The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1848-04-28

federation or repubiic-be IL VIII II II MAYS even
now beginning to assume towards Its surround.
ing neighbors. Ii is commonly remarked. that
when very sober, peaceable people, allow them
selves to be seduced into drink ing bout, the first
organ tlckled by the vinous influence, as It as
cends into the brain, is the organ Of cOmbative-
ness. Your regular water drinker is the most
quarrelsome man in the world when drunk. A
SINH ar result, If we may be permitted
the use OF 30 vulgar an illustration, seems to have
been wrought upon the German mind by the
restlessness lnseparable from political change,
and the Inc brlating prospect of the speedy reali
zaton of their favorite scheme of national unity.
VINO would have Thought, two months ago, of
seeing Germany squaring up to the Gar. shaking
her fist in the fdcs of the King Of Denmark,
scowllng at France, and turning her back on EGG
land =! Who would recognize IN the bellicose
percentage whom we behold tucki ing up his cort
cuffs with so much emphasis, and expressing his
determination to fight hi huge Russian nelghbor
in month, and thrash his d,mlnutive Scandina-
Wan one ''before the harvest" the social, kindly,
lately smoked our pipe, and talked Greek and
metaphysics
The rupture between Denmark and the d lchies
of Slesw c and Holstein offers ready conductor
to this irrasclble spirit OF nationality, and can
hardly fail to provoke ,oar, unless the Danes
submit to the conditions pr0posed to them and ac-
quicsce in the severance Of Slesloc from the
GROOM of Jutiand and the Isles. Unfortunately
the quarrel 10 too ancient, and too much embit-
tered by animoslties and heart-burnlngs of a
character not merely political, and the loss Of
territory involved in such q concession would
be too ruinous, to make it probable that they
will weld except at the swords point SO early
as 1866 five years after Frederic III had estab-
ll-hed the descendibilty of the Dlnish crown in
the female well as the male llae, that mo-
march commenced his efforts to effect a cores
pondng modification in the law of succession
in both the duchies The same object was kept
in view throughout the quarrels IN which the
branch of the house of Odenburgh, reigning In
Denmark, was afterwards engaged with the
n n
former in the government of Seswlc and Hol-
stein, and adhered to Denmark's enemy, the
king of weden. In the course OF his wars with
Sweden, in the latter half of the seventeenth
century, the king of Denmark had been COM
PEELED to abolish the teudal connection OF
Sleswlc; but this only increased his desire to
he experienced decided opposition. from the
emperor of Germany, and several OF the German
pOtentates, who took the part OF the Duke OF
Gottorp, Thus, when, in 1888. the Duke Pc
titiOned the Emperor for protection against his
eacroaching partner, it was objected, at Copen-
hagen, that Sleswic did not belong to the Ger
man Empire and that even HOlstein. being
united with slesw,c, was equally exempt rom ron
stein, indeed, the claim thus set up after
wards abandoned; but the kings of Denmark
never relaxed their hold upon the sister duchy.
In lib we find the Car entering into an en-;
gag-ment with Frederic w., that he would
not hinder his Majesty from reaping whatever
advantages he might, one day, In making peace,
be able to derive from the slde OF Sleswic;" and
two years LATER, the exclusive enjoyment of the
portion of the duchy called the ducal portion, to
distinguish it from that originally possessed by
the reIgning Kings Of Denmark, was guaran-
tied to him by The King of Prussia. and BY
George as eector of Hanover. Similar qua
ranties were given in 172O by Great Britain and
France, upon the conclusion of the peace of
Friedensburgh; and in the following year all the
inhabitants of Seswic, who had up to that time
obeyed the joint government, or had been the
private subjects of the Duke of G0ttorp, swore
allegiance to the King of Denmark as s'sole So
yereign lord" of the country. Upon this act of
homage, upon the letters patent which accompa-
MED 1t, and upon the YenunclatlOns obtained In
1850 aud l773 from the Swedish and Russian
lines of the house of Gottorp, the controversy
between the Kiel professors and the doctors of
Copenhagen principally turnsIthe former con
the ducal with the royal portion of the duchy;
the latter, that they extended to the absolute
merger of the Sleswic law of succession in that
since joined the German confederation as a
vereign duchy, which all the states of the con-
federation are, and must be, according to its fun
damental laws, whilst its connection with Sles-
VIC, and the relations between the latter and
Denmark remain the same, except 80 far as the
recognition of the status quo at the peace of Vi
emma may be deemed to have guaranteed their
continuance.
Into the various knotty points involved in this
intermnablc dispute we shall not attempt to en-
ter. To Europe at large the question has no fur
Their interest than 1t derives from the fact, that
the decision of 1t one way would effectuaily
cripple the power which al present holds the keys
of The Baltic, even if it should not eventually
lead to a new Union of Calmar, and place the
gates of the Sound under the guardianship of
it is matter of life and death. The Scandina-
Wan subjects OF Denmark are firmly convinced
that their sovereign, as King OF Denmark, has
right to Sleswic, whilst the German inhabitants
OF the duchies are determined to break of the
connection. The quarrel has been taken up
throughout the length and breadth of Germany,
by men OF all classes and all parties, not atoge-
Their, we suspect, from dIsinterested motives
The ,oant Of seaboard is keenfy felt IN the States
ofthe ZoiiUerein, and il could not but be foresecn
that one of the first acts Of the nsw German com
non,oealth toouid be to make ttsef master Of kiA
and Rendsburg. Frederick William, az provision
al Emperor Of Germany, challenges the King of
Denmark to resist or submit the King, beset by
his Danish subjects, must either take up the
gauntlet or jeopardize his crown. Russia, too
Russia, which sees herself threatened by Ger
many at home-has an interest, and not a very
remote one, In the issue, and Russian ships have
been observed lodging suspiciously about in the
Sound. Altogether II 10 "mlghty pretty quar-
rel'
But a far more ominous cloud is rising over
the Vistula. The speculation, tor such 1t is, of
resuscitating Poland as an impossible barrier
between Russia and the constitutional prlncesos
Germany, is one which involves the heaviest
responsibility TO all who are actively concerned
in It. Frederick William has already signed the
warrant which erects Prusslan Poland into q
separate Ssale-one OF the States which Is his In
To such proceeding Russia is
not, of course, entitled to object. But If any at
tempt be made to countenance tho threatened in
surrection within her own territories, she will,
and must, retaliate. Deprived, as she now is, OF
the support afforded to her by Austria, and
menaced with the growth of independent Scla-
vonian States upon her frontier, she may pos
siby think the bodies, course the safest, and pro-
woke, rather than AVOID a war. But she must be
go sIh 1 q oUl a Out al
unless she be victorious in it, she canno. come
alive and unmutilated. Whatever the issue, there
can be no doubt that German soldier
crosses the Polish frontier, the temple Of janus
opened, not for Germany only, but for Europe.
We do not, of course, lose sight OF the TACT
that the voices through which Germany, at pre-
sent, speaks to foreign ears, are princlpiiiy Ut
tered on the Rhine. What may be tne feelings
- nj - ih. hulk of The PLussian