The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-02 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Parliament has at !aft digested the only
tough morsel which disturbed occasionally the quie-
tude of the slumbering session. Three times already
there has been an effort to get rid of that China
lump, which on each occasion produced a slight
nightmate ani a small struggle without any happy
solution. Now it is ell over. The unassimilated
morsel is dissolved ;China is clear out of the parlia-
mentary breast. Like a debt paid by a note of
hand, or a broken promise healed by the homage
of a plausible excuse, the claims of China have
been handsomely recognised, and the topic may
now fairly be struck off the parliamentary list.
Nothing, indeed, has been actually done; it was
only a motion made and withdrawn ; very few
stayed to listen, because no one expected to have
to divide ; but it was something that China has
at last escaped the ignominy of a count out, and
that s tolerable sprinkling of the first and second
class speaiiefe tis'e. submitted to be called up
in debate. It was just truth a demonstration as
might be expected open a subject which was at one
time of immense interest, because of immense dan-
ger, butt hiss rit'vr lost its interest because every one
knows that all clanger 1c past; No one ventures to
treat it with open contempt, DecauFie it is its itself PO
vast and may at any Mott
ent become so important ;
but at the same time no p*aetieal statesmen cares to
adopt it as a subject, because all moderate men are
not only agreed that the present policy Is sound, but
they see that it is successful. It ha,; for the presentlost its party importance, and is a bit of nu man
land, on to which every " independent member'
may ride his own particular hobby to caper and cur-
vet. At this moment the position of this country
towards China is the very model attitude of non-in-
tervention. Captain Sherard Osborn is come back
with his squadron, the instructions to our naval
officers confine them strictly to the defence of our
Treaty Ports and a :little breathing circuit round
them, and the order is now on its way, if it be not
already arrived, which will detach Major Gordon
from the service of the Imperial Government.
Whether, as has been suggested, the Admiralty
have issued instructions that Chinese pirates shall
not be interfered with so long as they confine them-
selves to the plunder of native merchant vessels, we
are not informed ; but this far-strained application
of the non-intervention principle to non-interven-
tion between the robber and his victim was not
wanted to show that we are perfectly impartial
between the Imperial Government of China and
the hordes of plunderers who infest the country.
All we do is to protect our own merchants,
our own Treaty Ports, and our own commerce ;
and that policy thrives so well that everybody
is satisfied with it. The amount of our trans-
actions with the Empire of China is in-
creasing yearly in a ratio that seems almost
incredible, and although some of the old- world
superstitions seem still to survive in our House of
Comioens, and although gentlemen who ought to
know better seem to think with the Chinese that
commerce is only valuable when the exports exceed
the imports, yet the British public generally have
learnt that it is a good thing to have large trans-
actions with a great country, even if you have to
pay for its produce in the silver and gold you
accumulate from your commerce elsewhere. To the
general public it wilt be matter of congratulation
that tea has been imported from China in greatly
increased quantities, and that silk has come over in
greater abundance. The present generation has
been brought up to believe that the more plentful
an article of general consumption is, the more
attainable it is by the multitude who desire it ;
and, therefore, they rejoice that the commerce
with China goes on doubling itself, even although
it may be shown that the " balance of trade" is
against us. In the increase of the commercial 11101.43
went at the Treaty Ports in China we do, therefore,
recognise, and we believe the public in general re•
cogeises, success of the modern policy pursued by
our Government. The closest reading of this debate
will fail to discover more than one practical sug.
geetion to be drawn from the speeches of the speak-
ers, With that single suggestion it should not be
our business to quarrel, for it is one which was first
made in these columns, and was launched imme-
diately the news of the failure of the Osborn expe-
dition
arrived. It requires no very great astuteness
to dicover that China has arrived at a point when
she must be either cut up by conquest or eaten into
by the gradual growth of Free Cities. This idea was
the thought which pervaded the debate of Tuesday
night, and which alone gave it vitality. We must
protest, however, that our notion of a Free
City is not that which was presented to the
House of Commons in this debate. A Free City
such as we see in the future of China is not a rock
like Hongkong, with its surrounding fleet, its Go-
vernor, its courts, and its wide jurisdiction. We do
not recognize as a Free City the fortress of a first-
, class Power, existiog as a menace to the neighbour-
ing country. China has a fringe of islands which,
if they became free in this sense, would advance the
interests of commerce much as the castles on the
Rhine protected the ancient navigation of that river.
Whether we bought or corquered them, such pos-
sessions as these could only be a curse to us and to
the world. Hongkong is in itself worse than useless,
for the action of its courts and the jurisdiction of its
Governor are a standing nuisance in the Chinese
seas. If we had a succession of Hongkongs all up
and down the coast, we must have a Governor and a
garrison for each; we should but multiply our ex-
penses and our chances of quarrel ; and, as the
example of Shanghai shows, such establishments
never could compete with a really Free City. The
Free Cities we hope to see are those which grow of
the it own accord, and which rise out of the cir-
cumstances of an abundant commerce and an un-
settled country, If the nations of Europe would
agree to stand aloof, we should very soon see little
commercial republics intrenching themselves and
extending themselves upon the shores of China!
Just such cities as arose upon the coast of Africa,
and in later history upon the coasts of Italy, when
similar dangers compelled traders to draw together
for defence and self-government. We believe
that our cheapest and our best policy is not to
establish, but to favour the growth of such cora•
munities as may develope themselves into free
Cities. Nor can we expect that this development
will be the work of a day, or that so great a ruin
as that which is mouldering over the heads of one-
third of the human race can fall, and be reformed
into modern habitations, without many clouds of
dust and some terrible catastrophes. These specula-
tions, however, are of very minor importance now
we are all agreed that our interest is to force nothing
in China, but t, be content to defend our own, and
follow the course of circumstances. The active
policy of obtaining possession of islands round the
coast and turning them into fortified warehouses is
not likely to find many advocates; the passive
policy of holding our own and waiting is the policy
which is now being pursued with a very general
approval, and which at any rate has the advantage
of a present success.

PosT.—The grand object to be attained by
the Confederation is so to arrange matters that
henceforth the territories of Denmark, wherever
the frontier may be drawn, shall be inviolate, and
that the encroachments of the German Powers
may be finally stopped. So long as what we
may term the process of Germanisation shall
be allowed to go on in Danish territory, the integrity
and independence of Denmark wia be gradually
sapped and undermined. If this were put an end
to once for all, it would be like arresting the dry
rot in the timbers of a ship or a house. The rid-
dance of a disaffected, seditious population is not,
in fact, a loss ; it is in reality a gain. If the dis-
affected portion of the King of Denmark's subjects
could be made to undergo a change of mind and
feeling, and if there were not a population of some
forty millions of the same race only divided from
them by a geographical line, the case would be dd•
ferent from what it is. But the Germans have made
up their mind to possess themselves of as much
Danish territory as they possibly can. They have
Germanised Holstein, and a portion even of Schles-
wig. If this leavened portion of territory be not
cut off, like a mortified limb, the malady will gra-
dually spread over the whole body politic. Not
perhaps within the present generation ; but far-
seeing statesmanship has to look beyond so brief a
period as this. So long as the King of Denmark is
the sovereign of a German duchy, and subject to the
jurisdiction of the German Diet, so long will the
Germanising process go on, and so long will Ger-
many harbour designs for the dismemberment and
absorption of Denmark. The question then is—
How are these difficulties to be met and got over ?
The Germans, of course, are for having both the
entire Duchies severed from Denmark and erected
into an independent State under the Prince of
Augustenburg, or some other Sovereign, and added
as a new member to the German Confederation.
This project is entirely inadmissible, for the obvious
reason that a large portion Of Schleswig is inhabited
by a purely Danish population. Denmark could
never be expected to assent to so unjust a propo-
sition as t. his
is . The neutral powers, whose office
and duty it is to see that something like jus-
tice done, could never give their sanction
to so unreasonable and inequitable an ar-
rangement. Another suggestion is to divide
Schleswig by a line which shall sever the Danish
from the German population, and unite the south-
ern or German portion, with Holstein and Lauen-
burg,into a new State, to be brought within the
German Confederation. The northern or Danish
portion of Schleswig would then have to incorpo-
rated with Denmark Proper. But the difficulty here
Is to find where the line can be drawn. In the north
of Schleswig the population is purely Danish. In
the south the Germans claim the preponderance.

But there is a broad surface between the two ex-
tremes where the population is mixed, and perhape.
about equally mixed. How is this portion of thtr
Duchy to be dealt with ? To incorporate a Danish
population with the new German State would be
an act of harsh injustice bordering upon positive_
cruelty. The project of a personal union svordi
have the effect, if carried out, of exposing Denmargt
to the Germanising process, and to the arnliAionsi
machinations of German politicians. Denmark J'X
the Danes, and the Danes in Denmark, should eg'
press the nature of the new arrangement. What-
ever the equities of the case may be,
as a question
of abstract justice, Denmark cannot hope, Be 74
question of fact and practical expediency, to bold,
single, handed, her ground in Holstein and Soutb
Schleswig against the Germanised popuititione
within, backed by forty millions of foreign Gel'
mans without. The vast mass of aggressive matter
is pressing on and on, without a moment's cessation
upon Denmark. A personal union would keep open,
the medium of communication through which the
Germanising process operates. Cut off this comma'
nication by isolating Denmark entirely from Ger'
many, and her chances of maintaining the indepen'
dense and integrity of her territories will be greatly
improved. The proposal for the people of the
Duchies to elect, by universal suffrage, under what
Government they shall henceforth live, would net
solve the difficulty about the mixed populationg,
If all the inhabitants of both Duchies are to vote
in one mass, then, if the gross majority were
Germans, the effect would be to dispose the Daniell
inhabitants of a portion of territory—namely,
North Schleswig—as if they were a flock of sheep,
iv: the purely Danish population of this Duchy are'
to be pL:ced under alien rule by a majority voting
by universal snfir.age, with all the magical' mystery'
of the ballot-box to it will be just as hard
upon them as if a single despot had disposed Of
them. If the Confederates are
be coerced back
the Union against their will by the Federalst
o
because these are in the majority, it wilt be just 35
hard a fate as it would have been for the coioniste
to have been coerced by King George 111. A veig
taken by universal suffrage throughout the Dachiel
would not show what was the real feeling of tisoffo
parts where the population is either purely Danislhr
or purely German, or mixed. And even if it were
proposed to take the sense of the several districts,
there would be some difficulty in defining the
boundary lines far separating one from another,
But, considerable as these difficulties are, they are
by no means absolutely insuperable ; and it is fog
their solution that the Conference has been caned
into existence. A point of great immediate impor--
tance is the prolongation of the armistice. If hos-
t ilities are renewed on the 12th of this month, the
Conference will have corner to nothing, and its labours4
will be at an end. While it is sitting, and there ie•
a suspension of arms, there is at least a chance Of
a pacific settlement. It will be singular if all the
Powers who were parties to the Treaty of 1852 are
unable w frame some arrangements which will
satisfy the parties more immediately concerned by
minimising the amount of injustice to be done to
one of them. It is a hard thing for Denmark to be
deprived of her possessions in spite of a treaty to
which her despoilers were parties ; but we have to
deal with what is, not what ought to be. The ques-
tion is, whether the integrity and independence of
Denmark Proper shall be preserved intact, and this
cruel war be brought to an end, or whether the
conflict is to go on, with the chance of even this
territory being invaded and dismembered. It is, in
fact, a choice of evils ; it is a hard choice, but it is fa
necessary one. We have had to put up with such
a choice ourselves, and so has every other country'
at one time or other. 'We had to give up our Ame-
rican colonies; the United States will have to give
up the South ; an Denmark, if she judge wisely,
will recognise as a benefit, rather than mourn as &
loss, the riddance of a disaffected population.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

LYNN-...TUESDAY.

The weather since this day week has been cold, with
frost at night, and northerly winds. At to-day's market
there was a limited show of wheat, which met a ready sills
at is per qr advance upon the prices of last week. Beans
and barley unaltered.
White wheat 458 to 46s 1 Barley .. 33s to 351
Red .. ..39s to 41s Grinding ...... ..27s to 306
Beans
Small

MONMOUTH—TUESDAY.
The local markets have been fairly attended of late, and
and a moderate amount of business has been done, the rates
being rather in favour of buyers. The average quotations
are as follows :

- •
Wheat, white 58 Od to 5s 6d Barley. . t 38.3 d to 3s 9d
Ditto red Ms Od roos Od I 0at5_....... 2s Od to 2s

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE—TUEs➢Ay.

Wheat in moderate supply this morning, with a sloW
trade, at a slight advance on the currencies of this (191
week.

Averages—Wheat, 40a 3d—barley, 30s—oats, 20s Od.

HULL-TUESDAY.

__ - ----.
At our corn market to-day there was a fair supplYof
English wheat, and farmers obtained an advance of 111" Y
is per qr. In foreign the demand was limited, and pie"'
remain as last quoted. Spring corn of all kinds met a slow
sale at the rates of last week, with the exception of oats.
Linseed has declined is per qr.
Wheat.... Old white.... per qr 42s Od to 44s 03
Old red
Nev white .. ~
New red ... ~
Barley.... English malting 27s Od to 348 Od
Grinding
Saal and Oderbruck
Holstein and Danish 3os Od to 31s Od
Grinding.
Oats English, old 22s Od to 24$ 04
Archangel and Riga, per st oBl2ld to 13a
Friesland and Dutch oBl3d to 0.31313
Swedish and Danish oBl2ld to osl3d
Beans ....English, old, per qr. 4os Od to 438 Od,
New pigeon 42s Od to lis Ca
New tick. 4os Od to 428 0,1,
Egyptian
Peas Foreign boilers ... 338 Od tc 34$ 6cl
Grinding
Tares ....Spring —s Od to -s Od
Indian Corn
Linseed, feeding
crushing , 4OB Od to 52s Oa,
Linseed cakes (11u11) £3 6 0 to £9 10 0
Foreign: 8 0•0 to 9 0 0
Rape cakes 5 0 oto 0 0 0
Bones

COAL M.
Prieea of Coal per Ton al

LItKET.
the ohne of the market.
e. d •

s. d.
Hastings Hartley l5 9
Tai field Moor 14 0
‘Valker Primrose 13 0
Eden Main 15 9
Holywell 16 6
West Hartley l5 9

Walls End.
BrEddyll's Hetton 16 3
East Hartlepool 16 9
Hetton l7 0
South Kelloe . . l6 0
3
Haswell
South Hetton 17 0
Tunstall
Caradoc l6
Stewart's 16 6
Russel's Hetton.....' 15 a
iHartlepool l6 9
It, 48; sold, 35.

Walls End.
Kolloe
Heugh Hall.. 16 3
Casaop
South Hartlepool.... l6 0
ships at market

Foreign Mail Packet Lists

MAILS DUE.

Australia and Mauritius, via Southampton ..June 18.
via Marseilles June 12.
brazil and Capo Yards, by British packet June 6.
Cape of Good Hope, Ascension, and St. Helena June 29.
China, Penang, and Singapore, via Southampton June 2.
via Marseilles June 12.

Falkland Islands

Gibraltar, via Southampton June 2.
India (Calcutta), and Ceylon, via Southampton June 2„,.
via Marseilles June 1' '
India (Bombay), via Southampton .. June 11.
via Marseilles Jane 5.
Portugal....
Malta, Egypt, and Aden, via Southampton June 2.
via Marseilles June 5.
Newfoundland .. June 8.
Oporto and Vigo
U. S. and British N. America, by Brit. packet.... June 8.
by U.S. packet....
by Canadian packet. June 3.
All parts of West Indies, including Chili, Peru, 1 june 10,
California. and British Columbia..