The Express.
London, England, 1852-08-24 00:00:00

GERMANY.

BERLIN, Armen. 21.
The Zollverein conferences were resumed to-day,
the plenipotentiaries from all states, with the excep-
tion of Baden, having arrived. The result of the
sitting has not transpired; nor shall we be able to
judge of the position of affairs till we get a verbal
copy of the declaration last prepared by the coalition
at the Stuttgart conference, and which was probably
handed over to Prussia to-day. As far as newspaper
notices can be relied upon, it seems that the coalition
has dropped the demand of a customs union with
Austria, but renewed its demand that a treaty of
commerce with Austria be concluded simultaneously
with the treaties for renewing the Zollverein. Some
people regard this as a great step towards reconcilia-
tion with Prussia, and expect that the coalition will,'',
at the next step, come quite round to the Prussian
programme. At present, however, I see no grounds
for such supposition. The coalition claimed in the
Darmstadt resolutions in favour of the connexion)
with Austria even more than was contemplated at ,1
the Vienna conference. Now, however, the Austrian
ambassador, Count Recliberg, seems to have permitted
the coalition governments at Stuttganl to abate
their demands down to the stipulations of the
Vienna protocol. Bat whether Austria will allow
them to recede further is the question on
which the whole issue of the affair mu-t turn; be-
, enuhe Prussia can never accept the conditions of that
protocol ; and if Austria will not release the southern
states from their obligations, the Zollverein must be
split. But it is not only the Vienna protocol and the
' Darmstadt treaty, by which the southern states are
bound ; the Austrian diplomacy endeavours to make
the existing Zollverein's treaty a handle on them.
There is a clause in this treaty to the effect that it
shall become binding, with all its provisions, for a
further term of 12 yam from 1864 on all members

rof the Zullverein who shall not notify their secession
before thu end of 1851. Prussia alone hes given
due notice. The southern states have not done so.
Therefore, it is argued they are bound together till
ltt by their old Zollverein treaty, in which they
can alter nothing without unanimous consent. Con-
sequently it is in the power of any one of the south-
ern states to interpose its veto against the re-admis-
sion of Prussia, whereby a conflict would arise, which
can be settled only by referring the whole affair to
the Frankfort Diet, and placing commercial relations
in Germany under the decision of federal authority ;
which is Austria's grand aim, and the very
thing which Prussia will avoid at uny
price. It is not improbable that Prussia,
seeing, as it soon must, that it has no alternative but
to suffer federal interference or to split the Zollverein,
will resolutely take the latter course, if it can make
sure of keeping llanovcr, which, however, is shy of
a union with Prussia alone.

M. von der I'fordtcn has resumed the duties of his
office. The accounts about the steps taken against
him during his leave of absence seem to have been
exaggerated.
General von ltadowitz, who has been living, since
his retirement from the ministry, in a private capa-
city at Erfurt, has been appointed director of the
establishments for military instruction in Prussia.
The Princess of Wasa, with her daughter, Princess
Carole, had arrived at Stuttgard, on their way to
Vienna.

The Emperor of Austria arrived at Ischl on the
17th inst.

While the ministry is externally engaged in re-
conciling its commercial policy with the conflicting
demands of Prussia end Austria, it is internally at
strife with the chamber on a question of finance.
The sitting of the Second Chamber on the 16th was
consumed in hot debates which terminated in the
declaration made by the government commissary that
upon the ground taken up by the chamber an un-
derstanding between it and the cabinet was impossi-
ble. Upon this M. Seeger, leader of the opposition,
promp replied that the right of granting supplies
belonged to the chamber; if the government was
dissatisfied with what the chamber deemed it right
to vote, no budget could be sanctioned ; an adminis-
tration without means must then resign, when men
in whom the chamber could confide would be found
to fill their places.
The Camel Gazelle of the 20th states that the
Wurtcmberg proposal for composing the Zollverein
differences tends to the prolongation of the union for
a short series of years, the admission of the Steuer-
verein on equitable terms, and the conclusion of a
commercial treaty with Austria far the same term,
upon the basis of the project marked A in the pub-
lished protocol of the Vienna conferences.