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

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TlMES.—Friday, in the close of the fetes at Ports-
mouth, was witnessed the conclusion of a memorable
episode in the history, not only of the French and
English navies, but of the countries which they
serve, and even of the civilised world. The spectacle
of the two most powerful nations of Europe convert-
ing their engines of hostility into instruments of
hospitality, and deriving from the very symbols of
warfare pledges of mutual respect and friendship,
cannot fail to be long remembered, and at once to
illustrate an honourable alliance and set a happy
example to other countries, and to future times. In
one instance, at all events, two great nations, with
distinct if not with rival dispositions and prejudices,
with differences of character deeply ingrained by
ancient histories and traditions, have found even in
their former antagonism grounds of mutual respect,
and have learnt that their very diversities may make
them the more necessary to each other, and the more
potent in advancing the happiness of the world.
Such a fraternisation will be a permanent protest
against that most dangerous and most wicked source
of hostility which lies in mere jealousy and in the
indulgence of national prejudices. We arm to defend
ourselves against wrong, but with no hostility to any-
thing else ; and no nation can look upon our arma-
ments in the light of a defiance, because to do so
would imply the consciousness of unjust intentions.
In former days we fought for aggrandisement or for
religion, and armaments were really engines of
mutual injury and provocations to hostility. Now
they are directed against nothing but injustice, and
are the emblems, because they are the instruments,
of peace, order, and civilisation. Strange, therefore,
as it may at first seem that ships of war should be
employed as means of expressing and cementing
friendship, nothing could, in fact, be more appropriate.
The change which has passed over our national rela-
tions is in nothing more strongly exemplified than in
the altered character and purpose of our armaments,
and it was a happy conception to express through
the naval services themselves the transformation
which their use had undergone. How completely
this generous spirit has established itself has been
made conspicuous by the efforts we have made to
surpass each other in the warmth of our hospitality.
The French, in the first instance, set us an example
which we could barely hope to imitate, and could
not possibly surpass ; and we, in our turn, may, we
think, congratulate ourselves on having convinced
our guests that if we have fallen short of their splen-
did hospitality it has not been for want of will. The
management of the fetes which were concluded yes-
terday has been creditable to every one concerned,
and it is not the least compliment which we have
paid to the French that we have at length taken a
lesson from them in the art of these public enter-
tainments. We have, indeed, been singularly
favoured by circumstances. We possess one great
advantage in the beautiful roadstead at the dis--
posal of the fleets. No artificial harbour can pre-
sent such an anchorage as Spithead, and it allows
the ships to be seen under peculiarly favourable con-
ditions. The weather has been, happily, almost all
that could be desired. Sunshine is the first and last
necessity to a successful fête, and nothing but the
unconquerable skill of the French could have over-
come such impediments to the external success of
their hospitality as were offered by the execrable
weather which prevailed at Cherbourg and Brest.
With us, however, the noise of the guns has suffered
no rivalry from the elements, the illuminations have
not been damped by rain, and the enjoyment of the
spectators has not been checked by anxiety for them-
selves or their uniforms. Nothing has been want-
ing that zeal or care could give to the banquets and
the open-air festivities, and if the balls have been
somewhat overcrowded it is to be attributed to the
inexorable laws of space. Portsmouth could not
be enlarged nor the number of guests diminished,
and the French will, we hope, forget their in-
convenience, and remember only that ah inordinate
number of people crowded to do them honour.
It has been rather by deeds than by words " that
our friendship has been expressed, yet the brief
speeches that have been made were not unworthy of
the occasion, and appropriatelyindicated the feelings
of which the minds of the two services must have
been full. The Duke of Somerset expressed the
additional gratification which had been afforded to
the English by the evidence they received that the
kind feeling of their guests was shared by the French
people in general, and we trust that a similar grati-
fication may be impressed on the minds of the
French. In. a graceful acknowledgment of the
kindness shown by French seamen to the sufferers
in the late disaster of the Bombay, he awakened
those feelings of natural kindness which make every
nation kin, and touched a chord of sympathy to
which Englishmen in general are as sensitive as
English sailors. M. de Chasseloup-Laubat re-
marked on the frankness with which, " with no
afterthought," we laid open to each other all our in-
ventions, and found nothing to conceal. We have,
in fact, one common object, and are but too glad to
learn from each other. Nor could he fail to be
struck with the stupendous exhibition of force which
the two navies represented. Such a mass, indeed,
of strength, of speed, and of destructive power could
not ten years ago have have entered into the wildest
dreams of a Minister of Marine. But in war, as in
everything else, it is well to have a giant's strength,
and fortunately we know how to abstain from
using it as a giant. Sir Michael Seymour and Ad-
miral Bouet-Willaumez happily expressed the more
personal feelings of friendship which had sprung up
in the course of common service between individual
officers, and showed that the national sentiment of
alliance was amply cemented by private friendship.
On the whole, an important event has been worthily
celebrated, and the two fleets and the two nations
may long remember with satisfaction the hospitality
which they exchanged in the summer of 1865.
POST.—To Prussia and Austria belongs the credit
of having demonstrated to their neighbours that
none of them who are not strong enough to main-
tain themselves against the despoilers of Denmark
are safe. At first sight it may appear as if Prussia
were entitled to carry off the palm in the amiable
rivalry in wrong-doing with her august ally. The
consistency of Prussia, ever since she became a
European Power, has been truly admirable. Her
very existence began in high-handed wrong-doing,
and she shows herself at the present day to be faith-
ful to the principles to which she owes her origin.
Prussia was originally made up out of the spoils of
her neighbours, and she is now seeking to enlarge
and aggrandise herself by the same process. The
policy of the great FREDERICK is being carefully
elaborated by Herr VON BISMARCK. The small
German Powers have been told, in a dialect much
more significant than mere words, what they will
have to expect when their time comes. But, though
the part played by Austria is not so well defined
and conspicuous, it will nevertheless be found in its
essence substantially the same as that of Prussia.
The only difference is, that Prussia is at present
engaged in the acquisition of new territory, whereas
Austria appears to be chiefly occupied with the re-
tention of territory which she had long ago acquired,
but which she has no right to possess, and which
she can only continue to possess in indirect opposi-
tion to the will and wishes of its inhabitants. If
Prussia will help Austria to hold the territories which
detest her rule, she will connive at the acquisition
by her faithful ally and inveterate rival of the ter-
ritories which have been reft from Denmark.
It is curious to observe on what principle two
such rivals may become fast friends and coadju-
tors. The principle is one which the other Powers
of Europe will do well to take to heart. Prussia
and Austria have entered into an arrangement for
helping each other to aggrandise themselves at
their neighbours' expense. Where is this to
end? We have seen where it has begun, but
how far it will go it is, of course; impossible to say.
Of one thing, however, we may be certain, that the
aggressions and ambitious designs of these powers
will only be limited by their strength and capacity
to do wrong. It is not as if Prussia and Austria had
even adhered to their original programme. The
spoliation of Denmark was essentially unjustifiable
under any circumstances and on any pretence. Still
there was pretence urged by Austria and Prussia in
the first instance. There was the talk about the
rights of nationalities, which, indeed, sounded not a
little singular in the mouths of those whose systems
are founded on the denial and exclusion of such
rights altogether. Then Austria and Prussia, we
were told, had taken the matter into their own
hands, and out of the control of the German Con-
federation, upon Conservative principles, and for the
notable reason that the Diet might not go too far
against Denmark. Indeed, it was for the sake of
Denmark, and in the interest of equity and Con-
servatism, that Austria and Prussia would not let
Germany work its will in its own way. But these
convenient and plausible statements have been long
thrown overboard. They served the purpose they
were intended to serve, and have been coolly shelved.
Prussia and Austria now give us to understand that
they became possessed of the Duchies by right of
conquest. They owe the acquisition to their swords.
As to the claims of Germany, of which we have
heard so much, the co-proprietors of the Duchies
do not even condescend to notice them. The whole
philosophy and history and traditions and laws of
the Schleswig-Holstein question have been entirely
dismissed from consideration. The indissoluble unity
of the Duchies is treated as a myth. They are to be
divided and disposed of as the conquerors may deem
expedient. It is quite obvious that as all the pretexts
on which Germany claimed to take the Duchies from
Denmark and erect them into a new member of the
Confederation have been cast aside, while the sole
right now relied on by Prussia and Austria is the
right. of conquest, there is no possible reason why the
allies should not treat any and every other Power
on the Continent as they have treated Denmark,

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 hitt)
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, 131
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.