The Sun.
London, England, 1863-09-07 00:00:00

TIM SUN, "LONDON, MONDAY EVENXNG, SEPTEMBER 7, 1863.

to see if he could find him about the ground, and when Ito
did so he used to tell him that there were some still-borns
waiting for him to fetch away.
The Rev. Mr. Cohen, the rector of Whitcehapel, here in-
quired what was to be done with the bodies, as they wished
to get them removed, so that the church might be got ready
for the morning's service.

The Coroner said they might be removed into a vault or
up into the belfry again, but it was most essential that they
should be placed in some place of security, as well as of
easy access; or at all events that those which had dresses
should have them handy, as they might lead to identify and
throw some light on who had charge of the bodies.
It was arranged that they should be removed, under su-
pervision of the police inspector present.
Evidence of Varcoe continued—l never saw Mr Wilkin-
son when I went to look after Smith. When Smith fetched
the " stills " he sometimes brought a black bag and some-
times a sack. I have seen him remove as many as four at
one time. I should say he could not smuggle them into
the belfry without being seen.
By the Coroner—lt is always usual to have a certificate
from a medical man or midwife for burial of a still-born
child. We should take it as a certificate from a midwife
whether it was true that the party signed it or not.
Coroner—ln your 30 years' experience do you know of it
being the fact, that bodies which are sometimes left with
undertakers for burial don't get buried at all ?
Witness—Such things might have taken place, but they
have not come under my knowedge personally.
Coroner—When a child is brought with a certificate as a
"still-born," do you or the undertakers exercise any super-
vision to see if it is " still •born" or not ?

Witness—Sometimes people come and say they have a
"still-born" to bury, and they get the shell, and bring the
body back to be buried, and it is taken as a " still-born "
without any further inquiry.
By the Coroner—Supposing it is found not to be a "still-
born," then we should refuse to bury it without the regular
fees. It would be 9s. €d. at the Victoria, and 2s. Gd. if a still-
born. I have no doubt that many children are buried as
" still-born" which are not still-born.

Joseph Corner sail he resided at 6, Newland-place,
llishopsgate, and wes a labourer. Had been employed as
gravedigger in several burial grounds. Never received any
still-born ;children at Whitechapel Church while he dug
graves there, which was about three years ago. All he had
to do was to dig graves in the ground.
The Coroner said they had now got as far as they could
with their inquiry that day, and he was free to confess the
evidence they had as yet heard threw but very little light
upon the fact of how these bodies got into the place where
they were found. The dresses, however, in which some of
the bodies were placed might, however, be identified, and
throw some light upon it, if they adjourned, and trace out
the party or parties who put them there. He proposed,
therefore, to adjourn for a week.
After some discussion the inquiry was adjourned till
Saturday next.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

SATURDAY REVIEW.—The extraordinary dulness
of the Summer Assizes, was, to some extent, re-
lieved by the trial ;
bout Campden House—a
trial of considerable interest to that numerous
class who insure their houses and their furni-
ture. The case in itself was interesting, and it
was doubly interesting as showing the sort of
grounds on which the managers of two lead-
ing insurance offices thought it right and decent to
charge
people, not merely with arson, but with
arson committed under circumstances which in-
volved the moral guilt of a triple murder of the most
horrible character., If Mr. Wolley really converted
his house into a sort of infernal machine, and set
fire
to it without taking any precautions against the
destruction of the Temples, he undoubtedly com-
mitted a crime infinitely more atrocious than the
common run of murders. The verdict of the jury
having cleared his character from this diabolical
gui't, it becomes matter of something more than
curiosity to see what were the grounds on which
the two companies in question considered themselves
warranted
Campden House occurred between three and four
in imputing it to him. The fire at
in the morning of the 23d of March, 1802, when
the house itself and its contents were destroyed.
The tenant of the house, Mr. Walley, was 45 years
of age. In his youth he had been, as we learn
from the offensive and impertinent cross-examina-
tion to which the defendants thought proper to sub-
ject him,
what people call " an uncertain posi-
tion ;" that is, he had been something between a
waiter, a clerk, and an actor--a little of each. In
1847 he married a Miss Coape, who, as well as
her
1854, he bought a 99 years' lease of Campden House,
younger sister, had a fortune of £35,000. In
and in 1855 he let it to Colonelnaugh. and he went
himself to live at Tunbridge Castle. Whilst there,
his wife was accidently drowned during her hus-
band's absence, and after her death the younger
sister continued to live with her brother-in-law.
Each of these ladies appear to have entered fully
into Mr. Wolley's tastes. He laid out the whole of
his wife's fortune in buying, furnishing, and orna-
menting the house. Nearly £lO,OOO out of the
fortune of his sister•in-law, was spent in the
same manner. The family lived on the income
of the rest of her property. The house itself
would appear from the evidence to have been
a sort of old curiosity shop. It was full of
curious carvings, ornamental ceilings, pictures, rich
carpets, gildings, chandeliers, and all manner of
other things of the hind. Mr. Wolley carried his
taste so far that he once bought an estate in Essex
for £1,300, and sold it again for £9OO, merely for
being able to remove some rich carvings
contained, and which thus cost him £4OO.
twhheicshakiet o t
In short the description of the house and its con-
tents is exactly like that which Balzac gives in his
novels of the dwellings of such monomaniacs as
at many of which amateur plays
Cousin Pons or Balthasar Claes. The use to which
One lady said, " There were large this remarkable house was put was that of giving
retre°pPse';rhape 20 in the season." e mere
very frequently, and theatrical en-
tertainments,sometimes 300 or 400 people there at as-
sembliesconcerts." The plays seem, for the
as-
semblies were splendid
acted. Ptha
have been for the benefitof
was
Coapefhat of
wentlB6l,
d wn
would
be
a n d
charitable
most part, to
institutions. The last season of the splendour of
to a small
after which Mr.
new set of festivities. Early in March
Brighton, where they appear to have lived
people till the time should come round
alhigokaueisnoethfora at
ICvaomnpedyenanHdoul‘seliss
Mr. Woliey returned from Brighton to Campden
House with bis servant Crozier, whom be was ob-
liged to have constantly near him because he was
subject to epileptic fits. A carpenter and builder,
named Temple, whom Mr. Wolley had kept con-
stantly in his employ for many years, was taking
care of the house at the time, with his wife and son ;
and there, according to the theory of the defendants,
Mr. Wolley and Crozier spent three weeks in deli-
berately prepa.ring to burn down the house, with
the Temples in it—a plan which, the Insurance
Company assert, was duly carried into execution.
Certainly all the antecedent probabilities of the
matter are fiagantly opposed to this view of the case.
The particular facts which the defendants deemed
suffiaient to support the theory that Mr. Wolley
did burn his house, notwithstanding all this, were
that he carefully prepared the house for burning—
that
he hung the walls with paper, put tapestry
over the windows to conceal the flames during the
early part of the fire, varnished the wainscoting,
and laid out the books on the tables as if to dry.
It was admitted that there were plausible dt pre-
texts" for all this—that the varnishing was natural
enough, that the paper was said to have been hung
up over the varnished wainscots for the sake et
keeping off dirt and insects, that the tapestry was
hung against the light in order that the holes in it
might be easily seen and conveniently mended, and
that the books might have been opened to dry. It
was said, of course, there would be pretexts, but
here there were " striking coincidences. If it was
an accident, it was the most wonderful that ever
occurred ; there was the varnishing and repairing of
tapestry and the drying of books, and the covering
up of walls all happening at the same time." This
is the sort of argument which may be excused in a
counsel who has a weak case, bat it is astonishing
that cool men of business should act upon such
absurdly frivolous reasoning. There is about as
much marvel in this coincidence as in the coinci-
dence between taking up the carpets, whitewashing
the ceiling, and putting brown-holland covers on
the furniture, which may usually be observed when
a family goes out of town. The simple fact is, that
each of these operations was connected with setting
the house to rights, and all, therefore, would natur-
ally take place at the same time. Besides this there
is something monstrous in the notion of a man carry-
ing out all these designs under the eyes of domestic
spies who would ha. e it in their power to bear wit-
ness against him, and whose absence he might easily
have procured. The presence of the Temples in the
house was barely consistent with the theory of the
defendants. This was (after recapitulating the
evidence) the substance of the case. It is curious to
see how little it comes to when it is put together.
There is not in the whole range of the evidence a
single fact which really proves any one of the
elements of such a crime as was imputed to Mr.
j Wolley. There is no proof of motive, no proof of
preparation, no proof of execution, There are
isolated facts which, if you choose to begin by
assuming that there was a crime at al], point out
the way in which it was committed. Assume
that Mr. Wolley did burn his house fraudulently,
and the different facts proved will no doubt bear the
construction put upon them by the companies ;
but there is nothing whatever to compel that con-
clusion, though they might suggest it to persons
whose interest and, to some extent, whose duty it is
to be suspicious. The case is a good instance of the
nature of suspicion as distinguished from proof ;
and, we may add, it is a striking example of the

extent to which suspicion may be made to do duty
in place of proof. A. Court of Justice was occupied
for a whole week in listening to " evidence" which
it did not need two minutes' deliberation to stamp
as utterly frivolous and worthless. The fact that
the jury found a verdict for the plaintiff on the
instant, without leaving their box, furnishes a suffi-
cient comment on a proceeding which is probably
unexampled, and which, it may be hoped, is little
likely to be regarded by Insurance Companies as a
precedent for imitation.

SPECTATOR.—The report, for it is only a report,
that the Czar is willing to reconstitute the Grand
Duchy of Warsaw under an Imperial Lieutenant, is
in itself an important testimony to the strength of
the insurrection. Three years ago the Poles only
claimed to be governed as an independent province.
Provided their religion were respected, the right of
educating themselves conceded, the relations of
nobles and peasants amicably settled, and industrial
enterprise encouraged, the party of progress, headed
by Count Andre Zsmoiski, desired nothing more for
years to come. 'they knew Europe was weary of
the Polish question, they desponded of their own
strength, and in spite of the Czar's unworthy speech
atWarsaw—"l shall know how to be severe"—they
believed that the tyranny of Nicholas could never
be renewed. They had yet to learn that a weak,
well-meaning man, with such creatures as Wielo-
polski, Gortschakoff, and Mouravieff, might be more
fatal to his subjects than the sovereign whose sole
faith had been:;his own divinity. Since the massacre
of Feb., 1861, when the Russian soldiers fire-I on a
peaceful and unarmed multitude, the Government of
St. Petersburg has pursued a relentless policy of ex-
tinction. It menaced the clergy, closed the churches,
suppressed schools, and made a state of siege the
police of the country. Under the Grand Duke
Constantine the last outrage on national self-respect
was perpetrated. It was resolved to press all the
energy and intelligence of the country into the ser-
vice of its oppressors. Then, and then only, it was
decided by the majority of a single vote in the
Central Committee of the National Government
that the conscripts had better die fighting against
Russia than in her ranks. No Pole at that time
expected the results which have actually been
achieved. The single hope that seemed probable,
that of foreign intervention, has been painfully
disappointed. But, through a number of unfore-
seen circumstances, a singularly mild winter, the
incredible negligence of the Russian generals at the
outset, the demoralisation of the troops, and the un-
precedented union of different classes iu Poland, the
insurrection has maintained itself and spread. Ruseia
at this moment has 250,000 men in the kingdoM
and the old provinces, has sent even the Guards
from St. Petersburg, and has decreed a fresh levy
in the two-thirds!of her empire that can be trusted.
She has had from the first the cordial support of
Prussia, equivalent at least to an additional corps
ct armee, and latterly something more than neu-
trality from Austria. Her military governors, once
roused, have acted with vigour, and, setting aside
Lithuania as the theatre of an exceptional monster
—Mouravieff, the results of the last year are suffi-
ciently startling. In Warsaw, a fourth of the
population is said to be in arms, killed, or trans-
ported; in the district of Lublin, one of the best
governed, one hundred gentlemen have been im-
prisoned, and in Kalisch only a few are out of
prison. Confiscations, flogging, hanging, sometimes
even burning alive, have been episodes in the ter-
rible struggle. At the end of eight months the
National Government is more firmly organised than
ever, dismisses officials, interrupts railway commu-
nication, forbids taxes to be paid except to itself,
and, unhappily, is even able to retaliate death on
the secret agents of the enemy. Its troops, in spite
of official bulletins, occupy the country, and the
Russians hold not an inch between Warsaw and
Galicia on which they are not in force
enough to give battle. The Imperial trea-
sury is so nearly exhausted that silver is
nowhere seen except in Warsaw, and the salaries
of the chief official's have been unpaid for months.
Of course, this state of things may be altered at
any moment. Men without drill, without mum-
tions of war, without regular encampments, and
without hospitals, are at terrible disadvantage
against the chances of battle or disease. Neverthe-
less, the last reports say that the insurgents have
been victorious at Janow and threaten Lublin. It
is at this moment that the Russian Government,
bankrupt of money and men, and painfully con-
scious of the loathing it excites in Europe, pro-
poses to quiet the revolt by an offer of provisional
independence. It is as if George 111. had proposed,
after the convention of Saratoga. that the Ameri-
cans should disarm on condition of being allowed to
tax themselves. The imprisonment or death or
40,000 men and women may seem a very small
thing to the Court of Petorhoff—hut it leaves memo-
ries that are not easily effaced among the suffering
people.

LONDON REVIEW.--It can scarcely be said that
the conquest of Mexico is yet complete, or the new
form of government fully established, or the future
Emperor irrevocably chosen. It may be that the
French may still find much work before them, ere
their self-imposed task be thoroughly accomplished.
Minor guerilla chiefs may refuse to submit, and
may continue to give considerable trouble—brigan-
dage, and faction may retard for some time longer
the final reduction and pacification of the country ;
and it is possible, though not probable, that on
looking more closely at the prospect before him, the
Sovereign elect, the Archduke Maximilian, may be
induced to decline the Imperial throne. Still we
cannot apprehend that any of these possibilities will
materially affect the ultimate result. We may be
quite sure that Louis Napoleon will not draw back
from an enterprise which is now so nearly com-
pleted, and which cost him so much. France can-
not afford to be baffled, and is not accustomed to
put up with failure and defeat, even in expedi-
tions which are not or were not popular ; and
if the Austrian prince should finally prefer a quiet
life at home to the splendid temptations of grati-
fied ambition, other less cautious, and perhaps less
eligible candidates, will no doubt be found. The
idea of erecting a monarchical government in Mex-
ico did not originate with the French Emperor.
More than twenty years ago it was felt by the
best and ablest dictator Mexico ever had, Santa
Anna, that the elements of a permanent and vigo-
rous democratic administration did not exist in
that country, and could not be created, and that
her only means of escape from ceaseless anarchy
and utter ruin would be found in the establishment
of an autocracy, and the selection of a European
prince. All that was sensible and educated among
the Mexican people felt as Santa Anna did. A ne-
gotiation, with the view of bringing about such a
result was (about 1842, we believe) entered into
with the chief powers of Europe, and their sanc-
tion and co-operation were requested. The plan
was favourably received, and matters even went
so far that the crown was informally offered to the
Archduke Frederick, and not refused either by
him or by the Court of Vienna. But the United
States threatened violent opposition, and the har-
mony which at one time had reigned among the
potentates of the old world was disturbed ; Santa
Anna fell from power; and the scheme fell into
abeyance. It was, however, in the main, too natu-
ral and judicious not to be sure of revival on the
first favourable opportunity ; and having been now
taken up and acted on by so resolute a Sovereign as
Louis Napoleon, we may fairly assume that, under
some modification or other, and under some chief
or other, Mexico will become a settled state, with
an imperial regime, and under the protection and
enforcement of a French army of occupation. It
remains for consideration how far and in what man-
ner this stupendous change will affect the ulti-
mate position and policy of the two great
divisions of what was once the United States. In
the first place a crushing blow has been struck at the
,6 Monroe doctrine," and that by the only Power
with which the propounders of that doctrine never
seem inclined to quarrel—perhaps because it is the
only one which is always ready to take up any
gauntlet. That insolent declaration, which assumed
to forbid not only the establishment or intervention
of any European power, but the erection of mon-
archical government, on any portion of the vast
continent of North America, was of itself preten-
tious in the extreme, and could find nothing either
in the claims of justice or the ultimate welfare of
the human race to warrant or excuse it. It was only
a few years since European and
in the monarchical autho-
rity had been compelled,
era of its feebleness,
to relax its hold on some of the fairest and most fer-
tile and most extensiveermore regions of that continent. It
year became year by obvious that republican
institutions were utterly unsuited to the dwellers in
those countries which, though they had succeeded
in throwing off theyoke of Spain, showed them-
selves quite unable to utilise or to maintain the free-
dom they had gained; and that the continued
attempt could only insure a long period of suffering
and turbiaenceisand a final result of complete degene-
racy and exhaustion. This, however, was of course
what the United States foresaw and desired. They
hoped, and with reason, that if they could only
warn off European aid and monarchical vigour long
enough from the emancipated colonies of Spain,
these would fall into their grasp as soon as they
were ready to take possession, and would, indeed,
be so wretched in their existing condition as to wel-
come any foreign conqueror who would rescue them
and rule them. Mexico especially was marked as
the first prey of the all-devouring Republic of the
West, which had already desolated her in two wars,
and snatched from her an enormous slice of terri-
tory by a shameless mixture of force and fraud.
The establishment of a Bottled and strong Govern-
ment in Mexico, under the protection of a first-
class European power, to be recognised by the rest
of Europe as a matter of courtesy and right,assoo
an
AA the establishment is complete, is therefore

double blow to the ambition of the Anglo-Ameri-
cans; it deprives them of a vast and rich inherit-
ance which they had long counted as their own;
and it cuts them off from the still more tempting
countries which lie still further So the south. In
fact, it gives them, for the first time iu their national
existence, a fixed and definite Southern boundary.
It renders their territory limited instead of un-
limited, though still enormous. It bounds their
imagination, and by that simple process wounds
their national vanity.

EXAMINER.—It was a maxim of Jonathan Wild
the Great to do no more mischief than was abso-
lutely necessary, as mischief was a thing too pre-
cious to be wasted. The American Government
seems to hold a similar opinion as to falsehood, and
a
in Mr. Seward's review of the war there is sur-
prising amount of truth. The Foreign Secretary
evidently thinks that sufficient for the day past was
the Lim-flarn thereof, and he therefore does not
romance about events which have passed into the
domain of history. What, indeed, would have been
the use of wasting precious falsehood upon facts
now beyond dispute? It was all very well upon
occasions of disaster to make things pleasant by a
little concoction of invention; but that is all gone
be, the truth too well established, and any fibbing
now would be worse than useless, absolutely detri-
mental. If the war were now described as a series
of successes, with a few exceptions having no con-
sequences, such as Bull's Run and Fredericksburg,
people would naturally say, why is it not all over ?
If so much has been done, how can anything remain
to be done ? Gross, indeed, must be the mismanage-
ment which allows the war to drag on which has
been marked with a succession of triumphs. Mr.
Seward is cunning enough to see that this would
not do, so he is truthful enough in his review of the
war till he comes to the recent turn of its fortunes
in favour of the North, and then he expends upon
it all the fine colouring he has kept in reserve.
Indeed, the dark shadows of the earlier passages
serve to set forth more brightly the present pros-
pect. According to the Foreign Secretary, the
Northerns were beaten till they could be beaten no
longer. They had exhausted defeats. They travelled
in the long lane of disaster till they came to the in-
evitable turning. For all this the American
Government will some day claim credit, showing
that all its seeming reverses were cunningly-
planned expedients for ultimate success. There
was once upon a time a charlatan who professed
drawing teeth without pain. When the credulous
patient was in his hands he would give a tug at the
grinder with his instrument, and, in reply to the
roar and angry complaint that followed, say, Now
that was merely to show you Cartwright's method,
that you should see the difference between his and
mine. Another tug, and another roar, and the ex-
planation that the pain was only to exhibit Spence's
method, and so on till the tooth hung by a thread,
when the quack mid, Now you shall have a speci-
men of my method, and whipped the tooth out
without more pain. And so President Lincoln, if
he ever succeeds in extracting the tooth, will say
that Bull's Run was only to show Burnside's me-
thod ; the period of inaction, M'Clellan's ; Frede-
ricksburg, Hooker's; and that his own conduct of
affairs commenced when the bunglers were all dis-
posed of. Upon the breaking out of the war we
repeatedly expressed our opinion that the North
could not keep any very large force permanently in
the field. They have succeeded in doing this to a
greater degree than we thought possible, but the
voluntary levies are now fairly exhausted, and the
Government cenfesses that its only remaining re-
source is conscription. How that will work we
shall soon see. But if it gives soldiers, it will give
such soldiers as will full surely revenge their forced
service by tremendously increasing the demoralisa-
tion already existing. In the memoirs of a French
veteran just published it is shown what a canker in
the armies of Napoleon was the rapine, which had
become a condition of their existence, and cause of
their dissolution. If this was the case with the
armies of France, how will it be with those of
America under a discipline so much laxer, and with
a national propensity so much stronger to insubor-
dination ? To be sure, it may be said that robbery is
the order of the day in the Federal States, that every
one who can is pillaging, and that the soldier only
does on a small scale what contractors and crea-
tures of the Government are doing on a great scale ;
but when men with arms in their hands follow this
prevailing fashion they are apt to cut out more work
than is bargained for, and woe to their employers,
with the wolf by the ears, which they can neither
hold nor let go. One day the conscripts' turn may
come, and they may say to the (government, "You
made us soldiers against our will, and soldiers we
will now remain against your will, and help our-
selves to indemnities for our forced services." For
law and liberty in America sad times are too evi-
dently in store, " bad begins and worse remains
behind." One good effect has been brought about
by this war. It used to be the reproach of quiet
citizens that in their security they delighted in the
account of battles, and could hardly be satisfied
with any amount of killed and wounded. This is
certainly no longer the case. The American war has
surfeited with carnage, and the battles, one just like
another, have lost all interest. The imagination
cannot grasp or follow things on so large a scale.
The high numbers are confounding. In a word, the
American war has become a nauseous drug, and
many people have resolved to hear no more about
it till it is over, like the Irish traveller in the sacked
town, who gave his order as he took to his bed,
" Call me when it is done." But when is it to be
done ? Mr. Seward tells all in Europe who desire
a restoration of peace, for the renewal of commer-
cial prosperity, to withdraw support and favour
from the insurgents, as if these were the only obsta-
cles to the termination of the war. Leave us to
ourselves, he says. But have the favour and support
been all on one side ? Have they not been pretty
equally divided, the South getting the largest share
of the favour, the North the largest share of the
support in the substantial shape of arms, munitions
of war, and the raw material of soldiers in many
thousands of emigrants ? There is always some
reason for not succeedingin a conflict. "If it had
not been for this or that, I should have thrashed
hile,"says every foiled combatant ; and Mr. Seward's
appeal to Europe betrays the consciousues of diffi-
culty at the bottom of all his vaunts of success.
COURT JOURNAL—MO Archduke Maximilian is very
wisely hesitating as to his acceptance of the Mexican throne,
holdinwouldreality
ambitious
ti hotbed
or r f
The Archduke has consulted his brother, the Emperora of
Austria, and his father-in-law, the Kin,S of the Belgians,
on the subject; and the latter Monarch,
who is ever ready
to give his friendly advice and services to those of his family
who seek it, cannot fail to point out to his relative the
dangers and disagreeables which would ensue upon his ac-
ceptance of the French offer. It is very clear that, without
a lengthened occupation by French troops, the Mexicans
will never become willing subjects of a foreign Prince; but,
however undesirable this may ho, the Archduke Maximi-
lian's rule would be the only security which Europe would
possess of the French occupation not becoming a perpetual
one. In case of the Archduke's refusal, a French Prince
will undoubtedly supply his place, and Mexico, in that case,
will be nothing better than an appanage of the Imperial
throne of France. "While the Archduke Maximilian has
been thus debating a proposal so momentous both to himself
and to Europe, his brother has been actively engaged in no •
gotiations of even greater importance, and which deeply
concern the future prospects acd welfare of Germany. The
Conference at Frankfort has been brought to a close, but not
without having been productive of a great amount of utility.
It is true that Prussia steadfastly declines to accept the
proposals of the Austrian Emperor, and that one or two
minor Princes of no influence or note whatever have fol-
lowed in the suit of the King, to whom they are tied by
personal or pecuniary interests ; but, nevertheless, the re-
mainder of the German Sovereigns have made up their
minds to adopt the Austrian programme in its chief par.
titulars ; and even if the union should be a partial one, it
will certainly be a source of greater strength to the differert
elements that compose the great German nation. Nor were
the deliberations of the thirty Crowned Heads solely con-
fined to the consideration of German Unity, for, although
only a secondary object, the Polish question was duly
deliberated upon in the private interviews which the
Emperor of Austria and the Grand Duke of Saxe-Coburg
held with the remainder of the German Princes. One and
all they concurred in the policy adopted by Austria, and,
such as it is, they lend their influence to support the three
Great Powers in the measure which they have adopted
towards Russia for the benefit of the Polish nation. Russia,
friendless and unsympathised with by any other nation,
except Prussia, would not dare to press matters on to active
warfare, in which, with all her power, she would certainly
have to succumb to the united forces of the remainder of
Europe. But while we see every cause for congratulation
at the time adopted by the German States as regards their
own interests and those of Poland, we cannot but deplore
the policy which they seem inclined to pursue towards Den-
mark andtSchleswig-Holstein. Without attempting to
plunge into the unfathomable mysteries of the eternal sub-
ject on which Scandinavia and Germany are at such com-
plete variance, it needs no argument to show that Denmark
is in every way justified in retaining her hold upon the
Schleswig-Holsfein provinces. Surely, while they are still
matter of dispute, the party in possession cannot be ax.
pected to deliver them up to the rival complainant, and
Denmark has done all that could be reasonably expected of
her in offering to submit the question to the consideration
of a general conference. Should Germany refuse this very
fair proposal, we cannot be surprised at the King and people
of Denmark resolving to maintain their rights vi et arm's ;
and it is gratifying to observe that Sweden and Norway,
with a noble spirit of generosity and self-sacrifice which is
not often met with in the transactions of nations, hove de-
termined upon lending every assistance to the Danes, who
claim the same origin as themselves, have the same re-
ligion and manners, and whose language is only a slight
different language from that spoken by the Swedes and Nor- ,

wegians, In the deplorable event of wir between Germany
and the Scandinavian Powers the duly of England would
undoubtedly be one of strict neutrality, but there can be no
question as to which side our sympathies would incline.
Iflctigre a certain awkward Danish despatch, which has now
become matter of European notoriety, our Government
would know this, and no Minister, whether Liberal or Con-
servative, would dare lend the slightest assistance to the
enemies of Denmark. Nevertheless, we trust that the good
sense of the Austrian Emperor will avert this threatened
calamity, and that he will endeavour to keep intact that
admiration and sympathy which he has excited in this
country by his bold attitude in Polish affairs, and his un-
flinching determination to grant his subjects a liberal and
truly constitutional system of gcvernment.