The Sun.
London, England, 1863-12-15 00:00:00

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TlMES.—Within a few hours the troops of the
German Confederation will enter the Duchy of Hol-
stein as the army of execution of the Frankfort
Diet. The Saxon contingent is on its march north-
wards, to be •followed by that of Hanover, and
behind both are the Austrian and Prussian reser\ es
of 52,000 men,to act as supports in case the Govern-
ment of Denmark should attempt to offer any re-
sistance. The Danes will not, we trust, provoke a
collision with the great military Ps were of Ger-
many, and peace may still be preserved; though to
occupy a neighbour's territory is, in the present
state of Europe, a dangerous approach to hostilities.
As in 1848, " War" is the word in Berlin. The
Prussian army thirsts for an opportunity of dis-
tinguishing itself. Then, as now, the death of a
Danish Sovereign precipitated a crisis it was pos-
sible for the Prussian Government, involved in a
political conflict with the people, to turn to its own
advantage. Then, as now, the Prussian army was
moved to insure other objects than those avowed.
As another chapter in the military history of Prus-
sia appears about to be opened, the incidents of the
campaigns in the Duchies of 1848 and 1849 may
have some interest if recalled. The Russian and
Italian wars, Sebastopol, Solferino' and the san-
guinary battles of the American Republic have
been fought between the first German and Danish
conflict and the present time. As military events,
the engagements in the peninsula of Jutland do not
make a large figure in the retrospect; but in 1848
Europe had been at peace for thirty years, and was
startled by the first battles in the West since 1815.
A Schleswig-Holstein war opened the era of strife
through which we are now passing, and revives
again to complicate its dangers. Frederick VII.,
over whom the grave has just closed, ascended
the Danish throne on the 20th of January, 1848.'
The Prussian revolution broke out in Berlin on the
18th of March. Between those two dates occurred
the insurrection in the Duchies which produced
the appeal to the Prussian Government for
assistance. The Danes were not prepared to
resist the movement in Holstein. The Go-
vernment had made no military preparations
to meet it. The opinion had prevailed
which the best policy was to trust the mass of the
people and the loyalty of the local troops. It was
believed that they would not be drawn into actual
rebellion. It proved a mistake in the case of an
insurrection begun by the officials, who were to the
masses the representatives of authority. In its
early stages the movement was the easiest of revo-
lutions. On the 23d of March, 1848, a Provisional
Government of the Duchies was formed. On the
24th the garrison of the fortress of Rendsburg was
summoned to surrender by the Prince de Noer and
a handful of men. Left without instructions, and
told that the King of Denmark was a prisoner in
the hands of the revolutionary mob of Copenhagen,
the troops made no attempt to resist, and gave up
the place. It was the first and last military achieve.,
meat in which good fortune was entirely on the side
of the Provisional Government. By this stroke the
insurgents gained possession of a strong fortress, a
supply of arms, and £300,000 in money, which gave
them the means of holding out till help could be
obtained from Germany. When the intelligence of
the loss of Rendsburg reached Copenhagen, on the
26th of March,the Danish Government roused itself
to action. Troops were collected on the northern
frontier of Schleswig, and, in military enterprise,
the Prince de Noer went farther and fared worse.
From Rendsburg he led an incursion into the
northern Duchy. By this time the movement had
attracted a host of volunteers from Germany, whose
motives were as questionable as their appearance.
Under the name of " free corps" they made the war
support them, and soon became the most unwelcome
of liberators to the inhabitants. The most indifferent
half German farmer became fiercely Danish in
defence of his henroost and bacon store, and the
Provisional Government itself was at last compelled
to discourage these irregulars, enlist them in the
army afterwards orgakised, or otherwise get rid of
them. It was by a body of these volunteers that the
first defeat of the insurrection in the field was sus-
tained. They were attacked by the Danish troops
near Flensburg on the 9th of April, and easily dis-
persed, losing 850 killed and wounded. Iu this
engagement the first blood of the war was spilt.
The Danes, at this juncture, could have recovered
Rendsburg and suppressed the revolt, had the Pro
visional Government been their only opponent. But
at the date of this first battle Prussian troops had
already entered Holstein. On the sth of April,
1,500 of the Prussian Guards took possession of
Rendsburg. The satellites of Prussia assisted her,
as they are doing now, and by the middle of April
a regular German army of 21,000 men occupied
Holstein. Denmark protested against an interven-
tion on behalf of an illegal and revolutionary Go-
vernment, but offered to accept the mediation of
Prussia in respect of Holstein on condition the
troops did not invade Schleswig. This offer was
rejected, and, authorised by the expiring Diet of
Frankfort, which ceased to exist a few weeks after-
wards, the Prussian General Bonin was ordered to
occupy Schleswig also. To carry out his orders he
had to fight the battle of Schleswig, on Easter-day,
April 23, 1848. The Danish army, of 11,000 men
and 30 pieces of artillery, held the town of Schles-
wig and the line of the ancient fortification called
the Dannevirke. In recent years it has we believe
been repaired and strengthened, but was then little
more than a long mound, stretching from the narrow
creek of the Baltic that runs up to the town of
Schleswig to the marshy ground on the Treene,
small river falling into the North Sea. It nearly
crosses the peninsula, but though described as a
work of great strength, there were great gaps worn
in it, rounded and grass grown, through which any
cavalry could pass at the charge without the slightest
difficulty. Along this line, on the ground to the north
of it, between the work and the town of Schleswig,
and in the town itself, the battle was fought. The
Prussian and German army numbered 27,500 men,
with 72 guns. The fighting was obstinate, bat the
Danes were compelled to retreat northward, with a
loss of 1,200 men. From the beginning of May
the whole Duchy was occupied by the German
troops. The Danish army retired to the island of
Als, and the Germans, now under the command of
General Wrangel, advanced far into North Jut-
land. He issued a prociamation on the 18th of
May calling on the inhabitants to pay £500,000
within ten days, but before the term expired he re-
ceived orders tot withdraw from Jutland, and no
part of the contribution was ever paid. Two months
of negotiation for an armistice ensued, all the great
Po seers advising peace. On the Ist of August Den-
mark declared a blockade of the North Sea, and on
the 26th hostilities were formally suspended. In
April, 1849, the war commenced again. On the
oth of that month the Danes lost a line-of-battle
ship and a frigate which had ventured up the nar-
row inlet of the sea at Eckernforde and could not
return. One was burnt, the other captured. On
the 13th the Germans attempted to attack the
Danish position in the island of Ale, but could not
force the narrow sound between Dyppel and the
island. The were repulsed with the loss of 150
men and two guns. The war extended northwards
again into Jutland, and the Schleswig-Holstein
army invested Fredericia, which they bombarded.
But the Danes, bringing troops into the place by
sea, made a sortie, took the insurgent's camp and
works, captured 31 cannon, and compelled them to
abandon the siege. On the 10th of July a second
armistice was concluded, and for twelve months the
whole question was kept in the hands of diplomacy.
Prussia, finding the war rather an embarrassment
than an advantage, withdrew from it altogether
by the " separate peace" with Denmark concluded
at Berlin on the 2d of July, 1850, and the Provi-
sional Government of the Duchies was left to fight
for its existence as it could. Its army was com-
manded by a Prussian General, Willissen ; many of
the officers were Prussian, butino Prussian force re-
mained in the field. Then came the end. Oa the
14th of Juiy, 1850, the King of Denmark issued a
manifesto, exhorting the Provisional Government
to yield to circumstances, and lay down their autho-
rity, with a full amnesty for the past. Having,
however, still an army, they determined to throw
for a last chance. The Schleswig-Holstein
troops took up a strong position a few miles
northward of the town of Schleswig, on some
wooded hills, and a line of small lakes on the
south edge of the heath of Idstedt. The Danish
army, advancing from Flensburg, drove in
the German outposts in a skirmish on the 24th of
July, and began the decisive battle at daybreak on
the 25th. Thirty thousand men on each side Were
engaged. At midday the Danes had broken the
German centre, and the battle was irretrievably
lost. The Holsteiners retreated to Rendsburg, and
the Danes would not pursue them
territory. In the few weeks of desperation
o attacks on
followed the Holstein General axnde,
the other at
etswpien:ation that
the Dauisa line, one at Missend issvas disastrously de-
Fredericksburg, but in b
y sketched,
both Duchies after the conflict
feated, and
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setr.able prospect of a second war
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The same mail
waich has brought us intelligence
upon the Peshawur frontier, in
six thousand men were more or le which
upon our side, brings us ne se di a column of
reocftlyan engaged
action
ws also of disturbances
in New Zealand which
are monopolising the whole
energies of a force at least equal in nt_imber .rs,t andae
composed exclusively of E
counts indicated the probabuirliotpeoafes; i-fu
departurea upon
ne part or the Mauries from
their ancient tactics,
and of a concentration of the main body of the