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

monarchy, then the formal acknowledgment with
which the note begins is of little importance. We
believe that even now Prnesia is anxious to leave
the Danish State untouched, but anxiors fil° to
satisfy Germany and leave to herself a double couro
of action. It•will be for England and the Other
Powers that signed the former treaty to do their
utmost to keep Prussia to that arrangement ; and
as M. von Bismark especially acknowledges their
right to assist in the settlement of the Danish ques-
tion there will be no undue assumption on their
part if they continue their remonstrances against
the course the allies are still pursuing,
POST.--The general engagement which it wee
anticipated would have taken place on Thursday
along the entire line of the Danish defences has not
yet been reported. It is probable, however, that the
allied armies have been chiefly occupied in making
preparations for a straggle which they now know
will prove a serious one. An attack, but of what
nature we have not been told, was made on that part
of the Danish line covering the approaches to Schles-
wig, and some shells are said to have fallen into that
town. It was not, however, of long duration, and
was unattended by any material success. A singular
collision is reported to have taken place between the
Austrians and Prussians themselves, and is attri-
buted either to the blunder or the design of two
Danish guides, who led the allied forces against each
other instead of against the enemy. It certainly
seems a very odd kind of mistake; and, calling to
mind as we do the difficulty not unfrequently expe-
rienced in maintaining harmony between Austrian
and Prussian troops when garrisoned together in
some of the German towns, we can scarcely
help saspecting that the true cause of
the collision has not been assigned. In
any case, however, the circumstance cannot
fail to breed ill-will between two bodies of troops
which have never regarded each other with special
favour. Reinforcements are daily hastening from
the South; and, however anxious the Germans are
to strike a speedy blow, they are still more desirous
to make it a sure one. They are well aware that it
will need vastly superior numbers to drive the Danes
from their entrenchments ; and as their collective
standing armies reckon hundreds of thousands of
troops, whilst the entire Danish army does not exceed
fifty thousand men, they are not unwilling to turn
their vast resources to account. The conduct of
the Austrians and Prussians may not seem very
valorous, but no one can doubt that it is wise.
The right wing of the invading army is, as the
public are aware, composed of the Prussians ; the
Austrians, under General von Gablenz, forming the
left wing. Whether from design or from the cir-
cumstance that the Prussians, in advancing from
Eckernforde, arrived at the line of the Danish
defences sooner than their allies, is not apparent;
but no combined action took place between the two
armies on the first day when a collision took place
with the Danish forces. In the attack on Missunde,
Prussians were alone engaged, and whilst that action
was in progress the Austrians remained inactive. On
Tuesday, however, the tactics of the invaders were
reversed, and whilst the Prussians were recovering
from the effects of the repulse which they had sus-
tained on the previous day, the Austrians pushed
forward in the direction of the Danewirke, and an
engagement took place, in which, so far as we are
in a position to judge, they were defeated. The
Austrian army, as our readers will recollect, entered
Schleswig at Rendsburg, a town lying almost due
south of the Danewirke, and about midway between
the eastern and western coasts of the peninsula.
From thence they proceeded along the Rendsburg
and Flensburg Railway to the Sorg, which having
crossed, they occupied on Monday evening a vil-
lage named Kropp, a few miles south of the Danish
line of entrenchments. On the afternoon of Tues-
day the vanguard of the Austrians, under the
command of General von Gablentz, attacked the
Danish position. With the details of the action
we are as yet unacquainted; but the tele-
grams transmitted from Copenhagen and Berlin
concur in stating that the attacking force gained no
material advante ge. According to an official despatch
transmitted by Field-Marshal von Wrangel to Ber-
lin, the Austrian vanguard, together with the van-
guard of the Prussian division of the Guard, at-
tempted to force some of the Danish fortified posi-
tions in front of the Danewirke. In doing this a
sharp infantry engagement took place, the German
Commander-in- Chief taking credit for having com-
pelled the Danes to give way at the point of the
bayonet. Some posts are mentioned from which it
is alleged that the Danes were dislodged, and the
German troops are said to have forced their way on-
wards till they came under the fire of the guns in
the Danewirke, when we are left to infer that they
found it expedient to retire. In his despatch the
Prussian Field-Marshal claims to have taken a rifled
gun, and in a telegram dated from Rendsburg it is
stated that the Austrians captured 200 prisoners.
The Danish version is somewhat different. It is
admitted that a gun was lost, but it is said that the
Austrians suffered a repulse and succeeded in secur-
ing no position of importance. The statement at first
put forward by the Austrians, that they had taken
a fortified position called Bostrop, situated a short
distance in front of the Danewirke, has since been
disproved ; and from the Danish accounts we learn
that the King of Denmark himself witnessed the re-
treat of the Austrians from this position. That the
latter suffered severely is now admitted, 400 of the
Brigade Gondrecourt, including several superior
officers, having been put hors de combat. At all
events, whatever may have been the actual result
of Tuesday's engagement, it was not of such a nature
as to encourage the Austrians to follow up their
success on the succeeding day. It would seem that
hitherto the attacking force has not attempted to
operate against that line of fortifications on which
the Danes chiefly rely for the protection of the
peninsula. Outside the Danewirke are a number of
isolated positions which must be carried before the
main line of fortifications can be attacked. It was
against some of these that the Austrians operated on
Tuesday. The Danewirke, however,which lies behind
them, has still to be assailed, and it is a significant
fact that when the Austrians came within range of its
guns they concluded that they had gone far enough.
Though we must still wait for fuller details of
the engagement at Missunde, it is now clear that
the first hasty telegrams which we received con-
veyed a most inadequate idea of the nature of the
results of the first collision between the Danish and
German troops. Half-a-dozen returned as killed
and wounded on the side of the defenders, and from
100 to 150 on that of the aggressors, led us to sus-
pect that the affair of Missunde was a mere skirmish
between the outposts of the two armies. Succeed-
ing telegrams, however, dissipated the misconcep-
tion. The loss of the Danes was raised to 150 or
200, whilst that of the Prussians reached double
that number. A large number of Prussian officers
were reported to have been either wounded or slain,
amongst the former the King's brother, Prince
Frederic Charles. The Prussian Commander-in-
Chief seriously intended to force a passage across
the Schlei at Missunde, and for several hours per-
tinaciously persevered in the attempt. His repulse,
and the subsequent retirement of his troops, must
therefore be accepted as evidence of the ability of
the Danes to maintain their position, though opposed
to a force vastly superior in point of numbers, and
fully justifies the expression attributed to Prince
Frederick Charles, that a serious resistance will be
opposed by the Danes to the Austrian and Prussian
advance.
of

MARVELS OF OUR MACIIINERY.—What a con-
trast does the work of the mechanists of the present
day present to those of 100 years ago I At that time, as
Mr. Smiles observes, an engine of any size, when once
erected, required the constant attendance of the engineer,
who almost lived beside it, in order to keep it in working
order, such was the friction of its parts and the clumsiness
of its construction. At the present time, however, almost
absolute perfection of working is obtained. When the five
thousand different pieces of the marine engine designed for
the Warrior were brought together from the different shops
of the Messrs. Penn, although the workmen who built
them up had never saw them before, yet such was the
mathematical accuracy of their fit, that immediately steam
was got up they began working with the utmost smooth-
ness, As a new-born child, as soon as it enters the world
and expands its lungs, begins to stretch its limbs, so this
gigantio engine, immediately steam began to expand in
its cylinder, at once exerted its huge members with the
smoothness and ease of a thing of life.—Once a Week.
_ _

_ _ _...... - „ ...
Persons in debt may obtain instant protection. against
Imprisonment or seizure of their goods, and an entire release
from all debts and liabilities without publicity, by application
to Messrs. Marshall, solicitors of the Court of Bankruptcy.
Charges under 45 payable by easy instalments. Offices—
(established 1830), 12, llatton-garden. City branch-6, Moor-
gate-street, Bank.—AnvT.

ADVERTISEMENT.]—Avoid medicines: they always aggra-
vate chronic complaints, but Du Barry's Delicious Health
Restoring Revalenta Arabica Food, which saves fifty times
its cost in other remedies, invariably cures them, restoring
perfect digestion, strong nerves, sound lungs, healthy liver,
pure blood, refreshing sleep, functional regularity, and energy
to the most disordered or enfeebled. We extract a few out
of 60,000 Cures :—Cure No. 58,216 of the Marchioness de
&clan, Paris, of a liver complaint, wasting away for seven
years, debility, with a nervous palpitation all over, bad
digestion, constant sleeplessness, the most intolerable nervous
agitation, and dreadfully low spirited.—Cure No. 1,771. Lord
Stuart de Decies, Lord Lieut. of Waterford, of many years'
dyspepsia.—No. 40,832. "Fifty years' indescribable agony
from dyspepsia, nervousness, asthma, cough, constipation,
flatulency, spasms, sickness, and vomiting.—Maria Jolly."
—Cure No. 46,270. Mr. James Roberts, of Frimley, Surrey, of
thirty years' diseased lungs, spitting of blood, liver derange •
meat, and partial deafness.—Cure No. 47,121. Miss Elizabeth
Jacobs, of extreme nervousness, indigestion, gatherings, low
spirits, and nervous fancies.—Cure No. 54,816. The Rev. Jas.
T. Campbell, Fakenham, Norfolk, "of indigestion and torpi-
dity of the liver, which had resiste all medical treatment."
In tins, 1 lb., 2s. 9d. ; 21b., 4s. 6d ; 51b., 11a. ; 121 b., 225. ; .41b
40s.—Barry Du Barry and Co., No. 77, Regent-street, London ;
also Fortnum aond Mason ; and all Groccra and Che Milts in
very town, of the United Kingdom.