The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-29 00:00:00

RACING FIXTU.

JANIT,

Manchester
FEB

Harrow
Chelmsford Spring l6

Nottingham Spring 1
Derby Spring 3
Liverpool
Shrewsbury
Doncaster Spring

Croxton- park
Edinburgh Spring 2
Abergavenny 5
Thirsk 5

Chester
York Spring
Salisbury l2
Bath

Ascot
Hampton l5
Newton
Odiham
Bibury

Newmarket July
Carlisle
Abingdon
Liverpool July
Pontefract

Brighton 2
Brighton Club
Lewes
Reading . 11
Egham
Oxford .. 18
York August 23

SEPT:

Weymouth 1
Warwick
.September 6
Leicester
Doncaster ..
Brecon .. 19

RIL.

OCTOBER.
Northallerton .. 6 Gloucester
Newmarket Second Oct. 10 1 Newmarket Houghton 2l
NOVEMBER.
Shrewsbury Autumn .. 14

STEEPLECHASING FIXTURES Fps, 1864.

—___ ____ _
FSBAUART.
I'l AberyaVvit4 ......... 15
Carmarthen .......... 2 Birmingham .
.......... 16
cHaatur rborwi d
g.e.........................
MARCH'.
Grand Military (Rugby 8unt),,,,,, 14
Arnm,

Abergavenny .................... 5
NoTEILDER.
Leamington and Warwickshire

A 22

MARKETS--This Day.

CUMBERLAND ~HAY MARKETS.
SMITHFIELD.--
£4 Os to £5 10s Od ; and aOs £1 103 par load.
Trade slow. straw, £1 5a to
geadow h £3 to £4 108 Od ; clover,
0-1"-e ow hay,Li _,
WHITEen
A slow demand. -, a 4 £3 Osto £4 lOs 0 1 ;clover,
£4 Os to £5 10a Od •
E 4 Os to -PA , and straw, to £1 10s per load.
.L., 5s to £1 lOs per load;
£3,oa to los Od ; clover,
APEL.—Aleadow hay,
108 od • and straw,
Trade inactive. '
COLONIAL.
The Market remains closed !beam Christmas holidays.
Business, however, will be resumed on Tuesday next, the
sthproximo. ~..........---........----.. _

TUE BIEXENSEAD RAMS.—We are informed on
undoubted authority that the Messrs. Laird have
received several bona fide offers for their celebrated iron.
clad a
friendly
re spt oowf e
thers
wwhoor world. are
Messrs.at peaee
Lwaii trhd
hvae
themselves
positively declared that the vessels ate not for sale;
and it would thus seem that they have no desire to shirk
r and
dm all t
the responsibility of proving that they took the order for
the construction of the ships in the first instance from pat-
ties whose connection with either one or the other of tho
American belligerents it will be difficult, if not impossible,
to show. The last offer for the purchase of the "rams "
was refused only in the early part of this week.—Army
and Navy Gazette.
GENERAL MEAGFlER.—According to the follow-
ing extract from the Boston Pilot, the reported cap-
ture of General Meagher by the Confederates was without
foundation :—" We are pleased to learn that the statement
published on the 7th instant, that General Thomas Franc is
Meagher was captured by the rebels, during the recent
movement of the Army of the Potomac, is entirely false,
He was on a visit to the remnant of his old Irish l
r
when the advance upon the enemy was ordered, and, la
might be expected from his previous carter, which has
pluck, ho
been remarkable for undaunted courageof and
he was not taken prisoner. Ile returned
went with them into the front
across the Rapidan, and is now thie, danger--but
His reception
of General
oCorcoran,ld comrades ut Faaniar f
brotherax Co Court-house, rt -ho
generals,usoer.d
cordial
throughoutl.
Constantinople letters and
eon reception by his
army, is said to have been most c and enthusiastic.
ahnavoerdbeerenthraTelliveendc'efboru., theirhenceforward
much interest. The Minister of Marine has issued
a system of messes, on
the English plan, is to; d for the officers
be organised
of the Turkish
navY, both afloat and ashore.
A PATENT FM.?
--••••• USE OF ARSENIOUS ACID
as a mordant for the now familiar coal-tar dyes, has
been taken out by Mr. Perl-'n The printed or dyed oods
are fixed by steaming and'waas.hed in the usual manner to
separate the excpss. 'lt is remarkable that the compound
of arsenic showed some such important ends, both in tho
production 4„1 fix,,tiou of thcae colony:4 journalstent toa with
te.tihht hene
oelttn7lotehrlf:

SCHLES WIG-HOLSTEIN.

(Front the Times Correspondent•)
HAMBURG, Dec. 25.

The intelligence has just reached us that Lord
Wodehouse's mission has been successful, that the
'Ministry at Copenhagen has resigned in a body,
and that the Rigsraad has been summoned to reas-
semble for the purpose of cancelling the recent Act
for the incorporation of Schleswig. It is further
stated that the King has le! t his capital in order to
join the army in Schleswig. This requires confirma-
tion ; but should the news cited above prove to be
correct, there can be no doubt that a very serious
crisis is impending, and that very much still remains
to be done in order to avert all danger of war.
Let me endeavour to place the general bearings
of this very difficult Schleswig-Holstein question
before your readers, in order that they may judge
for themselves.

It will be remembered that the subject already
attracted some attention in political cireles previous
to the decease of the late King of Denmark in
November last. Rumours reached England that
the Ministry at Copenhagen had throughout a course
of years violated the engagements contracted by
Denmark in the much talked-of London Protocol
in 1852 ; that she was systematically encroaching
upon the rights and privileges of the German
Duchies united under the Danish sceptre—so much
so, indeed, that Holstein had represented her
grievances to the German Confederation, of which
that Duchy is a member, and that the Frankfort
Diet contemplated exercising the legal right of in-
tervention belonging to it. This measure, long de-
bated upon, was still only under consideration when
Frederick VII. suddenly died. With him the male
decendants of the elder branch of the house of
Oldenburg, which has occupied the throne of Den-
mark for four centuries, died out, so that the provi-
sions of the Treaty of 1852, which had been framed
in anticipation of this event, were called into force.
But the right of succession inDenmark proper differs
from that in the Duchies precisely in the same
manner as that which prevails in the -louse of
Brunswick with regard to England and Hanover—
that is to say, whereas in Denmark proper in de-
fault of male issue the female representative is
called to the throne, the German Duchies recognise
the male line only. This fact, so opportune at the
present moment, has been seized with great avidity
by the mass of the German people, who are endea-
vouring by the external pressure they are able to
exercise to force their respective Governments to
support—first, the claims of Dake Frederick of
Augustenburg, the present pretender to the duke-
dom of Schleswig-Holstein; secondly, to claim the
inseparable ueion of the Duchies (Schleswig and
Holstein) between themselves under his sceptre—
i.e,, to sever thorn entirely from Denmark. Thus,
you see, the question has two distinct bearings, both
resting more or less on the London Protocol of 1853.
That Treaty re-established the rights and privileges
of both
parties—Denmark, on the ono hand, and
the German Duchies on this other, as existing ante
Kellum (1848-9); but Dmmark has notoriously dis-
regarded this point, and recently consummated a
series of acts of encroachment by the formal incor-

poration of Schleswig. Hence the interference 01

the German Confederation (whose duty it is to up-
hold the rights of each and all of its members),
which has led to the military occupation now in

course of execution.

The same Treaty (1852), with a view to preserve
the integrity of Denmark, also entered upon the
subject of succession. The difficulty which has
just arisen was first mooted by Christian VIII.,
in 1846, in his Letter Patent addressed to
his subjects. The intention expressed in that
letter with regard to succession in Schleswig only
—a step calculated eventually to separate that
Duchy from Holstein—formed one of the causes of
the outbreak in 1848. Christian died in January,
1848, and was succeeded by Frederick VII., the
late King. On the assembly of the representatives
of the five great Powers and of Sweden after the
War of Independence, which had been raging in
different phases for three years, had been put a stop
to by the armed intervention of Austria and Prussia
lu Idol, the question of succession, as before stated,
was brought prominently before them. The last
male representative was now upon the throne, and

the diflhulty stared them in the face. In the pro-
bable c lit ctl
n. ..)n r.l pno.iqr. of Icing Frederick
without issue, the Crown of Denmark, according
to the existing law of succession, would devolve on
his sister, married to the Langrave of Hesse-Cas-
sel, and still living. But the Duchies recognize
no female Sovereign, and might by their law pro-
claim the Duke of Augustenburg the legal represen-
tative of the junior line after the extinction of the
elder. Holstein, in virtue of oldhistorical connexion
and of a nationality exclusively German, is, with
Lauenburg, a member of the German Bund, She
claims the rights, too (which the Danes up to the
present time have certainly recognised), of insepar-
able connexion with the sister Duchy of Schleswig;
but Schleswig has never been represented in the
German Bund ; on the contrary, at an earlier
period of her history, she was for nearly two centu-
ries incorporated with Denmark ; but on the acces-
sion of the House of Oldenburg to the throne by
election in 1460, the old existing state of things was
restored, and since that time the intimate connexion

between the Duchies has hitherto been successfully
asserted and maintained. So that it is evident that
the succession of the Augustenburg line would not
lead to the entire independence of
Sohleawand Holstein, but would place the
former lg
eider
that under the Confederation. Con-
one third, in round numbers,
of the in:,,tv
ut,liants of Schleswig; are Danes, consider
too that s
Danish monarchy;
result is equivalent to the reduction
of the D
narchy, which is considered to be
of such vitallZ
ortance to the present political
system of Europ!toatter insignificance, and you
will easily understand
euaewhy it is that Denmark has
so perseveringly
on :oared to incorporate or
Danize Schleswig
ure hand, and why Hob
stein has so
steadily
mainbled her connection with
the sister Duchy' in order
preserve their joint
nationality and historical
traditions on the other.
Such, thou, was the difa,v,
deal in 7.Q with which the
Great Powers had to
'. The result of
the labours of their representatives was, that the
present occupier of the Danish throze
iunristian
married to Louise, only dlughter of
ravinend xint
vrgederiek
of Hessen-Cassel, and named by
VII. as his successor, should, on the
renunciation of
their rights by that lady and her only son (tv,
dZstitrnel
Landgrave of Hessen-Cassel), be recognise
on the decease of Frederick, as Tiling of Dznr,,x,k
and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein, to the exciti.
sion of the Augustenburg claims. These claitu
could hardly have been so readily disposed of had
that Duke not taken so prominent a part in the
recent insurrectionary war ; his large estates had
been confiscated, and he was consequently outlawed
and reduced to poverty. As future trouble might;
however, be anticipated from that quarter, the
Duke was called upon in return for a large sum
of money—three millions of rix-thalers—to execute
a document in which he declared that neither he
nor his family would offer opposition to the arrange-
ment effected. This he did, and received the

money accordingly; but his brother, Prince Angus-
tenburg-Noer, protested immediately, and his son,
the present Pretender, protested in 1859.
In how far it was lawful, as an act of political
expediency' in the interests of the integrity of
ben—
walk and of the preservation of peace on the
part of the five great European Powers, and Swe-
'en' to alter the law of succession in the Duchies,
LiranntaleLvaenenithers to determine ; this much is cer-
airnki.slroper the validity of the ar-
rangement is
agitleputable, inasmuch as an Act
embodying
t:::0 Danish Diet, entd'ttiiinn was formally laid before
se.netre ratified, but the Duchies
were not there rep,e
d the Germans assert
that it was never laid
seideswig
or before Holstein,
the the -Estates of either
theenact state of feeling in
Anxious to ascertaiu
liolstjai for the last few da
hate been travel-
ling through at Duchy. It i
is
evi
d
e
idea, of
union nt
that hi the
party,
towns the German
-
elevation n with Ger-
many, and of the of the Au
nbur
family to the dukedom of Schleswia.u.golusstet.n pre
dominate, but the landholders and count, popula-
tionl have little sympathy with the supporters of
the claims of bake Frederick, and would remain

contentedly under the rule of King Christian, The
Holsteiners have little to complain of at the hands
of the Danish Government. Under the very eyes
of the Danish military the book shops teem with
brochures published in the Augustenburg cause,
portraits of the Duke himself are pa cly exposed
for sale, and political opinions are as freely broached
as if no Danish policy had power, and no Danish
muskets were piled in the guardhouses of the dis-
trict:

The Federal execution has hitherto taken place
with the greatest order and without any resistance.
An hour before the Federal troops arrive at the
various towns the Danes march out. Except for
the differences of the uniforms, one would imagine
that regiments were being relieved in the ordi-
nary course of military duty. On the de-
parture of the Danish troops the Duke Frederick
of Augustenburg has been proclaimed in most
of the towns as Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, the
arms of Denmark have been quietly taken down
from the post-offices and custom-houses, and the tri-
colour flag hoisted in their place. Properly consti-
tuted committees have undertaken the management
of the duties of the local police and revenue depart-
ments, and have resolved to suppress any disposi-
tions towards riot or disorder. The general adminis-
tration of the Duchy is provided for by the
Commissioners of the Germanic Confederation, who
have taken up their quarters at Altona.
It is stated on reliable authority that the Duke of
Coburg
territory
y
hast
o r f the
givenopermission for the organisation on
his volunteer army
err
i
Which is destined
to assert• the claims of the Pretender. This fact,
together with the resolve of the Frankfort Parlia-
ment to report on those claims, is some proof of the
height to which German feeling has been raised on
this subject.

From the appearance of freshly-erected batteries
at Newmnnster, an important strategical point where
the communications of the Duchy centre, it may be
inferred that the Danes have only within the last
fortnight definitely decided to evacuate Holstein on
the approach of the Federal troops. No doubt, how-
ever, now exists that the Danish troops will fall
back to the line of the Eider, which is the frontier
between the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. It
is just on the cards that here a collision may take
place, for on the south bank of the Eider, on Hol-
stein territory, the Danes have thrown up a tete
du pont to cover the bridge leading into Frederic-
stadt. As this fortress is the key of the military
position, which, extending from the town of Schles-
wig to the mouth of the Eider, protects the south
frontier of the northern Duchy, the Danes will be
exceedingly averse to evacuate the work, and it is
loudly asserted that the Confederation are deter-
mined to insist on the occupation of every yard of
Holstein ground, and are fully prepared to support
this demand by force. This for what it is worth.