The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-09 00:00:00

THERMOMETER.

This morning
This day at Two o'clock 63

_
Barometer-29.85.
Wind—South-Westerly; light, and cloudy.

.242
eijg frA44la)i. N>.0.3011n,
4

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 9, 1863

At exceedingly delicate question is now arising
as to whether El Toussoun or El Monassir are to be
detained in Mr. LAIRD'S Building-yard down at
Liverpool. Whether those two steam rams, now
upon the very eve of their completion, are to be
detained there, by order of Her MAJESTY'S Go-
vernment, under the Foreign Enlistment Act. The
settlement of this question one way or the other,
and that within a very few days from the present
moment, is dependent, of course, upon the deei-
sion arrived at by :the law officers of the
Crown, as to the bearing of that enactment upon one
of the nicest points of international law. Whether
can it be shewn that the destination of these
two formidable ships-of-war is such as would
bring their retention in the building-yard within
the capacity or authority of the Government
That is, really and truly, the question. Originally,
as is well known, nay as their outlandish names
sufficiently indicate, El Toussoun and El Monassir,
they were ordered to be built in Mr. LAIRD'S yard
by his Highness the late Pasha of EGYPT. They
were ordered by him, we believe, about the time
of his visit to this country : when his Highness
was feasting his guests on board his yacht with
all kinds of good cheer, while undermining his
own constitution by paisoning himself with stale
bottled-up Nile water. They were ordered, these
two steam-rams, as one may say, vicariously or
circuitously : that is to say by a French House, to
whom had been given-by the late Pasha a strange
twofold commission—one for coining a considerable
sum of Egyptian money in France, the other for
getting constructed,lhere in England, by one of our
best shipbuilders, these very two steam-rams Et
Toussoun and El Monassir. At the period of the
late PACHA'S sudden and unlooked for demise, one
of those two commissions had already been com-
pleted. The money, to the full amount stipulated,
had been duly coined in France, and, not only that,
it had been actually conveyed from France into
Egypt. So that that part of the contract could not
by possibility be repudiated. Not so did it happen
to be, however, in regard to the other part of the
commission—that is to say, in regard to the two
steam-rams, then, at the time of the PACHA'S death,
—merely in, course of construction. The commis-
sion, so far as it related to them, was at once can-
celled by his Highness's successor. The re-
sponsibility of the order devolved, in consequence
of that unexpected repudiation of it in Egypt, upon
the French house from which Mr. LAIRD had re-
ceived it. The problematic circumstance in regard
to the transaction is its present phase, therefore, is
—as to the purpose to which these two steam-rams
are about to be applied by the French House fo:

which they have been manufactured. What may
be their destination ? The destination, that is,
of El Toussoun and El Monassir ? Not Egypt, as
originally intended—that we know. Whither,

`when completed, is it intended that they should
proceed ? " The accusation is," says the Premier's
organ, the Morning Post, "that they are destined
for war with a friendly Power. They will conse-

quently," says the Post (and we presume it speaks
thus confidently upon authority !)—" they will con-
lie ()Alitly be detained, and a court of law will
determine
whether, under the terms of the Fo-
rei
it 4 Enlistment Act, the detention is legal, or
whether „
heeds
__the owners can recover them from the
• °I the Government." Upon mere suspicion
an insurtt,„_
happenta7leoffice endeavoured (ineffectually, as it
pletion of
41! evade, only the other day, the corn-
itbstisiness contract into which it had
entered at
deliberately. good will and pleasure, quite
Nu
nd mere suspicion of foul play, of
fraud, and arson, a
atrocities besides— We know hardly what other
murder
in cold blood, and almost,
one might say, by Whole
in
of the whole TEmPLE fa ale, seeing
that the lives
.
tally, in
the case of WOOL-
LEY V. POLE, was said to have heen wilfully jeo-
pardised by the plaintiff on the burning down of
his dwelling-house, on
elraP44-hill
a year ago. All this Was attempted , more than
weight
ttas_picion,
to be
able
brought home to the accused Upon taereau
for there was not evidence of any
It will bs wise on the to support the charge.
matter of the
of the Government, therefore, in this e Part
two steam rams now in Mr. LAIRD'S building yard,
upon mere suspicion !
not to act simply and solely

Itc:esnt events have materially contributed to
enlarge our general store of krowledge• The wars
and revolutions of our own days have familiarised
us with the details of localities whose namea Wkre
scarcely to be found in the old geographies
and
guide•hooks. The Crimea, although figuring in
Tartar history, was not so well known in England
and France tan years ago es it is now; Cawnporc
and Lucknow were names only faL:iliar to Anglo-
Indians, while the student might turn over a good
many maps of Italy before he lighted on Solferino
or Magenta; and we have all learned to thread our
way more readily through the perplexing maze of
English and Indian names, which serve to distin-
guish the localities of the vast States of America
from following the track of this unhappy war.

'Farions circumstances have combinsd to give fresh
interest to the long-pending strife between Den-
Inark and Germany, and in consequence we are all
likely to know more about the quiet little duchies
of Schleswig and Holstein than our predecessors
ever learned. There has always been a degree of
sympathy existing between the English and the
Danes, due perhaps in some measure to our Viking
ancestry. The two peoples have many charac-
teristics in common. They have the same love of
freedom, the same fearless truthfulness, the same
' spirit of daring and adventure, the same resolution
to maintain unshaken their ancient constitutional
rights. Travellers tell us, too, of a striking simi-
larity in the appearance and language of the two
races. A recent visitor to the town of Rendsburg
declares that the country near it bears the strongest
resemblance to our richer agricultural districts,
while the chattering of the peasants in their low
German increases the familiar impression. This
town of Rendsburg, though little known to travel-
lers, is not without importance, and occupies a some-
,
what remarkable position in reference to the quarrel
with the Diet. It is a very ancient city, claiming to
have been in existence nearly a thousand years, but
it is not old enough, strange to say, for theqhue matter
norf
its exact locality to have been decided. The
of its site was one of the four
pointscommissioners who undertook to
draw whichthe theboun-
dary line failed to agree upon, finding it impossible
to unite in assigning it to eithr duchy. The ques-
tion in dispute is whether Rendsburg belongs to
Holstein o
thusrto
summed u
p Schleswig.
by The origin of the dis-
pute a recent visitor ;—" The
is
difficulty is occasioned by the circumstance that the
town is situated upon what must be called islands
in the Eider. The river, which here farms its junc-
tion with the Eider Canal, separates into three
branches as it approaches Rendsburg. Between
the Schleswig and the Holstein branches as we may
call them—the third is a trifling stream running
through the town and seemingly serving as a sewer
—Rendsburg was built. Now the Eider is the boun-
dary between the two duchies, and both the Con-
tending parties recognise it; but the Danes say
that the Holstein branch is the real Eider, whilst
the Germans contend that the Schleswig branch is
the true stream. The Rendsburghers, who are
thorough Holstciners, and by no means well affected
to the Danish Government, claim, however, in sup-
port of the Holstein contention, that they were
recognised as part ct the empire in its palmy days;
and that the town sent its deputies to the assembly
summoned by the Emperor." How this vexed
question will be ultimately decided it is of course
impossible to say, but a military solution of the
difficulty is certainly very much to be deprecated on
all sides. Germany is already split into sections,
distracted by factions, and threatened by despots.
She has quite enough to do for the next half cen-
tury et least in consolidating her own internal
forces, and in encouraging unity and peace at home.
Why should she harass and oppress a neighbouring
Power, who in no way interferes with her well-
being or crosses her prospects. The motive was
plainly stated in the English House of Commons by
the Prime Minister; and the Danes, who study
carefully our English politics, must have regretted
very vividly that Lord PALMERSTON did not hold
the seals of the Foreign-office in place of his incon-
sistent and letter writing colleague,Earl RUSSELL.
Lord PALMERSTON found the key to the riddle in
the wild and fruitless ambition, long cherished
by Prussia, to become a great naval Power.
The countrymen of FREDERICK THE GREAT
have good right to any pretensions they may choose
to make in the way of military distinction ; bat,
without any disparagement to a brave and enlight-
ened nation, we may decidedly say that nature has
denied them the requisites of a naval nation. Even
the long sought possession of the coveted harbour
of Kiel would not, in itself, convert a people, whose
proper classification is into soldiers and civilians,
into a nation of sailors, and the endeavour to force
a war upon a peaceable and well-disposed nation
will not tend to raise Germany in the estimation of
the thinking portion of Europe, and will tend very
little to the furtherance of her own interests.
Denmark has now a fine career open before her, if
she is suffered to run it unchecked by internecine
strife. Her people have all the capacities for de-
veloping Into a great nation. Her sympathies and
traditionsare liberal, her population brave and
enlightened;
her KING is beloved by his people
and her Constitution is moderate and capable of

improvement. The intellectual powers of her race
rank high, as many names known and honoured in
Art and Literature testify. Politically, the last
year or two has witnessed events of considerable
importance connected with her fortunes. The
alliance of her Royal family with the first of the
great Powers of Europe cannot fail sensibly to
affect her fortunes, notwithstanding the unhappy
meddlings of an English statesman in an affair
which we must charitably hope he did not under-
stand. The election of another scion of her ruling
house to the vacant throne of Greece, although not
so complimentary as if it had been made earlier, is
another noticeable occurrence. Greece, like Den-
mark, has great capabilities, though her history is of
the past rather than of the future. She is now, it is
true, plunged into anarchy and confusion ; but if
young King GEORGE and his advisers are equal to
the position, a rapid change for the better may be
expected. When his position is fully assured and
the area of his power extending, the youthful
Monarch of Greece will hardly forget that he was
once a Dane, and his sympathies and his influence
will henceforth weigh in the scale of his country-
men and relatives. If rumour speaks truly another
fair Princess of the Danish House is to extend the
. _

influence of her country farther North, and under
hese auspices the angry aggression of the German

Diet lcses much of its terrors. We must hope that

.hat venerable body will exercise their charac-

:eristic and proverbial caution, and pause before
,hey rashly commence hostilities, ruinous to the

nterests of both countries, and especially injurious
;o that scheme of German unity which is now more

,han ever filling the dreams of German visionaries,

and occupying the thoughts of German patriots.

The Polish reply to the Russian appeal is worthy
of notice. It is certainly replete with interest, and
animated with a spirit of independence. The Poles
commence by stating that for seven months " a mur-
derous contest has raged in our country between
two nations—the one eager to oppress and enslave,
and the other fighting in self-defence." This is a
very true definition of the state of affairs recently ;
and with a justthat pride do the patriots go on to say
their
st
°PPonents have drawn many forces from
the remotest li
wits of the empire, but they have not
i
succeeded n
crushing them h
what they
that is
their courage, d„otio
proceed, with indignant! —t ey have not quenched
or endurance. Then they
quite comprehen-
io
call a " cruel re-
sible, to reject
rejoinders they have
quest" on the part of
tyhetrsuly
haughty self-conceit of theltatiubBB-jans. Even the
forth from a trampled-on but unsubd e
).°lB of the CZAR
might blush to hear the sharp
called forth
They are shown that the " highest objectld
of a noble nation is not comprised in the oppression
of a kindred race, or in destructive dreams of domi-
nationolain
fthse globe." This em-
phatic
the lack of progress
passage
o q
forciblyuare quarters
that is made by th© mighty Baseitin empire. It is