The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-30 00:00:00

THE CONFERENCE.

The Constitzttionnel publishes at the head of its
columns and with a great display of type one of
those articles which it desires to be considered as
semi-official. The subject is the probable course of
action which the Conterence may decide on for the
Duchies. The writer declares that there can be but
two modes of' solving the difficulties which exist :
" Either," he says, " the stipulations decided on in
1802 na ust be returned to, and France w hosigned those
arrangements has no motive for opposing such a
course, if it were admitted that they have still any
practical value, or the causes which led to the war iu
spite of those stipulations would appear to have such a
character of gravity and permanency that the old order
of things must be abandoned, and other combina-
tions sought for. In the latter case the principal
object should have been, and has been to remedy
the inconveniences which the arrangements of 1852
have produced, and to prevent the same causes from
leading to similar difficulties for the future. It
thalre be one point evident and beyond all discus-
sion, it is that the struggle has raised a question of
nationality. Time, instead of bringing about a re-
conciliation between two races, has only caused the
differences to be more strongly marked, and excite
rival and long-standing pretensions. For that cause
of disturbance there is, in the opinion of ail serious
and disinterested meo, only one really cff,ctuel
remedy—separation—that is to say, the union
to Denmark of the Danish part of Schleswig
and the formation of a German State out
of Holstein and the German part of Schleswig.
In the interest of the integrity of the Danish mo-
narchy, combined with German aspirations, an idea
was at first entertained that the new State might
be united to Denmark by a bond lees close and less
immediate, and the expression personal union ' was
mentioned. Bat, in addition to the complications
with which such an arrangement would saddle the
future, it would not remove any of the embarrass-
ments of the present, since there would still be the
union, and from the forced union it is that the war
resulted. That combination was therefore soon
abandoned, and the effective separation only seri-
ously remained under consideration. What we
must now ask is, what will the new German State
be, and what will it become ? Danish Schleswig
is and remains Danish ; that is well understood
But how will the fate of the new State be regulated
and who will be its Sovereign ? Oa that subject, the
political principles of Imperial France are well
known. She dos not admit that a Sovereign should
be given to a country, or a nation to a Sovereign,
independently of the will of the people. The
French Government has therefore put forward the
principle most in conformity wlth the ideas of
modern civilisation, and has demanded that the
nation interested should be called on to decide its
own fate. The fate of that suggestion has been
what frequently happens from the most just and
the truest propositions. It at first excited astonish-
ment ; but afterwards by degrees that feeling was
followed by adhesions, which increased to such a de-
gree that we feel no hesitation in believing in the
Tbehteh
pe
rg
er
so
su
end
speaks o n
success of the French proposition, and that such will
journa.s.to Eng
which
stronglyc°
against the pretension,
attributed by some of the French
tilation will be effected."
land, of wishing to inaerdict the formation of a
Federal port at Kiel. Tne writer says ;—" The
question is nothing less than to bung forward in
;he Conference, and perhaps at the next sitting, the
pretension of prohibiting Germany from making
Kiel a Federal port. If, on the one hand, there be
understood all the interest which England, and she
alone, wcule have in Germany being forever deprived
of a naval force, every one will, on the. other hand,
admit that such a pretension is quite inadmissible.
Supposing that Holstein and a part or Schleswig
should form, as an independent State, part of the
Germanic Confederation and that point being ad-
mitted by England herself, the question as to whe-
ther the Confederation will establish a Federal port
and the point where she will do so within her
own territory comes exclusively u nder the com-
petency of the Germanic Body, and in no way
under that of the Conference of London. Eng-
land, in spite of this elementary principle, cer-
tainly entertains the project we speak of, but
we consider it difficult for her to reasonably submit
it to the Conference. We feel on this subject a
hope and a certainty--tine hope is that the prudence
of the other Governments will prevent England
from offering such a gratuitous insult to Oorroany

the ee,-tainty is that the IwtorUlll,l A.eeive it by
an explosion of national feeling, which would ap-
pear dangerous to us at a moment when the wishes
of every one in favour of peace are so near the point
of being reaihei."