THE ATTITUDE OF THE DANES.
THE scheme of a Conference called in London to tinker the shattered Treaty of 1852 seems to have fallen through. The Danes have, indeed, only demanded a fortnight for con- sideration, but they will, to judge by their action, in the end decline. The basis of conference mast have been a personal union between the Duchies and the kingdom, and the Rigs- dag has solemnly declared that it will not consent to separa- tion from Schleswig on any terms whatever, and even the King, who in his heart does not forget, perhaps, that he is also a German Duke, avows his resolve to stand or fall with the race who have elected him, and of whom his wife would, were the succession regulated like that of England, be the legitimate Queen. There will, of course, be a cry that the refusal places the Dunes in the wrong, for Englishmen when resolved to desert their friends rejoice at every excuse which makes them seem to themselves to act from anger instead of fear; but it is possible that the refusal is wise. There are times in the life of a nation when audacity is the only prudence, when there is no hope except in despair, and that time has arrived for Denmark. Never was kingdom so luckless so terribly bested. Invaded by two armies, each of which might be raised to an equality with the whole male population of Denmark, the little kingdom is governed by a man who, though honest, is wholly incapable of feeling that defeat would be compensated if only he could say, " At least I have not died as Kings die," or of perceiving, as his predecessor perceived, that Denmark might be another Switzerland. Too feeble to face her foes alone, a combination of accidents almost without a parallel has de- prived her of aid from all her friends. The Swedes watch German action with mingled wrath and alarm, but in their anger they cannot help seeing that, if Schleswig is rent away, Scandinavia must be restored with Sweden as its chief mem- ber, and the thought paralyzes their friendship. Russia does not desire a strong power in the Baltic, placing Hammerfest for ever beyond her reach ; but Russia is hampered by Poland, and by the growing confusion in the South. France pities Denmark, as she always pities the brave ; but Napoleon, however reserved, still remembers that the Bernadottes have only once forgotten their origin, that a united Scandinavia would be a fulcrum from which to assert his influence at St. Petersburg. England feels bitterly that a little country, one with herself in race, and faith, and political freedom, is being trodden down by a people ruled by military despo- tisms ; but England fears Napoleon, and is hungering for a surplus. Denmark is outmatched in the Council as in the field, and sees that though the cannon may de- prive her of independence, so also would the European Congress, the difference being only that her enemies will kill her awake, while her friends would administer soporifics before they employed the knife. There is no hope save in the Heaven which helps those who help themselves, and so middle-aged men, with aquiline florid faces and proud bearing, men known in Jutland and Zealand as farmers, and in Eng- land as Norman nobles, have thronged into Alsen, asking only that when the Prussians enter their first task may be to bury them. We know of nothing more touching than the bearing which one English correspondent now in the Danish lines half consciously describes. Certainly no Dane in his writings, and known to most public men as a thinker whose power is diminished by habitual over-impartiality, the correspondent of the Telegraph still leaves no doubt as to the character of the race which is dying. There is no espionage, no martinetism within the Danish defences. The officers, men looking "eminently like English gentlemen," are there to die, not to play policemen and executioners, and while Prussians are expelling all visitors and imprisoning Danish officials for being faithful to their country, the Danes trust all around, and any peasant may study their defences as any Hindoo might in the Mutinies have done those of Englishmen under the same circumstances. The only crave expressed in camp is that the enemy would attack, the only fear lest the beaten should have to survive, the only hope that England will yet, late as she always is, come forward to their aid. There is not in all the accounts received from Denmark a hint of submission ; if Alsen is lost there is Jutland, if Jutland is depopulated there are the islands, and on the sea it is Dunes, not the Germans, who are at home. If they had but the means these men would repeat the old Dutch menace, sail away from a continent surrendered by England to Herr von Bismark of all created beings, and found under the Southern Cross a state which would at least be filled with freemen. For these Danes there is not even exile, they have only to die, and find themselves when the murder has been accomplished changed into Swedes !
And English Liberals justify standing by because, forsooth! half the 350,000 people in Schleswig, people in absolute free- dom, so comfortable that every fresh visitor exclaims, " Why these are English yeomen" wish to join the nation whose lan- guage they speak—when a Dane is not present. Are they going to surrender the Channel Islands on the same pretence, or to admit the right of half Ireland to dissolve the British Empire because, in its ignorance, it prefers the American Union ? As it happens, the relation of the Channel Islands to England is almost identical with that of Schleswig to Denmark, but should we allow France, if the islands were discontented, to intervene? If not, let us give up talking about a principle which would confer on Malta the rights of a nationality, justify the Ork- neys in setting up for themselves, and pulverize every exist- ing nation into minute fragments. Holstein has a right to independent voice, for Holstein is a State, and King Christian would act wisely as well as nobly if he bade the Duchy settle for itself whether it preferred to be a member of a despotic Confederation or a province of a free kingdom. For Hol- stein we would not spend a shilling or move a man, but if Schleswig be not Danish, how comes Wales to send members up to Westminster? If the German kinglings are so anxious for the 80,000 Germans in Schleswig—there are as many in England, and twelve times the number in America, emigrants like the Schleswigers, and, like them, forced to use the national language within the range of which they have come—let them give them estates in Germany, and prove, by spending on justice a tithe of the money they are expending on violence, that they are acting on the principle which they plead, and in defiance of which they crush Venetia, where there is not a German, and declare the state of siege in Galicia, where there are only Poles. The truth is that we are holding buck, not because we doubt that Denmark has a right to aid, but because we fear that France may aid her too, and occupy that coiner of Bavaria which juts across the Rhine. That may be, for aught we know, an unanswerable reason, though French population does not increase and English population does ; but then let us plead that reason, and instead of in- venting inapplicable moralities declare that we will not help to keep one friend alive for fear another should become a little richer.
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