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

burg, but s line to ti Lie south of Flensburg, by which that
important town mig ht have been preserved to Denmark. I
may say that z ny no ble friend and myself, as the British
plenipotentiari es, had thought that, after the fairness and
impartiality which the Emperor of the French had shown
throughout, and ccnsitlering 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 plenipotentiarie s 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 sh,auld 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 Paris,
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, daring 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 Augustenburg, and that
they could accept no arbitration, and could not submit 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 Danish pleni-
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 durir.6
- the
occupation ?

Lord RUSSELL—The French proposition
.eeidedly was
that the Prussian troops should abandon t 1
..e district before
the vote was taken. (Hear.) However, in, the opinion of the
Dance—an opinion which they hay d since repeated, and
which I think is well founded in fact, although the popu-
lation of Schleswig are perfeeey satisfied to remain united
with Denmark, yet such read 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 utminst harmony prevailed among us. Both
the French, the neussian, and the Swedish plenipotentiaries
did all in their sower to contribute to the success of the pro-
posals which we made, and we shall therefore leave the
Conference nvith a strong sense of our obligations for the
support we, received from them. A declaration was made
at the lantt meeting of the Conference by the Prussian pleni-
potentnanien, and which has been made to-day by the Aus-
trian, ambassador, that Austria and Prussia have no intett-
tir.4 to carry on hostilities for the purpose of obtaining pos-
nession of any territory beyond the duchies of Schleswig and
holstein; that they had no intention of making a conquest
ref any part of the Danish territory on the continent or of the
Danish islands. 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, after 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
all° 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 pa: 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 IV odehouse went to
Denmark, he and the Russian plenipotentiary proposed that
_Denmark should at once repeal the constitution which she
had 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 eeepected. My
lords, lam not blaming Denmark. I sheuld be sorry to
reproach her for anything in her present state of weakness.
She has a right to refuse these nropositions ; 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 .2ngland 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
I've been peaceably maintained. Then, I think, the
Bing of Denmark and his Government would have reme-
died all the grievances which his Get man sue jects had
suffered. But such was not the choice of the other Powers,
with the exception of Sweden, and I have to repeat what I
said upon a recent occasion, that it has always been con-
sidered that the treaty of 1852 was not a guarantee treaty,
'and that the Government of France and Russia were, like
ourselves, perfectly at liberty to acknowledge that treaty,
but that was not acknowledging it
as
part of the general
system 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 upon this
interests of
question. He declares that it is essential to the
France to support a line of frontier for thekihgdone 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 te war of the most serums
importance to France. He also stated that her armies could
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
181.5? 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 severaly 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 ? Would it recover
Schleswig and Holstein, or even rescue Jutland from the
Prussian and Austrian forces ? I think that if we inter-
fet ed our interference ought to be clearly effectual, and that
nothing could more diminish the influence of this country
than if it 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
eve 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 interests are deeply involved, and in which we may one
day find it necessary to maintain our honour and our easel,.
tial interests. Let the civil war in America end how it may
—whether it be is 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
called, would be in a totally different position from what
they were a 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 considera.ion, 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 oar 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
Privesia and Austria had appealed might be invoked