The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-04 00:00:00

hagen to Itzehoe, or rather to Berlin, and must
ultimately destroy its integrity as well as its inde-
pendence. They are resolved, at any cost, to resist
such a claim, and they are equally resolved to settle
the question once for a.!. In conceding the autonomy
and independence of Holstein they give Holstein and
the Confederation more than either is entitled to ask.

The King in effect says, " Holstein is undoubtedly
a German duchy, and the German Diet will always
have a pretence to interfere in its government.
True, the constitution of the Confederation does not
sanction the interference it has made ; but the
Diet insists that it alone is the judge of its own
powers, and abandoned by England and France,
which undertook to protect the integrity of my
kingdom, I cannot resist this iniquitous inter-
pretation. So I will govern Holstein as its Duke.
I will give the Holsteiners a constitution, and if it
does not suit the Diet, the Diet may modify it, and
I will accept the modification. But Schleswig is
no German lani, and I will allow no interference in
its affairs. I give up Holstein, but I draw closer

the connection between Schleswig and Denmark.
Tnev shall form the Danish state proper." He gives
thus the Confederation and the Holsteiners more
than they have ventured to ask ; but it is not what
they want, and therefore they will not be satisfied.
The Holsteiners hanker after the revival of their
old connection with Schleswig, from which this new
arrangement would more completely sever them,
and the German Confederation cares nothing about
the Holsteiners, but wants to have still the means
of interfering in Denmark, and exhausting its re•
sources. The only settlement which would satisfy
either the Holstein Estates or Prussia would be one

_
on the model of that propounded by Earl Russell.
It is certain, therefore, that they will do the utmost
to defeat the plan now adopted by the Danish Go-
vernment, and will try to hold it to the premise to
give a common constitution, which they themselves
defeated. But Denmark clearly makes the last sacri-
fice she can make in conceding the independence of
Holstein, and, well aware of this, she will adhere
resolutely to the plan. The threats of Germany
will not alarm her. The Danes deem it better to

fight boldly for their independence than to yield it
up to the menaces of a power they successfully with-
stood fourteen years ago, or to the recommendations
of false friends. They have the right with them, and
we believe that they will have the victory. France
and England, for all the which Lord Russell
feels for the nation he has tried to injure, will not
allow Prussia to attempt the destruction of a nation
which has the keys of the Baltic in its keeping, and
has the strongest moral claims upon the sympathy
and support of each. The Danes have chosen their
opportunity well. Prussia cannot impede the exe-
cution of this plan without committing as gross a
violation of international law and morality as she
has just peryetrated in Poland, and even Herr von
Bismark Schonhausen will not dare to thus defy

Europe.
DAILY NEWS,—A startling rumour has reached
Paris from Warsaw. Credible or unfounded, it has
at least contributed signally to confirm the conva-
lescence of the public securities, which, from the
moment of the victorious return of M. Fould to
office after half a day of indignant abdication, bad
shown decided symptoms of recovery. There are
doubtless warm friends of Poland even on the Paris
Bourse; but money markets are seldomsentimen-
tally disposed ; and our readers will easily under-
stand that the only news from Poland which could
send the funds up must, be news of the defeat of the
Polish patriots, or at any rate of the suppression of
the insurrection and the restoration of the orderly
and pacific authority of the established Government,
by those admirable preservers of life and property,
and protectors of civilisation, the troops of the mag-
nanimous Alexander 11. " Order reigns at War-
saw," sent the funds up in Paris, and so did the
event of the field of Waterloo. Anything for a quiet
life, is the moral of all "per cents.," and the politi-
cal thermometer rises and falls according to the
same law of financial nature in all the Bourses of
Europe. The rumour to which we at present refer,
however, is not quite so peremptory as Marshal
Sebastiani's message. It says nothing of the resto-
ration of order in the disturbed districts of Russian
Poland, nor does it report any decisive Russian vic-
tory over any main body of the insurgents. Indeed,
since the retirement of Langiewicz from the scene.
the mistake of a Dictatorship seems to have be. n
repaired. How the Central Revolutionary Com-
mittee was induced to commit the obvious mistake
of committing the national cause to one man's for-
tunes in this mortal struggle of a comparatively un-
armed, undisciplined population, against a perfectly
equipped and organised army, moving with the dull
regularity of a machine, and the concentrated
.fury
of pestilence in a crowded city—remains unexplained.
Whether the error—for grievous error it was—origi-
nated withLangiewiez himself, and was only accepted
by the Central Committee in deference to that leader's
hasty judgment, or in consideration of his brilliant
exploit, or in order to maintain an example of
undivided counsels, or to keep soma rival chief at a
distance, we know not. Not a shadow of doubt klas
been cast upon the honour and purity of Langie-
wicz ; but his assumption of the central and supreme
powers of a civil and military government almost at
the outset of a guerilla war, was an act of folly.
Here was a people flying for dear life into the woods
and wilds from proscription, standing at bay in moun-
tains and morasses, with scythes and billhooks,
facing bayonets and artillery ; if ever safety and
triumph depended on the multiplication and dis-
persion of forces, rather than on combined opera-
tions and " decisive battles," surely it was here and
now. There was the memorable catastrophe of
1830.31 to warn against an insurrection which is
concentrated and crushed at the centre, instead of
being worked from the circumference, and gathering
to a focus from a thousand points at once. The sur-
render of Langiewicz, therefore, unfortunate as an
incident, has been regarded by many of the most
judicious friends to the cause as far from detrimental
to the chances of the contest. And since his disap-
pearance we know that the desultory operations of
the patriot leaders have in several instances resulted
in achievements not of unsurpassable valour only
(for to celebrate Polish valour is to paint the rose),
but of substantial importance to the revolution.
Poland is an inexhaustible soil of heroism, and for
every fallen or captured leader spring forth a thou-
sand of the bravest and most skilful soldiers born,
whose chivalrous valour redeems the very name of
soldiers from infamy of the Russian trade of blood.
On the capture of Langiewicz, Prince Gortschakoff,
it seems, lost not a moment in announcing to the
French Ambassador that now that the insurrection
might he considered at an end, his magnani-
mous master was ready to declare his merciful
intentions towards his rebellious and ungrate-
ful subjects. This magnanimous Emperor, who,
if he has not authorised the wholesale murder
of women and children, the burning of defence-
less villages, the sack of private houses,
and the devastation of fields and farms, has, with
Imperial brevity, 'commanded " extermination"—
this merciful Alexander 11., whom Prime Ministers
extol for the very goodness of heart which they once
attributed to his father Nicholas—is as susceptible
and as tetchy about his good intentions in 1863 asin
1856, when Count Orloff persaaded Lord Clarendon
to desist from making any allusion to Poland before
the Congress of Paris. Prince Gortschakoff, how-
ever, in volunteering this assurance the other day,
was, in the language of semi-official journals, " at
least premature." It was full early to make pro-
mises of clemency, while his master's soldiers were
rioting red-handed in murder, arson, and rapine,
wherever they could slaughter and rob unresisted ;
while the Central Committee was at work, a nation
in arms, and patriot leaders mowing down the Cos-
sacks, and harrowing the ground for freedom's har-
vests. It cannot be said that with the loss of Lan-
giewicz the struggle has declined, rather it has
caught new vigour from difficulty and desperation.
If there seems at this early Easter time a women
tary lull in the ardour of sympathising Europe, the
last word of the British Parliament at parting was
for Poland, and the first word at meeting, we may
be sure, will be for Poland again. The Easter ho
lidays have not suspended the interest of every free
people in the fate of a nation fighting for its life ;
nor is even the expression of that interest inter-
rupted by more immediate and more trivial pre-oc•
cupations. Was not Lord Palmerston reminded
Poland in the midst of his popular triumphs a
Glasgow and Edinburgh ? In France, though per-
haps the revivals of public spirit may be on the sur-
face only, and though the independent and Literal
party are preparing for the general election at home
the cause of Poland is keenly felt to be one with the
honour of France. The semi-official newspapers as-
sure the Freneh public, in mysterious paragraphs,
that, when the hour comes, it will be seen that the
Emperor has not abandoned Poland. So, too, at
Glat go wLord Palmerston declaredamidst tumultuous
cheering, that the diplomatic intervention of Eng-
land, in concert with other Powers, is being and
will be exerted in behalf of Poland. The Premier,
who in his most unguarded moments knows how to
measure his words on foreign policy, utters a regret
that it is not in the power of the British Govern-
ment to " decide the destinies" of that interesting
nation. Mean while the Poles, not unmindful of
the melancholy fact that, however interesting a
nation may be, its meek and passive protest against
tyranny gains no new friends among the Powers
of Europe, and makes even diplomatic intervention
a dead letter, are struggling to decide tht it own
destinies at the sword's point. After Easter the
fighting season for insurgents comes, when Nature
herself is clement and propitious to patriots. Every
month, every Aeek, every day, this insurrection
perseveres the sympathy of Europe is enlarged, and
the demand on the intervention of the Powers be-
comes louder and more exacting. It is easy to taunt
public writers with sitting at their ease and urging
brave men to useless and fatal conflicts. No such