The Sun. — 1864-08-04 (London, England)

POST.—Stretched on the rack, Denmark has yielded. She hos succumbed to a force she had no means of withstanding. She has surrendered when further resistance was impossible. She submitted to a pressure she could not resist. She has laid down her arms, and given up a good half of her kingdom, to save her life. She has accepted the terms of peace that have been dictated to her, and has subscribed the preliminaries under constraint. We will not speculate on the legality of an engage. ment signed, as it were, with her own blood, but that the signature completes the protest she had already recorded is indisputable. When, however, we are asked to see in all this a satisfactory result— when wo are requested to rejoice at the termination of hostilities on such conditions—we must say that, so far from being matter for congratulation the conclusion is one calculated to produce, not only sorrow and shame, but apprehension and dismay. It has invalidated the title-deeds of Europe; it has set aside moral right ; and it has propounded a principle which the conscience of the civilised world condemns. Those who look with a cynical eye on human feeling, and those who cannot, or will not, perceive that these miserable expedients, and this hand-to-mouth policy, do bat postpone for a little time the catastrophe they tend eventually to aggravate, may make light of the sufferings of a defeated nation; that is their own affair; but it is not within their province to profess to explain the sentiments which are entertained by the people of this country. Nor is there, as has been pharisaically pretended, the slightest ground for supposing that Prussia and Austria have been prevented from grasping at more than they have actually laid their fiends upon by what is called the" moral influence" of Europe. If these Powers have been advised to moderate their demands, the advice has been conveyed in language which clearl intimated a decided intention to enforce complianciefted it has emanated y from a Government wnich is known to keep its word. The Austrian Minister may have beeninvited to consider certain eventualities, and Count Bismarck, though he assumed the air of a dictator at Vienna, was not in a position to gaarantee the posses ion of Veuotia. But if the ruck Wigi, tt, quote  cowl" the words of Lord Bur:eigh, used " as charitably as such a thing can be," it was because policy stilled discretion, and not through the exerciee o any " moral influence, 'which would have been entirely thrown away. It is indeed just possible that the King of Prussia saw the necessity of imposing some restraint upon his haughty Minister. Even_ Charles V. forbade the destruction of the tomb of Luther. Be this, however, as it may, the question for European reflection is not so much the terms of the transaction as its character. It is not primarily that Prussia has dismembered Denmark, but that the ratification of her aggression by treaty establishes a dangerous precedent. The securities for the peace of Europe have been signed away in the Conference at Vienna, and the confidence which has subsisted between the Pewee's is virtually at an end. Instead, therefore, of experiencing any feeling approximating even to satisfaction, we must view the arrangement which has been determined upon with considerable anxiety. It is based upon ft prin. ciplo which can hardly fail to lead to a general ware The theory of nationality, as it is now explained. means, if it means aeything, that a political unity_ constituting a State should include all who are of. the same race, who speak the same language, and who have the same national character ; and that peop:es who live under a Government not of their race are to be regarded as the victims of intohe•abie oppression. Now, no country, not even France , bas ever realised this condition, and England undoubtedly has under her sway the largest number of sub' jest races who are aliens by birth and language.' We have a confusion of tongues, every form of rell" gion is professed amongst us, and there is no cone° mon law for the whole population. Then there is Austria, made up of foreign dependencies. Italians, Hungarians, Poles, and Croats, her soldiers for the most part understand no more of the German lan; guage than is comprised in the words of command; and the rank she holds has been assigned to her not. as a German but as a European Power. Court Bismarck, too, ought to pay assiduous worship to Nemesis; for Prussia has. on this principle, an of count to settle in Posen, if not on the Rhine. ‘-" course it will be said that any attempt to carry out doctrines so subversive of all government would be instantly resisted. But by whom They have been carried out in Denmark, and Europe has watched the operation with philosophical equanimity. Whet!' however, if France or Russia were to undertake toe same mission P Russia did. in fact, set np a cane° claim in appearing as the champion of what she described as the rights ab antiquo of tho Christians in Turkey; but then England and France Male': tained the dominion of the Porte, and sPee'; their blood and treasure to uphold the law'); Europe. At present that law has been violet':" with impunity, and an act of lawless aggresei•en is about to be consummated in a treaty' which will, 'we apprehend, be formally come r ug nicated to, and acquiesced in by, all the PoweThere is certainly one consolation. Austria and Prussia will assuredly be the first to suffer under the new order of things they have inaugurated. 1:1,1.6 measure they have meted out to Denmark will be brought home to them with interest. They hal°. sown the storm and they will have to reap tP" whirlwind. It does not require any extraordinary' prescience to see what the end will be as far as tbeiid are concerned. A resuscitated Holy Alliance Wee' f be blown down like a card house before the gust Italian, Polish, and Hungarian nationality. St;' their suicide can be a very serious and costly to ter for Europe. The immediate effect of the ever: they have been allowed to accomplish is that all the Powers must hold themselves in a state of prepare h": ness for war ; while, as for the future, as far as t't eye can reach, everything appears to be converginb towards the great arbitrament which the commit'. sion and the sufferance of wrong have rendered ill" eviteble.