4 FEBRUARY 1871, Page 2

The Manchester Examiner thinks it has quite a crow over

the Spectator. Our contemporary puts together a heap of sentences from this journal advocating the defence of Denmark, and asks whether we were not blind guides. It seems to us that we were' the only wise guides. That we underrated the abilities of the untried Prussian generals and the power of the Prussian Army is quite true, but we did not overrate the evils which would flow from• the success of the military policy then initiated by the Hohenzollern. We might at first have lost an army, but had we kept our pledged word and defended Denmark, we should have checked the career of that vast monarchy which now over- shadows Europe, while we should not have impeded, should pro- bably have hastened, the unity of Germany. We shall see ten years hence whether strict adherence to agreements would not have been a cheaper policy than an acquiescence which will now compel us to turn England into a camp.