The Sun.
London, England, 1856-06-18 00:00:00

LONDON, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18, 1858.

The Select Committee of the House of CoMmons
on the Danish Sound Dues held their first public
sitting yesterday. The question on which they
are about to report is one of great consequence,
not only for the large sum claimed for the abo•
lition of this vexatious restriction on the trade
and commerce of the Baltic, and towards which
England is expected to contribute no less than
1,139,2711., but still more from the manner in
which the matter has been taken up by the
Cabinet at Washington, and which threatens
again to endanger the peace of the world. This
latter part of the subject is of a peculiarly press
ing character. It appears that General PIERCE
denies in. toto the justice of the charge, and that,
in consequence, Mr. MARCY, in November, 1853,
refused to carry out a proposition that had
been made on behalf of the United States
Government, in 1848, to pay 250,000 dollars
for the future exemption of vessels sailing under
their flag from these imposts, and it was inti-

mated that after the expiration of the treaty that
had been entered into in 1826 between Denmark
and the United States there would be no further
payment on account of these duds. This treaty
terminated on the 14th instant, and yesterday
the Sarah Bryant, the first American vessel that
entered the Sound since that date, was compelled
to pay the charge—which her captain did under
protest. The firebrand has thus already been
flung into the magazine, and we may look for a
speedy explosion. It is certain that America
will insist on restitution, and probably on
compensation to the captain, and if this be re-
fused, as it is almost equally certain it will be, on
exacting by force an equivalent.
What, then, will be the course of England and the
other Powers concerned ? If the assertion put for-
ward by Mr. MARCY, that these dues are wholly
illegal, being opposed to the first principles of
international law, it is quite clear that England
should not continue to pay them or give a large
sum for their abolition. But, on the other hand,
if the assertion be unfounded and the claim is
based on equity and justice, can we consent to see
any government enforcing an unjust principle,
the effect of which will be to give a monopoly of
the carrying trade to her own shipping. The
"law of the strong arm," the doctrine that
gg might makes right," may be a very convenient
one fer States that choose to respect no obligations,
but to act on every occasion in obedience to the
promptings of their own bad •
onattable will. But
in the long run it must be opposed. and suppressed
too
dangerous the general comity of Nations. It is
dangerous to the peace and tranquillityof the
world to be tolerated. The Autocrat recently
received a painful but salutary lesson that it may
be hoped has impressed this truth on his naiad.
It may be indispensable to the well-being of
society that President PIERCE should become a
pupil in the same school, and learn that " laws
are made for every degree," and must be respected
by the strongest as well as the weakest of States,
as well as of individuals.

It is satisfactory to find that in this instance
diplomatic action will be preceded, as ought to be
the case in every instance, by Parliamentary
inquiry, that there -will be a stringent and search-
ing investigation of all the facts on which Den-
mark founds her title to this tribute, so that
every individual throughout the length and
breadth of the laud may be enabled to judge for
himself of its validity. We will thus avoid
"drifting into a war" from want of the necessary
information, by which Government may be com-
pelled to do what is right and proper in the pre-
mises.

It Was not until the refusal of America to con•

tinue the payment, that the Danish Govern-
ment adopted any steps to place this mat-
ter on a satisfactory foundation. Then,
indeed, the advantage of the capitalisa-
tion of the revenue arising therefrom appeared
in a very striking point of view. Invitations
were accordingly transmitted to the Maritime
Powers of Europe to send representatives
to a conference to be held at Copenhagen, They
met accordingly. At first a sum of six millions
and three quarters (6,750,000/. sterling) was
claimed by Denmark, being at the rate of 25
years' purchase, on the amounts said to be realised
according to certain tables then produced. This,
however, was diminished by some 40 per cent.—
the demand being framed on a different set of
tables (although at the same rate of purchase)
and only 3,937,500/. was asked, of which Eng-
land's proportion would be, as we have already
stated, 1,139,271/. Russia, at first, was unwil-
ling to sanction the abolition of these dues, which
have always been resorted to as a valuable politi-
cal instrument to enhance her influence with the
Danish Couit. But when she found that England
also held aloof, she gave her adhesion to the pro-
ject. Lord CLARENDON very properly considered
that the question was one which should be de-
cided in the first instance by the Constitutional
Guardians of the public purse. Hence the ap-
pointment of the committee, whose public labours
were yesterday inaugurated.
They will have several important questions to

decide. First, of course, the validity of the claim
must be established. Should there be any failure
on that part of the case cadit qucesti,o, there can
be no difficulty in settling the amount of compen-
sation for that which is a mere usurpation—a
lawless tribute wrung from the hard hands of our
commercial men for a long term of years. It
marbe

" An aged vice, a grey iniquity ;"
but if it was originally a wrongful charge, or

the conditions by which its legality was sustained
have ceased, no lapse of years can render it equit-

able. There can be no statute of limitations be.

,vreen nations in such a case.

But assuming, for the sake of argument, that
its validity should be established, is it for
the interest of the great body of the peo-
ple that a claim which has hitherto fallen
exclusively on the shipping interest, and for
which it may have received compensation in some
other form, should be transferred to the Consoli-
dated Fund, and be extinguished by the imme-
diate payment of its capitalised value ? Many
elements must be taken into the calculation
before a satisfactory conclusion can be arrived at.
It may be very agreeable to the present KING to
receive a large sum of money at the expense of
his successors. But what will be the future con-
dition of Denmark if deprived of this source
of revenue, and what of the Danish bondholders,
many of whom are English subjects, whose rights
and interests must be taken into consideration.
A private individual would not be permitted to
alienate a large portion of his estate without refe-
rence to the claims of his creditors, and a nation
should be bound by a similar law.
It is only when these points have been clearly
disposed of that the sum demanded can be
taken into consideration. Looking to the
nature of the title, and the palpable flaw
therein, it seems to us that the demand is of
a very exorbitant character, which should be ma-
terially curtailed before it could be entertained for
a moment. These will be matters for the serious
consideration of the committee, and we hope and
believe that they will decide fairly and impar-
tially. We are placed in a very unpleasant
position, for whatever may be the decision it may
involve us in hostilities, either with the United
States or with Denmark, sustained and supported
by Russia, and possibly by Germany. We

must, however, decide justly, heedless of the co
sequences that may follow.

Is it not strange ? Strange, but no less true,
that the only two English soldiers who, during
the course of the late war, displayed anything at
all like real capacity for command, in union with
conspicuous pereonal valour, were the very two
men who, in the direst extremity, were aban-
doned ! WILLIAMS, the Hero of Kars—and
WYNDHA3f, the Hero of the Redan. Not, of
course, that we would for one instant compare the
two men, any more than we would draw a com-
parison between their respective situations. The
one the Chieftain of half-an-hour's carnage—who
spoke a few lucky words exactly at the right time
se—who preserved hope and serenity in the vary
jaws of death and despair—and who, when things
at last appeared to be utterly desperate, and
beyond the reach of any possible redemption,
moved to and fro in search of succour
with the coolness of one merely upon parade
amidst a storm of balls sweeping over au inclined
plain like iron hail driven along the surface of the
earth by the breath of a hurricane. That was
WYNDHAM—the Hero of the Redan—on the day
of the last fatal, but, as it ultimately proved,
effectual assault upon the southern defence of
Sebastopol. The heroic commander who has but
just returned to his native land covered with
glory and welcomed by popular acclamations—
WILLIAMS, the Hero of Kars, is, beyond all ques-
tion, a Military Leader entitled to a very different
degree and extent, and, for that matter, be it
added, a totally different kind of consideration.
He was something else than the Captain of
a Forlorn Hope. He was the champion not of a
handful of brave men, but of the representatives
of a whole gallant race. He was the defender
not so much of a solitary stronghold, as of the
key of an empire, the capital of a vast province,
the barrier raised partly by art and partly by
nature, in the region of rocky fastnesses, against
the incursions of a barbaric army, seeking through
it to ravage the Asiatic possessions of the out-
raged Sovereign of Constantinople. Whereas
General WYNDHAM was only called upon to dis-
play an uncommon amount of self-possession dur-
ing the horrors of one fierce and sanguinary con-
test, the struggle of one terrible half-hour—Sir
WM. WILLIAMS, of Kars, had to evidence, and did
so evidence in the most signal manner conceivable
during many months of terrific peril, anxiety, and
suffering the individual heroism of one fighting
sword in hand upon the battle-field ; the unflinch-
ing resolution of a Diplomatist assuming fur the
time being, during the interval of a dread ester-
Place, the responsibilities of military dictatorship;
the long-e a •
n nring valour of a Captain who had to
contend simultaneously against a host of foes,
ageing, watchful assailants without and wily
against fear and starvation, against
traitorsenemies
the alert, and friends never
extending a hand to him in the way of
assistance encouragement, leaving him is
his
glorious,r
b
utill.
fated stronghold, with-
out food, without clothing, without arms, with.
out money, without auxiliaries of any kind, with-
Hut even a moderate supply of ammunition.
Everybody knows the history of the ever-memor-
able defence of Kare, as it was conducted by Sir
WILLIAM FEN WICK WILLIAMS, until his good
sword, wielded so long and so successfully dgainst
such frightful odds, sell from his grasp, so to speak,
under the deadening influence of positive famine.

Everybody remembers that it was not actually
until the last biscuit had been served out that
the Hero of Kars and his dauntless followers
yielded at last to what had then become abso-
lutely inevitable in the dispensations of DIVINE
PROVIDENCE. Finding at last, when and where
they might least have expected it, a chivalrous foe
iu their brave enemy, the Russian General Mou•
RAVIEFF. Nothing of all this have we forgotten.
No—when we couple these two names together, no
comparison is at all, for one instant, attempted to
be instituted between General WYNDHAM and
General WILLIAMS, men of course who cannot for a
moment be regarded as in any way coming within
the same category. All we would earnestly at-
tempt to enforce by the casual juxtaposition of their
honoured titles as " Hero of Kars" and "Hero of
the Redan"—seeing, that among all the British
officers engaged in the late War, these were the
very men who were shamefully abandoned to ad-
verse fate in the hour of most supreme emergency.
Both failed, in consequence of this, in all that
they then and there attempted ; but each in his
respective way, in the very fact of his failure
proved (as fez as his own individual reputation
was concerned) resp7endently successful. Couple
with these considerations and these remembrances,
particularly in regard to the fate of Kars, that solemn
warning which has just been addressed to his
fellow-countrymen by our glorious compatriot Sir
WILLIAM WnLums, almost at the moment of his
pressing his foot once more upon the shores of
England—" Woe," said he, in reply to the ad-
dress of the Corporation of Dover (16th June,
1856)—" Woe," said the Hero of Kars, again
and yet again, with a very startling earnestness—
" Won TO THE NATION THAT FORGETS THE
MILITARY ART ! WOE TO THAT NATION

-WOE TO THAT NATION WHICH HEAPS lIP

RICHES B'CIT DOES NOT TAKE THE PRECA ET-
TION TO DEFEND TB " Adding, with a fervent
emphasis, /nosh impfessive as falling from such
lips—"l have passed through armed Europe,
and I take this the earliest opportunity of uttering
a warning voice to those who forget the military
art ! " GOD grant that this solemn admonition,
addressed by the Hero of Kats to England, may
neither be, forgotten nor contemned. It is the
protest of a great man, uttered betimes against
the craven dogmas ti the huckstering patriots of
the so-cawed School of Manchester.

Mr. I?i:ERcE and his Secretary are clearly
wrong on, one question—the interpretation of the
CL_A.vrom-BILLIvEa Treaty. The proof is their
own ass )rtion that they are right, coupled with
their rei.u.sal to submit that point to arbitration.
They dare not face an impartial judge ; we dare.
In common life such a refusal would satisfy bye-
standers that the party refusing arbitration had
made up his mind to have his way, and that for
that reasc:n he was afraid to pledge himself to
bow to a. just award ; it cannot be otherwise be-
tween ii.aAiona. Without weighing afresh the
merits of: the conflicting interpretations, it cannot
be doutted that PIERCE suspects his own case. A
footing he means to have in Central America, and
right wi t.h him is wholly a matter of indifference.
He has ,)onapellecl England to take back her Mini-
ster, an 1. he will c)mpel her to adopt his view of
the Tre ity or he will repudiate it.
We pad it to sensible Americans, whether, talk
as smoothly as he may, such a bully in action is
the man, who repro eats them? Do they wish to
transact business with the civilised world on the
principl,e.—l am always right, and you are always
wrong ? Do they wish to leave all fairness to the
Old Cutuktry, and to have a monopoly of one-
sidedness ? Have they really learned, from the
" intimate relations" which, Mr. MARCY says,
they wish to cultivate with Czars, the practice of
requirilag other States to be bound by their own,
it may lie extravagant, construction of treaties ?
Do they feel any pleasure in abusing the magna-
nimity of a great nation, and vaunting them-
selves, as if such safe braggadocio were real
courage: ? If not, surely it is time for the better
part of the cornmuTlity to take eourage, and to
protest against this unseemly behaviour of
their canvassing PRESIDENT. Their own papers
repres'ent him as coquetting with all the depravity
and barbarism cf the States by his vulgar defiance
of Eng:tan:l. Why d) they not make it plain to him
that gaining the HALEYS and LEGREES of his
country will be to lose all its better classes ? It
is gratifying to see that the French press at least
views the whole business in its proper light,
estimates at its value the big talk and pretensions
of the PRESIDENT, and justly attributes the for-
bearance and concessions of England to her con-
scious greatness and strength. America is afraid
of being thought afraid ; we have no such fear.
But surely the Northern States must see every
day more and more plainly the source of all their
trcubl.a. None have arisen internally or exter-
nally from what are termed (scarcely with truth
now) the Free States. Slavery is the one perennial
source of all their troubles. To extend slave
territory is the object of all their wars, and
the chief motive for these over-reaching projects
in Centr..al America. To nullify the increase of
free-soil Members in the House of Representa-
tives, by creating new slave states, each of which
sends a Member to the Senate, is the grand poll.
tical scheme of the slaveholders. They thus con-
trive, though in a very considerable minority of
electors, to grasp as much power, and more, than
the more populous fue states. Hence the deep-
laid scheme to get rid of a protesting envoy
while consummatinf.l their Central American
iniquity by recognising the buccaneer WALKER.
If, however, the conduct of PIERCE, fully
as base and violent in regard to Kansas as
to England, does no'-, open the eyes of respectable
Americans to the character of the man whom
they permit to affront our SOVEREIGN, and if
the brutal affair of Mr. SuaiNna will not keep
them awake to the quality of the support which
the candidate President intrigues for, then we
have nothing for it but to regard people and Pre-
sident as all corrript.ed alike by the depraving
influence of Union fir Slavery.

It is greatly to be desired that the opportunity
now offered for the purchase of Hampstead-heath
on favourable terms will not be neglected.
People who are not accustomed to spend the
greater portion of the day in the heart of the
metropolis, and are unacquainted with the op-
pressivens),:s of the summer atmosphere (roasted
air and dust stirry-I by incessant locomotion) in
the more crowded localities, can have little con-
ception of the longing desire for pure air felt by
the mass of the population. The Parks are a
great boon in their way, but too often overhot,
dusty, and confined to afford adequate relief.
The Heath is a Hoa h—not an apology for one.
The crown of an eminence, from which it is said
nearly half-a-score of counties can be seen—ex-
ceedingly picturesque and varied in bill, level,
and hollow—every variety of pic-nic enjoyment
may be had on it, with ttie certainty of being
enhanced by the purest, if not always the most
downy, breeze. An antidote to prim precision,
all the circumstances connected with it conspire to
give human nature elbow room and zest for
exercise, without trespassing on the bounds of de-
_forum.
Point of fact it is the only hit
.of

open country within many miles not exposed to the
charge of being a reservoir of more or less magnitude
for malaria, and to be deprived of it would be a
source of much regret and of no little evil. The
danger of being so, however, is exceedingly great.

A bill is now before the Legislature—the " Leases
and Sales of Settled Estates Bill"—which, if passed,
will in all probability enable Sir T. WILSON to en-
close, as he has long wished to do, the entire heath
—the ground being much sought after for building
purposes. This, however, is not all. Supposing
the bill to be rejected, the next lord of the manor
would has e uncontrolled power to do what the
present has hitherto been unable to effect ; and,
judging by the course of nature we may anticipate
the lapse of no long period first. The present,
therefore, is obviously the time when by some
equitable arrangement the Heath should be
secured for the service of the public in perpetuity.
The Metropolitan Board of Works, oppressed
with the magnitude of the sanitary undertakings
crowding upon it through civic and Parliamentary
neglect, has refused to treat for the purchase, or
have anything to do with the matter. We wish
a few rich and benevolent individuals, in conjunc-
tion with the owners of property in the neighbour-
hood, who are greatly benefitted by the proximity
of the Heath, would step in, so that a certain nal
being subscribed an appeal might be confidently
made to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who
in any case ought to be appealed to. Lord MONT-
EAGLE, when holding that responsible office, felt it
to be his duty, under like circumstances, to pre-
serve Primrose-hill from being encroached on by
purchasing that pleasing:but not easily accessible,
place of recreation for the use of the public.
The reason is still greater for the preser-
vation of Hampstead-heath, the most healthy
locality about London, which is much wanting in
such places, and is by no means likely to be over-
stocked with them—indeed, to have their num-
ber increased at all, though the number of the
population, and consequently of enclosures for
building increases wonderfully month by month
and year by year. A perusal of the proceedings
in the House of Lords will show that the value of
the Heath is appreciated by some of their Lord-
ships, and on the hint there given we sincerely
trust some of our influential citizens will resolve
to act. The state of the case has only to be fairly
laid before the public to insure something being
done by some authority or other, and in the joy
a generous mind experiences in the enjoyment and
welfare of others may be anticipated a rich and
most gratifying reward. Tile preserver of
Hampstead-heath would deserve more gratitude
than many who have built churches and founded
almshouses.

In another part of our present impression will
be found a noble subscription list on behalf of the
unfortunate sufferers by the late deplorable inun-
dations in France. To that list we beg to invite
the attention of our readers generally, and not
least of those who have expressed their approval
of its object, and are endowed by PROVIDENCE with
the means of furthering it. The'lCommittee
solicit subscriptions, and we sincerely trust this
opportunity to respond alike to the claims of charity
and of brotherhood will not be suffered to escape
unimproved. Commercial men, it will be seen,
have set a praiseworthy example ; and one which
we should more especially desire the aristocracy to
emulate—their names as yet not figuring on the
list in anything approximating to due proportion.
The entire country must be interested in the"
promotion of 'goodwill towards us among a people
so long our rivals by land and sea, but who of
late have given proof of their desire to entertain
feelings of friendship instead of cold respect, if
not of guarded hostility. It may be long before
so favourable an opportunity for achieving a re-
sult we all desire may occur again.