THE FALL OF DUPPEL. D UPPEL has fallen, and the Conference,
postponed once in order that it might be taken, has been postponed again. The excuse this time is that the date was fixed by Earl Russell without consulting Berlin, and that Herr von Beust, the representative of the Diet and one of the most ultra politicians in Germany, has not arrived in London,—but the real motive is probably to gain time. The instant Diippel had fallen the besieging army was ordered to enter Jutland, and the Peninsula will be occupied throughout as a guarantee of indemnification for the losses sustained by Germany at sea. Jutland is indefensible, and Germany will therefore enter the Conference in full possession of Holstein " taken in execu- tion," of all Schleswig " occupied as a guarantee for the withdrawal of the common constitution," and of Jutland invaded to compel Denmark to pay the expenses of her own dismemberment. It remains only to seize Copenhagen as a pledge that the troops shall be paid for their trouble in entering Jutland, and the long record of violence and treachery will be complete, and Germany already triumphant may call upon Europe to sanction her own terms. The character of those terms is sufficiently indicated in the circular issued by Herr von Bismark on the 29th of • March to the different members of the Confederation. In that remarkable paper the Prussian Premier informs his colleagues in the Confederation that the Conference has no basis other than a desire to re-establish peace, that England has given up her demand for adherence to treaties, that " the agree- ments of 1852 have lapsed," that they cannot after the sacrifices entailed by the opposition of Denmark be again reverted to, and that, in short, Prussia intends that the ques- tion shall end. and all Schleswig become thoroughly German. Germany having commenced an unjust invasion must be repaid for her outlay, in fact claims the estate as compensation for her trouble in breaking down its fences. This is the simple argu- ment of force, and the only answer to it is to prove that a greater force supports the other side. If England and France are ready to devise and enforce a compromise, Germany will listen ; if not the Conference must end, as all argument in the matter has hitherto ended, in nothing. France and England are not, we presume, about to help Germany in dismemberinr,° Denmark, and short of that there will be nothing for Conference to do. Moses will not, as Punch suggests, bring home his gross of green spectacles, for z!'he will have no pony to sell, the dealers rejecting every offer he is entitled to make. The thieves have stolen the corn, they have torn their trousers in getting through the hedge, and the corn is clearly theirs as compensation for the injury done to their nether garments ! Let no one think that this argument is too preposterous to be heard. It is one of the maxims of diplomacy that when a territory has once been occupied by an army, the State which sent that army must be paid to go out; and England and France, even if they nsist on withdrawal, will still acknowledge that Ger- many has a preferential claim to remain, only to be over- ridden in the interest of the balance of power. As long as Diippel defended itself Schleswig would have been treated as Danish, and its surrender in whole or in part would have been a Danish concession. Now it will be a German one.
The fate of this position illustrates most completely the magnitude of the change which modern science has produced in the art of war. Hitherto it has been held possible for small States when raised to the height of circumstances to defend themselves against very considerable armies. A lecie en masse, it was said, must always be greater than any invading army, and enthusiasm would very soon supply the want of discipline. Every country contained some position which could be defended by a few, and history was full of examples of cities and- posts maintained by heroism against superior force. All that is now proved to be a dream. If the enemy advances, indeed, heroism may supply the place of numbers, and patriotism of discipline, but the postulate pre- supposes that the enemy is at once stupid and chivalric. Eulightened despotism makes no such blunders. Had Xerxes possessed the resources of to-day Leonidas might have defended 'Thermopylae, but the Persian would have pitched shells at his force instead of the " Immortals," and have marched over Spartan bodies at the cost of a few pounds sterling. Had Han- nibal been a German the Sagnntines would have been as brave, but they would have perished uselessly, never seeing the faces of their foes. Money and organization, i.e., force in its barest forms, are now stronger than the valour, and devotion, and sense of military pride which make even force seem noble. The Prussian generals, after their first repulse before Dllppel, gave their adversary no chance for displaying any quality save endurance. Valour will not stop a steel bolt "costing a pound," self-devotion does not arrest the splinters from a shell. So, stationed at a safe distance, the Prussians simply rained shells upon their adversaries, their batteries, and the pleasant town which lay behind both. Day after day for two months, now with fierce rapidity, now with a sort of sleepy virulence, they rained their missiles on to the Danes, killing every day a few, wearing out the remainder with fatigue and sleeplessness, and the excitement which the daily presence of death produces even in the bravest. They did indeed assault at last, but it was only to save their "military honour" im- perilled by the first repulse. There was no necessity for losing a life, the shells would have killed all the Danes had they only been poured in long enough, and the Danish army have been destroyed as safely as if it had been composed of sheep. As it was, so utterly worn out were the defenders, that they could not even take life for life, and they lost 4,000 men for the Prussians' thousand. So it will be in Jutland. If the peasants rise it will be to attack men who can kill them six hundred yards off with guns which can be discharged six times in every minute, and they might as well spring heroically at the lightning. H troops land it will be to encounter artillery throwing bolts at a pound each, while they can only afford ten shillings per dis- charge, and will be defeated without enjoying even the luxury of vengeance. Morgarten is impossible, for the modern Charles the Bold does not trouble himself about heroes who fling themselves on pikes to make a path for their countrymen. He simply fires from a distance into their ranks, and if a thousand devote themselves to the path of the shells, the splinters will none the less mutilate those whom the self- devotion was intended to save. Force has become scientific, and is accordingly triumphant, and expensive, and is therefore monopolized by great States, and there is no reason any more why any small nation should continue to exist if a great one wants its territory. Their only defence is the willingness of other great nations possessing the means of procuring shells to spend their money as freely in defence of freedom as the tyrannies will spend it in assailing it, and as yet the willing- ness is all on the evil side. Valour and patriotism are useless, and of generosity there seems to be little left, and that little is reserved for Italy. We regret to perceive that the fall of Diippel though long expected has daunted the Danes, has so revived their conscious- ness of weakness that they are deliberating desperate plans. Little nations, they say, cannot exist,—why not become parts of a great one ? Suppose Denmark as a whole enters the Germanic Confederation, bringing to its aid the fleet the Germans so passionately desire. That might be pleasant for Danes, for the Diet meddles little with the in- ternal affairs of States, and they would be secured against external aggression for ever more. They are less foreign to Germany than the Bohemians, who have been politically German for centuries, and they might attain to great influ- ence in the councils of the forthcoming empire. Such a resolve might be well for them, but what a triumph for force ! An unjust war would have ended in securing to the con- quering Power not a mere annexation, but new provinces full of willing allies, in bringing, as the conquest of Corsica brought to France, untold resources in the shape of new re- servoirs of energy, ability, or genius. If that resolution were adopted, the immediate future of Europe would not be doubtful, for its destiny for the next twenty years would be to waste its strength in an endeavour to pre- vent the absorption of the Continent into one single aggres- sive Power. Denmark, Holland, .Hungary, Poland, Alsace, —these being all half German or in German hands what of Europe would there be left in which a freeman could breathe
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