The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-12 00:00:00

The German National Union,

A crowl.ell meeting of Germans residing in Lon-
don was held last night in the large room of the
German National Union, Seyd's Hotel, Finsbury,
for the discussion of certain resolutions bearing

upon the position of the Schleswig and Holstein
question with regard to the London Conference.
The president of the Union (Dr. Kinkel) being called
to the chair on the motion of M. Siemens, he opened
the proceedings by expiaining that, although the
meeting was called by the committee of the National
Union, it was to be considered not merely as a
meeting of that society, but as expressing the feel-
ings and opinions of the general body of Germans
residing in London. He was sorry that the depu-
tation from Kiel which had lately arrived in this
country to protest against the proceedings of the
London Conference had taken their departure, and
he had received a letter from their representative
regretting that they could not be present on the
present occasion. At a meeting held last November
he had warned his hearers not to treat the Schles-
wig and Holstein question too lightly, and the events
of the last six months had proved the correctness of
the views he had then taken on the subject. He was
of opinion that neither Russia, France, nor England
would move in the matter, in proof of which he would
revert to the fact of an Austrian fleet having passed
up the Channel into the German Ocean without op-
position on the part of the French or British Go-
, , vernments. England was too much interested in
the raising of the blockade of the Elbe and the
Weser to interfere. She did not fear that a Euro-
pean war would spring out of the Schleswig and
Holstein question, but if such an event happened
the Prussians had little to fear. Their commerce
was insignificant in comparison to that of England.
their population of 40 millions were nearly all en-
gaged in cultivating a fertile soil, and their internal
resources would enable them to carry on a war for
almost any length of time. Their commerce with the
whole world was also secured to them, bounded as
they were by neutral States like Holland and Swit•
zerland. The war had proved the superiority of
their military resources, not only in flesh and blood,
but in war material. He considered that the people
of Schleswig and Holstein alone had a right to dis-
pose of their future. This was a principle which
had been acknowledged by the Emperor of the
French, it was adopted by several organs of the
English press, and Prussia and the German Confe-
deration appeared inclined to support the demand
of the Duchies to have a voice in the choice of their
future Government. The English Ministry had
refused to give a hearing to the deputation from
Kiel. He had, however, handed their memorial
to the Plenipotentiary of the German Confedera-
tion, M. von Beust, embodying the resolutions
which had been passed at the meeting of the Hol-
stein Estates. He concluded by moving a resolution
to the following effect—" That States out of Ger-
many have no right to decide on German affairs ;
but considering that a Conference on the subject of
Schleswig-Holstein, was now actually sitting in
London, at which Conference the German Confede-
ration was represented, it becomes necessary for the
representatives of the German nation in this coun-
try to insist upon the following points :-1. That
the two Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein should
remain undivided ; 2, That, considering the fact of
the representatives of Schleswig having taken their
seats in the German Parliament of 1848, Schleswig
should be acknowledged as part of the German Con
federation ; 3, That the Duchies be separated from
the nexus with the Danish Kingdom ; and lastly, that
it be left to the people of Schleswig and Holstein to
choose their future Government by their own vote."
The motion having been put it was carried by
acclamation. The meeting was then addressed by
Messrs. W. Siemens, F. R. S. Born, Scherzer
Reimers, Von Konich, Sehluud, and Brudes, and a
motion was agreed to that the resolutions passed at
the present meeting should be transmitted to Baron
von Beast, the Plenipotentiary of the German Con-
federation at the London Conference, as soon as pos-
sible. A vote of thanks was then passed to Profes-
sor Kinkel, and the proceedings terminated.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS,

TlMES.—During the first two years of the present
Government it was their general practice to sustain
at least one defeat every Wednesday. The motions
which led to this result were brought on generally
by members sitting below the gangway, whose views
were more extreme than those of the Administration

they supported. Acting without the fear of respons
bility, and released from the necessity of considering
the occasion, the fitness, or the polio:- of their
motions, these gentlemen contrive to convert the
House of Commons into a species of Debating
Society, in which they could ventilate their opinions
at the expense principally of the Government they
professed to suppart. It was the practice of the
then. Home Secretary to vote for these motions, but
to give them only a very feeble and dubious sup-
port in his speeches. The result of this combina-
tion was, as. we have said, that Wednesday was a
black day tor the Government, scarcely ever pass-
ing over without a defeat more or less damaging. It
is
only
due to Sir George Grey to say that under his
administration these defeats have been much fewer,
—whether from the greater discretion of members,
or the better tactics of the Home Secretary, or both
combined, it is now scarcely worth inquiring. The
~debate and division of yesterday, however, read
liae a return to the former practice. The Govern-
men. t contrived to get itself signally defeated by a
majority of fifty.six on a question on which there
was no occasion to have sustained any defeat at all.
In 1859 the House, under the leadership of Lord
Russell, defeated the Reform Bill of Lord Derby,
and in 1860 the new House of Commons, yet fresh
from contact with their constituents, sneered, cri-
ticized, and talked down the six-pound franchise
which Lord Russell had proposed. Dire predic-
tions were uttered that this outrage would rouse
theindignation of the constituent bodies through-
out the country. But those who iistened for the
avenging storm listened in vain. Not even a cloud
as large as a man's hand rose out of the ocean
of popular opinion, and with almost universal ac-
quiescence a measure on which two Governments
had successively staked their existence was suf-
fered to fell into oblivion. So entirely has the
impossibility of passing a Reform Bill in the pre-
sent House of Commons been recognised, that
scarcely has the Government been taunted in the
hottest party debates with its neglect to fulfil the
very engagements on the strength of which it ejected
its antagonists from power. Opinion wasin the main
just, and, without inquiring too minutely into the
sincere desire of the Government to pass the mea-
sure it had introduced, the public recognised that
the rejection of the bill was more the act of the
House than of the Government, more the act of
the Liberal than the Conservative party, and more
the act of the constituencies themselves than of any
or either of them. It has, however, pleased Mr.
Baines, unmindful of these things, to bring in what
has been facetiously called a one-barrelled Reform
Bill of his own, and to level this detonating
instrument pointblank at the Government. Thus
challenged, the course to be taken by the Govern-
ment would seem to have been exceedingly
plain. Without entering into the merits of the
question, they might have stated plainly and
honestly the reasons which had induced them to
abstain from the introduction of a new Reform
Bill, and insisted that the liberty which they denied
to themselves they could not possibly accord
b to a
private member. They might have urged withir-
resistible force that such a measure should e
brought in by a Government responsible tot the
house and to the country, or not at all ; and hey
might have declined most reasonably to be dragged
into a discussion which could have no practical re-
sult, except to excite expectations which were not
likely to be gratified. If, however, the Gov.ern-
meet decided to support the measure of Mr. Baines,
and thus to record a condemnation of themselves
for not having introduced a similar bill, their course
was equally plain. They should have treated the
bill like the bill of Mr. Locke Ring, merely as a
lowered
without that the franchise ought to be
without committing themselves any further.