The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-24 00:00:00

openly and meant more covertly. The conseqi tence
of this untimely hint being thrown out was thea the
inhabitants very naturally declined to congregate
at a place where Danish opinions were certain to be
at a discount, and where they would not be able to
get their wishes attended to at all, It may be stir).
posed of what incongruous elements the so cal led
meeting was composed, and yet this apo logy
for an assembly was designated a gathering of
the inhabitants of the locality for the purpose
of protesting against the propositions entertained
at the Conference relative to the Duchies. The
circumstances that took place at this meeting fully
carried out the descriptions given of the manage-
ment which had convened it, and the manoeuvres
that had animated its assistants or presiding spirits.
A large concourse of the meeting was composed of
that heterogeneous class who go abcut from place
to place for the purpose of aiding and abetting any
designs that may be convenient at the moment, and I'
enact the role of any community that may prose
convenient to the parties actively engaged in the
carryina on of a transaction. The " little clique"
made desperate efforts to effect their ingenious but
unprincipled purpose, and the decorations, &ea were
very profuse. There does not appear that much
was done, after all, in the way of proving the
eagerness of the assembly for a change. A few
protestations were made which called forth expres-
sions of dissent from the few Danes who were theie,
which circumstance significantly declared how
much and how far their interests were concerned in
the affair. As might have been expected there was
some disturbance witnessed on the separation of this
motley group for divers places, which professed to
be the inhabitants of the place assembled together
for the purpose of unanimously declaring their feel-
ings in their new and strange position. Of course
in the skirmishes the Danes were selected for
the victims, and a few of the burghers,
who had already been insulted, were
arrested, The Austrian soldiers, however, had the
sense to put an end to the absurd and unjust pro-
ceeding. Had the troops been Prussian, how dif-
ferent would, in all probability, have been the
result. This event proves that there must be some-
thing fundamentally wrong in a system which
upholds such subterfuge, and takes advantage of
such mean devices to gain a trivial purpose and
accomplish the desired end. The greatest tyranny
has been exercised in dealing with the North
Schleswigers throughout, and they have ail along
testified their unwillingness to become exclusively
Germans; and in consequence of this exhibition oi
feeling on their part, great outrages have been
committed on their liberties, and their rights and
privileges have been sacrified on several occasions.
Their newspapers have been interfered witb, their
editors put into prison, and their deputies have also
been incarcerated. After many arbitrary regula-
tions have been laid down, such as preventing thb
rise of the Danish flag and forbidding the celebra-
tisn of the birthday of CHRISTIAN the Ninth, at,
insult is put upon common sense by this endeavonr
to get up an apparent demonstration in favour oi
the Germans. When a people are in earnest upon
a subject it needs not the meeting oz the assembiy
to give it utterance, their feelings are expressed
in a hundred unmistakeable forms, bat the wily
deceivers and arch hypocrites persuade themselves
that they can contrive to hoodwink others, and thus.
overawe the natives themselves by their dex-
terity.

We are so accustomed to maintain our forces ie
every quarter of the globe, to assert our supre.
macy, and to guard our rights in every habitable
zone, that it has perhaps become too much a mat-
ter of course to enter upon dangerous or d,facult
adventures without sufficient consideration. The
risks of climate and the evil influences of undrained
and marshy lands are formidable foes to cope with,
and often prove more deadly to our brave men than
any foreign enemy. In some instances, too, Nature
herself protests—the uninhabitable and pathless
swamp and impenetrable thicket bete the boldest
invader and 'defeat the most persevering attack.
Ail the obstacles which soil, climate, and general
condition can put in the way of the soldier appear
to combine on the perilous shores of the Gold
Coast. According to a detailed account supplied
to a contemporary by one familiar with the dis-
trict, its evils have been underrated rather than
exaggerated. Food is deficient for sheep, and
cattle are luxuries; the means of communica-
tion are bad, for the roads are no more than
sheep-walks. Dame and almost impassable
forests block the path, bat more perilous and
more deadly than any other adversary is the pet
tilential malaria cf the swamps described by this
traveller as an irresistible, unseen foe. There is
little room to wonder that Mr. WINWORTII REALE
should further add that the whole margin of the
West Coast is the domain of fever, dysentery,
and every kindred ill. Nor need it surprise us
that under such depressing and disadvantageous
circumstances the forces we sent thither on the
recent foolhardy expedition against the Ashantee
King should be decimated by sickness and morta-
lity. The recklessness with which men were de-
spatched to such a coast without a plentiful pro-
vision of all necessaries was altogether unpardon-
able, but the melancholy event has turned public
attention to the matter, and the question now asked
is not only why the men should not have been
better cared for, but whether they should have
been out there at all. According to Mr. WIN-
'WORTH READE, the Ashantees are very unwilling
to
go to
war with white men. Possibly being b
sharp and intelligent tribe they have some idea or
the hopelessness of the conflict at close quarters,
and also, as
Mr, READE suggests, they may be in-
fluenced by the fear of losing those small luxuries
to which they have become accustomed, such as
cdoetstcornib•esb7hdm as being 9 rum, and even ammunition. lit
for the most part quiet
and affirms that he
courteous, and effeminate,
learned from an officer engaged in the late expedi-
tion that our men went on
ens occasion through
an ambush of 200 Ashantees, Without injury
wereand
without knowing of the ambush, until they
told of it by an Ashantee whom the Fantis had
captured. This was the first expedition
in which
the loss of lifo from fever was so frightfully rapid,
and it returned without seeing an Ashantee, so that
the natives did not certainly put themselves in the
way of our troops. This unsatisfactory transaction
seems likely to open the whole question of the mili-
tary cccupation of such unhealthy quarters. At the
best of times, says Mr. IVINWORTIT READE, mili-
tary hospitals are always tolerably full- It is
by no meana certain how far military occupa-
tion tends to foster trade, although it was for its
protection that it was originally designed. Such
expedients are not usually conducive to commercial
prosperity, and the freer and more unaided the
action of trade, the more extensive and satisfactory
15 its action in moat cases. It seems that more
might be done by a naval than a military force,
and with less .risk to health and life. The whole
question stands in need of careful and impartial
inquiry, silica before we deport so many men to so
unhealthy a locality, and insist on their remaining
in occupation of it, it is surely well to eecsi.:::ain
how far such a costly sacrifice is abseltitely essen-
tial. Nothing short of actual necessity can justify
the raAiLtenanee of a force in so insalubrious a Clit,"