The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-10 00:00:00

She is a powerful iron-clad with two turrets or
cupolas, armed each of them with two 64-pounders.
Her length is 120 feet, and she is at lemt 34 feet
broad. Her engine is nominally of 250• horse power,
but can bear a far greater pressure of steam. She
can run nine knots an hour in smooth water, but
her officers have no high opinion of her as a sea-
boat. Indeed, they think that the attempt to com-
bine sailing powers with the efficiency of a monitor
has been crowned with but indifferent success. In
heavy weather in the Baltic or the German Ocean
she would have no great chance. On the other hand,
she is too deep in the water to be of great use in
shallow inland seas. She could go safely through
the Egernsund, but could not venture any distance
into the Nybol Nor. She lies now in the Sound,
near the opening of the Vemmingbund, whence she
can wander at her pleasure to any part of that
small but deep bay. She has her steam always up,
and is ready for a start at 20 minutes' notice. Her
mission at the present moment is to watch the
movements of the Prussians in the Broager Penin-
sula, and to act on their right flank in the event of
their attack on the Dybbol position. She suffered
more damage in her spirited attack on the pontoon
bridge at Egernsund, on Thursday fortnight, than
the first reports had led us to believe. She has
now been thoroughly repaired, however, and we
witnessed the evolutions of her turrets and guns,
which were performed with great speed and pre-
cision. All the officers and most of the men are
familiar with the English language, and we were
entertained on board with as great a cordiality as
if we had been countrymen.
Experiments are being made here in the evening
with electric light, with a view to apply it to war-
like purposes, to watch the enemy's rrovements in
the night, and to enable the artillery of the forts to
fire in the darkest weather. With what practical
results such contrivances ntay be attended we shall
learn in time. In the meanwhile the exhibition
affords some entertainment to the people here, who
are somewhat at a loss how to get rid of the long
evenings, notwithstanding the performances of a
dramatic company with ballets, which has followed
us all the way from Schleswig.

We received to-day telegraphic news of a cavalry
skirmish near Bekke, in Jutland, in which a
squadron of Danish Dragoons charged upon two
squadrons of German Hussars, and captured 30 of
them ; seven of the captives are wounded ; two of
the latter officers, a lieutenant and an army surgeon.
The Danes on their side lost three prisoners.

(From the limes Special Correspondent with the Allied
Armies.)

HOLDING, JUTLAND, March 5.

There was nothing at all going on at Hadersleben
yesterday, so I drove down i❑ the direction of the
Jutland frontier, put up at a farmhouse just on the
edge of Schleswig, a few miles westward from
Kolding (where the number of troops assembled
renders it almost impossible for travellers to find
quarters), and came on here at daybreak this morn-
ing. This small town of barely 4,000 inhabitants
is situated exactly on the frontier. As you begin
the descent of a little hill immediately preceding it,
and on the slope of which its first houses are situ-
ated, you come to a low iron post marking the
boundary. From the high ground to the right of
the road the best view of the place is obtained.
It stands at the mouth of a small river, the Kong's
Aaa (King's river), which there enters an inlet of
the sea. Looking eastward the island of Funen is
plainly visible to the naked eye. On a small tongue
of land by the harbour, stretching in that direction,
the Prussians have constructed a covered shelter
for riflemen, made of beams and of iron rails, bor-
rowed (not much to the contentment of the con _
tractors) from the line of Danish railway here in
course of construction. From this place is com•
manded the high road to Fredericia, which for a
short distance runs along the shore before diverging
from it in a north-easterly direction. On another
road, which proceeds duo north from Kolding, is
situated the town of Veile, about 14 English miles
distant, and the people here tell me that the Prus-
sians have been as far as Brandrup, about two miles
on that road, but that they did not remain there.
At the present time there is a barricade and a
guard at the exit from the town in that direction,
and the advanced picket is but a short way beyond.
So that at this point the allied army has gone but
a very small distance over the frontier; but from
Kolding the boundary line runs away at first nearly
due south, and then south-west, and then again
north-west, forming an enclave or projection of Jut-
land into Schleswig, where the Prussians also are,
at the villages of Seest and I-Ijarup, and possibly in
other insignificant places. Looking down upo❑
Kolding from the small hill already mentioned, im-
mediately south of the town, the most conspicuous
objects rising from the confused mass of dingy rod
houses are the castle and the Royal stables. The
latter area low red building forming three sides of
a large square, and a breeding stud was kept there,
which was removed on the approach of war. The
castle is a mere wreck—a sort of stone skeleton, in
the tottering fabric of which the daylight passes
through countless gaps and crevices. At its western
end is a lofty square tower, the ascent of which is
now forbidden as dangerous, and from the summit
of which, as Koldiog lies in a narrow valley, no
very extensive view could be obtained, except in the
direction of Funen. The ruin of the castle, once a
Royal residence, dates from its conflagration, early
in the present century. Some of the people in this
neighbourhood say that it was burnt by the
Spaniards of the Marquis de la Romagna, but
I have no books here to refer to on that or any
other subject, and I do not remember whether Ro-
magna's troops came to this part of Jutland. Their
embarcation on board of British ships to return to
Spain occurred, if I rightly recollect, from the island
of Z -aland. However that may be, it is certain
that they left a number of horses behind them in
Denmark, which were crossed with Danis4 horses,
and of whose breed traces are not unfrequently to
be detected in those one sees about here.

The farmhouse at which I passed last night, at
Fovslel-, in the frontier parish of Odis, is an excel-
lent specimen of the best class of establishments of
that kind in Schleswig. Everything about it is sub-
stantial, from the hospitable proprietor, of Hercu-
lean build, riding 17 stone, and a model of rude
health and muscular development, down to the moun-
tain of roast beef under which his supper table
groaned. Capacious and well-built stables con-
tained 100 cows and 20 horses; the milk, abundant
even at this season, stood i❑ tubs several feet in
diameter ; the churns were big enough to make a
tub of butter at a time. The ducks and fowls, geese,
turkeys, pigeons, and other feathered bipeds,
swarmed to prodigious extent, hat the cocks were
downcast, for some of the Austrian sharpshooters
had plucked the curling black feathers from their
tails to decorate their picturesque hats. Since then
Hussars had been there, and lately 11 officers found
ample accommodation and good cheer in the great
solid farmhouse, the interior of which afforded not
only plenty of room for numerous guests, but luxu-
ries and refinements such as could hardly have been
expected in this remote northern nook. Our host,
born within a few miles of his present abode, had never
been out of his country, never south of the Elbe, he
told us, but he spoke excellent German, and preferred
to speak it, although Danish was equally familiar to
him. He was a thorough Augustenburger, and had
been one of the monster deputation of 1,500 Schles-
wigers that lately went down to Kiel to greet Prince
Frederick. He could not deny, however, that,
although an independent Schleswig-Holstein,
com-
pletely severed from Denmark, was what he and
many ()then; most ardently desired, Schleswig might
be contented by a personal union with the kingdom.
Ills wife, who, although also a native of North
Schleswig, spoke no Danish, would hear of nothing
less than total separation ; but I suspect the North
Schleawigers generally would be satisfied with the
personal union—those, that is to say, who do not
desire, on the contrary, amalgamation with Dan-
mark. So fer as I have yet had opportunity of
observing, I am greatly surprised to see how much
anti-Danish feeling exists in North Schleswig, espe-
cially among the farmers. The evidence of foreigners
resident forsome time past in the country, and whose
veracity and impartiality there is not the slightest
reason to suspect, is much more valuable in this
respect than my personal observation daring the
four days that have now passed since I came north-
wards from Flensburg. From such persons I receive