The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-01 00:00:00

break. When we hear the manner in which the
authorities on the Federal aide act, it is not to be
wondered at that so strong a feeling of doubt exists
in the minds of men relative to the restoration of
the Union. General BURBRIDGE is a good sample
of the Federal armies, and his exclamation the
other day, on hearing that he had been premature
in ordering a Confederate Lieutenant to be shot in
place of a man on the other side who had only been
wounded, was significant of the terms upon whiub
the contest is being waged. He was delighted that
a loyal man was alive, whom he supposed dead,
and one more Confederate in hell. When we hear
of such anecdotes it seems astonishing that before
this some decisive attempt has not been made among
the enlightened of the community to put an end to
his creel contest. It is greatly to be regretted
that no efforts have been made by the Powers of
Europe to put a stop to the carnage and contention.
It has been often disputed as to whether it were
wise and practicable so to do, but the general
opinion has generally been adverse to it. Expe-
rience has surely shown that what has been done,
or rather left undone, for the best, has not turned
out so favourably as was hoped it would. Beyond
mere pacificatory mediation, if at the outset of the
war England and France had boldly inaugurated a
policy, and recognised the South, how
differently things world have turned out.
It would have been the best service
that could have been rendered to the Federals them.
,elves, for they have involved themselves in a series
of confusions that this generation cannot see them
emerge from. As the chance of foreign aid, direct
Jr indirect, is now, however, pretty well over, it
remains with the Americans themselves to settle
their disputes and arrange their affairs. It is then,
on the whole, to be considered that some prospect
of peace is dawning upon that distracted country,
and amidst the many wars that have desolated the
various countries of the world at different times,
there can never have been one that more loudly
called fir a cessation on the highest grounds. Hu-
manity, the ties of kindred, the claims of interest.
all earnestly demand a cessation of the overwhelm.
ing struggle, and well will it be for the right cause,
the cause of peace, if Mr. LINCOLN is worsted in
his efforts at supremacy. He has made a most
signal failure from the outset of his career, and it
is not often that one for whom so much was expected
fails so utterly and egregiously in his attempts to
carry out his policy. We learn from the sins and
sufferings of others, and this transaltantic contest
is rife with lessons of high import, but perhaps
no individual case stands out in bolder relief than
the experience of ABRAHAM LINCOLN as President.
It is, indeed, a career to point a moral as to the
vanity of human wishes, and the folly of indulging
in vain expectations.

The Schleswig-Holstein question is not yet
finally at rest, even retrospectively, and treaties,
protocols, letters, remonstrances, and addresses are
still quoted and referred to, discussed and re-dis,•

cussed, by those who want to find a plausible pre,

text for rather suspicious-looking conduct

Prussia having taken firm hold of the Duchies
despoiled their property, and maltreated their in.
habitants, talking all the while very loudly aboul

the rights of nations, and the fulfilmsnt of sacred
duties, is now very much disinclined to give np her
material guarantees." Her statesmen and writers
are, therefore, very busy in trying to prove that
the Duchies belong of right to Pruasia, that she
never cordially approved of their union with Den-

mark (which is likely enough), and that she always
intended to appropriate Ler conquests, even when
she was proposing to bo only the agent for the
Qnforcement of Federal, rights. The experience of

the past might certainly have taught the Diet that
(hey were performing a rash act when they suffered
Austrian and Prussian troops to represent them in
,he Duchies, for that such customers were easier
admitted than dislodged. The tone of German
morality o►i this question is curiously shown in a
letter addressed by Count USEDOM, now Prussian
Minister at Turin, to the son of Baron BUNSEN,
whose name, as we all know, was appended to the
famous Treaty of 1852. Baron von BUNSEN was
himself opposed to that Treaty, and many of his
friends objected to his signature being affixed to a
document of which he disapproved, but Count
USEDOM affirms that Baron BUNSEN declared that
he would affix his signature, in order not to render
still more heavy the sacrifice which the KING, his
master, had to make. The sacrifice of pretensions
which are totally unjustifiable, and based on no
urer grounds than the rapacity of the strong
against the weak, and crazy ambition of an exclu-
sively military nation to become a great naval
power. It seems, indeed, that in Baron BUNSEN'S
view the whole Treaty was merely a temporary
device to pacify all parties for the time being,
waiting for a fair opportunity of again bringing
forward Prussian pretension. "It was," says
Count USEDOM, " a pragmatic sanction, raised
up artificially by parties unconcerned in
the matter against the wishes, the rights, and the

interests of those really concerned--in short,
against the nature of thiogs." It is curious that
the diplomatist should make use of the epithet
" pragmatic sanction," which at once recals to the
reader the days of CHARLES the SIXTH and MARIA
THERESA, and the very questionable means by
which Prussia became possessed of the fair pro-
vince of Silesia. Doubtless the London Treaty, in
the eyes of shrewd Gen:eau politicians, even in the
days of its first existence,
Was regarded very much,
as FREDERICK, " commonly called the Great,"
regarded poor CHARLES the SIXTH'S elaborate pre-
cautions to secure to his daughter the undisputed
possession of her heritage. It was an engagement
formally entered into with all due Pomp of word
and compliment, all fitting ceremonial and courtly
phraseology, but it was a mask which it wea. only
convenient to wear for the time, and which could
be flung off with very little scruple or delay When
the time for action came. This conduct, though
not exactly what historians can approve or more_
lists extol, is at least comprehensive and con.
sistent, but even in our high-flown and grandi-
loqueat days it is rather uncalled for and aggravat-
ing to find Prussia still protesting that she has
acted for the good of the Duchies, and that the
real likings and sympathies of the Schleswig.lrol-
steiners ever troubled the secret Cabinet at Sans
Souci. We are told by the statesmen who knew
him well that the chief characteristics of FREDE-
facie WILLIAM 11. were " an unchangeable human
benevolence and a genuine sympathy of heart,"
and that these qualities rendered it especially
prompt for him to agree to the Treaty of Lon-
don. "A 3 a politician the King delivered up the
Duchies to their fate; humanly this resolve coat
him a hard struggle." This is likely enough,
but the struggle was rather with the dislike to
relinquish a share of his neighbour's goods than
any sensitive sympathy for the political hard-
ships of the people of the Duchies. Prussia just
now presents us with a spectacle of inconsistency
so manifest as would be ludicrous were not the
circumstances so grave, yet she seems to be happily
unconscious of the ridiculous spectacle which she
offers. A T:';
and a Government who have been
in open collision with their own subjects, who are
everywhere held up as the representative of all that
most, tyrannical in civilised aaiii,:rity, come Ica,