The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-02 00:00:00

precedent. He has seized every available opportunity
through which he might thrust the matter forcibly
and impressively under the consideration of his own
Legislature, and under the consideration also of the
Kings and the Governments of Christendom, The
EMPEROR spoke thus himself on the opening of the
Imperial Chambers. He reiterated the assurance
of his pacific intentions, in his reply to the loyal ad-
dress of the Senators and Deputies. He has now
done identically the like upon the occasion of the
grand and ceremonious gathering together in the
Throne-room of the Tuileries, upon the jour de l•an
of all the dignitaries of the Empire, the Cardinals,
the Marshals, the Ministers of State, the legislators
and administrators of the Imperial Governmuit. And
there is their presence, before all Christendom, in
answer to the congratulatory address of the Diplo-
matic Body, as articulated by the chief among them
all, his Excellency the Papal Nuncio, the EMPEROR
has, in the last, the most public and the most posi-
tive manner, avowed that not only he himself still
cherishes pacific hopes, but that he has a confidence
in the possibility of the nations of Europe yet pre-
serving peace, yet guarding against the lamentable
horrors of a general war. In the interim between
His MAJESTY'S Address to the Imperial Legisla-
ture, on the date of its inauguration, and his Ad-
dress yesterday, through the Papal Nuncio, to the
Ambassadors of all the European Sovereigns on the
jour de Pan, he himself, as we all know, has per-
sonally addressed a letter to each of the rulers of
Europe, asking them, if they would endeavour
in concert with himself, :to arrange, if possible, the
pacific adjustment of a variety of very urgent and
very serious differences, any one of which differences,
be saw might, we cannot bat all see, still, may, lead
to a general and sanguinary war among the nations
of Christendom. In acting thus, in speaking and
writing thus, contrary, we repeat, to all precedent,
he has gone to the very extreme—he has laid him-
self open to actual derision as the most fantastic
of Day-dreamers and Ideologists. N'iinporte•
He has done it, nevertheless. At the risk of being
derided as an Uutopian, he has hazarded what a
Frenchman, among all Europeans, regards with the
very liveliest horror—the sneering curl of the
common-sense man's lip, the scornful shrug
of the matter-of-fact man's shoulders ! And
he has done this by a proceeding no less bold, and
even, be it said, extravagant of its kind than that
of bidding to Paris as his guests all the contem-
porary sovereigns, in an endeavour to realise, if it
might only prove in any way to be possible, pre-
cisely that very Arcadian vision, sung of in his
youth by our own Poet Laureate, in his " Locksley
Hall, as—

" The Parliament of Nations,
The Federation of the World I"

Granted that the proposition of the French EM
PEROR is to the very last degree a thing quite
impracticable. Yet, after all, the proposing of it—
the suggestion of this Utopian notion—amounts
simply to this, means literally this, and
nothing more than this : namely, that the French
EMPEROR, that soi disant most silent man in Europe
who now turns out to be, on the contrary, the
very man in all Europe the most outspoken, NA-
POLEON 111. says to all the contemporary govern-
ments, keeps on saying to them, in spite of all re-
buffs—Let us see if, in any way, war (a general war
otherwise inevitable) may not be avoided by
means of peaceful discussion, by means of
calm, bloodless, rational negotiations. Call me
Utopian, if you so please, but take what I have
proposed frankly into consideration. Reject my
own plan if you like—but let us see, at least, if by
any plan at all, by yours if you will, in preference
to any I myself might suggest, War may be avoided•
That is really and truly what we plain-speaking
islanders call the Eng.ish of it. That is beyond
any doubt the actual purport, the inner significance
of the French EMPEROR'S proposition. And it is
a noble one.

The English public will hear with great satis-
faction a rumour that their Ministers have at
length adopted a bolder and more vigorous course
with reference to the dispute between Germany
and Denmark than the one they have hitherto fol-
lowed. The note which Sir ALEXANDER MALET,
the British Ambassador at Frankfort, has addressed
to the Federal Diet, and which was referred to the
Holstein Committee at the sitting of Wednesday,
is of no great weight, since the suggestion of a
Congress is one very unlikely to be carried out. It
is very well when people are disputing about a
matter to let them argue it out, but when they
they have once come to blows it is not very likely
that they will be persuaded to return to the milder
form of proceeding. Denmark and Germany, if
they are not actually combatants, have passed
beyond the stage of diplomatic mimic battle, and
approached too nearly to the actual tug of war to
render it likely that such a proposition will solve
the difficulties of the case. The fact of Sir A.
MALET being instructed to present to the President
of the Diet a copy of the London Treaty is, how-
ever, more impressive, seeing that the terms of that
treaty distinctly reprove the part now being played
by the German States. In the words of the third
article of that treaty,' "It is expressly understood
that the rights and the reciprocal obligations of his
Majesty the King of DENMARK and the Germanic
Confederation concerning the Duchies of Holstein
and Lauenburg, rights and obligations established
by the Federal Aot of 1815, and by the existing
Federal right, shall not be altered by the
present treaty." There is no mention of
the name of Schleswig throughout the treaty,
saving where Prince CHRISTIAN, the pre-
sent King, is styled Prince CHRISTIAN of
Schleswig-Holstein Sonderbnrg Glucksburg, nor
is there the smallest allusion to this suddenly-dis-
covered claim of the German Diet to interfere with
the Government of Kiel. In a very able little
brochuret which has just appeared, an attempt is
very successfully made to unravel the entangle-
ments of this perplexing question. The ostensible
cause of dispute is thus clearly and briefly summed
up. "The informal engagements contracted by
Denmark, and on the interpretation of which the
dispute with Germany turns, are the following :
" 1. Denmark engaged not to incorporate Schles-
wig with the Kingdom of Denmark-Proper, or to
take any steps tending thereto; and
"2. Danmark engaged to establish an organic
and homogeneous constitutional connexion of all the
parts of the country, so as to form a united mon-
archy in which no part was subordinate to another.
" Germany maintains that Denmark also en-
gaged—

"3. To extend equal protection to both the
Germany and Danish nationalities in Sleswig.
" Denmark denies having made such an engage-
ment, for it is not found among the stipulations
contained in the Austrian despatch of December
26, 1851, to which she assented."

Nevertheless, as is shown in the pamphlet alluded
to, Denmark has made considerable efforts towards
securing to the Duchies a large amount of political
independence, and that " autonomy" which we hear
;so much of. Most of her endeavours have been