The Sun.
London, England, 1864-06-28 00:00:00

burg, hilt s line to the south of Flensburg, by which that
important town might have been preserved to Denmark. I
may say that my noble friend and myself, as the British
plenipotentiaries, had thought that, after the fairness and
impartiality which the Emperor of the French had shown
throughout, and ccnsidering his friendliness to Denmark,
and his wish to protect her, the Emperor was well-qualified
to perform that duty. It was, however, laid down by one
of the plenipotentiaries that no Power which was repre-
sented in the Conference, and which had thereby to a cer-
tain degree been committed as to the question before the
Conference, could be accepted as a friendly power for the
purpose of arbitration. It then appeared to us desirable
that the question should be referred to the King of the Bel-
gians. The German Governments, however—Austria and
Prussia—said that, although they might accept "good
offices" of a friendly Power, according to the Treaty of P aris,
they could not accept the decision of that friendly power as
binding; and, in the meantime, they asked for a long
period of armistice. Now, my lords, it appeared to us
that, if that proposal were accepted, after two or three
months of armistice, during which the naval operations
of Denmark would be altogether suspended, there would
be a decision pronounced which, if it in any way dis-
pleased the German Powers, would have been refused by
them. (Hear, hear.) The plenipotentiary of the German
Confederation confirmed completely our view of this
question by declaring that in his opinion this territory of
Schleswig belonged to the Duke of Auguetenburg, a a that
they could accept na arbitration, and could not s'abmit to
anything that might be decisive, and that every foot of ter-
ritory in Schleswig might be demanded at the end of the
good offices by the German Confederacy. The course they
pursued in this matter has, I am sorry to say, been in the
usual manner of the German Powers. The refusal was not
a direct and straightforward declaration. (Hear, hear.)
They wished to have the appearance of accepting. the good
offices, without really accepting them. The Delilah pletu-
potentiary, most imprudently as I believe, gave a decided
refusal to the proposal. The proposal which I made did not
certainly agree technically with the line of the Schlei; but
nevertheless it was a proposal which the British plenipoten-
tiaries thought would be advantageous to Denmark. And
now, my lords, there was only one more proposition made,
and that originated with France, who had instructed her
plenipotentiary to make it after all other means had failed.
The proposition was this, that leaving the Danish part of
Schleswig to the Danes and the German part to the Germans,
that the line to be drawn in the districts which were still
uncertain should be decided by a vote of the population
taken in each commune'in some fair manner ; that that vote
should decide whether the district was to belong to Germany
or to Denmark.
Lord DERBY—Was that vote to be taken during the
occupation ?
Lord RUSSELL--The French proposition decidedly was
that the Prussian troops should abandon the district before
the vote was taken. (Hear.) However, in the opinion of the
Danes—an opinion which they have since repeated, and
which I think is well founded in fact, although the popu-
lation of Schleswig are perfectly satisfied to remain united
with Denmark, yet such had been the effect of the oc-
cupation, and such the agitation on the part of Ger-
many, that it was probable it would influence any
decision made in the way proposed by the Emperor
of the French. They therefore refused to accept
the proposal. My lords, I must say that my noble friend
and myself had received from France and the other neutral
Powers the firmest support during the whole continuance
of the Conference. (Hear, hear.) We had frequent meet-
ings—private meetings of the neutral Powers only—in which
we discussed the proposals to be made, and there appeared
nothing at those meetings but the most earnest desire to
provide for the safety and independence of Denmark, and I
must say the utmost harmony prevailed among us. Both
the French, the Russian, and the Swedish plenipotentiaries
did all in their power to contribute to the success of the pro-
posals which we made, and we shall therefore leave the
Conference with a strong sense of our obligations for the
support we received from them. A declaration was made
at the last meeting of the Conference by the Prussian pleni
potentiaries, and which has been made to-day by the Aus-
trian ambassador, that Austria and Prussia have no inten-
tion to carry on hostilities for the purpose of obtaining pos-
session of any territory beyond the duchies of Schleswig and
Holstein ; that they had no intention of making a conquest
of any part of the Danish territory on the continent or of the
Danish ielands. That is a declaration voluntarily made. It
is not a declaration in any way extorted by us. At the same
time, my lords, while they make this declaration, I suppose
that cannot mean, and we certainly cannot consider it, as
one upon which, alter what has happened, we can implicitly
rely. (Loud and prolonged cheering.) lam sorry to say, that
greatly as 1 have respected Austria—greatly as I have re.
spected Prussia—we can no longer rely as we did on the de•
clarations they may make. (Renewed cheering.) But the
question comes to this : What, now the Conference is ended,
is our position ; and what is the policy which the Govern-
ment intend to pursue? And, without intending or being
rile to pledge the Government in case of contingencies
which have not arisen, I think it is due to Parliament and
to the country, especially at this period of the session,
to declare what is the view which the Government take
of the position and of the interests and policy of England.
With regard to the question of the honour of England, I
conceive that she is in no way engaged to take pat t in the
present war. There has been at no time a declaration or
a pledge on the part of this country, on the part of her Ma-
jesty's Government or of the Crown, that material assistance
would be given to Denmark by this country. Three times
her Majesty's Government, while I have held the seals of
the Foreign-office, have endeavoured to induce Denmark to
accept propositions which, we think, would have been fa-
vourable to her independence. In 1862 I made a proposi-
tion, which was rejected. When Lord Wodehouse went to
Denmark, he and the Russian plenipotentiary proposed that
Denmark should at once repeal the constitution which she
lad passed. She refused that proposition. Again, in the
Conference lately, we believe that, if she had consented to
the arbitration which we proposed, it would have given as
good a position to Denmark as she could have expected. My
lords, lam not blaming Denmark. I should be sorry to
reproach her for anything in her present state of weakness.
She has a right to refuse these propositions; but we, on
our side, have a right to consider the duty and the
interests of England, and not to make the honour and the
known interests of England subservient to the interests
of any foreign power whatsoever. Our national honour
must be maintained, I cannot but think that if, in the
month of December or January last, France, Great Bri-
tain, and Russia, with the assistance which they might
have counted on from Sweden, had declared for the main
tenance of the treaty of 1852, the succession of the King
of Denmark, which had peaceably taken place, might
have been peaceably maintained. Then, I think, the
King of Denmark and his Government would have reme-
died all the grievances which his Gelman subjects had
suffered. But such was nct the choice of the other Powers,
with. the exception of Sweden, and I have to repeat what I
sa ripen a recent occasion, that it has always been con-
sidered that the treaty of 1352 was not a guarantee treaty,
and that the Government of France and Russia were, like
ourselves, perfectly at liberty to acknowledge that treaty, I
hut that was not acknowledging it as part of the general
seystem of Europe. The French Government have repeat.
edly, and within the course of the last 24 hours, intimated
the views taken by the Emperor of the French neon this
question. He declares that it 19 essential to the interests of
France to support a line of frontier for theking,dorn of Den-
mark, but that he does not think France will be disposed
to go to war for such an object, and he adds that if France
did so she would become involved in a war with Germany,
and a war with Germany was a war of the most serious
importance to France. He aiso stated that her artniescould
not be marshalled for the invasion of Germany without
great cost and great risk, that if successful France would
expect some compensation for her efforts, and that compen-
sation could hardly be obtained without exciting indigna-
tion in Europe and disturbing the balance of power- MY
lords, I think there is great weight in these objections, and
that the Emperor of the French is justified in following
that line of policy. I cannot but admit that if France and
Germany did go to war, it might revive some of those con-
tests which were terminated in 1814; and the Emperor of
France having thus declared his policy, and the Emperor
of Russia having constantly refused to join with us in giv-
ing material support to Denmark, our position, of course,
must be greatly influenced by these decisions. Is it a duty
that we alone should undertake the preservation of the ba-
lance of power in Europe as recognised by the treaties of
1815 ? There are many considerations which induce me to
come to a different conclusion. I cannot but think that in
such a war our commerce might suffer severely from the
depredations to which it would be exposed. But there are
other considerations. Would your interference bring the
war to a close without military aid i Would it recover
Schleswig and Holstein, or even rescue Jutland from the
Prussian and Austrian forces ? I think that if we inter-
fered our interference ought to be clearly effectual, and that
nothing
it were
more diminish the influence of this country
than if were found that, although we had the dominion
at sea, yet that after some time, on the approach of winter,
our interference had not produced the slightest effect, and
we were compelled to withdraw our forces from the Baltic.
The position and influence of this country should be con-
sidered by Parliament and the country—with all its great
interests and mighty complications, with all our various
treaties and connections in various parts of the world.
':'here are other parts of the world besides Europe in which
our iutereitts are deeply involved, and in which W 9 may one
'day find it necessary to maintain our honour and our essen-
tial interests. Let the civil war in America end how it may
—whether it be in the establishment of an independent
republic in the South or whether it ends, most unexpectedly
to me, in restoring the Union—still the United States of
America, or the Northern States, whichever they may be
celled, would be in a totally different position from what
they were s few years ago, A great army and a great navy
will be maintained, and our relations with that power will
be liable at any moment to interruption. Those relations
must be taken into consideration, as well as the balance of
power in Europe. Then look at our relations with China,
which require a considerable naval squadron to protect our
commerce; look at our immense possessions of India, and
conceive how necessary it is that they should be main-
tained. But if these considerations are to be borne in
mind, it may be said that other combinations might be
made, and that the principle of nationality to which
Prussia and Austria had appealed might be invoked