5 NOVEMBER 1864, Page 8

Lee. The poison , however, had penetrated even there, though a

I E had hoped, we must confess, to avoid all further man not friendly to Dr. Lee was elected Moderator. Dr. Leo in mention of the conquest of Denmark by Germany.

On the merit of the particular questions at issue it is really respect it. They have compelled the Danes to sur- the election of the people twice repeated. The Powers who

cannot alter a German succession without the consent of the Diet, took this inheritance away from King Christian without it, and so contrived with a cynicism rarely quite so perfect to break their own laws, international laws, and the laws of universal and admitted justice, by one and the same act. We have not patience to enter into the general question of the pecuniary concessions. When the choice is between pay- ment or walking the plank of course one pays what one can with as little demur as may be, but the Germans have con- trived to import the cynicism of power even into arithmetic. Even a pirate would scarcely demand that his victim should pay for the shrouds shot away while defending himself from destruction, yet this the Berlin diplomatists have not scrupled to do. Denmark is to surrender all ships and cargoes captured by her fleet, or if they have been destroyed to com- pensate their owners, the Conservative Powers graciously exempting her from the logical obligation to pension all the widows of the slain.•. That is precisely as if a duellist were to provoke a contest, shoot his feeble antagonist, and then make his widow pay for the powder expended in the engagement. Finally, as if to show that even the semblance of honourable dealing has been laid aside, the Prussian forces are not to evacuate Jutland on the conclusion of peace. Three weeks are to be granted for the ratifications to be exchanged, and three weeks more for withdrawal, and during all that period General Falkenstein is to obey his instructions from Berlin. The character of those instructions is not left in any serious doubt. The Prussians have already taken all the revenue, all the produce, all the horses, and all the cattle of Jutland, and General Falkenstein has now resolved to complete the spoliation by taking all the trees. Orders have been issued to cut down the forests to make up the deficiency of the revenue, and Prussians only regret that Jutland sand does not sell. No crime so utterly without excuse, so scientifically complete, has been perpetrated in modern history, nor one which in its impunity seems to arraign so visibly the eternal justice of Providence. With England governed by a man of eighty, whose claim to rule is his spirited foreign policy, there is nothing to do but wait ; but the civilized world in return for the insult it is compelled to suffer has learned at least three secrets, the value of German principle, the meaning of German moderation, and the price for which German princelings are willing to break their word.