The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-02 00:00:00

f.•

except the reason that they do not find it conve-
nient or are not strong enough to do 'so. All the
excuses and grounds of justification on which Ger-
many first sought to take the Duchies from Den-
mark, and on which Prussia and Austria subse-
quently took the management of the affair into
their own hands, having been dismissed, and the
real objects and motives of the allies—namely, the
unjust and forcible acquisition of territory—having
been made plain, it becomes manifest that they
would be just as much entitled to take, and would
be just as likely to take, a portion of France or
England, or any other country, if it suited their
purpose, and if they had the power to do it. Such
is the disposition manifested by the two great Con-
servative Powers of Europe. Such is the precedent
they have set to other Powers. They have taught
the lesson that the public law of the world may be
totally disregarded when any one strong enough to
violate it may find it his interest to do so. Whoever
might be the rightful owner of the Duchies, the
moral comes to the same -thing. If, for instance,
we assume, for argument's sake, that the Duchies
ought to have been erected into a new German
State, it is clear that Austria and Prussia, or either
of them, can have no more right to these territories
than if they belonged to Denmark. In any and
every case, the acquisition and disposal of them by
Austria and Prussia is an act of flagrant wrong-
doing. European Powers will do well to take note
of this new precedent. It seems as if intended as
an antithesis to what we have seen take place in
regenerated Italy. There we have seen princes
who ruled their territories against the will of the
inhabitants dismissed by their subjects, who have
united with populations of the same race to form
a great, free, constitutional country. In the
Danish Duchies we see the example of territories
taken from the rightful owner—for whomsoever
the Duchies belonged to, they did not belong
to Austria or Prussia—and, together with the
population, disposed of a like quantity of
merchandise at the arbitrary will of the spoilers. A
time may come, however, when this precedent will
recoil heavily upon its authors. When we look at
the composition of Prussia and Austria, we shall be
forcibly impressed with the fact that they are the
very Powers of all others which should have avoided
setting such an example. If we go back to the old
cry of the rights of nationalities, upon which pre-
text it was originally sought to sever the Duchies
from Denmark, we shall find that, if these rights
were applied to Austria and Prussia, there would
soon be nothing of -those Powers left in Europe. If
we advance to the new principle now practically
avowed, that every power which happens to be
strong enough to dismember any other Power and
seize the spoil, the conclusion will be equally un-
favourable to Austria and Prussia, and that either
upon the theory of right or of expediency. What
Power" for instance, so well deserving of being
attacked and dismembered as a Power made up of
provinces wrongfully taken from its neighbours—
provinces whose populations detest the rule under
which they are compelled to live ? And what Power
capable of being so easily attacked as a Power whose
subjects must, for the reasons indicated, be natu-
rally disaffected ? There may be acquisitions so
ancient that time has given a prescriptive right to
them ; but it is not wise to remind the world, by
fresh examples of wrong-doing and aggression, of
the original process by which some Powers were
brought into existence. A more revolutionary
example, and in the worst possible sense, than this
which has been set by the two great Conservative
Powers of the Continent could not well be imagined,
and if they do not soon feel its effects upon them-
selves they will be more fortunate than they deserve
to be.