The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-14 00:00:00

to the finances of New Zealand, in order that they might
be able to judge whether the surplus fund relied upon
existed.

lish, but actual English. This is especially the case,
I am told, with some of the people of West Jut-
land and Schleswig, whose dialects are not altoge-
ther unintelligible when they come ashore in some
of the English northern counties or in the Scottish
lowlands. Truly a closer kinship than exists be-
tween Great Britain and Denmark is nowhere to be
found on earth; and it seems hard, indeed, that the
bigger sister should not raise as much as a little
finger in behalf of the younger one, to save her
from the two great bullies who have almost beaten
the soul out of her body.
Presently we all set foot on Elsinore, and the
King and suite proceeded in carriages to the shore
of the Sound, where they alighted in sight of the
Krenborg and of the Swedish coast, the King stand.'
ing on a high spot near the shore and pointing oat
the most salient objects to the Queen, who seemed
to be a stranger in these Parts, and was delighted
with what she saw. fliers WAS then a backward
move, and all joinea again at the Sayte-bane, or
shooting gallery, a large building and grounds near
the station, belonging to the rifle club of the town,
where the feast was spread.
I happen to have been more than once present at
the opening of railways by the King of Italy, and I
W
was particularly struck With the difference with
which the same solemnity can be gone through in
different countries. In Italy the road from Bo-
logna to Ancona, or front the latter place to Pess
cara, traverses classic ground, and the names of
Faenza, Rimini, Pesaro,
&3e, make a far different im-
Bp
ier
ks sei
roond, sz
o nto., he
we ahr
of. rho
Tom
:11
thoselan ohfas vHeel
elerr
heardup, Lyonugt fboy,
Denmark, and with which the Dane himself has no
great traditions to associate. Moreover, the Italians
are a loud, demonstrative people ; art and taste
come natural to them in the decoration of their
festiTals. Those provinces, besides, were newly
rescued from the most crushing tyranny ; the
locomotive was as new to them as the King who
had lately annexed them, the fellow-subjects who
were coming to greet them, and the glad tidings of
freedom and civilisation that came in their train.
The opening of a railway under such circumstances
in Italy was a political event, a peaceful revolution.
in Denmark, the railway comes as the last
link of a long chain of gradual social progress. It
delights all, but surprises nobody. Tee people
go out to welcome the train as a matter of com-
mon occurrence—a familiar object, which, if they
have not seen here, they have seen a score of
miles off. They are glad of a holiday—glad
of an opportunity for the display of loyal
feelings to their Sovereign. That Sovereign is no
stranger to them; he comes to the throne as the
heir of a long-established dynasty in the regular
course of succession. For the rest, they think little
of arches, tapestries on the walls and damask cloths
from the windows ; they bring themselves, and their
honest, bright faces, and their lusty cheers. That
must make joy enough for the new comers and for
themselves. Anything theatrical would be out of
the question ; anything even artistical would be out
of keeping with the prosaic iron rails.
On one point, however, the Danes have exhibited
a most decided superiority over the Italians, and
that is the dinner. At Ancona or Pescara four or
five hundred starving men, standing round ill-
provided tables, with hat in hand and cloak on arm,
had to snatch such morsels as they could get at.
wrangling and almost squabbling. In Denmark
we sat about 200 in one room, seated round
four longitudinal tables and a transverse one, and
before us were laid about twelve dishes, handed
round in as many courses, with every variety of
French, German, and Peninsular wines. The din-
ner was a good thing; but the leisure, cordiality,
and actual brotherhood with which we ate
it were even better. The King sat in the
middle of the high table, having his Queen on his
left, the young Princess Dagmar on his right, who
was supported on the other aide by her brother, the
Crown Prince. Round the same table were the
Ministers, some of the great Court dignataries, and
the directors of the new railway, the hosts of the day.
One of these latter, a Herr David, stood up just
as we had despatched our kalvertgy, gronoester,
olivensance—i. e., when we were through about
one-fourth of the dinner, and, as he stood face
to face with the kink, the table only intervening,
he, in a short neat speech proposed the " Health of
the King." The band struck up " King Christian
stood by the lofty mast; " the cannon thundered
outside. The toast was received with real enthu-
siasm, and the King actually," jingled glasses" with
Herr David. He then thanked the assembled guests
with an easy flaw of language and some happy allu-
sion to the " bark of the State that would yet be got
safely out of the stormy sea," which elicited new
applause. The same indefatigable Herr David next
proposed "The Queen,"
for whom the King made an
appropriate sw The turn next came for Prince
poahne Qeure. en ,
Frederick, the Crown Prince, and his sister Dagmar,
when the former got up and acquitted himself of his
task with a readiness and aplomb quite beyond his
years. The King did not forget " The Army and
Navy," which toast was drunk amid the strains of
"Den tappre Landsoldat" and " Holmens faste
Stock." The absent were not defrauded of their
share, especially King George of Greece, who, no
doubt, would have been glad enough to be with us
—glad to be anywhere, perhaps, rather than where
he is, Bishop Monrad also proposed " The Princess
of Wales," who might almost have heard the hurrah
which rose in her honour all the way from the shores
of the Oresund to her boudoir at Marlborough House.
fhe King assured the bystanders that " his absent
daughter felt as poignantly for the calamities of her
country as any there present." After one more
toast, for the " good old city Elsinore," the King
and suite left the table. We rose in a hurry and
followed into the garden, whence, after a hasty cup
of coffee, 199 of the company took their seats in the
carriages back to Copenhagen, and only one—your
correspondent—repaired to his new quarters a
Elsinore.

Mr CARDWELL explained that the loan was to be a
first charge upon the general expenditure of the colony.
➢lr WHALLEY requested an answer with respect to
his inquiries on the conduct of the Roman Catholic priest-
hood.

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY EVENING, JUNE 14, 1864.

Naval and Military Intelligence,

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

A letter from Malta says :—" Between the 2d and sth of
June the harbour presented unusual activity. The steatn
storeship Supply had arrived froth Corfu; the Dromedary,
from Cephalonia) with atoi-ea and baggage; and the Or-
lando steam frigate, and Trident steam sloop, from Cepha •
lonia; the steam frigate Liffey, from Zante; the steam fri•
gate Magicienne, from Santa Mann.; the steatn corvette
Cossack, from Ithaca; and the screw steam line of battle
ship Meeanee, from Corfu. The last six brought 39 officers,
1,118 non-commissioned officers and pritates, 61 women,
and 133 children of the Ist battalion, 9th Regiment.
Her Majesty's screw steam frigate Galatea arrived
on. the 4th from Corfu, bringing nine officers, 109
non-commissioned officers and privates, 35 women; and 83
children of the Royal t ngincein ; eight non commissioned
officers and privates, 14 women, and 12 children of other re-
giments for Gibraltar, for which port she left on June 6.
Her Majesty's screw steam troopship Himalaya arrived on
the same day, likewise from Corfu, bringing 33 officers, 912
non-commissioned officers and privates, 65 women, and 102
children of the 4th Regiment and of the Royal Artillery.
Her Majesty's screw steam troopship Tamar also arrived
from Corfu on the 4th, bringing for Malta one non-com-
missioned officer and 18 privates, and for Gibraltar, for
which port she took her departure on the same day, 980
officers, non-commissioned officers, and privates of the 2d
battalion, 2d Regiment. Major-Gen. Sir R. Garrett, lately
commanding the forces in the lonian Islands, and Mrs Gar-
rett, Capt. Beresford, A.D.C., Col. Maude, C. 8., V.C., of
the Royal Artillery, with his wife and family ; Col. Robert-
son, appointed Deputy Quartermaster. Gen. at Malta, Assist.
Cora.-Gen. Cruickshanks, Deputy Assist. Com.-Gen, Leach
and wife, the Rev. Mr Wrench, and the Earl of March,
besides several civilians, came as passengers by the above-
named ships of war. Her Majesty's screw steamship of the
line, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Smart, K.H., Com-
mander-in-Chief, arrived on the 7th from Katackolo, in
Greece, preceded on the 6th by the schooner steam yacht
Undine, from the same place, having on board the Duke of
Sutherland and the Earl of Sefton. The United States
sailing corvette Constellation left Malta on June 1 for
Alexandria.
The Pigmy, Goverment paddle steam tender at Ports-
mouth, Master Commanding W. W. Vine, has returned to
that harbour, from her temporary station, under the command
of Commander Colomb, R.N., off the south coast of the Isle
of Wight, where she has been engaged in experimental tele-
graphic operations. These telegraphic experiments have
been carried on by Commander P. H. Colomb, R.N., with
Capt. F. J. Bolton, 12th Regiment, F.R.G.S., under the
direction of the Admiralty and the War _office, in order to
perfect a system of telegraphy applicable to one code of
signalling for the use of the army and navy, and having
special reference to coast defences. So far as the experi-
ments have yet gone, they have been most successful. Com-
munications by signal have been kept up for hours from the
temporary signal station on St. Catherine's Down, Isle of
Wight, under the direction of Capt. Bolton, and the Pigmy
steamer 24 English miles off in the Channel, under the direc-
tion of Commander Colomb, and from the results which have
attended these experiments inferences may be safely drawn
that an ordinary message of 20 words may be thus trans-
mitted from a look-out ship nearly halfway across the Chan-
nel to the nearest English headland in 15 miles. Such re-
sults as these bid fair to revolutionise the ordinary modes of
signalling. It is understood that the Admiralty, sully ap-
preciating the importance of the whole question, have
ordered a further series of trials to be made.

TIMES.—The air is full of rumours of the great
onslaught Whibli. the Opposition is preparing to
make upon the Ministry, and the spoils of office are
for the hundredth time apportioned totting the ex-
pectant victors, It is believed that a sufficient
Danish feeling exists in the country, not, indeed, to
assist Denmark, hat to turn out the Government
which has declined actively to assist her; and a eta-
cient warlike feeling, not, indeedi to go to war,
but to turn out a Government for pertinationsly
adhering to peace. Direful are the threats of what
will be done at a general election, and great is the
gathering in the House of Commons every night to
learn froth the "Questions/' and still better from the
"Notices of Motions,'' when the great day of trial
will come. In this volcanic state we are grateful
to any one who will give us the least means of
estimating the impending phenomenon, and relieve
us from the suspense in which we are involved.
We, therefore, read with particular pleasure Lard
Stanley's speech at the Merchant Taylors' dinner in
acknowledging the toast of the House of Commons,
If he is meditating an attack upon Downing-street,
Lord Stanley certainly goes to the combat in a
peculiarly tranquil and equable frame of mind. He
seems so thoroughly content with everything that
it would be quite a pity to introduce any change
into the world which goes so smoothly. Lord
Stanley says he has been for fifteen years a
member of the House of Commons, and the
longer and more intimately he has known it the
stronger has become his respect for its opinions
and the general soundness of its decisions. No tes-
timony can be more handsome, and no statement
more convincing, than that of a statesman who thus
fairly and candidly gives his evidence in favour of
that very judge by whom he ana his party have
been repeatedly and remorselessly condemned. The
history of the House of Commons for the last ten
years has been the history of the reverses and defeats
of the Conservative party. It has been one long tale
of successive disappointments. Tantalus himself was
not more cruelly or perseveringly mocked. The tide
of good fortune has been for ever rising up to their
lips and for ever ebbing again. In 1852 they
were indulged with just so much of the sweets of
office as to make them long heartily for a prolonga-
tion of their term, and in 1858 and 1859 they existed
in office during the greater part of two sessions,
without being able to make good their footing on
the promised land. It is not everyone whose opinion
of the House of Commons would be raised by such
experience; but the Conservative leaders know their
own party best, and if their opinion of the House is
raised by the indisposition to trust them which it has
shown during the last 12 years, it is not for us to
blame the soundness of the decision. Lord Stanley
admitted that for the last two or three years
the House has not done much to gain credit with the
public beyond maintaining a judicious inactivity.
He does not take advantage of this inactive state of
the House of Commons to attribute its abstinence
from hard work as a fault to the Government. He
looks npon it as the result of the present state of
public opinion, and neither quarrels with the nation
for desiring rest, nor expects to be called by his con-
stituents to a severe account for the easy life which
he has led and the little execution he has done in
the ranks of his political opponents. Nay, more;
Lord Stanley's candour compels him to admit that
"in two important departments—that of Law Re-
form and of Finance—very considerable and prac-
tical improvements have been made; and no diffe-
rence of political connection will prevent him or
those whom he addresses from doing full justice to
those by whom these improvements have been
initiated." This is scarcely the language of a
man who ie engaged every day in considering how
best he may damage and annoy the existing Go-
vernment,—into what part of their armour he may
best introduce the point of his lance. If this speech
is intended to prepare us for war, it can only be by
a surprise, since no expressions can be used less cal-
culated to create suspicion and alarm. "England,"
he says, "is rich, prosperous, and contented beyoad
all former example, and the general opinion among
the working classes is that if there is any well-
founded grievance, they may bring it forward with
a confidence that it will be inquired into, and if pos-
sible removed." Lord Stanley goes on to advise us
wisely to keep at peace with all our neighbours, and
to continue in the same course of steady, consistent
improvement which we have hitherto practised.
Certainly this is not the language of discontent or
repining, but rather of one who has seen matters go
vary much as they ought, though against his own
party, and is determined not to commit himself to
any distinct policy other than that which has sacs
ceeded so welt. It looks, then, very much as if the
anticipations which have been ventilated so freely of
late were destined to end in nothing. Lord Stanley
may fairly be accepted as the representative of the
good sense and the moderation of the great English
people, who are of no political party at all, and who
see no reason to apprehend political agitation, be-
cause they are conscious of having done nothing to
deserve it. A few years ago such a speech as that of
Lord Stanley, made by a man having held high office,
and aspiring to hold it again, young, able, and am-
bitious, would have been an absolute impossibility, an
effort of virtue of self-denial of which no men would
have been found:capable. Now matters are mending
so fast that political personages often receive quite
as much justice from their antagonists as from their
allies, and the medium through which their act
are seen by their adversaries loses almost all its
power of distorting character. No one is sagacious
enough to foresee what will be the end of the pre-
sent European complications, but there is no diffi-
culty in believing that the present Government
will be judged, whatever may be the result of the
Conference, in a much fairer and more equitable
spirit than political parties in this country have
hitherto been in the habit of manifesting towards
each other. There are two difficulties in the way of
carrying a vote of censure—the first that the mere
ill success of negotiations set on foot with the best
intentions, and carried on with the most praise-
worthy diligence, can hardly, in the present state
of feeling, be imputed even to a hostile Government
as a crime; and the second that, even if the Tory party
were agreed upon such a censure, they are unable to
satisfy the conditions of success which the House
and the country require of them. Supposing that
they could combine to condemn what hes been done,
could they combine to point out any course for the
future, to lay down any comprehensive plan of
action, or indicate any rule of conduct, by following
which the country would obtain a more assured and
a more honourable position ? The complaints that
have been made take the shape of upbraiding the
Ministers for not acting up to the menaces they
have uttered, and for suffering themselves to be
outvoted in the Conference and upbraided by
Austria and Prussia without having recourse to
war. But is the Tory party ready to embrace this
alternative? Are they really prepared to plunge this
country into a doubtful struggle with two of the
greatest military Powers in the world merely to
show their goodwill to another whom they are un-
able efficiently to assist P We oppose to such views
the plain sensible declaration of Lord Stanley—
that so long as they are wise enough to keep at
peace, the House have nothing to fear from their
constituents. lo other words, that the opinion of
the country is strong against war, and that, there-
fore, the Tory party is in this dilemma—chat if it
profess itself favourable to peace, it will fail for
want of a cause of complaint against the Govern-
meant; and if favourable to war, it will fail because
the country does not share its predilection.
HERALD.—It is curious to observe how the tone
of the apologists of the Government varies as time
goes on. It is impossible now to maintain the high
pretensions which were advanced when the public
were more ignorant, and, therefore, more easily
deceived, than they are now. Three months ago
it was fearlessly asserted that there was nothing
with which fault could be found in the conduct of
Ministers, and that no phrase which could be inter-
preted either as a promise to Denmark or a threat
to germany, had fallen from Lord Russell's pen.
It is too late to hold that language now. Even
from the meagre residue of despatches which Mr.
Leyard's careful editing has left behind there is
plenty to convict Lord Russell of bluster, which his
subsequent conduct has made ridiculous, and pro-
mises which his timidity has converted into an
indelible stain upon England's honour. These things
lie upon the surface, and it is now of no use to deny
their existence. Consequently the line of defence
is changed. The despatches are no longer eulogised.
It is admitted that the Government wrote and
spoke as if they intended to
go
is,war
t that the behalfe o nof
the Treaty of 1552. The defencet•
servatives would have done no better. This notable
apology seems to have
quite captivated the minds
of Ministerial writers and speakers, and they re-
peat it upon all occasions. Lord Palmerston even
goes a step further, and, disregarding all constitu-
tional decorum, is perpetually taunting the Oppo-
sition because they will not present him with a
policy of their own. " What would your policy
be ?" appears to the aged Minister a sufficient plea
in answer to all the charges of imbecility and
weakness that are brought against him. It seems
too absurd that Ministers who arc
incul-
pated should seriously imagine gravely
of defence to set up a hypothesis, without a shadow
of proof, to the effect that their antagonists
would have done no better than them-
selves. It is scarcely less ridiculous to see
a Prime Minister trying to veil his own
flouncing a policy
helpless perplexity by throwing the duty of an-
with the duty of devising ono, and who have not
upon those who are not charged
the official information as to the exact condition of
negotiations at the moment which would enable
them to do it with confidence. Still it may be
worth while, as this defence is advanced with so

The America, target-ship at Portsmouth, is again having
her sides strengthened in parts, and newly planked with.
greenheart planking to reeeive armour-plates for trial. The
greenheart planking is six inches in thickness inside and
outside the ship's frame, and on this will be bolted with iron
and steel bolts (the latter experimental) for the next trial
iron and steel armour-plates from the firms of John Brown
and Co,, of the Atlas Steel and Iron Works, and from C.
Cammil and Co., of the Cyclops Works.
The Wolverine, ironcased corvette, and the Research
and Enterprise, rams, arrived in Great Yarmouth Roads
last night, to await orders, it is supposed, for the North.
Fires were lighted in the furnaces of the Channel
Squadron at 7 o'clock yesterday morning at Plymouth. The
screw steamship Prince Consort, 35, Capt. George 0. Willes,
C. 8., hove short at 9, and at half past left the Sound
by the Western Channel. The Black Prince, 41, Capt. J.
B. Wainwright, second in command, followed. The flag-
ship Edgar, 71, Capt. G. P. Hornby, cleared the western
end of the Breakwater at 10 a.m., and all was ready
for the immediate departure of the Warrior, 40, Capt. the
Hon. Arthur A. Cochrane, C. 8., and the Defence, 16, Capt.
Augustus Phillimore.

The following garrison order to the troops who took part
in the siege operations carried out at Chatham in the pre-
sence of the Prince of \Vales has been issued by General
H, Eyre, commanding the Chatham district:—
'" The Major-General has been commanded by his Royal
Highness the Field-Marshal Commanding-in-Chief to
express the great satisfaction with which his Royal
Highness witnessed the complete success of the siege
operations carried out in the presence of his Royal High-
ness the Prince of \Vales. The Major General is aware,
from his own personal observation, how anxiously the
tr,,ops of all branches of the service (assisted as they were
by the Royal Navy at this station, and the Royal Marines
from Woolwich) have endeavoured to deserve the approba-
tion they are all so much gratified in obtaining ; but it is
to the very able and skilful superintendence of Col. Harness,
C. 8., Royal Engineers, and the remarkably zealous and
cheerful co-operation of the officers, non-commissioned
officers, and sappers of the Royal Engineer establishment
that such a successful result must be chiefly due on an oc-
casion of the kind."