that conciliatory
scheme by England in a tone which Mr Disraeli
calls offensive, and Mr Gladstone calls honest,.

brought no prudence to our councile. We still went

on, e:-.ltaltioi our horns 11.9 thout-th we intended
to charge upon the who's,ne.,on of G:rmanx.
And within a week of the eay en which Parliament
le.St assembled, when the Queen':; Speech must have
been considered; Lord Russell, after refusing a-
Congress, was proposing a war. The Emperor of
the French, of course, was thrown into a painful.
position. We had been frank with him, urges Mr,
Gladstone. Why not have been frank also with
Denmark ? inquiries Mr. Disraeli. It was England
that broke the neck of the Western alliance, which,

cemented by an understanding with Russia, would
have rendered the dangerous war now raging an.
impossibility. It was England which brought all
the perils of Europe into a focus, by exhibiting
" the phantom of her proud courage," which dis-
solved into cowardice when the challenge fell at her
feet. When Denmark talked of integrity we pro-
posed dismemberment; when Denmark pleaded her
independence we suggested a protectorate, and as.
Mr. Disraeli put it betrayed an idea of setting up a
second Turkey on the shores of the Baltic. In
whatever way we acted, however, our action failed,
and if this has not resulted in the lowering of our

just influence in Europe, we know not what those
words imply, or how we oan for the future claim,
to exercise any moral power towards the restora-
tio❑ of that peace, or the revival of that treaty
law which have been contemptuously flung in our
teeth. " Great resources and a moderate but stead-

fast policy" would not have put us to the blush at
St. Petersburg, or driven us beffied from Paris.

Oar objurgations have rattled over the heads of
the;German Diet" with no more effect than a hail.

storm. All our diplomacy on the subject is waste
paper, including the fierce dispatches of the greatest
Whig patriot alive. We are reduced to the con-

temptation of his " intense incapacity," to the
chances of his still being busy, to any number of
new suggestions and promptings, and to Mr. Glad•
stone's latest taunt that he cannot obtain an inkling,
glimpse, or glance into Mr. Disraeli's policy.. Mr-
astiaeli had anticipated the sarcasm and disposed.
of it. " Our policy," he exclaimed, as he wound
up n oration of magnificent forea, colour, and bril-
liance, "is the national honour and the peace of
Europe. The details we shall state when we are re-

sponsible for them, and know up to the latest hour
what our predecessors have done." The debate Will

give politfeal life to the week, and be opened from
another basis in the House of Lards on Friday

Tragic Affair at Sea.

,oloocfkbraoSincaorttcyb,
left Sunderland, coalladen, for the forme: Place, being towed
pilot. The crew,
is
Sunday a
80y morning,tons,
schooner On a
namedb e t wteheen I.l2oB7hdatigl o'clock,
four only in number, were Andrew Ross, captain,
out by a steam tug and accompanied bya
Hugh
Mackay, mate, William Duff, able seaman, and Charles
Munro, ordinary seaman. These men were all under the
influence of drink, more or least but were not quarrelling
when left by the pilot and ateaTer. On the contrary, the
Rosehaugh's sails were set, an right, and she proceeded on
her voyage. The captain. went down below to light his
pipe,
and then proceeded to the helm to take the command
and steer his vessel. A few minutes after the three men
had left and gone forward, Ross heard some quarrelling
between the mate and Munro, but took no notice of it, and
as the sail was between him and the men ne could not see
what Was going on. Immediately afterwards he saw the
raidggps bulwark, which is moveable, float past, and heard
a faint cry for help from the mate, whose voice sounded
like that of a drowning man. He ran forward, but could
see nothing, and found himself alone in the ship. He
searched the forecastle carefully, but saw no one, and there-
fore brought to his ship till she was taken in tow by a
steamer for Shields and taken into Sunderland, wherd she
arrived about 2 o'clock, or shortly afterwards. The captain
can give no other account of the affair than the above, and

it is surmised that the mate and Munro may have begun
to fight, and the other man (Duff) going between to sepa-
rate them the three began a violent struggle, and, locked in
each others' arms, staggered over the side into the sea, th:?,
bulwark, which was rotten and insecure, giving way under
their weight. It is strange, however, that the captain, when
the ship was boarded on her return off Sundrland by a
young pilot named Dodd, took up an axes and threatened to
cut off the pilot's hands if he did not leave hold of the
" fender," or attempted to climb on boar( I. Dodd afterwards
complained to the police of this matt( tr, and the captain
was accordingly arrested and locked up. on the charge of
assaulting the young man. The crew, it seems, were drink-
ing all the week, and on Saturday night actually took
ashore some rope from the ship and tried to sell it for drink.
The unfortunate men who were drowned all belong to Cro-
marty, Mackay was unmarried, and about 30 years of age ;
Duff was 28 years of age, married, and had two children;
Munro being a lad of 20, and unmarried. The occurrence
happened off Whitburn, three and half miles north-east
from Sunderland harbour.

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