The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-22 00:00:00

THE PROPOSED PRUSSIAN LOAN,

BERLIN, Jan. 19.
The report of the Committee of the Chamber of
Deputies upon the loan demanded by the Govern-
ment has appeared. Having been drawn up before
the declaration of Austria and Prussia at the latest
sitting of the Federal Diet, it does not touch upon
the most recent phase of the Schleswig-HolstPin

question.
The declarations male in the Committee by Herr
von Biernark upon the position of the Government
are of especial interest. They may b© summarised
as follows

1, Up to the present time it has not been the inten.

Lion of the Government to proceed upon any other
basis than that of the Diet. This, however, by no
means excluded the possibility of an independent
advance if ;be proposition of Prussia should not be
supported by a majority at the Diet. It was his
duty, as Minister for Foreign Affairs, to place Prus-
sian interests in the first rank, not the interests of
another dynasty or of any other nationality. It
could not be admitted that the collective strength of
Prussia and Austria—the Powers who protected
the glass-house of the German State system from
European attacks—should be disposed of by a majo-
rity which possibly did not represent two millions
and a half of population. So long as the separation
of territories in Germany held good, so long might
German commercial interests and the like be spoken
of, bat no German interests in politics. In that
regard he could only recognise Austrian, Bavarian,
&c., interests.
" He considered the question of Prussia's entire
withdrawal from the London Treaty rather a qnes-

Lion of opportuneness than of right. Only those
deductions from right had force which one possessed
the power to carry out. It was a common error to
imagine that the right of States was found by law-
yers, not made by treaties. It was an awkward
thing to measure treaties by the mere standard of
justice. The Committee should recollect the Treaties
of Vienna, which contained much injustice, and yet
had constituted the basis of the European State-
system for nearly 50 years. They should recollect
Poland ; remember the curtailment of Saxony,
whose King was punished merely because, being
the only monarch in the power of Napoleon, he had
been unable to join the Allies.
" If the German deductions of right in the Schles-
wig-Holstein matter were declared to be perfectly
clear and transparent, as had been remarked in the
Committee, and opposing opinions were stigmatised
as 'threadbare sophistry' and hole-and-corner
arguments,' he would only observe, in place of all
criticism, that hole-and-oorner-argaments,' when
supported by a majority of European bayonets,
usually gained the day. In the question of oppor-
tuneness our relations to the Duchy of Schleswig
played an important part ; for as soon as we with-
drew from the London Treaty, the cognate treaties
of 1851-52, and therewith all claims to interference,
fell to the ground. From the moment of withdrawal
from the London Treaty, therefore, the Duchies
were shown different roads, and then the question
immediately started into importance whether the
Confederation had a right to conquer a non German
country—Schleswig—from a German Prince. Such
a right of the Confederation could never be de-
duced from Federal treaties, which were merely
for mutual assistance. Were such a capability ac-
cepted, it would follow that the Confederation should
have restored Neufchatel to the King of Prussia and
have reconquered for Austria her birthright in Italy.
In case of a withdrawal from the London protocol,
Denmark could at once iacorporate Schleswig. The
let of January of this year, to which period he had
formally referred as decisive had certainly imparted
a new shape to the proceedings of the great German
Powers; let the Committee only think of the tie.
parture of the Austrian and Prussian Ambassadors
of the collective motion
from Copenhagen, and
brought in with rtfereuce to that date upon Dee.
28, which held out the prospect of eventual occupa-
tion of Schleswig. The Diet had come to no resolu-
tion as to ejection' of the hereditary Prince of
Augustenburg. The motion of the presidin Power
(to request the Prince to leave the country) had been
met by seven affirtnativcs, five nogativee, and four
votes desiring to convey the rcqueet in the form of
a wish ; and the motion had, thereupon, been re-
ferred to the Committee. The Prussian represen-
tative had voted in the affirmative without instruc-
tions, but in perfect conformity with the wishes of
his Government, because the presence of the Prince
obstructed the action of the Federal Commissioners,
and was injurious to the authority of the Diet."

member of the Committee asked how these ex-
pressions were to be reooiciied with the passCge of
the Royal reply, which stated, " The succegO"