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

LJAPERIAL PARLIAMENT

HOUSE OF LOEDS.—Last Evening,
The appearance of thelobbies leading to the House of Peers
presented a very animated scene last evening, in consequence
of the importance attached to the statement to be made by
the Secretary for Foreign Affairs relative to the position
of matters with respect to the Dano-German war, Persons
who had been fortunate enough to secure members' orders
attended in large numbers, and on the opening of the
strangers' gallery the rush was terrific. The interior of the
house presented a very unusual appearance from the large
number of elegantly dressed ladies who filled the galleries
extending the entire length of either side of the magnificent
chamber. The space in front of the throne was also crowded,
and altogether the scene of animation presented was one
not often seen within the walls of Parliament. The attend-
ance of peers was very large.
The LORD CHANCELLOR took his seat on the woolsack at
4 o'clock.

sian Governments want ed was a specific
would
e.eatio...„„seen
whicha.
secure absolute guarani ccs to the Duchies against forenen
angression, and againe t the recurrence of revelation and
war. These guarante ss can only be obtained by the co plete political indepen( fence of the Duchies.
This declarrna-
tion on the part of the German Powers was not a
little-
remarkable. Your lor "ships will observe the phrase,
"absolute guarantees at atinst any foreign aggression."
Those words evidently had reference to the late King of
Denmark, who was also :Duke of Holstein, and whose title
'was never disputed. At the same time there was a general
requisition for security ;against war. Those two Powers—
Austria and Prussia—toy whom the other Powers of Europe
had a right to look for respect for treaties, asked the Go-
vernment to declare at once that the government of the
Duchies should he ee.cluded from all disputes tending
to revolution and es 'an That demand on the part
of the German Power s was considered so ambiguous
in the minds of the plenipotentiaries that
they co not tell what they meant. The Danish plenipotentiary
asked what those words meant. The French plenipoten-
tiary also inquired as to their meaning, and for a long
tine the plenipotentiaries were unable to ascertain what
was really intended by the German Powers, and at last it
was asked who was to be the sovereign of the two Duchies,
fhe answer given on the part of Austria was that that was
a question to be decided by the German Diet. :Now, both
Austria and Prussia had declared by the treaty of '52 that
question had been decided, and the King of Denmark had
a right to settle the succession, and that his decision in
favour of Prince Christian, the present King of Denmark,
would be respected. It was equally notorious that the Diet
might by a considerable majority declare against any title
of the King of Denmark, and Count Bernstorff did not deny
that the majority of the Diet wculd never consent to an are
rangement which would unconditionally restore the union
between Denmark and the Duchies. Thus, while the two
Powers were, in appearance, consenting to the treaty and
to the succession devolving upon Prince Christian, the
plenipotentaries of Germany, who had greater power in
effect than Austria and Prussia, declared that they never
would consent to a restoration of the union. At the next
meeting of the Conference, which took place on the 17th
of May, Austria and Prussia declared that they could no
longer acknowledge the King of Denmark; that they
thought the duchies should be separated from Denmark and
placed under the sovereignty
cf the Duke of Augustenburg;
and that he should be declared the rightful possessor of
the throne of the Duchies. Before this declaration was
made, and in anticipation of such an event, the plenipoten-
tiaries of the neutral Powers had to consider the situation.
The Government of France, which had many communica-
tions with the Government of this country, declared that
they thought that a personal union would not be the found-
ation of a lasting peace; that the only mode of obtaiuing
such a condition would be by separating the German
nationality from the Danish nationality, and endeavour to
make peace upon that ground. After this communication
I consulted the other plenipotentiaries, and we came to the
conclusion that it was useless to propose that the two
Duchies should remain under the King of Denmark—that
it was obvious, unless we were prepared to carry on a great
war for the purpose, that after the hostilities that had taken
place after the declaration of the German Powers, if any-
thing like a personal union were established, that there
would have been at once a declaration on the part of the
Duchies, and on the part of the German Confederation,
supported by Austria and Prussia, that the Prince of Au-
gustenburg was entitled to the whole of the Duchies, and
that if any Danish troops entered the Duchies to dispute his
title, it was obvious that Austria and Prussia, and the whole
of the German Confederation, would have resisted them.
We had therefore to consider what was the best arrange-
ment to propose in consequence of the difficult position in
which Denmark was placed. We accordingly prepared a
statement, which I, as president of the Conference, was
asked to draw up, proposing such an arrangement as we
thought would be supported by the neutral Powers, among
whom was the Russian plenipotentiary, although he had
not then received definite instructions. What we proposed
was that the King of Denmark should leave to Germany the
duchy of Holstein and the southern part of the duchy of
Schleswig—that the boundary should be drawn as far as the
Schlei, and that it should go along the line of theDannewerko
—that there should be no menacing fortress in the territory
—that the German Powers should not interfere any further
in the internal affairs of Denmark—and that a general gua-
rantee should be given by the European Powers for the
rest of the Danish possessions. With regard to this pro-
posal, the Danish Government made a concession which I
think did the Government the highest credit. They declared
that the King of Denmark had accepted the crown in the
expectation of the treaty of 1552 being carried out, but as
the surrender of a portion of his territory was now de-
manded from him he was willing to make that concession
provided future independence and self-government were
left to the remainder of his possessions, (Hear.) The King
of Denmark declared that he was ready to accept the line cf
the Schlei, and that without defining it, it would be neces-
sary to have a military and commercial line drawn for the
sake of the protection of Denmark, and he declared, more-
over, that there should be an European guarantee for the
possession of the rest of his territory. The German Powers,
while they accepted the principle of the partition of Sales-
wig, and they no longer demanded the whole of that duchy,
yet they declared that, according to their view of the line
of demarcation, the line must go farther north, and that
they could not accede to the line proposed by the neutral
Powers. They declared, at the same time, that, while they
were unwilling to have any restriction, they were perfectly
ready to agree that, with regard to the rest of the territory
to be left CO the King of Denmark, there should be no inter-
ference whatever. I confess, my lords, it appears to too
that, upon principle, this was the best arrangement that
could be made. It was not to be expected that these duchies
could be retained under the nominal sovereignty of the
King of Denmark, without giving rise to fresh disputes and
fresh complications. It was obvious'likewise that if the
sovereignty were to continue to be vested in the King of
Denmark there would be constant interference on the part
of the German Powers. 'These disputes may go on for
years, and it would be far better for Denmark to retain a
restricted territory with the conditions that the Danish Go-
vernment should have absolute control over such territory
without being subject to the perpetual interference and
control on the part of the German Powers. The French
Government, more especially, took that view of the case.
The French plenipotentiary declared, in the fairest
terms, that it was always the ()Onion of his Govern-
ment that the union of the nationalities was the cause of
all the complications which had taken place, and that nothing
could be settled without some division of them. But then
the plenipotentiary declared, in the name of the Emperor,
that at the same time it was necessary that great forbearance
should be shown towards Denmark as the weaker Power—
(hear, hear) —that that part which was confessedly German
should be given to Holstein, but that with regard to the
mixed districts, that they should be left to Denmark, as a
means of preserving her independence and giving her com-
mercial freedom. Unhappily, my lords, upon this question,
as tiroughout all the questions, the German Powers, instead
of taking that view of generosity and forbearance which had
been so well urged by the Emperor of the French, had been
determined to insist upon their rights of conquest—the vic-
tories they had gained on the disputed territory over a Power
so disproportioned. (Hear, hear.) With respect to gene-
rosity and ferbearearce—with respect to due consideration
for the peace of Europe, and the absence of a desire to rush
again into war in order to obtain their demands by right of
arms—l should be wanting in sincerity if I were to say that
any such generosity, that any such forbearance, any such
regard for the zeace of Europe, were manifested on the part
of the German Powers. (Hear, hear.) The Danish Go-
vernment considered that this which we—my noble friend
(Lord Clarendon) and myself—proposed on the part of the
neutral Powers, and which was to be the basis of pacifica-
tion, was an English proposal, by which England was bound
to abide. Nothing of the kind was ever stated by an Eng-
lish plenipotentiary, and nothing of the kind has Denmark a
right to expect. I did inform the Danish plenipotentiary,
when there was a prospect of continuing the armistice,that I
would not propose any division of the line without the con-
sent of Denmark, but I never gave him the least reason to
hope that England would support that line otherwise than by
urging its adoption in conjunctionwith otherneutral Powers.
At a recent meeting of the Conference the Russian pleni-
potentiary, after stating that he would adhere to the pro-
posal of the neutral powers, as advanced by England, de-
clared, on the part of his Government, that the Emperor of
Russia had renounced all his claims to the duchy of Schles-
wig in favour of the Duke of Oldenburg. The Danes de-
clared that they could make no further concessions. In this
situation of affairs, not knowing whether the German
Powers would concede any other boundary line, the Prus-
sian plenipotentiary said ho was ready to recommend to his
Government a line from the north of Flensburg to Toeberg.
The Austrian plenipotentiary did not agree to that proposi-
tion at first; but afterwards he concurred in it. The Danes,
h o we
de ever,
ertehfours,e
wd
ri
rthaotuornpereo. p
slitotgh eanhyr eomrhainer el
id toh e ,
rbhee
rceo nsi-
was
der
t some mode by which peace might still be maintained.
We considered that question most anxiously. It was obvi-
ous that many difficulties
w
asread
y'o
givee already
pertre moofvhe
ids. The
ging of
p
domi-
nions, and, on the other hand. the German plenipotentiaries
were willing that a part of the duchy of Schleswig
remain under the dominion of the King of Denmark. Both
powers also were ready to accept the
proposal that there
should be no interference in the internal affairs of Denmark,
and all the Powers would have been prepared, if there had
been an agreement on other points, to give an European
guarantee to Denmark, who would then have been left
without indeed any
sovereignty over the German potalla-
',ion of the Duchies, but still possessed of a territory entirely
free from foreign interference. Well. under the circum-
stances, we thought that the spirit of the protccol of Pal its
might be adopted. The protocol of Paris said that when
aroseor habdetwfeaeirtled,
Powers,the
means of reconciliation good
dcr otherffi i s
of a friendly Power might be resorted to. It ap-
peared to us that sooner than this unequal contest should
serious differenceensiati
be resumed. it would be well to seek the gocd offices of a
s
friendly Power, under the condition that both the parties
hould submit to the line decided upon by the arbitrator.
arbitrator would have fixed upon a line far more favour-
able New, ray lords, I cannot believe but that r.ny impartial
to Denmark than any which the Cit.tman Pow
ershad
proposed—that a Power impartial and without passion
would prob°,l4 hale given not a line to the nnrth cf EItLE-