The Sun.
London, England, 1864-04-12 00:00:00

GOVERNMENT ANNUITIES BILL.

Mr. A/ RTON, in resuming the adjourned debate on the
bill, deprecated Government interference with friendly
societies, urging that there should be a searching inquiry
into the real character of the bill. Ho supported the
amendment of Sir M. Farquhar to refer the bill to a select
committtee.

Mr. HUBBARD observed that, although upon principle
it was undesirable for the Government to undertake func-
tions of this character, there were offices of this kind which
it might fairly take upon itself—and that on the face of it
this was a measure which the house might entertain. He
suggested modifications of the scheme, and supported the
proposal for referring the bill to a select committee.
Colonel SYKES likewise supported the amendment.
Mr. HANK EY objected to the principle of the bill and
opposed the amendment.
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER said the
effect of the motion of his right hon. friend would be
that the house would proceed to name a competent num-
ber of gentlemen as a select committee. They would
meet in a room upstairs ; the house would probably ap-
point him, as the author of the bill, a member of that
committee, and he should have an opportunity of giving
them all the information which it was in his power to
afford, having the assistance of such officers of her Ma-
jesty's Government as he might ask to aid him, on his
own responsibility. At a subsequent stage another ques-
tion would arise, as to whether the committee should have
power to send for persons, papers, and records• (Hear.)
Upon that would arise the question whether the committee
was to be'on the clauses of the bill, or whether it would be
a committee of general inquiry into the subjects of the bill.
Therefore he could not agree to that method of proceeding.
It was right that they should have a clear understanding en
the subject. If they sent for persons, papers, and records,
those persons would give their views, and then the corn •
mittee would very justly say they were bound to hear all
parties who were opposed to the bill, and champions of op-.
posite views. (Hear, hear.) Well, that was a kind of in-
vestigation which it was impossible to undertake. He must
say it would amount to a regular abnegation of the duties
of his office as a Minister of Finance were he to conduct an
investigation of that sort. It would be impossible to sepa-
rate that investigation from a great deal of controversial
matter. The mode of operation of the bill on existing
societies would essentially involve an inquiry as to how
those societies were conducted. They would, in effect,
become a committee of investigation and inquiry into such
societies, and for the result of such investigation her Ma-
jesty's Government were not prepared to be responsible.
He was bound to say he did not think he had ever known a
case of any measure which was met by a very powerfully
organised opposition—he meant nothing discreditable—he
had never known of a case until this, of a hill, the object
of a powerful opposition out of doors, which gained by a
long delay in that house. Generally such delay was fatal
—but he thought in this ease the effect had been to lead to
a remarkable development of public opinion on that
bill. (Hear, hear.) In a very singular degree the opinions
of the press had been declared in favour of that bill,
independent of party interests or feelings. In his corres-
pondence, in the whole course of his public life of over
thirty years, he had never received so many letters of
approval, and even gratitude, from all classes of the
community, and especially from those who had strong
philanthropic interest in the question. At the com-
mencement of the discussion a great many petitions bad been
presented against the bill, but now petitions were coming in
in favour of it, many of them from working men who could
have no interest in upholding the scheme apart from a sin-
cere belief that it would be advantageous to their welfare.
A great meeting was held in Exeter Hall in opposition to
the bill, but the independent working class mustered so
strong- that my hon. friend (Mr. Ayrtcn) who was in the
chair, could not determine which was the majority and
which was the minority, though ha was informed that, if a
gentleman more friendly to the measure had been in the
chair, he would have had no difficulty whatever in deciding
the point. (Hear, and a laugh.) Lastly, he must say,with
great satisfaction, that not only public meetings but boards
of guardians were giving their assent to the measure as
likely to prove a great boon to the working classes. He did
not wish on this occasion to return to any of the controversies
to which the measure had given rise. He had not a word to
say, either of accusation or reproach, against any living so-
ciety such as the Royal Liver or the British Prudential.
He did not presume, nor should he be justified in attaching
to any one of these societies a fraudulent character. What
he had meant to say of them was that those societies had
adopted a claim of ability to fill the unoccupied field of as-
surance amongst the working classes to which they were not
equal, and he had thought it necessary, by a reference to one
or two of the most stable and highly respectable companies,
to show that these societies were not in a condition to set
up so high a claim, or to give the working classes the same
undeniable and perfect security which was given to the
wealthier classes when they wished to insure their lives
and made a judicious selection of an office fer that purpose,
He had used language which, he was sorry to say, he was
not prepared to retract, with respect to the mess of heart-
less intrigue which had been and which possibly was still
at work in certain quarters, in connection with life assurance.
But he did not wish the house to understand that the
language was applicable to any societies of the class he
had mentioned. With regard to the Professional Society,
in which the shareholders had suffered severe losses, thoagh
he believed that the statements he had made were correct,
no one would be better pleased if he could be assured that
the construction which he had put upon that case were
erroneous, and that though there might have been rashness
and want of prudence, still no corrupt intention had been
at work.. He had been told (and ho hoped it was true) by
the hon. member for York, with regard to the Professional
Society, that that was so, and he was glad to accept the as-
surance of his hon. friend—(hear, hear)—that there had
been atotal absence of fraudulent intention,though a case of
the most reckless and hazardous, and therefore unjustifiable
speculation. Reference had also been made to his observa-
tions with regard to the conduct of the working classes in
connection with trades' unions. On a former occasion he
had adverted to a meeting held under the presidency of Mr.
Potter, at Exeter Hall, and he had stated that the name of
Mr. Potter had been very much connected with that sort of
agency and those proceedings on the part of trades' unions
which ware believed by the public at large to be employed
to coerce the minority of the working classes by a majority.
He had been since assured that his statement was not a true
description of trades' unions in the present day; that there
had been a good deal of such coercion in former times, but
the real progress of the working classes not only in intelli-
gence, but in their means of subsistence, and in their views
of social duties, had effectually and essentially altered the
character of their trades' unions. He believed that to this
hour in certain parts of the country there were instances of
portions of the working classes still tyrannised over by its
own members. Those instances, he rejoiced to think,
wore of a character alien from the views and feelings of
the trades' societies of London at the present moment. He
was, therefore, very glad to believe that there was no
foundation for the reference he had formerly made to
them. (Hear, hear.) The hon. member (Mr. Ayrton)
had mentioned two other points to which he had referred;
first, that the whole difficulty in life assurance lay in the
want of proper tables ; and that if Government did but
propose to the house to make a certain set of tables compul-
sory, all difficulty would be removed. In his opinion that
was not so. The great distinction between private and Go-
vernment insurance lay in the advantage of the private
societies in investing their funds. The Chancellor of the
Exchequer, on the other hand, could only invest in Govern-
ment securities at £3 or £3 fis per cent. The hon. member
wanted the house to enact tables for the use of friendly
societies, calculated at the rate of 50s per cent. ; but that
would inflict a great hardship upon private societies, and
would absolutely preclude them from adopting any other
investment, and would place them in hopeless competition
with the Government. His hon. friend anticipated great
danger from the successful working of this plan. He ap-
peared to think that if the time ever came when there was
a vast sum of money in the Post-office savings banks, and
it happened that the rate of interest was high, there would
be what was called " an ugly rush," and the country would
be called upon to disburse deposit funds at 2i per cent., in
order that the depositors might reinvest on more advanta-
geous terms. In the first place, he (the Chancellor of the
Exchequer) did not undertake to say that the interest would
never be higher. Some addition might possibly be made
to that rate, compatible, of course, with the essential requi-
site that the public should not subsidise those banks to the
extent of a farthing, but that, on the contrary, it should
reserve a margin of funds in order to its own fall secu •
rity. The right hon. gentleman illustrated the high
opinion of the public in the Government securities, by
stating that when the Birmingham savings bank deter-
mined to close on account of the passing of the Post-
office Savings Bank Bill, at that moment the rate of dis-
count was 8 per cent., and the depositors might have
got 5, 51, or even 6 pet cunt. for their money, yet three-
fourths of them in number and amount had invested in the
Post-office savings banks at £2 lOs per cent. He felt there
fore perfect confidence in the political security of those
banks. The objection of the hon. member for the Tower
Hamlets was bad, and could not apply to the present mea-
sure, because if persons chose to place confidence in the
Government, so far as to assure a sum of money payable
only on death, it would be very difficult for them to embar-
rass, as they could not fulfil the necessary and preliminary
condition for claiming the money till they had ceased to be
denizens of this lower world. (Hear, and a laugh.)
The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, in reply
to Sir M, Farquhar and Sir F. Kelly, explained that at the

time he spoke of rash and reckless speculations, and the
losses thereby inflicted, he did not intend to apply motives.
But what unfortunately happened was this, that persons of
great respectability involved themselves in undertakings of
this nature, which had the effect of deluding and-robbing
others, without any impurity of motives on their own part.
He hoped that nothing would be lost if the policy holders
kept their policies ; and it was not his intention to attribute
impurity of motive to the directors of the Professional In-
surance Company.
The motion for referring the bill to a select committee
was then agreed to.
The house then went into committee of euply on the
army estimates.
The house having gone into committee of supply on the
army estimates, the veto of £5,708.931 for general staff and
regimental pay, allowances and charges, elicited considerable
discussion of details, but ultimately the vote was agreed to
without a disvision; as were also the votes for commissariat
establishment, services, and movement of troops, clothing
establishments, services and supplies, barrack establish-
ments, and Divine service.
On the vote for martial law a supplementary debate was
raised by Lord lIOTHAM on the late court marl ial on Col.
Crawley, of the Inniskilling Dragoons, and its effect upon
the discipline and good order of the army. No opposition
was made to the vote, but the mooting of the question
elicited remarks from the Marquis of Hartington, Lord
Lovaine, Mr Hunt, Col Dickson, and the Judge Advocate.
The Warehousing of British Spirits Bill was read a third
time and passed, and the Costs Security Bill was read a
second time.

Leave was given to Mr Hutt to bring in a bill to amend
the laws relating to the coneervancy of the Thames, and to
the Attorney-General to introduce a bill to consolidate and
amend the Church Building and New Parishes Acts.
Mr ADAIR moved that the minutes of the proceedings,
and the evidence taken before the select committee, on the
Lisburn election petition, be laid before the house.
The motion was opposed by Mr M'Donogh, Mr White-
side, and Mr George, and supported by Sir G. Grey and
Mr Hunt.

Mr LYGON proposed an amendment that the evidence
in this case should not be produced, and upon a division the
amendment was negatived by 112 to 22. The original
motion was then agreed to, and the other business having
been disposed of, the house adjourned at 2 o'clock,

Sonderborg after the Bombardment.

(From the Times Special Correspondent at the Danish

Head-quarters.)

ULKEBOL, April 5.

Although it is my settled opinion that a corre-
spondent should be a thing and not a person, and
should obtrude as little as possible upon the scenes
he is describing, avoiding the fault of that notable
egotist Dante, who saw nothing in limbo, purgatory,
and the other regions except his little rancours, his
political crotchets, and theological quibbles—still,
there may be occasions when the spectator's own
adventures, and the shifts he has bee❑ put to, may
help to lay before his readers those minor portico.
lars of the situation which would otherwise hardly
find place in a more dignified narrative. It is under
the influence of these views that I shall now pro-
ceed to describe by what chances I came to make
my way back to the ruins of what was Sunder berg.
After tramping about all day, and in vain ap-
plying for shelter from house to house, I succeeded
at last on Sunday evening, the memorable " Low
Sunday," in getting my supper, asofa,and a writing
table Augustenburg. To find a couch, however,
was easier than to bo at rest upon it, for the good
Samaritan who took us in was bent on extending to
all comers the same hospitality ho had shown us,
and as he exacted from others the same scot he had
demanded of us—viz,, a circumstantial account of
the "horrors of the bombardment"—the banging of
doors, the stamping on floors, and the jabber of
voices was too incessant for eyes, no matter how
heavy, to have a wink of sleep.
Towards 11 o'clock p.m. we issued forth to post
our letters, and wishing to have a last glimpse of
doomed Sonderborg, we trudged along in the dark,
drenched and blinded by the rain, down to the
causeway crossing the Angustenburg Fiord, and
there, standing before that broad sheet of water,
we could enjoy, at about four miles distance as the
crow flies, the:ead but imposing sight of a vast con-
flagration. The air was so thick and the rain so
heavy that the flames strove in vain to light up
the canopy of Heaven, and all we could descry was
a low red streak, with dark shadows flitting up and
down on its glaring surface, like so many demons
dancing and revelling in their darling element,
stirring it and chafing it, as if fretting at its slug-
gishness, and rousing it to more ruthless mischief.

In the morning we were up early; soon after 8
we set out in quest of our wandering headquarters.
They had found no accommodation, we were told,
in all the rooms of the spacious Ulkebol Priests'
court, and had moved further west, to a neat farm
rejoicing in the sweet name of Morgenstjern. The
Feld-post and the Stadt-post, the telegraph-office,
and all other institutions with which we had more
immediate concern had also gone all night a
begging for some nook or corner where to lay their
heads, and none of them had as yet been able to
settle down anywhere. The rain had ceased for
several hours, and the day was fine and calm. The
whole of the little world of Alsen was out with us,
and at every step we met friends and acquaintances
congratulating each other, as half-drowned mariners
after escape from shipwreck. The boom of the cannon
reached us now and then, but the fire was slacken.
ing as we advanced, and it had ceased altogether
when, at the Ulkebol turning, we came in sight of
the windmills of Sonderborg. Ulkebol lies some-
what low and flat, at about one mile's distance from
Sonderborg, and at the turning just before the
church the road widens into a tolerably spacious
avenue, going straight to its goal, and contrasting
with ail the other thoroughfares of the island,
which are as narrow and winding as the heart of
the most ardent lever of the picturesque might
wish them. The Prussians, evidently, had gone to
sleep on their work, and we determined to profit by
that lull in the storm to go and see what was left of
the little capital of Alsen after newly 48 hours'
bombardment. The silence of the guns had de-
luded the fugitive into a notion that an armistice
had been agreed upon, and the tide of people setting
in with us was as strong as that of the people who
were still coming out against us. As many of
the persons as were saved from the havoc of the
eve were anxious for the rescue of the things they
had left behind. There were empty waggons going
in for furniture, and there were laden waggons
coming out with furniture. The whole road was
alive and swarming like an ant-hill. The scene was
gay in spite of the misery the poor people had left
behind, or had before them, for the morning was
fresh and the sun shone bright, and all that bustling
and jostling and greeting was bracing and inspirit-
ing ; and the first sensation of all living beings on
their escape from danger is one of relief which no
prospect of future evil has power to subdue. Cart-
loads upon cartloads rolled slowly past us ; cart-
loads of women and children, cartloads of chests,
chairs, and tables, of beds and bedding especially,
for home in this country seems more immediately
than anywhere else identified with pillows and
bolsters, and no matter under what roof, no matter
even if in a ditch and under the vault of Heaven, the
good Alsener seems to think all is not lost so long
as he can have his own smothering feather bags over
and underneath him. Mere rubbish a good deal of
that house-gear looked in the garish daylight, for
which it was never intended; equalid and woe-
begone were some of the crouching figures, laden
pell-mell in one heat, with their chattels; but many,
especially of the better sex, lidd not, even in those
straits, been unmindful of their outward look ;
their hair was smooth and their faces glowing and
ruddy, their eyes smiled and sparkled, and
brisk pleasantry elicited smart repartee. I saw a
fair, baresheeded, longeringletted young girl of
18 seated by the side of the driver on the
front seat of one of the best kinds of chars-a-
bane. She had a large mirror on her lap, holding
it before her at arm's length, like the Goddess of
Truth ; and to those into whose eyes the polished
glass glanced beck the sun's rays, and who told her
"she had better holi it the other way, and sec her
sweet lace in it," she answered with ready pertness
that "she had ecudied it long enough, and knew it
all by heart." The looking glass was to the bright
damsel the dearest of all her lares et penates ; and,
in like manner, every human being had in the hurry
of that flight clutched at anything upon which his
heart was set, and stuck to it in life as he would
have clung in death. As we toiled our way towards
town we could see the Sonderborg mills, all stand-
ing safe where we had left them, and across the
Dybbol mill was also tall and erect, all unhurt, in
its place—that Dybbol windmill which the Dines

have nicknamed "le brave des braves," as no one in
the army is so constantly and so unflinchingly in
the fire, no one seems more determined to hold his
ground to the last. Twice in the last war was that
gallant mill shot down and burnt, twice did it rise
from its ashes. It is the palladium of Denmark and
its army, and the Prussians have no groat chance
against the 10 bastions so long as the skill of their
gunners is baffled by the doughty successor of those
hundred-handed giants whose punch in the head
was sufficient to level the Spanish knight errant
with the ground.
Well, we toiled our way into the town, we walked
past the mills and the barracks, and till we reached
our dear old dirty quarters at the Reymuth Hotel
we saw that, though shells had lighted here and
there and everywhere, the mischief done was but
trifling. A hole in the roof or a shattered win-
dow makes no great difference in the outward look
or in the internal economy of the town ; bat as we
neared the Stadt Hamburg our old Feld-post was a
heap of rubbish ; so was the Poste aux Chevaux,
nearly opposite—the red shield, with the Royal
Arms, hanging on the door was nearly all that still
stood; so were the houses, each and all, right and
left, throughout the centre of the town, down to
the Radhaus or Council-hall ; the houses on the
main street, the houses on the side streets branching
up to the hill, or sloping down to the sea—they were
all wrecks. Here a chimney-shaft alone was stand-
-
lug, there a front wall, there part of the roof still
hung, shattered and tattered on the main beam. Day-
light had been struck through the narrow thorough-
fares of Sonderborg. The burgomaster and the
military engineers had been for weeks busy opening
a wide cross street from the Town-hall to the sea ;
but the Prusans had expedited ten times as much
work in hardy as many hours. There was something
almost exhilirating in that broad open space; people
rambled about in the ruins wondering with grim
delight how the neighbouring Ucalegon had fared.
There is always some secret savage pleasure in the
contemplation of devastation on a large scale. As
for myself, after two nights' unrest, I felt my head
in a glow, and my fancy wandered freely, conjuring
up old recollections of battered Gaeta, and jumbling
up those blackened shafts and crumbling gables
with the stripped columns and riven arches of the
Roman forum. No less than 90 or 100 dwellings in
one cluster were made utterly uninhabitable; about
a score were burnt to the ground, some of them were
still crackling and reeking; the furniture of many
of them, rescued from the ruins, were piled up, a
miserable heap, in the middle of the street. People
moved about, gazing their full, forgetting their own
errands in speechless contemplation of other people's
troubles. Business did not seem to have ceased in
the town; life was not to all appearance extinct.
Most shops were open, never having been closed,
owners laid no claims to their property, nor did
anybody covet what seemed to belong to nobody,
The two streets sloping down on either side of the
Town-hall were comparatively uninjured, but they
were the dullest and most deserted of the town dis-
tricts. An interest centred on these poor fragments
in the centre. At that window used to sit, and sat
till last evening, a pretty milliner, the most arrant
flirt of the town. There, past that gateway, that
good old doctor stopped you, on hospitable thoughts
intent, and offered you a bed, screened, as he far-
cied, by the position of his house from the enemy's
fire. Where are the bed and the house now? W hat
has become of the doctor ? What of the milliner ?
Safe, somewhere or other, very likely, but their
homes arc no more. In that house Gen, Gerlach dined
only yesterday; further, the officers of the staff wel-
comed you with a friendly smile not 24 hours since.
This was the town post-office—that the army post-
office; yonder lies the Holsteinische Hins, long
wonted to refresh us with its rancid snOrbrod and
bitter thin beer. Why, our familiar haunts of the
last two months are all blotted out at one swoop;
our dearest associations with beleagured Sonderbore,
have vanished like a dream. And these poor inha-
bitants? Why, to them the haunts of youth and
age, the associations of a lifetime, are gone for ever.
The Prussians made their home a target for their
untried artillery, and the substance of their life
recollections was blown down to a mere blank.

Twenty-two dead and wounded were picked out
of the ruins on Saturday evening, and fifty•seven
mere were added to the list of casualties in the
❑ight and,on Sunday morning. Women and chil-
dren were among the dead. A young shopkeeper
and his pretty wife had closed their premises, and
were standing at their door ready to leave, when a
shell burst almost at their feet, and their bodies
were so shattered that the limbs of the one could
not be told from those of the other. Terrible imple-
ments are these shells, and it behoves those who
handle them to consider well whither they are hurl-
ing them. No intimation of the intended bombard-
ment had been given; the Prussians allowed not one
minute for the removal of non-combatants. The
complete razing of Sonderborg, as they must be
aware, would not dismount one single cannon
on the Dybbol bastions, and all the havoc of the
last two days did not weaken the Danish position
by a tittle. Anything more wanton, more object-
less, or void of all result than all this noisy can-
nonade the annals of war have not on record. The
stillness, of which we took advantage to visit the
smoking ruins, was not, as we all believed, the
effect of an armistice. No suspension of hostilities
was solicited by the Danes ; no exchange of parle-
mentaires took place. The Prussians open fire
when they list; they leave off when it seems good
to them. Yesterday (Monday) there was complete
silence till half-past 1 or 2, then tho fire blazed
away until evening. To-day their batteries have
been again perfectly idle till this moment (half-
past 1 p.m.), whe❑ the thunder is heard again,
rumbling loudly above the roar of the stormy wind.
Truly, the art of war is very difficult to compass, or
the Germans of our time are the merest bunglers
at it. Here they have been for two months
hammering away at Dybbol, and the result is the
profitless destruction of one third of innocent Son-
derborg.
It is hard to imagine what fuss and what turmoil
can bo occasioned by the simple nnhousing of 2,000
inhabitants. As I walked past so many helpless
groups, as I passed so many doors gently but inex-
orably, because unavoidably, closed against so many
poor applicants for admission, as I saw so many
well-dressed women, so many tender children stand-
ing in the road beside their loaded waggons uncertain
where to go, at a loss where to lay their heads, with
every prospect ofa wet, unsheltered night, I wondered
how so great a calamity could have condensed itself
on so small a spot of the globe. Why, the firing and
evacuation of Sonderborg are a mere storm in a tea-
pot in comparison with the burning and emptying
of Moscow; yet hundreds of harmless and helpless
beings must even here go through a vast deal of im-
mediate suffering. To hundreds of unoffending
families this mere sport of the Prussians will work
lasting ruin. The stock of the petty merchant, the
employment of the humble mechanic, are gone. The
charity of the country people will not, as far as it
lies in their power, allow their wandering towns-
folk to perish; but military occupation leaves but
little house-room in the largest farms. The Danish
army had rather quadrupled than doubled the ori-
ginal population of Alsen. The 4,000 wanderers
must emigrate to Funen, to Zealand. Heaven grant
that the further they aro compelled to go the better
they may fare !

There was some expectation of an attack on the
part of the Prussians last evening, but the night has
gone off in perfect peace• Even the firing that be-
gan an hour ago has died off altogether. It is true
that the war of the elements is, and has been all
day, at its highest. It was frosty last night; there
has been a cruel wind, with snow storms, the best
part of the morning. This may possibly account
for the enemy's inactivity. The Prussians, in the
opinion of the Danes, are "fair weather soldiers."
ULKEBOL, April 5, 4 pan.

After an interval of more than 24 hours the bar-
barous botnbatdment of Sonderborg recommences.
Many of the inhabitants, reassured by the long
silence,, and uncertain as to the Prussians' inten-
tions, thinking that they had repented of their
useless cruelty, have either been lingering on the
spot or going back to it to look after such of their
home as are still standing and their poor contents.
They are thus caught in a trap, and we shall have
many more casualties to deplore.
XPRIL 6.
I have not written this morning, nor is there any

great reason why I should take up my pen this
afternoon. There is no progress to be reported in
the war in Denmark. The distance between the
Prussians at Dybbol village and the Danes on the
Dybbol bastions is one-third of a mile at the
utmost, but it may take weeks before either party
gets over that narrow but well-contested strip of
ground. What sheer strength may not accomplish
the Prussians seem inclined to achieve by surprise.
The nights are rather dark, and the lino of the
Dybbol cessions is long; and the soldier who has not
pluck enough to run in at a dash may be induced to
try and creep in by stealth. Some such attempt was
made last night. At about 11 o'clock a small de-
tachment of Germans, two companies, the Danes
think, made their appearance between Bastions 4
and 5, and driving in the Danish pickets, established
themselves in the rifle pits of these latter. There
they lay still for the whole night, for the Danes,
who have been for a long time in constant expecta-
tion of a night attack, did not deem it prudent to
issue forth in the dark, and give battle to those few
skirmishers, but preferred to give time to the main
body of the enemy to come up within range of their
cannon if they were so inclined. In the meanwhile,
however, the alarm was sounded in the Danish
camp, and the whole army throughout Sundewed
and Alsen was under arms. When morning
dawned, however, those two small bands of in-
truders were seen all alone crouching in the Danish
trenches, and upon a first show, on the part of the
Danes, to send forth skirmishers to dislodge them,
they went "back again."

Yesterday, as the day before, nearly at the
same hour, between 2 and 3, the Germans broke
the silence of the night and morning, and there
was a rather lively cannonade at the Dybbol
bastions, with a continuation of the bombardment
of miserable Sonderborg. To-day the entertain-
ment is still the same, though it has been kept up
for a few hours longer. The noise began between
10 and 11 o'clock in the morning, and appears to be
gradually dying off just as I am writing (half-past
5). The fire against the Dybbol bastions (why
need I repeat it? is mere waste of powder and
shot, although the cannon that bitters those
trenches is no longer at a mile 'and a half's dis-
tance, but scarcely, as I said, oneethird, or at the
utmost one half mile. Vast as the array of the
Prussian cannon may be from the Avnbjerg, Dybbol
churchyard, Rsgebol, and other spots along the line,
their cannonade is not sufficiently well maintained
to work any lasting mischief. Whether it arises
from want of a well-settled resolution, or from
scarcity of ammunition at hand, or from lack of
energy and endurance, or from the liability of their
newfangled cannon to get out of order upon con-
stant use, the fact is that at no time has the shower
of projectiles been so thick and so constant as to
take away the breath of the defenders, to bewilder
their minds, and so harass and belabour them as to
prevent their standing to their guns and repairing
such damage as their bastions may suffer. After
nearly four weeks' cannonade, the Prussian progress
may be reported in those few ott-repeated words—
"the Dybbol position is uninjured."
The same cannot be said of Sonderborg. At the
time I posted my last letter, aboet one-third of the
town was Dither burnt or totally destroyed. Since
that time, twice more have the heavy guns of the
Broagerland batteries been roaring against the
quarters still standing, adding ruin to ruia. I have
just been out to-dayjo see the usual spectacle, and
took my standing on the south-eastern shore,
whence I could command a view of the whole line
of fire. About one shell every two or three minutes
was falling upon the town, and twice as fast was
the cannonade exchanged simultaneously between
the Prussian and Danish batteries on Dybbol•
hill. The sharp ringing bang of the latter
strangely contrasted with the long and solemn
boom of the former. The Broagerland batte-
ries fired against the wind, and their shell was
heard struggling through the air, and rattling like
a thunder-clap for fully 20 seconds before it reached
its gaol. The efforts of these batteries were today
especially directed against the houses lying on the
slope of the hill, between the Town-hall and the
castle. Some of the buildings immediately behind
the Town-hall were on fire, and their smoke was
carried by the wind right across the Wemmingbund
Bay up to the very muzzle of the very cannon from
which the incendiary shell had taken its start.
Masses of smoke rose from more than one point
behind the:crest of Dybbol, playing a brilliant part
in to-day's action, and the effect of its various hues,
if transferred to canvass, would have made the
glory of a first-rate landscape painter. The sky
was swept clear of clouds by the keen north-east
winds, but a rather heavy haze lingered on the
western horizon, and formed a background for the
phantasmagoria of the smoke playing before it,
puffs of gunpowder smoke flitting here and there
along the hill-crest, columns of incendiary smoke
slowly rolling heavenwards, ashy pale at the summit
where they vanished in heaven's blue, dark and red
at the base, where the vapour blended with the fiery
tongues darting through it. The damage to the town
seems no very serious matter when seen from the
outside. Moss of the roofs visible from where I
stood are still untouched, and the Town-hall is
almost the only building through the crumbled walls
of which daylight shines. The real injury in the,in-
tenor is, however, terrific, as I was able to ascertain
by personal observation these last two days. The
burgomaster's house, that of Dr. Mathison, with
many others in the lower town, nearly at thewater's
edge, which had escaped the fury of the first day's
bombardment, have been cruelly chattered since
then. The Slot, or castle, the foremost object on the
shore, lying precisely where the Alssund widens
into open sea between the Wemmingbund and
Horup Hay, has been repeatedly hit, but stands yet
almost wholly unscathed. It would be no very ma-
terial loss if it were levelled with the ground, for
the barracks and sick wards established in it 3 empty
and dilapidated apartments are now untenanted, and
its downfall would be unattended with loss of life.
As to the edifice itself, it possesses no other beauty
than that of bulk; it is a plain, aquare, yellow brick
structure, with round, low, flat-roofed turrets at the
four angles—a mere unsightly cumbrance of a large
plot of ground which could be much better dedicated
to the shipping interest, converting it into docks
and marine stores. It possesses, however, some his-
torical interest, as the spot where the rathless
tyrant Christian 11. of Denmark, was kept prisoner
for seven years bylis rebellious subjects previous to
his removal to still stricter confinement at another
castle in Zeeland, where he expiated by long suffer-
ings the crimes with which the early years of his
reign were stained. The dungeon in which the
wretched monarch was immured is still shown fo;
money by the town policeman. Were even the Prus-
sian shells to strike daylight into the darkness of that
prison-house, it is not likely that the memorials
connected with it would perish, or that such a lesson
as Christian's fate conveys to despots would be lost.
The total destruction of this ill-starred Sonder-
borg is the only intelligible part of the Prussian
programme, and its execution will cost them much
time and labour. For the teat, it is idle, I should
think, for them to hope that their bombardment
may cause any permanent or irreparable injury
to the bridges (not one plank of which has
yet been struck, or to any material extent cripple
the means of communication between Aisen and
Sondewed, between Sonderborg and Dybbol.
Nor is there much chance of their catching the
Danes napping, for their watchfulness is carried to
a fault, and some of the ease-loving officers com-
plain of the frequency of the unnecessary nightly
alarms. As to silencing the batteries of the Dybbol
line, and carrying its bastions by storm, it is an
achievement which will require a brisker fire than
the Prussians have hitherto been tibia to kindle ; a
greater pluck than they have as yet evinced. The
expectation of the Danes is excited to the utmost
stretch, and every night we go to bed with the hope
that our slumbers may soon be broken by the trum-
pets giving us warning of an attack. But precisely
beeause the Danes so ardently wish it, it is natural
, that the Prussians should pause before they venture
upon what may turn out a desperate attempt.

SONDEBBORG LADEGAARD, April 7.

The townspeople of Sonderborg seem determined
to risk a thousand lives rather than leave their fur-
niture a prey to the flames which are rapidly con-
suming their shattered dwellings. The procession
of esrtloadi of their trumpery household goods still

d.

drags along all the roads throughout the islana.
The steamers at Horup Hay, and most of its smaller
craft, have left their moorings. A great part of the
wandering population of the bombarded place have
embarked, and sought a refuge in the neighbouring
island of Funen.
The night has been quiet, as usual,
if we take
into no account the cannon shots which the Prus-
sians have been firing at regular intervals, like the
clock striking the hours. The morning is perfectly
still, and as I look out from the windows of the
farm house where I am quartered, there is neither
sight nor sound to remind me that I am within so
short a distance from the theatre of actual war. This
Ladegaard is but one hundred yards from the sea-
shore, and lies in as close a proximity to the
Broagerland batteries as the Sonderborg Slot
itself. Only hitherto the Prussians have been
too busy with the town to turn their attention to
this mere rural suburb, The Ladegaard is a farm-
ing establishment on a gigantic scale. Its barn is a
mass of building hardly less lofty than the Scala
theatre, only not quite so solid nor so elegant. Its
cow-house has room for 150 cattle, and the dwelling.
house is, as I have often said, in ordinary times,
enlivened by the presence of a bevy of no less than
12 daughters. No less than two batteries, with all
their men and officers, have been billeted on worthy
Farmer Petersen, who has yet found means to
accommodate a couple of houseless, wandering cor-
respondents, It is true, however, that the 12 damsels
have been sent to safer quarters, and room is found
in the casket empty of its precious jewels. For the
rest, the scene about us is blissfully calm and peace-
ful. The artillerymen issue forth from the stables
with their teams of horses which they go to water
at the pond, hardly distinguishable in their weather-
stained shell jackets from the farm labourers who
go out on the same errand. The Newfoundland dog
chained in yon corner of the vast farmyard is rather
whining than barking, not by any means angry at
the presence of so many strangers, but very much
grieved that no one should take notice of him..llere
are bleating newly-awed lambs, there cooing doves ;
further newly-hatched ch;ckens. Everything
about us speaks of innocence, trust, and security ;
yet yon Broagerland batteries have only to say the
word, and all things that have life must try to save
it by taking to flight, leaving the rest to share the
fate of demolished Sonderborg.