TOPICS OF THE DAY.
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armed spoliation disperse to countries more deeply embittered ll reasoning, and aggressive ; Austria courteous in seeming, but the respect which all following steadily Herr von Bismark's lead ; Denmark corn- The object of the war is to convince a great and over-military plaining, and moderate up to a point, but pressed beyond nation that whatever its strength, or unity, or enthusiasm, that, hard as iron, or as the oppressed are apt to be ; Russia it cannot be permitted to extend its boundaries by a simple. unintelligible ; France watchful ; and England, conciliatory appeal to force, that strength when it comes to the point is to the verge, or over the verge, of national humiliation. After on the side of the law, and that object can only be surrendering the treaty of 1852, which England herself pre- secured by a resolute adherence to the British pro- pared, after giving up Holstein and selling Lauenburg, after Posal,—Denmark free to the Schlei. The treaty of 1852 has offering one large slice of the country whose integrity he in the contest disappeared. The rights of King Christian in was bound to defend, after compelling his unhappy ally to Holstein are not Danish, and England does not plunge into abandon the boundary of a thousand years, and suggesting European wars for the sake of mere kings. Lauenburg is that she might live without a defensible frontier, Earl Russell not in question on either side except as a make-weight, and made his final effort in favour of peace and accepted a Denmark has herself surrendered the territory between her crowning humiliation. He abandoned his own ulti- old frontier and the Schlei. Up to that point concession is matum, the line of the Schlei, and by agreeing to an Possible, but beyond that the aggression of Germany is con- award of any boundary between the Dannewerke and quest,—the acquisition of territory by arms, and it is to Apenrade agreed to place purely Danish populations under prevent the success of that appeal, as well as to maintain an the rule of their foes. Even that shameful concession was influence without which Europe would be the prey of three rejected, eagerly by Prussia, reluctantly by Austria, despair- bad families, that we are about to draw the sword. A great ingly by Denmark, and then at last the uselessness of the war by itself and for itself is detestable, but there is one Conference became clear even to the diplomatic mind, and it thing worse, and that is a little one waged by a great country remained only to decide whether Germany should carry out the without an object adequate to the loss to be incurred and the design which she has pursued all along, and Denmark cease evil to be done. If this country begins at all it must accept the to exist, or England should declare that concession being magnitude as well as the existence of its liability, be pre- exhausted, she was prepared to defend the right of small papd with soldiers as well as ships, if needful strike in the nations to exist by arms. Then at last the thesis maintained Adriatic as well as in the North Sea, defend the prin- from the first by Earl Grey alone among politicians, and the ciple it arms to protect even when iron-clads ' are as Spectator alone among journals, was felt to be true. Had Powerless in the Baltic as armies within a morass. To England from the first preferred her honour and her policy to attempt very littlp, and that little with half a heart, to keep her comfort and the surplus, had she counselled the formal hoping for peace when the cannon are sounding, and negotiat- renunciation of Holstein, and sent twenty thousand men to ing on the eve of battle, to rise to the circumstances only after the Dannewerke, the war would never have broken out, and months of contest, and then sign away victory just as it has with Holstein assigned to Germany and Lauenburg to Prussia, been finally secured, is the regular sequence of events in a the Danes might have remained the guaranteed and inde- great English war. But to adopt that sequence as a policy, pendent masters of all that is truly theirs, the Peninsula as something wise as well as inevitable, would argue a feeble- north of the river which before Latin ceased to be a colloquial ness of judgment as well as a doubtfulness of heart which tongue was described as the Scandinavian frontier. would from the first chill that national fervour which is the That chance was thrown away, and the second, which arose root of English strength in war. If there be still a qualm as when Germany entered Jutland and commenced ravaging to the justice of our cause, still a doubt as to the necessity of territories she does not profess to claim, was also allowed action, still a possibility of a return to reason in a German to slip, and we stand now reduced to the alternatives of Court, let us hesitate yet longer; but for God's sake let us not a war the gravity of which it is impossible to exaggerate, or enter on a war with seventy millions of people believing that of a peace which can by no sophism be made other than Clis- it is a light or temporary undertaking. For the maintenance honourable. If we fight, every political magazine in Europe, of England's word and England's imperial honour, for the and there is one in every country, may receive a shell, if we existence of all free States and the maintenance of a shrink the system of Europe ends, for civilization has lost its threatened civilization, for honourable defence of the powerless last guarantee against the ultimate triumph of armed force. and just resistance to violent wrong, we believe this war to be We are happy to believe that at the eleventh hour the Whig both righteous and expedient, but it must be as great as the Government, which has been so weak, has recovered its Principles it involves and the wrong which has provoked it. nerve, has resolved that it will not surrender the right of England'to plead effectually for justice, and forbearance, and MR. GLADSTONE AND THE WAR. freedom, and has agreed to encounter the dangers which may lie VVERYBODY is anxiously speculating on Mr. Gladstone's behind, which do lie behind, the armed support of the cause it 12 course in case the war which now seems imminent should has so very nearly betrayed. Lord Palmerston has promised actually break out. Every one knows that the one political to make his final statement on Monday, and no one doubts characteristic which still marks him out as a Peelite, is a moral that it will contain a proposal for despatching the British recoil from the alternative of war, as at once acutely painful fleet to the aid of Denmark. The doubt is whether it will to his Christian feelings, destructive of his financial hopes, and contain more. There is a strong feeling among some mem- alien to all those administrative interests which must fall into bers of the Government and a large section of politicians in the shadow if England engages in a great Continental war. favour of " localizing" the coming war, that is, we fear, of Mr. Gladstone's conscience will be pained by war, for it is of waging it with as little heart, or energy, or definiteness dob- a kind to feel inhumanity and bloodshed far more keenly than ject as circumstances will allow. The country once fairly injustice ; his plans will be overturned by war, fer his heart aroused, and it is very nearly awake, will very soon put a stop is set on national economy and a reduced taxation ; his politi- to this attempt to play with men's lives, but we protest against cal faculty will be paralyzed by war, for while he takes little its adoption even as a theory. If by " localizing " the war, note of our foreign relations and cares even less for our foreign it is intended only to confine it to northern Europe, to the influence, those changes in the progress of which his active in- North Sea and the Baltic, the plan may have some reason in tellect is most deeply engaged must almost all be suspended its favour. If at that price Austria will hold aloof, no states- and heard of no more till the struggle with enemies more man will willingly force a great power into a contest from visible and apparently at least more formidable than poli- which she is from whatever motive willing to abstain. Without tical or social evils is successfully ended. Under these the price, to throw away the aid of the nationalities of Italy, circumstances it is of course by no means surprising if and Hungary, and Poland would be simple madness. But if Mr. Gladstone looks on these lamentable interruptions to the by " localizing " the war it is intended only to defend the • natural train of his political thoughts with sorrow, with im- Danish islands, leaving Prussia to keep the Duchy and to ravage Jutland, to encounter all the dangers of war without securing _.....____ one of its objects, then we protest against a policy which THE COMING WAR. breaks up the peace of Europe for no adequate end. The Conference which ought never to have met has risen, Ministry may have been right in exhausting negotiation L the possibilities of peace are slipping away by hours. before they appealed to arms, may justify every proposal up One more formal meeting takes place to day, and then the to the ultimatumof the Schlei,—beyond that point justification plenipotentiaries summoned to register and legalize an act of is impossible,—but once in war feebleness is ruin. The defence of the islands will not save Denmark, which, without than they were before the assemblage. Throughout the Jutland and Schleswig, ceases to be a State. It will not negotiations every country engaged has maintained the atti- conciliate the Germans, who are boiling over with hate, and tude which it had assumed in war ; Prussia, insolent, tin_ in whom we can for the present hope only to inspire respect, men feel for a just but determined foe. following steadily Herr von Bismark's lead ; Denmark corn- The object of the war is to convince a great and over-military plaining, and moderate up to a point, but pressed beyond nation that whatever its strength, or unity, or enthusiasm, that, hard as iron, or as the oppressed are apt to be ; Russia it cannot be permitted to extend its boundaries by a simple. unintelligible ; France watchful ; and England, conciliatory appeal to force, that strength when it comes to the point is to the verge, or over the verge, of national humiliation. After on the side of the law, and that object can only be surrendering the treaty of 1852, which England herself pre- secured by a resolute adherence to the British pro- pared, after giving up Holstein and selling Lauenburg, after Posal,—Denmark free to the Schlei. The treaty of 1852 has offering one large slice of the country whose integrity he in the contest disappeared. The rights of King Christian in was bound to defend, after compelling his unhappy ally to Holstein are not Danish, and England does not plunge into abandon the boundary of a thousand years, and suggesting European wars for the sake of mere kings. Lauenburg is that she might live without a defensible frontier, Earl Russell not in question on either side except as a make-weight, and made his final effort in favour of peace and accepted a Denmark has herself surrendered the territory between her crowning humiliation. He abandoned his own ulti- old frontier and the Schlei. Up to that point concession is matum, the line of the Schlei, and by agreeing to an Possible, but beyond that the aggression of Germany is con- award of any boundary between the Dannewerke and quest,—the acquisition of territory by arms, and it is to Apenrade agreed to place purely Danish populations under prevent the success of that appeal, as well as to maintain an the rule of their foes. Even that shameful concession was influence without which Europe would be the prey of three rejected, eagerly by Prussia, reluctantly by Austria, despair- bad families, that we are about to draw the sword. A great ingly by Denmark, and then at last the uselessness of the war by itself and for itself is detestable, but there is one Conference became clear even to the diplomatic mind, and it thing worse, and that is a little one waged by a great country
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