The Sun.
London, England, 1863-10-17 00:00:00

GERMAN FEDERAL REFORM,

The Europe of the 15th inst. publishes the follow-
ing circular letter of Count Rechberg to tho Aus-
trian representatives in reply to the Prussian mani-
festo on the Austrian project of Federal Reform :
" Vienna, Sept. 26.

"Baron de Werthen handed me yesterday, with a view
of its being forwarded to his Majesty the Emperor, the re-
ply addressed simultaneously by his Majesty the King of
Prussia to the high dignitaries of the collective letter of
the Ist inst., as well as a despatch of the President of the
Royal Ministry, M. de Bismark, the latter accompanied
by a copy of a report addressed to the King on the 10th of
this month by the King's Ministers As to
the impression which the aforesaid documents will make
upon his Majesty, I foresee it but too closely. It is with
profound regret that the Emperor will hear the de-
clarations of Prussia, and I cannot doubt that this senti-
ment is shared by all the German Sovereigns and Govern-
ments Who are at this moment in posssession of the reply
of Prussia.
"Tills reply fully justifies, in fact, the frequent appre-
hensions that Prussia will not seriously join in the reform-
ing tendencies of her Confedera ';es, but that she will strive
only to impede the development of the Federal constitution
by laying down unacceptable conditions.
"According to our convictions, the three cardinal points
to the preliminary acceptance of which the royal Court of
Ptussia subordinate even its resolution to treat concerning
a reform of the Confederation, are not only quite incom-
patible with the maintenance of the Federal principle
in Germany, but it seems to us very significant that Prus-
sia should be opposed to the precise propositions of her
oCmmisfseidoenrsatedos'ngoetnaedrmalitPoreftaensions, whose vague definite and precise conception.
It would be an easy, but by no means pleasant or consoling
task, to demonstrate positively, and one by one, the omis_
sions as well as the flagrant contradictions in which the
Ministers of Prussia have involved themselves in the report
of the 15th of this month.

" Nevertheless, I think the German Governments
can.
not forego that task after having been formally summoned
by the Prussian Government, however extraordinary the
proceeding may have been, to take into deliberation a report
addressed to th© King by his Ministry.
" The only circumstances that we note with satisfac:ion
is that the King and his Ministers have not thought it be.
coming to reiterate directly and expressly, in face of the
German Sovereigns, the reproach formulated in a previous
Ministerial report, to the effect that the dignity and power
of Prussia were wounded by the Frankfort propositions.
" For the present I can have no other intention than to

give you my first impressions and to express only a provi-
sional appreciation relative to the steps which the partici-
pants in the reforming work at Frankfort will feel them-
selves prompted to take under existing circumstances.
" In my opinion there is ground for drawing up in a tone
of Federal friendship a radical refutation of the Prussian
stipulations, and to transmit it to the Cabinet of Berlin in
the shape of identical despatches from all the Governments
inter ested in the act of reform, with an urgent declara-
tion of the hope that Prussia will not insist upon her un-
acceptable preliminary conditions, but that she will con-
sent to treat on the basis of the propositions already as•
sented to by 24 Germanic Governments.
"The declaration that it is impossible that those propo-
sitions should remain without effect would be quite in place
in the said identical despatches.
" Moreover, there would be a reason for inviting some of
the Courts, which, while they refused to accept the act of
reform in its entirety, nevertheless participated in the
Congress at Frankfort in a spirit favourable to its principal
object, especially the Courts of Mecklenburg-Schwerin and
of Saxe-Weimar, to join in this step, in so far at least as
they shall deem i t compatible with their views. . . .
(Signed) "Itzcannaci.".