Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/293

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THE HON. AUBERON HERBERT.
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career, he devoted himself to university tuition, and subsequently obtained a "Founders' Kin" fellowship. In 18G4 the man of "blood and iron" had matured his first great crime by procuring the invasion of Schleswig-Holstein by an irresistible Austro-Prussian army. Mr. Herbert, deeply sympathizing with the gallant Danes, abandoned his academical pursuits, and hastened to the Dybbol lines in order to encourage the defenders by succoring their wounded. He rendered valuable aid, was oftener than once under fire, and became a great favorite both with officers and men. The government subsequently signalized its gratitude by conferring on him, for his labor of love, the order of the Danneborg. The distinction was otherwise well merited; for Mr. Herbert pleaded the Danish cause with the English people in a series of "Letters from Sonderborg" in a way that would have stirred their hearts to active intervention if any thing could have aroused them from their apathy. When England is prepared to fight innumerable campaigns, it is, alas! not done on behalf of Danes, but of Turks,—not for freedom, but for despotism.

The Sonderborg letters are replete with manly feeling and shrewd military observation. They have been republished in a little volume entitled "The Danes in Camp," which every student of Bismarckian rascality ought to peruse. I make but two brief extracts, illustrative of its tone: "As you will easily conceive, the conduct of England has placed neither our nation nor our policy in a favorable light. The Danes are sorely hurt at our desertion of their fortunes. They feel it the more acutely because between them and England there has existed a silent brotherhood. English is the lan-