The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-24 00:00:00

AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA

4,
(From the Special Correspondat of the limes.)
HAMBURG, Aug. 21.
There are great rejoicings in Germany about the
forthcoming interview between the King of Prussia
and the Emperor of Austria. "The visit of the
King of Prussia to Vienna," say the papers, "is an
event of the highest significance, as setting forth.
the glorious results of the union between the two
Powers, and as strengthening the conviction, which.
is rapidly gaining tgrounct every where, even in
Prussia, that this union constitutes the most Solid
security for the peace of Europe and for the inde-
pendence of Germany."
I have never forgotten the shrewd z..naarli of an
old French diplomatist at Frankrort, atths tirn,!. that
Austri;,n and PruSsi.ln battalions were on the very
point of turning their bayon,Ets against each other'i,
breasts at the cb'ae of the convulsions of ISIB.
"Da not let all the din of arms disturb you," Ile
said, "it is as impossible for Austria and Pra&ii,,
ever seriously to fall out as to coma to a real cordial
understanding. Their mutual jealousy is too s:rong
for friendship, bat their fear is too great for enmity."
The position of 1848 is not materially altered in
1864. Thep as now Prussia was as near the attain-
ment of absolute supremacy, or at least political
leadership (hegenzonie), in GermanY as circumstances
could ever bring her. Then as now she quailed be-
fore extreme measures which could bring her into
collision with Austria, and sued for that cntente
cordiale with the emulous Power which alone can
" give Uermany union and independence.".

If a rendezvous between the two Sovereigns or a
conversation between the two Ministers can lead tc
any plausible settlement of the Schleswig-Holstein
business, but little, if any, opposition need be ap-
prehended on the part either of the Bund or of the
minor Powers, either of the people of the Duchies,
or of the German nation at large. It does not seem
likely that, with the consent of Austria, Prussia can
work out her intent of en absolute and immediate
annexation of Schleswig-Holstein and Lanenburg
to her monarchy. M. de Bismark must have seen
the impracticability of that undertaking, and must
be ready to abandon it. We shall therefore, in all
probability, have the thirty-seventh German State
a new member of the Confederacy, consisting not
only of Holstein and Lauenburg, which already
belonged to it, but also of Schleswig, which
must be embodied with it by virtue of the " in-
dissoluble bond which makes it one with Hol-
stein." By relinquishing her hopes of ter-
ritorial acquisitiol, Prussia will all the more
strenuously insist upon the extension of her pro.
tectorate over the helpless new Duchy; she will
retain all its military and naval power in her hands,
and sho will so far exercise tho high police over the
new community as to prevent its becoming the
fccus of German discontent, the trysting place
of all plotters and adventurers. Only in this
sense can we interpret the assurance given
by semi-official organs that the intervtew between
the two Monarchs of Prussia and Austria will
secure "the peace of Earcpe and the indepen-
dence of Germany." I believe the saying of my
French friend may be in so far modified, that those
two Powers can never be cordially united, except
for some evil purpose. They were !oierably unani-
mous in February last, when they conspired to-
gether to the spoliation of an inoffensive neighbour ;
but their object was then not so much to strip Den-
mark of two or three of her provinces, as to place
themselves at the head of the great national move-
ment in Germany, whose aspirations were centred
in Schleswig-Holstein, and so to gain the mastery
over it as completely to frustrate and crush it.
Thanks to the daring and cunning of the Austro-
Prussian statesmen, and especially of M. von Bis-
mark, the plan has thriven beyond their most
sanguine expectations. Austria and Prussia are
masters of the situation, and so long as they keep
together there is an end not only of the Bund and
the minor States, but also of the national aspirations
of the unity of the great Fatherland.

There is no doubt but Austria and Prussia (more
especially the latter) have well divined the ten-
dencies of public opinion in this country ; they
have known how to stoop to co- quer it ; they have
by turns humoured it and snubbed it, so as finally
to stultify and nullify it. When n!1 has been said
that may be said it is difficult to know what the
German people really want; difficu,lt for the
Germans themselves even more than for anybody
else. Both the • Italian and the German nations
aspired to unity; but in Italy unity was a pri-
mary condition of independent existence. That
country was striving to shake off the yoke
of a preponderant fordgn Power; all her
combined efforts were ecirely sufficient to gain
her the mastery over her destinies, and to maintain
it. But Germany, although not altogether safe from
invasion, has never been permanently subjected to
foreign occupation. Perfectly secure from abreacl,
she is thoroughly at liberty to settle her internal
concerns at her own pleasure. Her sovereigns are
only strong by the consent of the people. They
are utterly at the mercy of popular opinion. What-,
ever Germany really wills is not to be withstood
either by Austria or Prussia, by the minor kinglets
and princes, or by the Band; it is not to be gain-
said by Europe.
Somehow, one would feel incline to think that,
as Germany is not, like Italy, in a condition to live
by unity, so she has no real inclination, no settled
wish for it. A Gothic minster, or a quaint medoeval
town hall with many gables, turrets, and pinnacles,
would seem to be an edifice more in unison with the
German, mind, more in keeping with a German sky
and land, than a symmetrical Grecian temple or a
Palladian palace. Look wherever you list, you
find in Germany a strong conservative veneration
for whatever is ; a most praiseworthy dread of
levelling innovation; a hankering tenderness, also,
for all that is individual, municipal, and local. 1
am somewhat convinced that whatever amount of
unity the German people deemed to be good for
themselves was never, could never be permanently
withheld from them. So far as the Germans them-
selves have been willing to go, their Governments
have invariably been fain to follow. But a love
for the quaint, the grotesque, and the brusque seems
to be innate in the German mind. What tyrant
force or sovereign caprice, for instance, con•
spires to keep up half-a-score of post-offices in
these Free Cities of Hamburg and Lubeck P When-
ever you wish to send a letter or a telegram, you
must !inow whether you should apply at the Hano-
verian, the Swedish, the Danish, the Prussian, the
Thurn, and Taxis, or any other office. All these
postal establishments are in separate locali-
ties, keep different hours, and have a variety of
special regulations; a stranger is easily distracted
among.them nil : but to the merchants and ur-
gesses of these towns the arrangement seems
the most natural and plausible in the world. Again,
look at their currency ! Surely all this medley of
Prussian thaler and reichsthaler,these courant marks
and bank marks, these real coins, nominal coins,
and ideal coins, this prodigious variety of fractions
and multiples, are not the offspring of ruthless ab-
solutism. It is not in Austria or in Prussia that a
handful of money presents the most puzzling va-
riety of shillings, gro,:chen, silbergroschen, kreutzsr,
pfennig, &c., such a mixture of dirty, smooth-worn,
undecipherable, neither silver nor copper pieces.
It is in these free towns especially that the amps
from the mints of all ages and countries keep their
perpetual sabbath. A luckless traveller is bewil-
dered by the change till he chooses to be fleeced
rather than plagued ; but the natives find it all well
as it is; and if you ask when Germany is going to
establish a unity of coinage you are answered by
the rogue who chuckled at your perplexity and
profited by it, "Aii I when, indeed !"
Such unity as the majority of the Germans deemed
conducive to their adeantege they know how to ask
for. They never rested tilt they ob!eined it. There
is a custom league which secures an almost comp'ote
free commercial intercourse between all the Sates,
with only two exceptions—Austria, who Felns
now bent to bring herself and all her note-Chr-
man peovinca into the union, and these Hanseatic
cities. It is (specially in these " flee" towns that
all attempts at German unification are most strenu-
ously resisted. Talk to a Hamburger about the
reasonnbleness of foregoing the advantages of his
Porto-Franco for tie common good of German
tradiog uaity, .41,1 4 will answer that 61e,