The Sun.
London, England, 1854-05-01 00:00:00

NEUTRALITY OF THE NORTH ?

Sir Charles Napier has paid a visit to King Oscar
at Stockholm, and that potentate must before long
choose his side in the war. Neutral he cannot long
be. Will he follow the view of the people of Sweden
and Denmark, or will he not ? This is now the
question. The feelings of the populations of both
countries have been shown often enough. What
exact greeting Sir Charles got in the Swedish
capital itself the telegraph does not say ; but our
correspondent's letter speaks very confidently on
the point of Swedish sympathies, though written
before the impression sure to be created by the
arrival of the fleet itself off Stockholm. Turning
from Sweden to her neighbour, we may say the re-
ception given to our sailors and the greeting to
our fleet by the citizens of Copenhagen, Kiel, and
other towns are incidents of interest in every
view, but especially in the eyes of those who are
thoughtful and experienced enough to know that,
if the war lasts, the neutrality of the Baltic nations
cannot last. Our relations with Denmark have
been of deep interest since the days of the depar-
ture of the Romans from Britain, and never have
they been more truly important than since the
beginning of this century. Our mutual under-
standing during the coming struggle is one of the
salient points of interest in the near future ; and
there
_can be_no doubt that many more minds are
spec

_ ;ulating than there are tonguesheard to be talking
about it. If any one of the Scandinavian countries
is more deeply involved ix the issue of this war
than another, it is Denmark. Denmark has keener
feelings in regard to England than Sweden and
Norway can possibly have ; and, as matters have
been recently settled about the succession to her
throne, only three heads stand between the Czar
and her crown. Denmark knows, as well as the
rest of the world, that the Czar is very tall,
and has a strong hand ; and that whenever he has
a fancy for that crown he is just the man to put out
his hand and take it. These are incidents which
involve Denmark peculiarly in the existing contro-
versy, while she shares the liability of Sweden and
Norway to be drawn into the quarrel on more gene-
ral grounds. The three countries cannot be really
separated for any length of time in any such war as
the present, though they have had their own little
wars with one another. They have had their family
bickerings when they had nothing else to do with
their combative energies ; but they make an ex-
cellent clan when any enemy presses from without.
Margaret, the northern Semiramis had a world of
trouble to keep the three fractious children from
fighting ; and, good as was the Government of Nor-
way by Denmark at a later time, there were some
real grievances in it which caused much murmuring;
and now, again, the Bernadotte family find it no
easy matter to satisfy Norway while gratifying
Sweden, different as the two are in nationality,
though under one Government ; but, let Russia
but lay a violent finger on the smallest interest of
any one of the three, now that all are on the watch,
and we shall soon see what the other two will do.
In anticipating the alliance of one, then, we make
sure of that of all. The fact is, we have not the
slightest doubt of enjoying that alliance, if the war
is of any duration, and especially if, as we also an-
ticipate, Austria and Prussia declare themselves
on the side of the Czar.
The fact which is the most germane to the mat-
ter is that Russia has been the direct cause of the
painful ruptures that have divided England and
Denmark more than once since the beginning of the
century. Paul 1., and then Alexander, set us at
variance, and compelled England to do what it re-
quires all the magnanimity of Denmark to forgive.
And if Nicholas now drives them into each other's
arms, it will be with an opposite intention. It is of
the utmost importance that both nations should bear
this in mind, that the game of Russia should not, as
on former occasions, be played by the weakness of
Denmark. It is not, in fact, going too far back to
revert to Peter the Great as the first of the line of
Denmark's Russian foes. The confidential answer

to people who still wonder at St. Petersburg being
built in a shaking bog is that " St. Petersburg was
built more against Sweden than for Russia ;" and
if so, against Denmark, which, as a barrier between
Russia and the open sea, was sure to be destined to
conquest, though it might be the last victim of the
series. Catherine instigated the Danish Govern-
ment to peevish complaints of us, whenever her ca-
pricious likings went against us. It was Paul's tyran-
meal influence over the Northern Courts that
effected the confederacy of which Denmark paid
the penalty. In the very heat of the battle of
Copenhagen, there was no genuine enmity between
the Danes and the English. When Nelson went
ashore, during the 24 hours' truce, to confer with
the Crown Prince, the people received him with
acclamations and blessings, on account of his
humanity to the vanquished ; and he, the most
straightforward of diplomatists, set the matter on
the true basis the moment he entered the presence
of the Prince. Being asked what he meant by
coming up in this manner, with battle in his hand,
he pointed to Count Bernsdorf, the Minister, who
was standing by, saying that he was the cause of the
war by forming, as the creature of Russia, the
Northern Confederacy, which the British fleet had
come to break up. Paul was then actually dead,
though the event was not known. But how did his
successor act ? While our fleet was in the Baltic,
and when Nelson had taken the little Swedish fleet
and beaten Denmark, Alexander declared himself
in a most pious frame of peace. He was as Quaker-
like as the King of Prussia when breakfasting with
Mrs. Fry ; or as his brother Nicholas, the other
day, when impressing Messrs. Pease and Sturge
with the immaculate character of his morality ; yet
it was Alexander who compelled that tremendous
breach between us and Denmark which it is now,
and ever will be, the world's wonder that any na-
tion could ever forgive. There never could again
have been peace between the two countries after
the bombardment of Copenhagen and our seizure
of the Danish fleet but for the thorough under-
standing on both sides that it was the work of a
common enemy.
By the secret articles of the treaty of Tilsit,
Napoleon bound himself to give up Turkey to
the complete disposal of Alexander ; and Alex-
ander bound himself to compel Sweden and Den-
mark to fight against England by sea and land.
Alexander took heaven and earth to witness, in
public and in diplomatic intercourse, that the
treaty contained nothing disadvantageous to Eng-
land : and the Crown Prince of Denmark (nephew
of our old King) seems to have sincerely believed
him. His indignation, when required by our En-
voy to deposit his fleet with us for a tune,
was
what any Prince must feel at so extraordinary and
unaccountable a requisition. Our old King abruptly
asked our Envoy, when receiving his account of the
interview, whether it took place upstairs or on h
groundfloor. "He was on the groundfloor, please
yaur Majesty." "I am glad of it, for your sake,.
said George 111. ; " for, if he had my spiral
he
would certainly have kicked you downstairs.
It was only because be knew his nephew and
the Danish nation to be under coercion, that
our King would consent to our taking the fleet
which Denmark refused to lend. It was a dread-
ful necessity on both sides—the one having to inflict
and the other to suffer so much as in that terrible
i
bombardment of Copenhagen n 1807 ; but it was
the doing of Alexander of Russia ; and the fact
remembered. When he
ought to be eternally
found that the Danish navy was gone to England,