The Express.
London, England, 1867-05-09 00:00:00

HIGH WATT,* AT LONDON BRIDGE.

T DAiinert 1517.30.7....7Afiern0017. sh. 551 e.
10•MOSIOW—Mornint. tik 2111..„..Afternoon, Oh, 1.301.

LONDON, THURSDAY, MAY 9.

Tem preliminary formalities of the Conference
of London having, it is understood, been disposed
of on Tuesday, the plenipotentiaries will proceed
to business to-day, and if the prevailing hopeful
anticipations are confirmed, the settlement of the
question may be concluded without delay.
The Conference of course maintain the strictest
secrecy during the course of their negotia-
tions, but when the area for unauthorised informa-
tion to disport in is so narrow, the guesses of
the profane as to the tenour and object of the
discussions in Downing-street, and the man-
ner of dealing with the questions at
issue, need not be very erratic or erroneous.
The case lies in a nutshell. Prussia offers to with-
draw her garrison from the Luxemburg fortress
on condition of the Grand Duchy being
assimilated by the collective sanction of the
Great Powers to Switzerland and Belgium, and
declared to be neutral. France renounces the
purchase of the Grand Duchy on condition of the
withdrawal of the Prussian garrison. The King of
HOLLAND, as Grand Duke of Luxemburg,renounces
his right to sell the Grand Duchy, except under
sanction of the neutral Power, and is not unwilling
to keep it, as part and parcel of his kingdom, under
European guarantee against contingent annexa-
tion by France or Germany. Belgium would
rather not increase her liabilities by adding to her
present territory, except under an extension
of that European guarantee which she owes
to a former Conference of London. As to
the good people of the Grand Duchy and of the
City of Luxemburg, they are more than willing to
be neither German nor French, and more than re-
signed to be either Belgian or Dutch, but always
under the aforesaid European guarantee, and on
condition that the fortress of Luxemburg shall
not be dismantled, but shall continue to be held
by at least as large a garrison as the Prussians
have maintained there, and by a garrison not
surpassed even by the Prussians as consumers of
all the food and drink and forage that the
Luxemburgers can supply. So without travelling
back into the origin of this Luxemburg question
as between France, Holland, and Prussia, it is
sufficient for the day to observe that the settlement
to which both the interested Powers, France
and Prussia, are ready to consent, which neither
the King of HOLLAND would decline nor Belgium
reject, nor the good people of Luxemburg dislike
(provided always that four thousand men of what-
ever nationality but strong appetite continue to
garrison their fortress), is the neutralization of the
territory of the Grand Duchy, after the =oilier
of Belgium and Switzerland, under the guarantee
of the great Powers of Europe.

Of this neutralization, which looks so simple
and so cheap a settlement, the be all and the
end all is the European guarantee. On no
other condition will Prussia withdraw her gar-
rison, France renounce her appeal to the sym-
pathies of the Luxemburgers, the King of Hoz-
LAND expropriate or retain so inconvenient an
appendage to his kingdom, Belgium accept
so dangerous a gift. Then it behoves the
British public to fix their eyes steadily upon
this one main object of the present Conference,
and to try and arrive at as clear a comprehension
as possible of the full fort* and purport of that
comfortable word and easy process—" neu-
tralization." Many honest and simple-minded
Englishmen will be glad to believe that when
once a disputed territory is neutralized it
is practically put out of harm's way. They are
agreeably reminded that Belgium was neutralized
in 1831, and that its neutralization has saved its
independence ; that Switzerland was neutralized
in 1815, and that its neutrality has been always
respected. Broad general views of this kind are
always acceptable to the majority of people who
are accustomed to have their contemporary history
painted with a thick brush, and not to potter over
its details. They do not atop to inquire bow often
Belgium has been threatened, and how large a
military establishment that respectable little mo-
narchy has had to sustain for the defence of its
neutrality ; nor do they pause to remember how
often Switzerland has been on the brink of war,
in spite of its neutrality—with France, under the
monarchy of July, for the extradition of the pre-
sent Emperor of the FRENCH ; with Prussia, for
the Principality of Neufchatel—and how deep an
incision was made by France into that neutralized
territorybytho delimitation of the frontiers of Savoy
after the annexation of that province to the Empire.
It may be said that, notwithstanding these little
difficulties and drawbacks, neutralization has up ,
to the present moment saved Switzerland and Bel-
gium. Possibly, but the neutralization has not
yet succeeded in making either Belgium or Swit-
zerland feel secure. Nor, perhaps, has the fate of
Denmark, twelve years after the European Treaty
of 1852, done much to confirm the confidence
of small States in their neutralization under