The Express.
London, England, 1863-12-30 00:00:00

THE DANISH QUESTION.

The following is the translation of a note ad-
dressed to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of
Plus* and (with the necessary alterations of
names and titles) of Austria, Saxony, and Hanover,
' dad Copenhagen, Dec. 19, 1883 :-
1 The undersigned, President of the Council and
1 Minister of Foreign Affairs of his Majesty the
King of Denmark, has the honour to acknowledge
the receipt, on the 15th inst., of the note whereby
the President of the Council and Minister of Foreign
Affairs of Prussia has acquainted him with a Fede-
ral decree of December the 7th, and, in consequence
of the so-called procedure of execution resolved by
the said Waal decree, has requested the govern-
ment of the King to evacuate Holstein within
seven days.
Having without delay submitted this note to his
most gracious sovereign, the undersigned has been
charged by his Majesty to call the attention of the
Prussian government to the following observations :
The resolution passed by the German Federal
Assembly on the 7th of this month is deprived already
of all binding force for the the royal government by
the circumstance that it has been passed after the
illegal exclusion of his Majesty's plenipotentiary
from the assembly.
Besides, with regard to the fact that the said
decree pretends to be founded on the preceding
Federal decree of October 1, it is impossible for the
Kin's government to consider this latter as a valid
motive for the procedure of execution which
has recently been resolved, for the follow-
ing reasons :—That the ordinance of March
30 of this year, against which the said decree was
directed, has sinee been formally repealed ;
that the mediation offered by the Bntiah govern-
ment, with a view of reconciling the pending dif-
ferences between Denmark and the Confederation,
has been accepted by the royal government in the
sitting of the 29th of October ; that the King's go-
vernment, in the same sitting, declared itself ready
to meet the Confederation in every point in which
the autonomy or equality of rights claimed for the
Federal provinces should not be considered as being
sufficiently guaranteed at present.
But the singular character of the pretended
Federal execution has become still more perceptible
since the Federal Assembly has pretended to ques-
tion his Majesty's right of succession and the
validity of the treaty of London of May 8, 1852.
For, even considering the matter from the point of
view of the German Confederation, it must be ad-
mitted that any demand ou the pin of the Confe-
deration' with, regard to the position which his
Majestyshould accord to Holstein in his capacity
of Duke of Holstein must be subordinate to a pre-
ceding acknowledgment of the King as Duke of
Holstein and Lauenburg.
Lastly, I must observe that the request ad-
dressed to the King's government is not in confor-
mity with the prescriptions laid down in the regu-
lations for the procedure of execution, dated August
3, 1820 (Article 10), namely, in this important point,
that it has not been made possible for the King's
govenimeut to avoid the execution by submission
to any precise demands addressed to it. Far from
this, the execution itself appears simply as the only
object of the Federal resolution.
His Majesty, my most gracious sovereign, is under
these circumstances unable to recognise the so-called
execution resolved by the Confederation as a legi-
timate procedure founded in the Federal law, but
intends, on the contrary, to reserve formally his
sovereign and dynastic rights. His Majesty has,
therefore, commanded the undersigned to protest
by this present, and in the most solemn manner,
against the unquestionable encroachment which has
been announced to him, and reserves for himself to
take such further resolutions as he may consider
reconcileable with his rights and interests. The
undersigned avails himself, etc.
(Signed) C. Ham.

THE SCHLESWIO HOLSTEIN QUESTION.

Mow ova own commorognia2.l
HAMBURG, Deo. 27.
Another of those wild tumultuous public meet-
ings, of which we have already had several, was
held yesterday at the suburban locality .known as
the " Walhalla." It was got up by the Schleswig-
Holstein Association, and attended by more than
two thousand persons. The chief object of the
meeting was to sanction addressee to the Senate and
Bdrgerschaft, calling on them to recognise publicly
the Prince of Angusteaburg as Duke of Schleswig-
Holstein. The resolution was passed unanimously,
and deputations of seven each appointed to pre-
sent personally the addresses to the two legislative
bodies.

Dr. Wey, one of the members of the committee
of the Schleswig-Holstein Association, then ad-
dressed the meeting in a fiery speech, protesting
loudly against the interference of the Senate in
stopping the military drill in the Gymnastic-hall
in the suburb of St. Pauli, and stating it as an
undoubted fact that when he and the other mem-
bers of the committee waited upon Senator
Rucker to remonstrate on the subject, they were
informed by that Senator that the measure was
taken at the instance of the general commanding
the Austrian troops in this city. This had been
denied by an official article in yesterday's impres-
sion of the Hamburg Correspondent, but he
emphatically repeated his assertion that it was
nevertheless literally true.
Orders have been received here to prepare imme-
diately the needful quarters for the reception of
the medical staff, surgeons, and assistants of the
field lazzaretto of the third Prussian army
corps, which will arrive here to-morrow by a
special extra train from Berlin.
I regret to be obliged to state that at Altona
the proclamation of the Prince as Duke of Schles-
wig-Holstein has given rise to various scenes of
violence and scandal. On the night of the illumi-
nation of the town all the houses belonging to
Danes and supporters of the Danish claims had
their windows broken by the lawless rabble, and
some even suffered personal indignities. The
telegraph office has been taken possession of by
the students, who drove out the Danish operators,
and now keep guard in the building. But the
wires have been cut and the telegraph will not
work. It is thought that this was wilfully done
by the Danes on their retreat. The Danish
officials in the telegraph-office and post-office in
this city have received orders from Copenhagen to
bold themselves in readiness for instant departure,
but the order to start has not yet arrived, and
they are still in possession.

Paium. Ott. BRILuIca DAY.
TU!BDAY, D.C. IL —Admissions on psysort, 5,677: ditto
otosoa tiokol, 1,461; tottd, 7,134.