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

POST.—Stretched on the rack, Denmark has yielded. She hes 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. W. hen, however, we are asked to see in all this a satistac,tory 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 but 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 the hands upon by what is called the " moral influence" of Europe. If these Powers have bean advised to moderate their demands, the advice has been conveyed in language which c!early intimated a decided intention to enforce compliance, and it has emanated from a Government which is known to keep its word. The Austrian Minister may have been invited to consider certain eventualities, and Count Bismarck, though he assumed the air of a dictator at Vienna, was not in a position to guarantee the Possession of Venetia. But if the ruck woe, to quote  as ol the words of Lord Bur!eigh, used "as charitab 11 r such a thing can be," it was because policy d Belled discretion, and not through the exercise o any " moral influence, 'which would have been tirely thrown away. It is indeed just possible tl sat the King of Prussia saw the necessity of impc‘s: ing some restraint upon his haughty Minister. :F.' fen Charles V. forbade the destruction of the ton ib cif Luther. Be this, however, as it may, the questic n for European reflection is not so much the terms o transaction as its character. It is not primarily t hat Prussia has dismembered Denmark, but that the ratification of her aggression by treaty establis ace a dangerous precedent. The securities for the pr of Europe have been signed away in the Con fer ence at Vienna, and the confidence which has subsisted between the Powers is virtually at an end. Instead, therefore, of experiencing any fel 'ling approximating even to satisfaction, we must view the arrangement which has been determined ellen with considerable anxiety. It is based upon r eiple which can hardly fail to lead to a goner: &war. The theory of nationality, as it is now exp means, if it means anything, that a political. unity_ constituting a State should include all who -are the same race, who speak the same languaV 39 and who who have the same national character ; ant that peoples who live under a Government not of their race are to be regarded as the victims of intoll arable oppression. Now, no country, not even Fran( :e, has ever realised this condition, and England unitoubtedly has under her sway the largest number of Bub,. ject races who are aliens by birth and lauguege" We have a confusion of tongues, every form of tell, gion is professed amongst us, and there is no conkmon law far the whole population. Then there is Austria, made up of foreign dependencies. Italians Hungarians, Poles, and Croats, her soldiers for it e most part understand no more of the German len guage than is comprised in the words of command and the rank she holds has been assigned to her no 1,. as a German but as a European Power. Bismarck, too, ought to pay assiduous worship tOu Nemesis; for Prussia has. on this principle, all °ni count to settle in Posen, if not on the Rhine. course it will be said that any attempt to carry 011 doctrines so subversive of all government would be instantly resisted. But by whom 11 They have beed carried out in Denmark, and Europe has watehet the operation with philosophical equanimity. however, if France or Russia were to undertake L" ; same mission ? Russia did, in fact, set up a 001 `„.. claim in appearing as the champion of what elle d "; scribed as the rights ab antiquo of the Christie in Turkey; but then England and France 013 tained the dominion of the Porte, and el"'"f their blood and treasure to uphold the luvr ed Europe. At present that law has been viola with impunity; and an act of lawless aggreti °ty is about to be consummated in a tr: which will, we; apprehend; be formally eon': rrs, nicated to, and acquiesced in by, all the Foy' od There is certainly one consolation. Austria I ~o Prussia will assuredly be the first to suffer under, %o new order of things they have inaugurated. • be measure they have meted out to Denmark wiLl ore brought home to them with interest. They " are sown the storm and they will have to real} arc. whirlwind. It does not require any extraordirlteir„ prescience to ..ee what the end will be as far as t' uf'd are concerned. A resuscitated Holy Alliance vi°, of be blown down like a card house before the gto, Italian, Polish, and Hungarian nationality. I.7"ata their suicide can be a very serious and costly I•vorg ter for Europe. The immediate effect of the vi the they have been allowed to accomplish is that au ea, Powers must hold themselves in a state of preParthe ness for war; while, as for the future, as far "nig eye can reach, everything appears to be conYerble towards the great arbitrament which the c 000.0... sion and the sufferance of wrong have rendered evitable.