The operations in Schleswig have, of course, produced countless rumours.
On Tuesday it was announced that the Austrian Ministers had resolved in Cabinet Council to pay no further heed to the Treaty of 1852, and on Wednesday that the Danes had pro- posed an armistice. On Thursday both statements, of which the first seems to have been derived from the Botschaf ter, a Viennese newspaper, and the second to have been a stock-jobbing invention, were formally denied. It seems certain, for reasons stated else- where, that the invading Powers will declare the Treaty null, but at present their position is that of Governments who are massacring Danish soldiers in order to secure the autonomy of Schleswig, which autonomy England, France, and Russia hactpreviously offered to guarantee. During the week the French Government has re- tained its attitude of patient watchfulness, the British Government has been lamenting that people are so rash as to slap England in the face, and the British Parliament has been waiting to hear why England has been slapped, and what steps, being visibly slapped, she intends to adopt. The scene, as a whole, is not encouraging to people who believe that strength, like property, has duties as well as rights, and that one of them is to protect the weak from outrage by the powerful.
