The Sun.
London, England, 1863-11-23 00:00:00

at any rate, the tendency towards higher fates. It
is very likely that India and other countries may
draw away a larger share of our money than they
have hitherto done, and that a continuance of high
rates will be required to maintain egnilibrium at
home. Notwithstanding the ambiguoas aeaurances
of the official organ, it is difficult to see how a
French loan can be much longer deferred,and there
may be other calls quite sufficient to prevent money
from becoming just at present as plentiful
as it was a month or two back, But we have
more than ordinary resources to set against any
threatened drain. We shall have far less than
usual of imported corn to pay for, and it may well
be calculated that there will be abundant strength
to sustain any demands that may come upon this
country, in the absence of any special check or dis-
turbance in the course of crimmorcial affairs. A
period of diminished buoyancy is not of necessity
an evil time. In its ultimate effects, it is often the
best financial tonic that can be administered, and
the ayunptoms which have as yet revealed them-
selves point rather to a bracing commercial atmo-
sphere than to a nipping frost. if this should prove
th© true reading of the signs of the times, the
moderate increase which has taken place in the
stringency of the market should rather be welcomed
as a wholesome influence than dreaded as the pos-
sible precursor of greater severity in store. For
once, the mote hopefal seems to be the sounder

judgment.
EXAMlNER.—Christian IX. has ascended the
throne of the united principalities of Denmark,
Slesvig, and Holstein. His title to the triple sceptre,
like that of the First George who bore rule in these
kingdoms, is founded in constitutional right, ratified
by public law. Like Qaeen Anne the late Sove-
reign died without issue, and passing over the direct
heir in the male line, the crown, by a previous act
of settlement, devolved on a relative whom the
estates of the realm had long recognised as the ex-
pectant sovereign. Then, as now, a claim was set
up in contravention of law and right,la claim founded
on the bare principle of legitimacy, and impugning
that which constitutes the foundation of all regal
authority in modern times—the consent of the
governed. Curiously enough, a doubt was cast in
the former case as in the latter, upon the validity
of the pretender's claim to be his father's princely
heir. The Prince of Wales, born 1688, was for
party purposes, at the time, said to be suppositious
though nobody of sense or candour long believed
the table ; and nobody pretending to correct his-
toric information now wastes a thought upon
whet was unquestionably a mere slander. The pre-
sent Duke 01 Augustenburg was confessedly born
in wedlock, and about his parentage there is no
dispute. But his mother became his father's wife
by a morganatic marriage, that is to say, she was not
of the sovereign caste; and according to the tenets
of German Toryism, youth, beauty, virtue, and con-
stancy cannot cure the congenital defect of inferior
blood, The Duchess of Augustenburg's family be-
longed to the class which in England we call the
gentry; and her children were therefore not re-
garded as capable of inheriting any of the preroga-
tives or privileges of Divine Right. The late Duke
was reminded officially of the fact by the Ministers
before be signed the treaty of 1852, in which the
succession to the Danish crown was solemnly de-
clared, and morally guaranteed by six of the prin-
cipal Powers of Europe, to be vested in the colla-
teral branch of Glucksburg. This. like all other
distinctions of the kind, we utterly discard as worse
than worthless, inasmuch as they tend to raise a
false issue, and to divert popular attention from the
only one worth trying or determining. We men-
tion the circumstance only to illustrate the parity
of the two cases even in points unessential. If
hereditary right, founded in the feudal law of
primogeniture, could have determined the possession
of the British throne, James 111. was undoubtedly
the legitimate King of England, Ireland, and Scot-
land, and George I. was a usurper. But if, by a
solemn and deliberate act of the Legislature, passed
in the lifetime of the preceding monarch, with the
full assent of the Government, a descendant of
ancient royalty through the female line might be
preferred, then the Elector of Hanover was our
rightful and lawful sovereign, and the son of
James 11. was but a pretender. And so in
the instance actually before us. Christian IX.
comes of a younger branch of the Ducal house
of Holstein ; and Prince Frederick is ad-
mittedly the male representative of the elder.
We raise no special pleas about his mother's mar-
riage, or the validity of his father's renuncia-
tion of his claims on his own behalf and that of his
son. These were miserable grounds on which to
come to a decision respecting the government of an
important territory lying in the very heart of
Christendom, and inhabited by a community fit to
be free. Duke Frederick is a pretender, because
he sets up his personal pretensions against, the will
of the people and against the laws of the land.
That is our only objection to him. But if it is not
held to be fatal, then Victor Emmanuel is a usurper,
Isabella 11. is not Queen of Spain, and Henry V. is
lord of France and Navarre. The public law and
the civilisation of modern Europe must be abandoned
as untenable fictions, based on a tissue of impudent
frauds, and upon nothing else, if the Ducal crown
of Holstein can be claimed by virtue of mere descent
on the part of the Duke of Augustenburg. The for-
mation of every constitutional government is
brought into question, if the title of Christian IX.
be impeached. It is said, however, that a partition
of the Danish monarchy would satisfy his Serene
Highness; and that provided Holstein and Lauen-
burg be handed over to him, he would be content to
allow his remote relative to rule at Copenhagen.
We have very little doubt that his ex-Majesty of
Naples would cheerfully agree to a like bargain
with Victor Emmanuel, and we dare say the heir of
Don Carlos would come to similar terms with his
cousin who reigns at the Escurial. But here the
voice of international justice and policy makes itself
heard, and declares that it is not for the common
weal that the united provinces which have composed
the Danish monarchy for generations should be
dissevered for any purpose whatsoever, least of all
for a purpose so ridiculous as that of creating a
new principality for a gentleman of ambitious
tastes, but whose merits and talents are utterly
unknown to mankind. If Duke Frederick,
by bravery, eloquence, or the specific genius
for rule, had convinced the Slesvigers, Hol-
steiners, and Danes that he was likely to make them
a better king than his cousin Christian, they would
probably have resolved to give him a trial, and we
should have had nothing to say about the matter.
But we have much to say on our own account and
on that of our neighbours against the disruption of
any of the secondary States of Europe, which have
hitherto shown themselves able to maintain with
honour and integrity an independent existence. We
only wish there were more of them, and that they
were stronger, for undoubtedly they are already too
weak and too few. The integrity and independence
of Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and Belgium are in-
dispensable to the liberty of Northern Europe. Let
one link of the chain be broken, and the maintenance
of the remainder will become difficult, if not useless.
Prussia does not conceal her lust for aggrandisement,
and there is nothing in her way to a seaboard on the
Atlantic but free and gallant Denmark. Her advance-
ment westward would inevitablybe followed by that
of Russia, which has already absorbed one third of
the Swedish monarchy, and which, with or without
the aid of her Prussian henchman, would then absorb
the rest. And when these things had been done, who
would say to the aggressive ruler of France, hitherto
shalt thou come and no further. Fortunately for the
peace of Europe, the Courts of Paris, St. Petersburg,
and Berlin, took part in the treaty settlement of
1852, which bars all attempts at a partition of Den-
mark. The present ministers of Prussia are indeed
capable, we believe, of any inconsistency or folly
that can he imagined ; and we are sorry to be com-
pelled to think that, upon the particular point under
consideration, a numerous section of German Libe-
rals are but too well disposed to encourage them in
an anti-Danish policy. But on the part of this coun-
try there is no room for parley or hesitation, We
have paid too dear a price for the shameful and
cowardly acquiescence of our fathers in one signal
act of partition, and we are in no mood to be duped
or bullied into assenting to another.
LONDON REVlEW.—Amongst the episodical in-
cidents of the war now raging in America there is
one of peculiar interest, as it involves the probable
solution of a vexed problem in the philosophy of
race. The question of the capacity of the negro for
military service has been raised in a practical form.
As is well known, the Federal party has arseadsoly.
had recourse to the employment of negroesof men of
a
diers, and regiments entirely composedin actual war-
that complexion have been en
g also been inti
like operations; while an intention s of truing that
experiment on the largest scale
at the man y qualities
pbae p
b il lut
put to
touf
ab
decisiveeari ng atremsts
.
mated by the authorities of the h
Southern States.
It is therefore not unlikely th
l
owfitthhe effinecgierno,cya,
As the matter is in a degree still under debate, it
nwdills his
soon
en a
may not be inopportune to point out that for many
years—for a period almost coeval with the establish-
av
the
ti
ment of the standing army of Great Britain on
eenro
regimentstled
in
of
something like its present extended footing—men
of African birth and origin have h
and e
the service of this country,
which they are composed have always taken
placer in the regular corps of the line. IT their
designation of West India regiments, Under the
considerable
body of negroes proper have performed a
the duties of
British soldiers in all respects,
that their services have been local,
witha the exception
and
in the main
confined to our tropical colonies. During the war
which was brought to a close in 1815 at least
six of these black regiments were enrolled in our
army, and were employed on active service in the
contests which tack place between France and Efig-