The Sun.
London, England, 1864-03-21 00:00:00

The Weather—Sun Office, March 21, 1864.

THERMOMETER.
This day:at Two o'clock 4l

Barometer-29.65.
Wind—N.E.; moderate breeze, and fine.

HIGH WATER AT LONDON BRIDGE.
THIS Thu .—Morning, lh. 10(n.—Afternoon,'! lh. 30m.
To-wromtow.-Morning, lh. 48m.—Afternoon, 21. 2w.

,11
elgt .

LONDON, MONDAY, MARCII 21, 1864.

While diplomacy is still vainly endeavouring to
discover some means by which the further com-
plication of the war now raging in the North of
Europe may, if possible, be prevented, and still

more (if this could but be proved to be in any
way practicable) some means whereby the war
itself might be brought to a close without further
bloodshed—the war, such as it is, not only con
tinues but threatens to become still more disastrous
by reason of further and yet further complications.
Sweden appears to be hesitating upon the verge—
ready to plunge into the conflict side by side
with Danmark, as opposed to the banded armies
of the invading and aggressive forces sent against
Denmark by the two chief Powers of Germany.
The siege of Duppel seems to be i.ushed on
vigorously by the Prussians. Oa Wednesday the
16th, inst., a heavy fire had been opened by them
on the Danish entrenchments. Simultaneously
under cover of the Bragger batteries a fierce
attack was made by large masses of Prus-
sians upon the centre and left of the

Danish position. T►he rumoured result of this attack
on Wednesday, is stated to have been the capture
by the Prussians of two points occupied prior to the
attack by the Daces—not, however, until after a
severe encounter and a lamentable amount of blood-

abed upon both sides. Since then, as recently as
the day before yesterday, the bombat dmcnt of the
Duppel entrenchments has been reopened by the
Prussians. With what result we have yet
to learn. Meanwhile, we obtain information
that on that very same day, Saturday, a powerful
reconnaisance directed against Fredericia had led
there to the driving back of the Danish outposts

into the fortress: Notwithstanding which, a
sharp fire both from the fortress itself within
which the outposts had been withdrawn, and from
the neighbouring gunboats, contrived to inflict
some loss, though apparently not much, upon the
enemy—so far keeping them at bay. If, how-
ever, on Wednesday, two positions at Duppel
were lost by the Danes to the Prussians ; if on
Saturday the outposts at Fredericia were compelled
to draw back within the shelter of the fortifications
13:fore the powerful reconnaissance of the German
invaders—on Friday a naval engagement off Griefs-
weld ended in a wholly different way—leaving the
Prussian men-of-war defeated by the blockading
squadron of the Danes. While comparatively
little, if anything, comes of all this, towards
the bringing of the quarrel between the Danish
and German beligerents towards any definitive
settlement one way or the other—these fragments
of warlike intelligence have at any rate this signifi-
cance about them, that they evidence the actual
continuance of bloodshed at the seat of war, and the
embittering thereby, of course, as a necessary con-
sequence, of the angry feeling already engendered
between the belligerents. It seems lamentable that
Nothing whatever can be done by mighty Powers
each as either France or England, or still more by
both of them together, with a view to the interrup-
tion of this disastrous conflict, a conflict the longer
it lasts the more likely to lead to the dragging
of others among the European Powers into
the whirling vortex of the war. It is
matter of profound regret amongst ourselves,
here in this country, that circumstances
have precluded us from obtaining any
distinct or definite knowledge of the actual position
of things, even diplomatically, before the Adjourn-
ment of the Houses over the more than fortnight's
hiatus of the Easter Recess. Happily, when
Parliament dyes meet again, at the close of the
Laster holidays, the whole problem of our Foreign
PQllob more pArtica4rl7 iii reftrence, to the •Sehlee.