The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-28 00:00:00

thus to the weather. Furious fighting the belli-
gerents have had since then, no doubt, stern heroic
combat has vindicated alike the fair fame of the
North and of the South, their warrior fame
that is for daring and endurance—'and this, too,
upon many dreadful fields of slaughter—but still the
supplies have passed abundantly from. the Federals to
the Confederates. The patience of the population of
the North, through all this stormy period of strife
and ruin, almost passes our comprehension, now
that we come to look back upon it. What they are
hoping for—what they are looking forward to—it
would be -diffivalt to conjecture. For the seizure of
Richmond ? Their urgent necessity, it is rather, to
look anxiously, again and again, to the safety of
Washington. The conquest of the South? The
victories in the vast majority of instances
have been conspicuously and undeniably on the
side of the Confederates. The rising up at
last of a military chief whose genius and
valour may at length turn the tide of battle and
render the Northern cause, through success upon
success, triumphant ? Why, it is notorious that
one after another the Federal Commanders-in-Chief
have been egregious failures, almost as egregious
failures as the Federal President himself—Mr.
LINCOLN being well matched by disappointing
Generals like M'CLELLAN and HOOKER and
MEADE, Generals beaten,ou twitted, out-man ce avred,
trapped, and one after another, in consequence
of all this,—shelved by their own liovernment
Whereas, upon the other hand—there is
President DAVIS not the least bit in the
world of a failure—but just exactly the diametrical
opposite of a failure. And, co-operating with DAYIS
as the political Ruler of the Southern Confedera-
tion, there is all the while, there, at the head of the
Confederate army, the greatest soldier the whole
war has produced—that General ROBERT LEE, of
, whom STONEWALL JACKSON used to say that he
would obey his orders at all times, and under any
circumstances, no matter what they were, instantly
and unhesitatingly. And, grouped around that cen-
tral figure of the Great Captain, we know how many
gifted and heroic Generals there are (the noblest of
them all, alas ! gone, it is true !) as LEE'S lieutenants
in the conduct of the army of the Confederates—
that valiant and adventurous army, now again
threatening so very closely the Federal capital of
Washington.

There are some questions that seem fated to be
the standing perplexities of European statesmen.
Diplomacy fails to unravel their intricacies, while
Time, instead of smoothing the way, only adds force
to the obstacles in the road to a settlement. The
state of Poland has long been one of those vexed
questions, while Turkey bids fair to become ano-
ther. Schleswig Holstein, occupies a prominent
position in this catalogue of official difficulties, and
for years it has been the plague and perplexity of
successive statesmen. It consists of elements as ir-
reconcileable as Russian tyranny and Polish na.
tionality ; it is influenced by agencies as antago-
nistic as Moslem effeteness and the spirit of
progress which animates Christendom. If its course
has not been marked by the disaster, bloodshed,
and suffering of the prolonged and mournful story
of the Poles, it has nevertheless served to cripple
the energies and retard the development of a high-
spirited and enterprising people. It has embroiled
the inhabitants of what might otherwise have been
a contented and united people, in constant conten-
tions and disputes with their neighbours, while the
independence of the North has been threatened,
and the whole peace of Europe imperilled by the
unjust and unreasonable ambition of one encroach-
ing Power. Matters are now, it would seem, ap-
proaching a crisis ; and in spite of German delibe-
ration, and the various hindrances in the way, we
are likely to see the long-pending dispute brought
to an immediate issue. It is often said that slow
people are the most difficult to move when they
have once made up their minds, and the rule would
seem to hold good with nations as well as indivi-
duals, for the German Diet having once determined
on proceeding to extremities in Holstein, are not to
moved from their purpose by the resolute attitude
of Denman:, the alliance concluded bet ween that
Power and Sweden, or the threats, entreaties, and
persuasions of Earl RUSSELL. Our English
Foreign Secretary indeed occupies at this mo-
ment no very enviable position, thanks to
his own inconsistency and extraordinary conduct.
Conscious, perhaps, of the responsibility attaching
to his present actions, and sensible how completely
the feelings as well as the interests of the country
are identified with the Danish side of the question,
he is anxious to prevent, if possible, the fulfilment
of the German threats, and to avoid the possibility
of a collision with Prussia. But, remembering his
former vacillation, and the ingenuity with which
he endeavoured to make the worse appear the better
cause only last year, we ought not perhaps to feel
surprised that his intervention appears neither to
have materially modified the intentions of Germany
nor to have substantially encouraged the hopes of
Denmark. The text of Earl RUSSELL'S second note
to Sir ALEXANDER MALET is now before us, and
the Diet has certainly no reason to complain of its
tone. It begins by requesting Sir ALEXANDER to
represent to the President of the Diet the readiness
of Denmark to modify the obnoxious patent of
March 30, so far as to make it provisional until such
time as the position of Holstein be finally settled.
With such dispositions Denmark hopes to obtain an
adjournment of the threatened Federal execution.
The next paragraph proceeds to a little stronger
language. Having tried persuasion, Earl RUSSELL
thinks it bat prudent to show that the disadvan-
tages of hostilities are not all on one side, as the
probable blockade of the German ports would be
very damaging to the commerce of the Fatherland.
The Diet is further reminded that, in the event of
the war extending to Schleswig and Jutland, Aus-
tria
and Prussia, as well as France and Great
Britain are bound to respect the integrity of Den-
mark by the treaty of 1852—treaties having proved
to be such serious obstacles in the way of ambitious
and un„r
Holstein
apulous Sovereigns! The dispatch con-
cludes with a declaration that, although the British
Government
Diet in fully acknowledges the claims of the
that, if the Germ and Lauenburg, it is of opinion
those Duchies demands were restricted to
' they might be satisfied,
without proceeding to
extremities. This is
telling the Diet very much
and what was pretty plainly admitted what it knew before,
by Denmark
famous proclamation
If the in-
in the of March.
farther
LI
thanil an
tn theark
terferenco of the Diet extended no
German duchies, we should have heard .
less about
the Schleswig-Holstein question
be mustering her force
would not now a. We should
have been glad :o see a decided intimation that Eng-
land would feel it her duty to support the resistance
of Denmark take the place of this closing platitude,
Et
a declaration which would probably have been
good deal more efficacious. Unfortunately, the
antecedents of our Foreign Secretary are by no
means alarming to the Prussians or cheering to the
Danes, and accordingly we find King CHRISTIAN is
reported to have said in a recent speech that if
compelled to succumb, if France and Sweden per-
mitted Denmark to share the fate of other trampled
nations, he would never consent to dismember his
kingdom, but would descend from his throne and
proclaim a republic. If this oingular declaration