The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-27 00:00:00

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riority of numbers, unequal to the .
Alien and Dybbol, they should, wit.
Evuch as trying one assault, seek easi
elsewhere, and try to strike Denmark in amoreri
vulnerable part, shrinking from no ungenerous 4
measure to put the screw upon her, and bring her
to terms by all means in their power, and with all
poseible speed.
It is certainly not in the power of Denmark to
guard all the frontier of Jutland, and the Austro-
Prussians will find it es easy to overrun it to the
very end of the peninsula as they found it to occupy
all Schleswig after the fall of the Dannewerk. But,
on the very frontier of that province, at Fredericie,
there is a position as likely to brave their efforts for
a length of timeos Alsen and Dybbol have evidently
stemmed the tide of their too ready victories in
Schleswig. The fortress of Fredericia, together with
the little Peninsnii in which it rises, aided, like this
place, by inlets of the sea favouring the naval ope-
rations of the Danes, is, as it were, a third Dinne-
werk, offering no greater temptation to an 'anent( r-
prieing enemy chary of his blood than the place
before which the Germans are now skulking with
far more discretion than valour.
The Danes axe evidently anticipating great feats
of arms on the Jutland frontier, and they are strain-
ing every nerve to throw the best of their forces
into Fredericia. You are aware that the best part of
their cavalry, in their retreat from the Dannewerk,
never came in here at all, but marched on from
Flensburg through Apenrade and Hadersley into
Jutland. Since then 4,000 men at first, and sub-
sequently the whole of the third division, were
shipped off from Sondarburg to Fridericia, and I
saw this morning a beautiful regiment of dragoons,
nearly the whole of the cavalry that we had here,
embarking for the same destination. Alsen and
Dybbol are at present all but disarmed and power-
less for offensive purposes, and although the 12,000
men, infantry and artillery, that we still have
here are more than sufficient to hold the place
against all odds, still it is not a little to be regretted
that, in the event of an attack by the enemy and of
his defeat, no means should be at hand for efficient
pursuit. Probably the removal of all these troops
with such reckless haste to the North revea:s an in-
tention on the part of the Danes to carry on opera-
ticns on the open field in Jutland. The disparit.,
numbers, and even the inferiority of weapons, par-
ticularly rifle and cannon, would seem to preclude
the hope on their side of any warfare on a large
scale. What they could not accomplish behind the
Dannewerk bulwarks and the deep waters of the
Schlei they can hardly expect to do on the wide
plains of Jutland. They may harass the Germans
with a few weeks' petite guerre, truly; but even for

PRICE 4d.
STAMPED sd.

blished themselves in the Stenterup and Boffct
woods. By this movement they gained full com-
mand over the isthmus of the Broager peninsula,
and secured an easy escape for their troops at
Snot, had these latter been "caught in the
trap" laid for them by the Danes, in the event of
their retreat being cut off at the Egernsund by
the destruction of the bridge. The possession
of the Stenterup and Boffel woods was not to
be given up by the Danes without a spirited
struggle. About 12 o'clock at noon the alarm
sounded through the streets of Sonderborg. It is
one of the peculiarities of the Danish army that it
boasts not a single drum, with the exception of the
Royal foot-guards at Copenhagen, not a man of
whom has as yet reached the camp. The alarm
was, therefore, given by the trumpets, and, i❑ a few
minutes, three regiments of infantry were pressing
to the fridge towards the scene of action. On ap-
proaching the woods, however, they found the
enemy disposed to give way before them without
striking a blow, and before three o'clock the Danish
pickets had recovered the position from which they
had been driven in the morning. The morning
skirmish has cost the Danes five or six dead and 30
wounded ; among the slightly wounded an officer.
Such has been, for this day, the conclusion of an
action of no great moment as to its immediate
results, but full of serious meaning if we either con-
sider the designs which brought it about, or the
remote consequences it has had, or might have had.
To what extent the Rolf Krate obtained its intent,
which was to destroy the German bridge on the
Egernsund, and thus shut up as many of them as
had ventured into the Broager Peninsula, whence
they would have had no other egress than through
the isthmus between Nybol and Dybbol, we are not
yet able to ascertain, and we are equally uncertain
as to whether or not the Austro-Prussians marched
out of the peninsula through the isthmus, profiting
by the two or three hours in which their troops
drove the Danish pickets from their posts in the
Stenterup and Bodel Woods, and had possession
of them. We may obtain more positive information
before time comes to close this letter for the post.
But in the meanwhile there is abundant proof that
the Germans are far as yet from having it in
their tower to shut up the Danes in their position
at Dybbol, and that these latter have still strategy
and pluck enough to defeat the enemy's plans on a
ground which they seemed to have already aban-
doned, but on which their command of the sea en-
ables them to reassert their hold whenever it suits
them.

that kind of work their somewhat unwieldy infan-
try and heavy cavalry do not seem well suited.
Sooner or later Fredericia and her peninsula will be
as closely invested as Alsen and Dybbol .aow are,
and, that being the case, it remains matter of un-
certainty whether the Austro-Prussians will try
their strength against Fredericia any more than
against this place, or whether they will not rather
mask both places, and, by avoiding all conflict
themselves and putting all conflict on the part of
the Danes out of the question, lord it all over the
peninsula from Kiel to Aarhuus.

FEBRUARY 18, 9 F.M.

The mail closes in a few minutes, and no fresher
intelligence has reached us. It seemed almost posi-
tive that the bridge on the Egernsund is not de-
stroyed, and the position of the Germans in the
Broager Peninsula remains as it was. The experi
merit will, however, be renewed.

I do not think there can be any doubt as to the
power the Germans have of driving the Danes
utterly from the field if they choose to put forth
aufficier.t forces for that purpose, although the
Danes themselves fondly believe that the subject
admits of dispute. The position at Dybbol and the
peninsula at Fridericia present but a narrow ap-
proach to the invader ; but that very narrowness of
approach, favourable as it is for defence, is no less
unfavourable for offensive purposes. The garrison,
shut up in its corner, and caught, as it were, in a
trap, can only attempt a sally in one direction, and
there the enemy awaits it on a strip of ground
almost as narrow as the approach of the fortress

FEBRUARY 20.
It was a fortnight last night since the main
strength of the Danish army marched out of Schles-
wig, beginning its toilsome and disastrous retreat
from the Dannewerk. It will be a fortnight to-

morrow evening since the Danes sought the safe
shelter of Alsen, and of the redonbted bastions at

Dybbol, the great outwork of this their sea-gir'
fortress. The Austro Prussians were then in ho

pursuit, and they have ever since stood face to face
with the Danish pickets on every avenue concen-

trating from west, north, and south upon this
place. Yet the two hostile forces have been ever
since almost completely at rest, and the last san-
guinary affair was the brush between the rear of
the pursued party and the van of the pursuers at
Bilskorkrug or Oversee, on the evening of Sunday
before last, Of course, when I say this I take into no
account sonic occasional unavoidable and almost in-
voluntary exchanges of shots at the outposts, nor
oven of the skirmish of last Thursday, of which I
gave an account in my letter of that date, and
which was altogether of the Panes' own seeking. It
wss the attempt of the Danish Monitor Rolf Drake
to burn the pontoon bridge at Egernsund, so as to
cut off the Prussians' retreat from the Broager Pen-
insula, which prompted the German forward move-

self. Posted on the neck of the Sundewitt penin-
sule., for instance, between Adsbol or Bailegaard, or
even nearer us, between Nybol and Sandbkrg, the
Austro-Prussians have a line of only five, or, in the
latter case, three miles to guard against the Danes.
Supposing the Germans to he no more than 20,000
on this line, they would always be as two to cue
against any force that could attempt a sortie from
Alsen and Dybbol; and the isthmus of the Frede-
ricia peninsula would be even a closer field for
%sallying garrison to try its strength on. Were
even 20,000 men insufficient to completely mask,
invest, and shut in the fortresses, the Germans
might easily sit down before each of them with
40,000 or 50,000, and they could atilt command
50,000 more for the easy subjugation of the unarmed
population. The Danes seem inclined to put their
trust in ships, and think that, while leaving in
their two strongholds a sufficient number of de-
fenders, they could land small forces here and there
so as to harass the enemy on many points and wear
him out by incessant desultory warfare. All this,
however, would not lead to a happy termination of
the struggle in their favour ; it would not pat an
end to the foreign occupation of all their main-
land. The siege of the two fortresses and a series
of guerilla exploits would be all that Europe
might look forward to for six or eight months or
a year to come, At the end of that period the
Danes would still be where they were a fort-
night ago ; they would still have to repurchase
their own peninsula, or such part of it as the Ger-
mans might feel inclined to restore, by accepting
such conditions as a conqueror has it in his power
to dictate. Without achieving their victory by the
reduction of Alsen and Fredericia the Austro-Prus-
sians would reap all the benefits of complete suc-
cess. They are under no necessity, and it certainly
is not for their interest, to shed another drop of
blood by their own act, and such injury as the
Danes might still inflict upon them would have no
greater effect on the vast body of their troops than
the sting of a gnat on the huge bulk of an elephant.
Still, the Danes reckon, and very reasonably
too, on the chapter of accidents. The in-
vasion of Jutland, they think, has filled the
measure of their enemy's iniquities. The in-
dignation of Europe cannot long remain passive
in sight of so flagrant a violation of all legality.
Nothing can be stronger than the conviction in the
hearts of those poor Danes that help must turn up
for them from some quarter or other. It grieves
me more than I can tell to be addressed by officers
and soldiers, when they think they have made it out
that I am an Englishman, with such Words as,
Why should England suffer us to perish ? Why
do not the English come to the rescue ?"
The Danes, however, have something to look for-
ward to more promising to their cause than the help
of foreign nations, and that is dissension among the
Germans themselves. Jealousy between Austria
and Prussia, the attitude of the Bland, the ambition
of the minor Princes, the
revolutionary tendencies
of the German people, everything engenders a belief
that their enemy cannot long act unanimously
against them, if they
will only persevere to the end ;
and with such prospects before them there is no
doubt that the Danes
titan it was in will fight on and endure.
Their position does not appear to them more hope-
lessto-day 1849, when all was lost and all
was eventually regained.
There has been some trifling encounter of patrols
as usual, in which one man was killed and
one wounded. The wounded yesterday were three;
none killed.
I am told that the Germans have been colgecting
a large number of boats in the Gelting Bucht, across
the Flensburg Fjord, with the intention of attempt-
ing a landing on Alsen, whenever such an attempt
may be ac: as a diversion to a contemplated attack
on Dybbol. A Danish ship-of-war, however, has
sailed this hiy for the Bucht, and will, no doubt,
soon give a good account of the boats there as-
sembled, if the report turns out to be cornet.
W 3

ment from Nybol and the occupation of the Stente-
rup and BatEA Woods. They hoped thereby to ope❑
a way for their troops in Broagerland through the
isthmus of the little peninsula, in the event of the
egress across the Egernsund being intercepted. The
attempt of the Rolf Krake was unsuccessful because
a round cape at the entrance of the strait on the
eastern shore completely masked the bridge, and
the water o❑ the western shore was too shallow for
her cannon to come within reach of its aim. The
safety of the bridge reassured the Austro-Prussians,
who had no further object in their advance into the
woods, and who therefore lost no time in retiring
within their own lines at Nybol, declining all conflict,
Why they should keep so quietly within these
lines, why the invasion of the Duchy of Schleswig,
which began with so much ardour and vigour on
their part, should come to a standstill before the
bastions of Dybbol, is precisely the problem with
the solution of which men's minds are busy here.
That the position at Dybbol is formidable, and

that the Germans are aware of its strength, is
matter of certainty, for they turned all their en-
deavours against it in 1849, when it had hardly
more than its natural advantages to rely upon, and
were driven from it again and again. It is ex-
tremely natural for them to wish to put off their
attack until they have brought up all the heavy
material they can muster ; but a fortnight is a
long lapse of time for the accomplishment of such
a task with the present means of locomotion they
have at their command, those means which en-
abled them so soon to prepare for the storming
of the D tnnewerk. On the other hand, they
must be aware that the Danes on their own side
are not idle, but are adding bastion to bastion
and trench upon trench, so as to make assurance
doubly sure. All that the engineers here
asked was just a fortnight's breathing time, and
during this interval new works have risen as if by
magic, and whenever the assailants are ready they
will be quite sure to find the defenders fully as
ready for them.
As day follows day and no news is the news, we be-

gin to think that the expected attack will never take
place, and we have been all this time tossed about
between the hopes and fears of an armistice till the
declarations of diplomatists in various countries set
our minds at rest on that score. The Germans will
not cease from hostilities, yet they will not dash their
heads against the ramparts at Dybbol. Possibly
they wish to carry on the war on softer ground in a
different quarter. We have positive intelligence,
indeed, that two days ago they crossed the frontier
line which separates the Duchy of Schleswig from
Jutland, and our anticipations of hot work there are
so general that I have been more than once on the
point of taking my berth in one of the steamers
sailing regularly more than once a day to Frede-
, ricia.

The invasion of the northern part of the penin-
sula—of that purely Danish province which is
neither, like Holstein, a member of the German
Confederacy, nor, like Schleswig, a territory " in-
dissolubly united with it," as the Germans would
have it, end which, indeed, was not even inciden-
tally mentioned in that Treaty of 1852, the terms
of which the Austro-Prussians have undertaken to
enforce—the invasion of Jutland, I said, seemed to
the people here too monstrous a breach of all la

to he justified even by the exi;
gencie; of the most
internecine war. That the two German Powers
who have now the whole of Schleswig in their
hands except this little island, and the four
squire miles of ground adjoining it on the main•
land, should not think they had accomplished
their great object until they held literally every
inch of
Schleswig at their discretion, might be
possible, and the war might be expected to go
on to the utter annihilation of the army shel-
tering at Alsen. But what passes all belief is, that
'weing. themselves, with all their enormona supe-

NEW LlFEBOATS.—Yesterday some interesting
trials were made with two new lifeboats belonging
to the National Lifeboat Institution, in the Regent's Canal
Dock, Limehouse. One was 36 feet long, and the other
28 feet. The larger boat is to be sent to Palling, Norfolk;
and the smaller one to Greencastle, near Londonderry. Tho
self-righting qualities of the boats were perfect, and the
water they brought back. with them in recovering their
. .'
centre of gravity was solf-ejected through patent valves in
about 30 seconds. The Palling lifeboat is the gift to the
institution of Messrs. Cama and Co,, Parsee merchants of
Gresham House, and that icr Greenee.stle, of J D Allcroft
Esq., of Wood-street.