The Express.
London, England, 1859-05-20 00:00:00

FRANCE AND GERMANY.

The Debats of yesterday published every important
article, which began an fdlows :
Whilet it is our misfortune to be in a state of open war
with Austria it is with regret that we see sentiments so little
friend) y to our nation developing themselves in certain
countries of Germany. Had we merely to record precaution-
ary at =Men, s effected with rahnnemand dignity, we should
tot bare one word to add. Fur nearly half a century the
doctrine has obtained in Europe, and assuredly to the greater
part of the cirilwd world, that no important question can be
properly edited unless regulated in conceit by the great
powers. Now Germany In every ernes Is a great power •
and It would appear to as to be only in keeping with he;
dignity and rook in the world if she would throw her wright
into the scale when the cley shall have arrived tor pronouncing
definitively the fate of Italy.
In another part of the article we find the fol-
' lowing :
Although it any he true that Germany herself has inva-
riably repelled the attempts made by the court of Vienna to
enter as they say, with ell bee Matte into the confederation,
end that the Germane are lees directly Interested than some
of them pretend in a quarrel having Italy for its object, we
should nevertheless be inclined to respect the feeling of sym-
pathy inducing them to show so lively an interest in behalf
of an empire fur from being composed of Germans, but to
the heart of which a minority of the German rem, week as
ft may be, merle a preponderating influence.
Great states, towerful people, those who know that they
hold a good positioo in the world, exhibit moderation; little
people, on the emtrary, who by reason of their weakness
even tsar the reeposuibility of their acts or speeches, hare
tier tome Ilene been displaying extreme vi.dence with respect
to us. Whilst in Prussia we are told, in language of with&
we acknowledge with great pleasure the decorum and dig-
nity, they are arming tor the protectioa of the national in-
t. ma's and the maintenance of the European equilibrium—
and tWe is unquestioo ably Prusaia's right and duty—others me
striving elsewhere to rekindle against France the parsimma of
another age. In what is oohed a grand duchy, but which in
reality is nothing more than a charmieg though petty prin-
cipality on the northern banks of the Rhine, we heard the
other day a prince of the reigning house announce pompously
toe public amembly his departure fur that regiment of the
Austrian army in which he tunes either as a teal& or
colonel, and exclaim that he was prand at being one of the
first German princes to draw the sword in defence of father-
land. Can Italy, then, hare become the fatherland of the
Germans?
We hope public opinion, on our ride of the Rhine, will not
Pella itaelf to be led astray by such chimeras, and that it
will respect, on the south side of the Alps, those principles
which it would like to enforce on the north aide of the Elbe.
For leanly years mad longer Germany has perseveringly
toiled, not always by the moat scrupulous mean,, to detach
from the crown of Denmark the duchies of Holstein and
Schleswig, which nevertheless belong to Denmark by virtuoso(
rights intirdtely noon respectable and'ancitnt than those that
constituted la 1816 the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom for
Austria's bebool. The pretext, and the only pretext,
for this quarrel, that hen already coat muck
blood, le that the majority of the population in
Holableired Schleswig, speaking the German tongue, met
alp be ot Ge ?mon rues, sod that consequently it ought to be
reunited to the common mother country and taken away from
the government of a foreign prince. We shall not Weems
thaw theories; It is enflicient for us to know that they in-
flamed Owners, to such a pitch in 1848 and 184 e that she
wised war for their tealiratthe; and it is enough for us to ask
bee with what justice alm con blame the enterprise now
undertaken by King Victor Emmanuel and We allies,
The inhabitants of. the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom are
certainly fellow-manta, men in the are of the Puelmosta se
and Toscana far more legitimately and Melee:stably than
the ream to of So Mewigaed Holstein state ma be of the
Telerate in B ihemia (a Selavonic race), or of the Swab:ans
In Revert I, though both these last belong to the Germanic
Confederation.