TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE HORIZON. THE horizon is darkening fast. Almost every incident recorded this week points to a rapidly approaching crisis, the outbreak of that European war which we have for five months foretold as certain if England shrank from her clear duty of enforcing justice as well as peace. Had we fulfilled the Premier's pledge, accepted the Swedish offer, and sent ten regiments of the line to the Dannewerke as proof that we were in earnest, there would have been no war, and we should have dictated a compromise which by doing justice at once to Denmark and Germany would have removed all heart-burn- ings. The Ministry or the Court, whichever it was, shrank from that just course, and now the nation must pay the penalty which always falls on those who will not submit to injustice yet are not prompt to demand redress. The Con- ference after two postponements met at last on the 29th of April, but as we predicted the very first proposal was made an excuse for delay. The Germans, forsooth, had no idea that any one would ask for an armistice, no instructions whether to accept or reject it, and though the telegraphs are in order waited three days more. When the instructions arrived it was discovered that they covered a great deal too much; that Prussia in particular was striving to dictate terms as to a conquered foe, and the consequent remonstrances furnished one more excuse for another appeal for fresh orders. Conference therefore stands postponed to Monday next, by which time we doubt not Count Bernstorff will have the gout, or Herr von Beast will be recalled to arrange pressing Saxon business, or Count Apponyi will feel it necessary to inquire at 'Vienna what he is to do if the Prussian should chance to disagree with him. The game now visibly playing is one of delay, delay intended to allow Prussia to occupy all Jutland, and Austria to send her fleet to the Baltic. If the allies could but gain three clear weeks undisturbed, Jutland would be swept bare, Funen entered by the Prussian army, and the Austrian fleet anchored off Copenhagen. Fortunately for Denmark and Europe, however, there are limits to the forbearance even of the British dovernment. It is clear amidst all the guarded official statements that this last insult overcame the Foreign Secretary's patience, and that Vienna has been assured that if, in spite of promises, the Austrian fleet quits the North Sea the Austrian fleet will cease to exist. The Aurora has been despatched to watch its progress, and a squadron ready for action lies waiting in the Downs. Austria, it seems probable, will on this point give way to an irresistible mandate ; but the collision has not tended to dimi- nish the irritability of diplomatists, or the inexplicable arro- gance and security which are expressed at Berlin. The official journals of Prussia not only talk of the final absorption of Schleswig into Germany, not only demand compensation for all the expenses of a war of invasion, but inform Germany that should the British fleet sail the Prussian Envoys will be at once withdrawn. Marshal Von Wrangel not only permits his soldiery to ravage Jutland, but has demanded a " requisition " after the fashion of Napoleon I., "the first instalment" being 96,0001., and transported the municipalities which objected to the extortion. The fortifications of Fredericia are sentenced to destruction, and in short the Prussians deal openly with Denmark, upon which they have never declared war, as a con- quered country. The chatter about the Prince of A.ugusten- burg has entirely ceased, the Prussian Chambers are silent and content with some expected development, and if the signs visible on all hands may be trusted, Herr Von Bismark in- tends to insist on terms which would make Holstein and Schleswig and Jutland provinces of Prussia. Assured, as he thinks, that England will not interfere, and prepared to defy France, he talks of the "sacrifices made by the Monarchy" and the justice of compensations as if already convinced that Europe had sentenced Denmark. Arrogance of this kind when manifested by the Minister of a despotic State whose armies are in motion points almost invariably to war. These are serious signs, but more serious still is the change which is passing over English opinion. Parliament is, as is usual before action, quiet to apathy, just as audiences sit hushed when the music tells them the denouement is at hand ; but there is a kind of low growl coming up audibly from every side. The country is wearied out. Originally very apathetic, almost unable to understand the quarrel, and full of traditional belief in German inertness, the English people have watched the incidents of the campaign, the gallant resistance made by men in whom they recognize themselves, the needless 1"‘lughter for the sake of military display, the cruel requisi- tions upon unresisting farmers, the yet more cruel insults poured upon men who died defending their own soil with an ever-increasing indignation. Men sympathize acutely when- ever they can entirely understand the suffering, and there is not a country gentleman in England but reads of the destruction of homesteads like Ravnhavn, the breaking up of parsonages, the devastation of farms as like those of Lincolnshire as if the people of Boston still spoke Danish, with a sense of personal pain. That pain is the sharper because it is felt at last that there runs through all these acts a spirit of insult towards England as well as Denmark, that this country is being humiliated in the face of the world. Though too proud to be "susceptible," unable even to conceive why Prussians should resent a monument recording a fair defeat, our countrymen are not at heart delighted with others' scorn. A feeling that it is almost time that words should give place to action is spreading fast through the land, and will very speedily make itself heard in unmistakeable tones. The Cabinet, hampered by a hundred difficulties of which Parliament never talks, has waited for support, and now there is no course of action, so it be but decided, of which the country will not approve. If France will join to secure the weak, the alliance will be accepted with pleasure ; but if not, it is not from the Tuileries that Eng- land receives her orders.
Finally, the tone of the Danes will, we suspect, accelerate the decision of statesmen. The politicians of Copenhagen seem at last to perceive that a great cause is in this world n& security against a great wrong, and are talking in their despair of schemes as dangerous to Europe as their annihilation would be. With Schleswig gone and Jutland ravaged, the islands have scarcely a political existence, and may as well reap the advantages of their inevitable dependence. "We must," says M. Hall, through the Dagbladet, "apply direct to Berlin," and terms obtained from Berlin will involve the permanent de- pendence of Denmark on the great Power which grants it peace. Germany ruling the Baltic,—that is a change which may not be dangerous, but which the older statesmen of Europe, men like Lord Palmerston, who know that unless the Baltic is free Russia is supreme in the North, and like Napoleon, who remember that Sweden is really an arm of France, will undoubtedly hold to be so. With rulers alarmed and populations irritated, a madman like Herr Von Bismark to drive both to extremes, and English Princes accepting orders at the hands of a Prussian King, the horizon on every side seems visibly closing in.
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