The Sun.
London, England, 1865-09-13 00:00:00

The Murder of M. Ott.

PARIS, Monday.
The Journal des De,bats of to-day, after drawing attention
to the words of the Moniteur, describing the interview of
the Spanish and French Sovereigns as an event calculated
to strengthen the bonds between the two Sovereigns and
the two countries, goes on to say :—" What is not an event
calculated to strengthen the bonds between two Sovereigns
and two countries is the murder of our compatriot, ' one
Ott,' as the Constitutionnel elegantly speaks of him, by Count
von Eulenberg, and the extreme mansuetude with which
the Berlin Cabinet and its agents proceed against the per-
petrator. The public indignation is strong throughout
France, and is at its height in our two Alsacian depart-
ments, of which the ill-fated M. Ott was a native. We
flatter ourselves, for our country's sake, that the sabre cut
dealt by Count Eulenburg causes some anxiety at the pre-
sent moment to Herr von Bismark and his colleagues.
They may send Count Eulenburg to quietly perform ca-
valry exercise in the regiment in which he is a lieutenant.
This misplaced bravado does not deceive us respecting
their state of mind. How many times a day must they not
sigh, and exclaim—' Ah, if it had only been a Prussian
killed !' The real misfortune of Count Eulenburg, that
which will render the Bonn accident liable to be treated
as a crime, even by the King of Prussia's Ministers, even
by the lordlings of Brandenburg and Pomerania, is that
this noble young man has ill chosen his victim. Instead
of chastising a shopkeeper of Bonn, a vile elector of M.
Mommsen, who could only appeal to the Prussian law,
and could have hoped for no other protection than that of
the too highly-extolled judges of Berlin, his undiscerning
sabre has struck a French citizen, protected by the public
law of Europe and our flag. The blood that has been shed
will have to be accounted for to a proud and susceptible
nation, who know nothing of the privileges of the hussar
lieutenants of his Prussian Majesty. Justice will be done,
we do not doubt. May the lesson profit Herr von Bis-
mark and his party. May they conclude, from the embar-
rassment which the murderous freak of Count Eulenburg
causes them, that the civilian has not been created and
brought into the world .to form an object of amusement
for cavalry officers, and that even had M. Ott been a Prus-
sian subject, he should not have been sabred. This, from
all we hear, is a paradox very offensive to the Prussian
staffs. The prevailing opinion among them establishes
between sub-lieutenants and private citizens a distance of
which no idea canoe formed in France, in England, or in
Austria. The Government has hitherto rather encouraged
and exalted than opposed this intolerable prejudice. It
may now see to what such a spirit leads."—Reuter's Ex-
press.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The Moniteur duly informs us that the
interviews between the French and Spanish Sove-
reigns, both at San Sebastian and at Biarritz, have
been most cordial. On such occasions popular sym-
pathy seldom fails to second royal hospitality, and
the friendly meetings of powerful monarchs are
welcomed spontaneously by their subjects. When
the good citizens of San Sebastian cheered the royal
party on the balcony so lustily while the flags of
France and Spain floated side by side on the fort,
they naturally accepted the presence of the Emperor
and Empress as a pledge of amity between France
and Spain. Such a spectacle is more rare in Spain
than in most European countries. The general pre-
valence of peace on the Continent for the last fifty
years, and the effect of railways, have greatly faci-
litated the personal intercourse of Sovereigns. For-
merly the reception of a royal guest was a State
affair, conducted with the utmost solemnity, and
involving an enormous coat. It is now a very com-
mon and simple event, and when the absurd
etiquettes of which German Courts are the
source and centre shall have been still further
broken down, kings and queens will probably
exchange visits with each other at much shorter
intervals. But the royal family of Spain
has hitherto stood a good deal aloof from others,
as if this free and easy society of crowned
heads were inconsistent with its ideas of dignity.
The Peninsular exclusiveness of Spanish policy has
been faithfully reflected by the Court, and it must
have cost the Queen some little effort to meet a
Bonaparte as Emperor of the French and a former
subject of her own as his Empress. The ice, how-
ever, has at last been broken, and everything has
gone off well. It is stated by the Madrid press that
the interview had been arranged so far back as April
last, and would have taken place at the capital on
the return of the Emperor from Algeria, but for the
political agitation then existing in Spain, and the
unsettled state of its relations with Italy. It so hap-
pens that the recent death of the Queen's uncle,
throwing the Spanish Court into mourning, would
have rendered public fetes in Madrid a little inoppor-
tune, so that a private visit to San Sebastian was in
all respects more convenient. The population seems
to have made up in enthusiasm for the want of official
ceremonials, and greeted the guests of their Queen
with every demonstration of hearty goodwill. The
days are past when such personal rapprochements
usually portended some nefarious design, or, at
least, indicated a change of political attitude.
This renewal of friendship between France and
Spain may be regarded rather as a consequence
of past events than as an omen of the future.
In spite of abortive insurrections, successive Minis-
terial crisis, and a persistent disregard of financial
obligations, Spain has been advancing in every
branch of civilisation. " Material progress" may
have been the first system of her revival, but it has
shown itself equally in the gradual abandonment of
her obsolete politics and the development of her
military power. The fall of Narvaez and the recall
of O'Donnell mark another epoch in her regenera-
tion. It soon appeared upon what terms the Libe-
ral Minister had returned to office. His first im-
portant act was the recognition of Italy, and that
recognition was not accompanied with any reserva-
tions such as were made by France herself. In the
meantime his administration has been already fruit-
ful in reforms of the electoral franchise, of the laws
regulating the press, and of the public finances.
The movement of which these measures are the
latest expression, but which has been gaining ground
with more or less interruption for the last thirty-five
years, cannot but strengthpn the ties between Spain
and Western Europe. An enlightened home policy
is the best guarantee of a pacific foreign policy, and
Great Britain has no less reason than France to re-
joice in the tacit repudiation of those reactionary
maxims which so long isolated and weakened Spain.
Other memories and other anticipations, however,
will be suggested by this event to the minds of
our older readers. Fifty-seven years have scarcely
elapsed since another Napoleon, not content with
the abject subservience of Spain, possessed himself
of San Sebastian on a treacherous pretence, and
entrapped the royal family, with the favourite
Godoy, into the fatal conference at Bayonne. There
is not a blacker page in history than that which
describes the schemes whereby Napoleon procured
from Charles IV. the resignation of his crown,
which he forthwith transferred to Joseph by an
imperial decree. The sequel of this transaction is
well known. It was such as to extort from the
Emperor himself the confession that the conquest of
Spain had proved his ruin. The annexation of this
splendid province had long been the dearest object
of French ambition ; it was at last effected, at least
to all appearance, but it brought with it the pros-
tration of the Empire and of France herself. The
necessity of " security on the Pyrenean frontier "
was
rscasx t fort e 'Per.-"'""1
uie real motive
was the hope ui employing the resources of pi ii
against England, and Napoleon had perfect confi-
dence in his ability to convert this ancient monarchy
into a French dependency. It is highly improbable
that any of his successors will ever recur to this
Napoleonic idea ; but we wish we could add with
truth that such fraudulent and arbitrary proceed-
ings as those whereby the first Napoleon com-
passed his aims are no longer possible in modern
Europe. The morality of the Gastein Convention
resembles too nearly the morality of the Bayonne
interview for us to indulge in any such self-congra-
tulation. It is now evident that under pretexts as
hollow as those which masked Napoleon's vast pro-
jects of dismemberment and spoliation, M. Bismark
has been plotting the partition of the Danish
monarchy for the benefit of Prussia. The indis-
soluble union of Schleswig and Holstein was the
very basis of the intervention. The one province
has now been assigned to Austria and the other to
Prussia. The claims of the House of Oldenburg,
the House of Augustenburg, or any other House
that would serve the turn, were put forward with
pompous insincerity against those of the reigning
House of Denmark ; it now turns out that all were
to be ignored as soon as Prussia was fairly in pos-
session. The right of the Schleswig-Holsteiners to
choose their own Government was strongly asserted,
and was, indeed, by far the best argument on the
German side ; it is now utterly and deliberately cast
aside. It is strange and melancholy that a policy,
so perilous to the peace of Europe should be re-
vived, not by the " ancient enemy," but by the
" natural allies" of Great Britain. It warns us
that even in the present day we must rely on the
fear of consequences alone to restrain the imperious
instinct of territorial aggrandisement.
HERALD.—The Times newspaper wishes to add a
few ships to the effective strength of the American
navy ; and these ships are the English squadron in
the Pacific. The object of the proposed coalition is
the capture of the Shenandoah, which, although
President Davis lies in a Northern gaol, and Gen.
Lee is the victim of shameful attempts to rob him
even of his parole, still carries the Confederate flag,
and commits havoc with Yankee commerce on the
high seas. The commander of this ship, Captain
Wardell, has evidently had no precise information
of the events which followed the surrender of Gen.
Lee, and therefore he very properly refuses, upon
imperfect data, to strike his flag, throw his guns
overboard, and " convert" his vessel by means of a
new coat of paint and a re-arrangement of deck ac-
commodation. Instead of taking this peaceful course
he swoops down upon everything that carries the
Stars and Stripes, and even such small deer as the
Arctic fleet of whalers attract his awkward atten-
tions. He has not been officially informed by his
Government of that Government's collapse, and in
the absence of precise instructions from home, he
pursues his career of hostility to the Yankee flag,
just as though the Southern armies had not melted
away, the Southern Cabinet been dispersed, and the
Palmetto flag ceased to wave as an emblem of autho-
rity. The case is, it must be admitted, somewhat
peculiar ; for the Confederacy seemed rather to die
out, without making any sign, than to yield upon
terms of arrangement. The generals of the South
capitulated : that was all. Then came the sauve
qui peut, and we only hear of the deceased power
now and then as the names that made it famous ap-
pear in Northern indictments, and head tales of suf-
fering in Northern prisons. To Capt. Wardell the
war is still in progress, and the commission under
which he sails still holds good. Common sense must
take this to be his explanation ; for otherwise he is
burning and destroying American vessels at deadly
peril in the face of a furious and excited antago-
nist. Still, we cannot second the proposal of the
Times that the English fleet in the Pacific should
be sent in chase -of Captain Wardell and the
Shenandoah,- for the privateer has respected the
rights of neutrals, and has given England no special
cause of offence. His capture and punishment be-
long to the navy of the United States, not to us ;
and it is strange that with no contest at present on
their hands, Northern statesmen cannot devise a
plan by which this solitary remnant of the Southern
power—this Flying Dutchman of the Pacific--can
be trapped and made practically aware that his
commission has lapsed with the lapse of the Confe-
deracy. The idea of England pulling this chestnut
out of the fire for Uncle Sam's especial benefit is
one that could only occur to a zealot, and where
freshness of conversion balances the fierceness of
new faith. Converts are always a trifle too ready to
prove their enthusiasm, and our contemporary is no
exception to the rule. Generally speaking, that
journal is fertile in pleading precedent, and in
assuming respectful allegiance to the dicta of writers
upon international law. But so Northern has the
Times become that the poor jurists fare badly when
their opinions are likely to clash with the interests
of the North. Referring to the case of the Shenan-
doah, the Times says, " It would be absurd in such a case to entertain the questions raised by jurists as j

to whether there must be an official notification of
a peace, and whether an individual can be respon-
sible for ignoring a peace of which he is technically
ignorant." We are not quite so sure as our contem-
porary about the absurdity of consulting authority
in. a matter so difficult to decide, and this is just one
of the cases where, while Capt. Wardell may be
morally wrong, he may be also technically right.
When the dogs of war are slipped, their masters
call them back, and when the master makes no sign,
it is open to question whether in continuing the chase
the dogs have not some kind of excuse. We put the
matter this- way, because the very strong advocacy
of Northern interests shown in the proposal of the
Times that instructions should be sent out to the
command of our squadron in the Pacific to join
the American navy in hunting down this single
vessel, the Shenandoah, looks a little like forget-
fulness of precedent, and, indeed, of propriety.
We do not believe it would be palatable to Eng-
land to find its Pacific squadron thus employed,
while the entire strength of the United States navy
is free to capture this solitary survivor of the
Southern naval power. It would be a " friendly
act," no doubt, towards America; but it would be
a piece of hasty friendship that America should be
able to do without. This persistent privateer can
surely be caught and stopped by the able power which
took the envoys from the Trent, and swooped down
and overhauled with a high hand so many inoffen-
sive and neutral craft during the war. It is too bad
to ask us to help America in extinguishing this last
small spark of the Southern conflagration when it is
considered that during the contest America so fre-
quently helped herself in even neutral waters. Be-
sides, the proposition is evidently put forward as a
feeler. It is a hand of support held out to Earl
Russell, after the noble lord has done all that the
occasion requires by warning our colonial authori-
ties against harbouring or succouring the Shenan-
doah. We have not interfered by representations
of a humane character with the way in which it
pleases America to crush the last embers of the
Southern rebellion. Nothing has officially emanated
from England in deprecation of the treatment suf-
fered by Jefferson Davis. If we leave America un-
advised to deal with her captives we may well leave
her to do justice upon the single vessel which still
defies her ; and for the English and American fleets
to join in a crusade against a solitary privateer that
has not discovered the termination of the war, would
be imposing enough, perhaps, but nevertheless some-
what over-adequate and ridiculous. As to Captain
Wardell's proceedings, while we may deplore the
continuance of them, we do not well see how they
are to be prevented till the energetic commander has
fair warning that they are a little out of date. But
what we insist chiefly upon is, that England has no-
thing at all to do in the matter, and that the Times,
in advising English interference, is taking a dan-
gerous and uncalled-for course. Captain Wardell
must and should be dealt with by the United
States, for mankind has constantly to witness
grievances that wait for repression by those who
have provoked them. These ideas may perhaps
read coldly to new converts ; to advocates who are
for the plaintiff to-day and the defendant to-morrow,
and who are always to be found gravitating towards
the side of success. The Times has this failing. It
has veered hither and thither during the. American
war till it found a resting-place in the arms of the
North. The Confederacy crushed, the wind novr
blows all from one quarter with the leading journal;
and whilst its correspondents abroad culminate the
South, at head-quarters it proposes to aid the North
in capturing a single ship by "instructions sent to
the commander of our Pacific squadron." It would
be better for the fleets of England to mind their
own business—which is the protection of the British
empire in all its ramifications—than to wart time,
money, and sympathy in helping a great power tO
capture one despairing cruiser that still trouble
American commerce. By all means let Captain
Wardell and his ship be warned of the facts, but let
the work be done by those whose duty it is to per-
form it. The circumstances of the whole case are
not such as to demand English interference ; and to
put an English fleet on the scent of a solitary op-
ponent of Yankee power would, we think, be hold-
ing America too cheap and making England too
forward.