The Express.
London, England, 1851-10-02 00:00:00

HAMBURG.

The congress of the Gustav-Adolph Verein, or
German Lutheran Association, held lately at Ham-
burg, has terminated with the adoption of a resolu-
tion to made a public and general appeal to Germany
for a subscription in support of the religion, as
founded by the immortal Luther, as well as for
increasing the numrer of missionaries, and spreading
the Bible about amongst the German people.

AUSTRIAN INCORPORATION WITH GER-
MANY.

In reply to the protests of France and England
against the entrance of Austria with all her states
into the German confederation, the Diet of Frankfurt
invoked a previous resolution of the old Diet, which
had declined the intervention of France and England
in the affairs of the confederation, when the free city
of Frankfurt was occupied by Austrian and Prussian
troops in 1834. The Journal do Frankfurt publishes the
two communications addressed by M. de Tallenay,
French Minister at Frankfort, to Count Thun, presi-
dent of the Diet, in answer to the declaration of the
Diet. These arc dated July 19 and Aug. 14. To
these communications the Net returned no answer,
as in 1834.

---
They are as follows :
Monsieur le Comte,—l have received the note with the
two documents annexed, which your excellency did me the
honour to address to me on the 17th of this month. I send
them to M. Baroche, whose province it is to appreciate their
importance with regard to the French republic. 1 cannot,
however avoid observing to your excellency that the High
Diet, in referring to an act of another epoch, seems to have
lost sight of the difibrence of times and of things, the then
French government not having moreover thought tit to
accept as regular in its form and tenor the resolution com-
municated through the medium of oat of my predeces-
sors. I avail myself, &c.
Monsieur le Comte,—As I informed your excelleeey in
' my letter of July 19, I transmitted to my government the
note which your excellency had done me the honour to
transmit to me on the pith, in consequence of my com-
munication of the 9111, relative to the project for the incor-
poration of the non-German provinces of Austria with the
federal territory. I have just received directions to reply
to that note by the following communication:
The government of the republic cannot but observe with
extreme surprise the reproduction, in the name of die Diet,
of those arguments to which recourse was had 17 years ago,
to contest the right of the powers who were parties to the
genera! treaty of Vicuna to interfere in a case in which
they should judge that the independence of one of
the German states stipulated by that treaty was
violated. These arguments had then been the object
of a peremptory refutation on the part of the cabinets of
Paris and London, to which refutation no reply had been
made ; and when, in 1847, Austria and Prussia energetically
protested against the act by which the Swiss confederation
appeared to them to be attempting to infringe the inde-
pendence of some of the cantons, it was to be supposed that
those two powers had recognised the little justice of the
too absolute principles proclaimed by them some years be-
fore. This supposition was the more legitimate because the
federal pact of Switzerland not being: like that of Ger-
many, an integral part of the treaty of ienna, the right of
foreign governments to interpose in the deliberations of the
cantons, was contrary to this point of view, more contesta-
ble than that of which France and England had thought
fit to avail themselves with regard to the Germanic confe-
deration.

Admitting,:even,:that the doctrines invoked by the Diet of
1811 were as 'well as they arc in reality ill founded, it is
evident that they do not apply to the present question.
In fact, were it to be admitted that a confederation of
sovereign states is, in what concerns the relations of its
members with each other, invested with as complete a power
of making laws for themselves as belongs, in the nature of
things, to a unitary state, or even to a state federal only as
to its internal government,:it would certainly not follow that
this confederation could modify its relations with foreign
governments by its sole authority, and without those go-
vernments having a right to protest.
Europe, by the first treaty of Paris, and by the general
treaty of Vienna, recognised the existence of the Germanic
confederation within defined territorial limits. By the
effect of that recognition, every one of the federal states is
placed, by the consent of the European powers, under the
protection of the whole confederation, which is thus author-
ised to interfere in any differences of its members with a
foreign power, when those differences assume a certain de-
gree of importance. It will hardly be pretended that the
powers could see such a state extended to new territories,
with indifference,and if such an extension should have taken
place without their consent, they would certainly have the
right not to admit the consequences, as, for example, the
right to repudiate the intervention of the confederation
in their disputes with the possessors of those territories. 'f he
chances of conflict would then be multiplied, the political
organisation of a considerable part of Europe would no
longer rest upon bases universally recognised, and the law
of nations, established by treaties, would have received a,
perhaps, irreparable wound.
It would be superfluous to enlarge upon a question which
would lead to long developments, the project which has
placed the government of the republic under the necessity
of objecting to it appearing to be one which ought not to
have been submitted to the Diet.
. _ .

It is far from the thought of the French government to
wish to prolong an inopportune controversy. It suffices to
have established in the first place that France does not re-
cognise now, any more than in 1834, the principles then
enunciated by the Diet, and in the next, and even if those
principles were conformable to law, they would not be
applicable to the important affair which has furnished the
Diet with en opportunity for again proclaiming them. I
avail myself, &c.

Lord Cowley presented on the 18th of July, the
following note to the President of the Germanic
Diet, on the subject of the incorporation of Austrian
non-German states into the confederation :

The undersigned Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary of her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain,
by the German confederation, has received the note and
appendices
which his Excellency Count Thuu, president of
the Germanic Diet, did him the honour to forward under
slate the lith of this month.
. . _

The undersigned will use no delay in forwarding this
document to her Majesty's first secretary of state for foreign
affaini.

However, the undersigned cannot receive the copy of a
document addressed to the British legation in 11431, by the
envoy then presiding at the Germanic Diet, and the repro-
duction of which inters on the present,occasion an authority
inherent in the resolutions of that assembly, which is in-
compatible with the rights and customs of the righta of
nations, without at the same time reminding Count Thun of
the answer then made by the legation to the document in
question, in the name of her Majesty's government.
To that effect he seises this opportunity of sending him •
copy of the document referred to.