The Sun.
London, England, 1864-02-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, FEBRUARY 8, 1864.

RENDSIttrItG, Feb. 3.
It rained and blew a gale during the greater part
of the night at Fleckerbye, and the same weather
e mitinued all the morning, the snow rapidly dine_
Dearing and the ice gradually melting. The change
the weather is likely to prove a serious impedi-
ment to the operations of the Austro-Prnssians,
started early to come over here, and met a consider-
able body of Austrians on the road—the Martini
infantry regiment, a battalion of Tyrolese Chasseurs,
some battalions composed of German-Austrians and
Scla.vonians ; also a few guns, pontoons, B:e.—the
whole struggling along roads deep with mud,
with a driving rain and raw wind from the west.
From the villages we heard many reports about
firing in the direction of the Darmewerk, but there
seems to have been no fighting, except on the right
at Missunde, unless it occurred en the extreme left,
at Friedriehstadt, of which we have no positive
mounts. Here, when the Austrians advanced
Danes quietly withdrew from the Ist, the
the Kronwerk, and at the same time from the
six villages which were eveenated without any
conflict. This afternoon the weather is better, but
still overcast and somewhat menacing, and if the

KIEL, Feb. 4.
Starting yesterday morning from Fleckerbye, I
made a pretty extensive ramble, terminating at the
place whence I now date. The Schleswig roads
are extremely heavy, and the means of locomotion
obtainable are by no means good, besides which
stoppages, or at least delays, owing to the troops,
baggage, and commissariat stores one encounters,
are of continual recurrence. Before striking the
high road from Schleswig to Rendsburg, which I
did not do until very near the latter place, the open
vehicle (drawn by two meagre steeds whose powers
of endurance were fortunately quite out of propor-
tion to their appearance), which I had with difficulty
obtained, was stopped in a nook of a narrow country
road by the passage of at least 5,000 Austrians,
through which it was impossible to make way.
Notwithstanding that the morning was as nasty a
one as could be selected for a march, they seemed in
good feather. They had decorated their caps with
fir sprigs, and were chatting and singing in a variety
of languages and dialects sufficient to puzzle the
most accomplished philologist. It was strange to
see these Tyrolese, Hungarians, and Sclavonians—
for such the greater part of them were—pushing
their way thus far northwards to fight the battle
of German nationality against the Danes: One
might suspect that most of them had very little
knowledge of the business they were bound upon,
except as regarded the fighting part of it, and
that, had they been informed of it, the more intelli-
gent among them might have been struck by the
idea that they need not have come so far from
home to struggle in the cause of nationality.
Most of them Evers very young men, especially
the Tyrolese sharpshooters, who were generally
small and slight, and did not strike me as of
the vigorous censtitution desirable for hard ser-
vice. Their appearance, however, may have been
deceptive. It was not a sort of morning to make
men look their best. Many of the officers were
very fine looking young men. The column was
chiefly composed of infantry, and the Hungarians
seemed the strongest men among them. Tney ap-
peared to me to be less heavily laden, in the way
of knapsacks and equipments, than my Prussian
friends, with whom I had passed the previous day.
The only deficiency I noticed about them regarded
their boots, which were decidedly too thin for such
a rough country as that they have come into, and
far better suited for a sunny day in Italy than a
winter march in Schleswig. They left scarcely a
straggler behind them, however, and there were no
signs of sore feet, but the deep, thin, mud seemed
oozing from their boots as they trod. Once past
their long column, and the pontoons, artillery, and
carts that follow it, we meet no further impediment
of the kind before reaching Rendsburg, where the
hotel was full of blue-coated Saxon officers, just sit-
ting down to their early table d'hote. There was
evidently nothing of interest going on in this
quarter, notwithstanding reports that had reached
us on the road. So we shortly were off again to
Eckernforde, passing through Damendorff, where
the head-quarters of Marshal Wrangel had been the
night before, and were again to be last night. We
passed the Crown Prince's quarters, in probably the
humblest tenement his Royal Highness had ever
occupied. Damendorff is a mere hamlet, without,
so far as we could learn, even a place to bait a horse
at. Thanks to the detestably heavy country cross-
roads, it was considerably past dark when we got
there. The Staff had just come in, having been
absent at the scene of a small affair which the Aus-
trians had had with the Danes at the eastern, or
Danish left, extremity of the Dannewerk, in
which a position known by the name of Wen-
delspange, slightly in rear of the line marked on
the maps as the little Dannewerk, and within about
four miles of Schleswig, had been carried by the Aus-
trians, with the loss, as is reported, of about 100 men
killed and wounded. A gun was taken from the
Danes, and also 100 prisoners, many of whom are
said to have given themselves up, or, in other
words, deserted. The guns of the great Dannewerk
command the position now held by the Austrians,
and it was supposed they would not be allowed to
maintain it unmolested during to-day. About 5,000
men were engaged on the part of the Austrians.
We continued our route to Eckernforde in dark-
ness so profound as to put at fault the local expe-
rience of our driver, which we had had occasion to
remark as very considerable, and to reduce him to
climb up the finger-posts in a vain attempt to de-
cipher the Indications marked upon them. Late in
the night we drove into Eckernforde, and auda-
ciously hoped to find a night's lodging at the modest
hostelry which had sheltered us on the Ist inst. But
the hope was vain indeed. On the Monday we had
come in with the first arrivals, and the innkeepers
had not been reduced to putting more than three or
four persons into one room ; now a portion of a table
in the smoky taproom, whereon to sleep in one's
cloak after the drinkers had departed, was an indul-
gence demanded in vain. The place was thronged
with officers, soldiers, and all the usual retinue and
attendance of an army. Every private house had
its lodgers innumerable,either billeted or remunera-
tive, and the best disposed smiled at you hopelessly
when asked for accommodation at any price. The
only plan was to fall back upon our headquarters,
temporarily established at Kiel; but how to get
there was the question. The pair of garrons that
had trailed us all day, and had certainly got us over
fully 40 miles of deep roads, looked piteously exte-
nuated, and even the sanguine young Schleswiger
who had vaunted their powers to us, and given us
proof of their being considerable by getting them
along at a very decent trot, declared that repose was
a necessity. Fresh horses at that hour of night, and
with the demand that has of late existed for them,
seemed out of the question ; but nevertheless, the
usual magic key finally unlocked the stable door of
a pair which were to convey us to Kiel in little
more than two hours. Possibly they might have
done so, but for the slight impediment presented
by some twelve or fifteen hundred vehicles of all
descriptions which we met upon the road, filling it
up nearly the whole way from Eckernforde to Get-
torf, about half way to Kiel. Most of them were
drawn up at the side of the road, apparently wait-
ing for daylight, and truly if all had been in motion
a general lock could hardly have been avoided,
except by the maintenance of a degree of order
which the darkness rendered almost impossible.
But, besides the stationary line, over which soldiers
were on guard, there were a certain number of
vehicles in motion, some scores of them being huge,
lumbering waggons, apparently of baggage, sol-
diers' knapsacks, and an infinite variety of matters,
which lumbered along the road, sometimes break-
ing into a trot at the instigation of the impatient
drivers, filling up its centre, and rendering it a
seeming miracle that my small conveyance was not
precipitated into the ditch or wnatever else the
darkness concealed upon our off side. Finally
there came along a great square, dark looking van,
lit up at its top corners in front by two lanterns
like round gleaming eyes, the first light, except the
sparks of cigars, which we had come upon all the
way from Eckernforde. What that mysterious
vehicle contained I, perhaps, shall never know—
portable gas was suggested, or a field telegraph,
champagne for the mess of the Staff, fireworks for
the c-Aebration of the first victory, or a new Consti-
tution for Schleswig-Holstein—but I shall ever re-
member it with regard, since it closed the tedious
string of impediments and allowed us to reach the
desired haven of Kiel at about four o'clock this
morning. After three days and nights passed up
at the front, amid alternate frost and thaw, rain
and wind, tramping
a through heavy fields and
cross suspicious ice,
without encountering z.ny-
thing that in Western Europe would pass muster
an a bed, and without other baggage than a cigar-
case, obit of soap, and
an inkstand, it is not un-
pleasant to reach, if only for a few hours a tolerable
resting place. The campaign has taken plat© by
surprise ; and doubtless many have had as little
time as myself to make provision against the dis-
comforts of its commencement.
The logs of the Austrians in yesterday's affair is

stated to have been trifling. As regards that of the
previous day at Missunde, although the fog rendered
it impossible for me to discern its details so well as
I could have desired, the information I have since
received does not show anything of importance to
alter or add in the short account I wrote of it upon
the same evening. The cfficial statement of loss is,
as I heard 55 dead and about 200 wounded. Nobody
seems to know exactly why the fight took place.
The natural conjecture was that it was intended to
ascertain the strength of tie Danes at Missunde,
with a view to a more serious attack on the follow-
ing day, or else as a diversion, to be followed early
the next morning by an attempt to force the pas-
sage of the Schlei nearer to its mouth. But this
was not done, and I have pretty good grounds for
believing that nothing of importance is going on
to-day either on the left or centre of the Austro-
Prussian line. So that really it is difficult to see
the utility of the Missunde affair, although we must
presume the Generals to know best. Prince Fre-
derick Charles is reported a dashing and eager
officer, and perhaps he thought he could not too
soon give his young soldiers the taste for blood, try
their mettle, and accustom them to the sound of
round shot. They seem to have behaved very well
in this their first:little trial, and doubtless you will
see prodigious eulogiums heaped upon them in the
German papers, as I already hear them uttered
around me. But the affair, as you will perceive, was
ja trifling one, in which there was no opportunity
for the display of any wonderful temerity. The
Prussians did their duty, and he is said to be a good
soldier who always does that. A number of officers
were killed and wounded. A young aide de camp
of Prince Frederick Charles—Count Groeben I
think is the name—was killed by a cannon shot
while conveying an order.

Lord Carlisle on the Condition of Ireland,

Speaking at the Lord Mayor of Dublin's banquet
on Thursday night, Lord Carlisle thus referred to
the condition of Ireland would be a much more
agreeable subject of contemplation if we could wit-
ness the simultaneous boast of wealth and popula-

tion. I cannot, indeed, go along with the pathetic
complaint of the pleasing poet, with whose statue
we have lately adorned our highways, when he
says

11l fares the land to hastening ills a prey,
Where wealth accumulates and men decay.

I believe there would be much more truth in the con
verse, and that worse would fare the land where
men accumulate and wealth decays. (Hear, hear,
and No, no.) The gentlemen below wish for more
mouths and less food to fill them. (Hear, hear, and
applause.) This state of things is not desirable ;
and least of all do I wish, and much do I regret,
that Ireland should part with any of her hardy and
generous sons—(hear, hear)—merely to supply food
for the vultures which hover over the Lethean
plains of Virginia and Tennessee. But with respect
to the general course and current of emigration,
whilst any attempt forcibly to arrest it would be
impossible as it would be cruel, I for one am not pre-
pared to rapine at it until the general average rate
of wages in this country shall amount to at least
10s. a week. (Cheers and hisses.) This is very far
from being universally the case at present. I cer-
tainly am not prepared to follow the Lord Mayor
into the details of the political questions, some of a
very delicate nature, of which he has laid the heads
before you. I think that one great want of Ireland
is what sounds of a very homely and prosaic cha-
racter; bat I believe one great lever of Irish im-
provement would be found not so much in any great
principle or doctrine, or in any adjustment of rival
creeds and races, so much as in the adoption, the
general adoption, of a better system of farming.
(Hear, hear.) Let her children attend to her fertile
soil ; let them consult the genius of her mild but
variable atmosphere; let them readily and with
alacrity seize upon suoh openings as the extension
of the linen trade, and the opportunity for flax cul-
ture now offering to them ; and without presuming
.o guarantee any sudden or startling results, I think
here is every hope for sure and progressive ones.

The Condemned Convicts in Newgate,

On the morning after the trial, Mr. Nissen and bir. Cave
Sheriffs of London, accompanied by the Under Sheriffs and
by Mr. Jonas, the governor, with the Rev. Mr. Davis, the
chaplain of Newgate, visited the seven men now under sen-
tence of death for the murder of the captain of the ship
Flowery Land, and announced that Monday, Feb. 22, had

been fixed for their execution. Each of them is now con-

fined in a separate cell, and since their sentence such of
them as are Spaniards, six in number, have been attended

by a priest of their own creed and nation, as, indeed, they
were previous to trial, through the kindness of the Spanish
Consul. It is said that since the Cato-street conspiracy
there have never been so many persons under sentence of

death in Newgate for one crime at the same time.
The scene in court on Thursday evening on the announco-
ment of the verdict, and when the convicts were called to
receive judgment, was in many respects remarkable. During
the trial, which lasted two days, the prisoners had sat in a

circle in the dock, and those of them who understood English

especially Lyons and Lopez, listened tothe proceedings with
intense interest, They are all very young men, little over
20, except Marsolino, who is upwards of 30, Five or six of

them, including Lyons, are natives of Manilla. W3tto is
said to be a Turk, and Carlos, who was acquitted of the

capital offence but convicted next day of scuttling the ship,
is a Greek. The Manilla men are all exceedingly swarthy,

except Lopez, who is so fair that he might be taken for an
Englishman at first sight. Above all the rest, Blanco is
remarkable for apparent ferocity, as he is also for height and
personal strength. Marsolino has rather a docile look, and
his share in the mutiny, so far as it came out in evidence,

appears to have been confined to striking Anderson, the
Norwegian carpenter, on the back of the neck with a hand-
spike, when he interposed to save the mate and was about
to alarm the captain. When the sevea convicts were asked

in the usual way by Mr. Hemp, the deputy clerk of arraigns,
if they had anything to say why sentence of death should
not be pronounced upon then according to the law, three
or four of them made an animated address in Spanish, which
was interpreted in English, and in this way more than an
hour was consumed. Of all the seven, Lyons and Marsolino
alone remained silent at this crisis. The others appeared to
be under the impression that it was incumbent upon them
to give each his version of the mutiny and murders. Baron
Bramwell was evidently reluctant to control their right of

free speech at that awful moment, and he only interposed,
and that in the gentlest manner, when Blanco and Duranno
were talking wide of the mark by relating circumstances
which appeared to have transpired before the voyage actually
commenced, while the ship lay in the docks. Once or twice,
addressing such of the members of the bar as then remained
in court, the learned Judge said the only legal course that
the prisoners could take at such a time was to move an ar-
rest of judgment. But it would probably have been a vain
effort to explain such a mode of procedure to the convicts,
or how to go about it, and they were allowed to run on,
each telling his own story, as if he were a witness giving
evidence. By this time—between 7 and S o'clock—the
court had become exceedingly crowded in all parts.
The jury, released now from the awful sense of responsi-
-1 bility which hal weighed upon them for two days, looked
on with the rest of the spectators. Blanco related with
great gesticulation a number of grievances which he said the
crew had suffered at the hands of the captain and chief mate,
especially with regard to the victualling of the ship in the
early part of the voyage. By the mate especially, he said,
they were assailed with abusive language when they ven-
tured to complain. On one occasion when they spoke to
the captain of the offensive condition of the water they had
to drink, he told them there was plenty outside the ship,
and that it was good enough for coolies. The captain, he
said, used also to beat them, as did both the chief and
second mates. On ono occasion Marsolino said they must
put a stop to that, but some of the rest said they had better
put up with it until they arrived at Singapore, where they
could complain to their consul. On another occasion, when
the mate had struck some of them without any just cause,
Duranno said the time had come when they must do some-
thing. The carpenter Anderson and the English boy
Early, he said, had nothing to do with the mutiny ; but the
rest of the crew en the night of the 10th of Sept. knew that
something was about to happen. I uranno, he said, killed
the mate, and Lyons, with five others. Carlos being one,
killed the captcir.'s brother. The only two not guilty were
the carpenter and the boy Early. Tho second mate sug-
gested that they should scuttle the ship, and it was through
him that she was sunk.
Such was the substance of Blanco's statement. Duranno
next spoke, but he broke down in a statement he had appa.
rently arranged in his head, at which Lyons, Watto, and
Marsolino smiled, Taking umbrage at this, he said with
an indignant air that he bad plenty more to say, but it
would be of no avail to him now, and ho stood back in the
dock. Santos, who spoke with much animation, asserted
that Duranno, Lyons, and another first killed the mate,
and then went into the cabin and killed the captain. For
himself, he declared that he had no hand in their
deaths, but he knew that they were killed. Lopez, who
addressed the Court last, and who was the only man among
them that betrayal any emotion, declared that four were
concerned in three murders, and no more ; that Marsolino
and two others had no share in them ; and that the two
men who had been discharged were the most guilty of all.
The sentence was then pronounced, and the prisoners
were removed from the bar; Blanco, as he left, saying
" Thank you" to the Judge, and waving his hand with a
defiant gesture.

Horrible Suicide of a Woman in the
Japanese Manner.

An extraordina-y case of suicide formed the subject of
inquiry on Enda) night before Mr. W. Payne, coroner for
the City and Stuthwark, at the Gibraltar Tavern, St,
George's-road. The deceased was a married woman, named
Mary Elizabeth Cranfield, aged 49 years, residing at 44,
Elliott's-row, Sotthwark. _ .

Alfred Wheeler, 33 L, said that on Wednesday evening
he was called to the house of the deceased, and he found
her lying on the floor, covered, or rather drenched with
blood. She was in her night-dress, which was drawn up.
Her stomach Wai frightfully cut in the form of a St, An-
drew's cross. The bowels protruded and were partly on
the floor. A razor, clotted with blood, was found under
her. She was perfectly dead, and apparently bad been dead
one or two hours. The doctor had been called to her before
witness saw her.
Mary Ann Cranfield said that deceased was the wife of a
smith, but had been separated from him for 11 years. On
Wednesday evenng the deceased was found by witness
lying on the floor, dying from dreadful injuries. She said
to witness, " 1 ham opened my stomach."
Mr. E. H. Edmunds, surgeon, Raid that deceased had been
ailing for some time, and had a delusion that " she was
always in crystal vater." On Wednesday ho Vas called to
deceased, and fOuad that she had inflicted a frightful wound
on the stomach. The injuries were the most dreadful he
had seen, the intestines being quite exposed.
H. Craufield said that the deceased had left him to live
with another man. A tew days before her death she sent
for him, as she had not seen him for 10 }ears, and said she
thought ho would wish to see her before she died. She
said she was very ill, and he told her that it did not surprise
him considering the wrong she had done him as well as
God. He read a chapter in the Bible to her, and said that
she altered her ways too late. He wished now to get her

jowellry and wearing apparel.
Mary Ann Cranfield said that last witness himself had
abandoned the deceased 11 years ago to live with another
woman. Deceased having a large family, had to live with
another man to save them from starvation. For three years
past she had lived with witness, and now last witness, who
had not for 11 years contributed a farthing towards her
support, actually wanted to take possession of the clothes
and some things which witness had to given her.
Verdict—" Suicide while in a state of temporary in-
sanity,"

The Alleged Manslatighter on Holborn-hill,

On Saturday afternoon Mr. Wm. Payne, the City coroner
held an inquiry at St. Bartholomew's Hospital respecting
the death of Mrs. Margaret O'Brien, aged CO years, who
was killed on Holborn-hill, under circumstances which gave
rise to a charge of manslaughter against a man named
George Bowes,
the driver of a railway van.
Abraham Death, a brewer's servant, deposed that on
Thursday night, at seven o'clock, he saw a light railway
luggage van, drawn by three horses, going at the rate of
eight miles an hour up Holborn lain. The van was drawn
by what is °ailed a " unicorn team"—that is, one horse in
front of the two others. They were on the St. Andrew's
Church side of Holborn-hill, within 3 feet of 1119 footpath.
Two young men and a woman were crossing the road. All
three were in danger of losing their lives, and were very
near being knocked down by the van, The driver called
out to them, but did not pull up. The woman had not pro-
ceeded more than three yards when she was knocked down
by one of the horses, She was thrown under the van, the
wheels of which went over her.

'ltsahidadthpraetvihoeussl
vajnamgoeisnUg ‘vWeriyl 1 afne,s
t22u4p City ph oill e
aywcotmhee
down Skinner-street hill; that, of course, had made it go
more rapidly up Holborn-hill. The " skid" was not on the
wheel. When the woman was knocked down her skull was
smashed and her brains protruded. He took the driver of
the van into custody. When he arrested him he said that he
was sorry for what had taken place, but that he was " going
steady." His name is George Howse, his age is 35 years,
and he is a driver of one of the Great Western Railway vans
He was sober at the time, The woman was placed in a cab,
and was taken to the hospital dead. Driving vehicles at
that point is very dangerous, as, in consequence of the hill
at Skinner •street, they cannot be pulled up suddenly, but
run rapidly through the valley until they reach Holborn-
hill. The skid ought always to be used in coming down the
Skinner-street hill.
Other witnesses wore examined, and the evidence they
gave was very conflicting. Some of them maintained the
van had actually stopped at the Round House, Holborn-
hill ; while others, on the contrary, said that the van had
proceeded up the hill too rapidly.
The coroner said it was for the jury to consider whether
the evidence was sufficient to send the accused for trial ; or
perhaps they might consider the death as much the woman's
fault as the driver's.
The jury returned a verdict of accident.

SPIRIT OP THE PIThLIO JOURNALS.

SPECTATOR.—Parliament was opened on Thurs-
day by commission, her Majesty being still unable
to attend. The Speech is, as usual, very formal
and reserved, and bears many marks of composite
wormkanship, In the debate in the Lords on the
Address, Earl Grey made, as usual, a very power-
ful and slightly crotchetty speech. He could not
believe it the duty of this country to sit calmly by
" while this monstrous act of injustice was being
perpetrated," and he thought that " in these cases
the boldest policy was sometimes the best." He
held that this country could send the Danes, with
comparative ease, most important assistance, and he
believed that, had this course been adopted, Austria,
"considering the state of Venice," would " have
thought twice about attacking an English army in
the entrenched position," the soundeet remark made
in the debate. He added an expression of deep
mortification at the little attention paid by the Ger-
man Governments to British remonstrances, and a
total refusal to concur in the terms of the Address
so far as related to Japan. Lord Derby's speech
was, of course, an effective and brilliant attack upon
Lord Russell. Slightly altering the Roman phrase,
be said of the Foreign Secretary, that he left no-
thing untouched, and touched nothing which he did
not throw into confusion—nihil intact= reliquit, et
nihil tetegit quod non conturdavit. Instead of non-
intervention, " Meddle and muddle" was his maxim.
He was Snug the joiner and Bottom the weaver
combined. He was ready to play anything, espe-
cially his accustomed part of " Moonshine." But his
favourite part was that of the Lion. "I will roar so
that it will do any man's heart good to hear me. I
will roar so that I will make the Duke say, ' Let him
roar again, let him roar again !" He knows, too,
how to " aggravate his voice," and " roar as gently
as any sucking dove ;" and, moreover, he had more
than once had recourse to the ingenious device of
letting his face be seen through the lion's mask, as
if to say, "For all my.' roaring I am no lion at all,
but only Snug the joiner." After this personal
banter Lord Derby, of course, touched as unplea-
santly as he could on the useless offence given to
Russia on the Polish policy, on the offensive manner
in which he held that Congress was declined, and
finally, on the helpless policy, as he chose to call it,
in the Dano-German question. It did not, how
ever, by any means appear that Lord Derby much
differed from Lord Russell on the Danish question,
or that, if he had been in office himself, he would
have acted differently. He deprecated, as every
one must, the dreadful calamity of a sanguinary
quarrel between England and the whole of Ger-
many, "in a case in which, whether rightly or
wrongly, the feelings of the people of Germany are
enlisted on one side." But he deprecated still more
earnestly " the betrayal and abandonment of an ally
who has trusted to our support," and he made an
earnest and eloquent appeal to Germany," especially
to Austria, to pause before she is stopped in that
constitutional course of growing prosperity which
she has so wisely begun by the mad career of ambi-
tion on which the German Powers appear to be re-
luctantly but certainly entering. Mr. Disraeli, like
Lord Derby, indulged in his speech on the Address
in a tone of bitter sarcasm. His point was that her
Majesty's Government had come down to the house
without a policy to produce, that it was trusting
too entirely to the wisdom of Parliament, and on
point he planted one savage but thoroughly well-
deserved blow. "It is only recently we have been
reminded, not by the noble lord, but by writers
whom he recognises as great masters of the English
language, that affairs are carried on in a very satis-
factory way as far as the House of Commons is con-
cerned; that the great departments are principally re-
presented by Under Secretaries ; that nobody much
cares what they say or do (laughter) ; and that
the relations between the Government and the
House of Commons are fast drawing to that satis-
factory condition which subsists between members
of the French Chambers and their master. (Cheers.)
Humiliate us it you like, degrade us is we must sub-
mit to it ; but, at any rate, do not call on us to bear
responsibility." (Loud cheers,) The expressions
quoted are from the limes, and similar state-
ments will, before long, tempt the House into
a strong censure on Lord Palmerston's habit of
confining administrative power to his own order.
It is bad enough to be governed by dukes, but to
be told that we ought to be governed by them
alone is simply insufferable. Mr. Goschen, the
youngest member for the City of London, has justi-
fied the expectations we expressed at his election.
His speech when seconding the address received the
emphatic approval of the House, and bristles with
points, the happiest being, perhaps, a sarcastic allu-
sion to the "friendly occupation of Denmark It
is most creditable to him that, although representing
the City, which is as yet opposed to action, he ven-
tured to declare against a policy cf "selfish isola-
tion" in European affairs, and to speak of honour."
The drift of his speech was to commend the Cabinet
for their wise reserve in not coming down to Par•
liament with a statement of all they might in cer-
tain contingencies feel compelled to propose, but
reserving their full policy for the hour in which
it would be necessary to claim the full support of
the country. The independence of his speech was
as marked as its acumen, and if Mr. Goschen suffers
for it his Feat will scarcely he sought by an honour-
able man. A clever saying is attributed—we know
not with how much truth--4o Lord Stanley, with
regard to the Deno-German contest, that England
is no doubt morally responsible to Denmark for
a certain amount of physical as well as
moral aid, but that what Europe wants is
some system of war with limited liability. We
might then, say, take shares to the amount of three
millions sterling in the Danish adventure, but de-
cline to be liable to any greater extent. The idea
is a bright one, and no doubt is already adopted in
the ethics of private friendship, which permit on'
friend to assign explicit limits beyond which he
cannot aid another, even in the nobleat cause. As
applied to war, however, we fear the idea implies
that England's obstinacy should be as strictly
"limited" as her liability—an assumption which
would be sure to falsify the theory. Late in the
debate Mr. Layard read out a despatch of Herr von
Bismark, which was supposed to contain the assur-
ance that the German Governments would maintain
the Treaty of 1852. The reading excited " loud
laughter," and well it might, for after remarking
that invasion involved the acknowledgment of the
terms of 1852, the most material sentence was this
—" If, however, in consequence of complications
which may be brought about by the persistence of
the Danish Government in its refusal tO accomplish
its promises of 1852, or of the armed intervention of
other Powers in the Dano-German conflict, the
King's Government were to find itself compelled to
renounce combinations which would no longer offer
a result proportionate to the sacrifices which events
might impose upon the German. Powers, no definite
arrangements could be made without the cor cur-
relic() of the Powers who signed the. Treaty of Lon-
don." (Laughter.) In plain English, if the credi-
tor does everything the debtor likes, and. Providence
does so too, then the debtor will pay the debt.
That is not quite quivalent to a promissory note at
sight.
SATURDAY REVIEW—The Queen's Speech and
the first debate of the session were expected with a
degree of anxiety which has not been experienced
on a like occasion for several years. As Lord Derby
truly stated, the present Government has owed its
strength mainly to its conduct of foreign affairs,
and, for the first time since its accession to power,
there seemed to ho an opening for a successful at-
tack on its policy. A far more serious interest at-
tached to the question whether the country was in
immediate danger of war. It was not absolutely
certain that the Government might not have pledged
itself to afford material aid to Denmark, and it was
barely possible that Parliament might disapprove
of a persistent non-intervention. On the whole,
both the Speech and the subsequent discussion are
reassuring to the friends of peace, and probably the
Ministers are not discontented with the manner in
which their explanations were received. The Speech
itself might, indeed, have provoked the criticism
from which such compositions are conventionally
exempt. In grammar, in style, and in arrange-
ment, its framers bad abused the licence of their
position, especially when they occupied a con-
siderable portion of their limited space with a
string of titles which, as one of the speakers
remarked, looked like a page out of the Gotha
Almanack. A Queen's Speech ought to be
colourless and general in its terms, but,
as far as it enters into details, it ought to be
correctly expressed. A treaty is oddly described
as " this matter," and the differences between Ger-
many and Denmark have arisen on many other
matters. It is also doubtful whether the word
" Germany" means Austria and Prussia, or the dis-
senting States, or the Diet, or perhaps all these
Powers, according to their respective shares in the
dispute. The culiosity 3f party politicians will
have been in some degree gratified by the peeches
of the Opposition leaders. Mr. Disraeli openly
avows the purpose of attacking the Government, and
Lord Derby indicates somewhat less openly his con-
currence in the intended hostilities. The debate of
Thursday served to reconnoitre the ground, and both
the principal speakers used their utmost efforts to
dame ge the Government. Their main complaint is,
in substance, that Lord Palmerston and Lord Rus-
sell have, for the time, contrived to leave the coun-
try without an ally in Europe. Russia has been
alienated by the abortive remonstrances of last year
against the oppression of Poland. France is
aboutslangry
about Mexico, about Poland, and, above all,
the rejection of the Congress. Finally, both Aus-
tria and Prussia are at this moment attacking Den-
mark in utter disregard of the remonstrances of the
English Government. In reply, it is argued that
Russia and France agree in the English view of the