The Sun.
London, England, 1867-10-18 00:00:00

BADEN AND 7HE NORM GERMAN
CONFEDERA2ION.

CARLSRUHE, Oct. 14.

At the sitting of the Chambers to-day, Deputy
Mundt put the questions upon Prince Hohenlohe's
statements to the Bavarian Chamber of which he
had given notice. He asked how far the Govern-
ment agreed with the Bavarian plan of an interna-
tional connection between North and South, what
relation the alliance with Austria was intended to
occupy, and whether the statement of the Bavarian
Minister as to the-inadmissibility of the closer con-
nection of a single South German State with the
Northern Bund was based upon any diplomatic
facts. Baron von Freydorf, the Minister for Fo:
reign Affairs, replied as follows:
" Upon the 9th May last the Ministry over which
I have the honour to preside received through the
Bavarian Ambassador a note from his Government
of May 6, in which the Grand Ducal Government
was invited to join in an annexed Bavarian and
Wurtemberg Ministerial Declaration, subsequently
signed by Wurtemberg on the 16th. A similar in-
vitation was addressed to the Government of South
Hesse. This note developed part of the ideas as to
the future relation of the South German States to the
Northern Bund contained in Prince Hohenlohe'e
speech of the Bth inst. The annexed Ministerial de-
claration included detailed proposals for the forma-
tion of a further confederation between the four
South German States on the one baud and the
Northern Bund on the other. After some modifi-
cations of the proposed declaration had been partly
effected, partly placed in prospect by correspond-
ence between the Miniseries concerned, I received
instructions from the Grand Ducal Government on
May 27, to enter into negotiations with the North
German Bund upon the subject, in common with
the three other South German Governments, and to
report the result in due course. Meantime it had
been announced that Prussia intended to give notice
of the dissolution-of the Zollverein upon July 1, to
take effect, therefore, from Ist January next ; and
the Grand Ducal Government thought it advisable
to get to negotiations as to the reconstruction of the
Zollverein as early as possible by means of the
negotiations set on foot by Prince Hohenlohe. As
the agreement of all the South German States as to
the bases of the proposed further confederation were
not attained, and would not be easily or soon arrived
at, I wrote on May 31 to the Bavarian Minister,
communicating my instructions of May 27, again
dwelling upon the points of difference, and showing
that it would be unpractical and dilatory if the four
South German States, before meeting the represen-
tatives of the Northern Bund, endeavoured to come
to an agreement upon all disputed points and de-
tails of the bases of the negotiations, as the points
themselves would take different shape during their
course. I added. that the Grand Ducal Government
preferred leaving to the Bavarian Government
unless Prussia should scion take the initiative—on
its part, in the name of the South German States,
and, avoiding previously calling a conference of the
Ministers of those States, or entering into further
written negotiations, to take fitting steps for effect-
ing the speedy meeting of a conference of the Mi-
nisters of the South German States with the repre-
sentatives of North Germany for the establishment
of a further confederation of the South German States
with the Northern Bund. This communication had
only just been despatched when the invitation of
Prussia to the customs conference at Berlin arrived,
whose result you know. Since that time the nego-
tiations for the establishment of the further con-
federation have remained stationary, with the ex-
ception of a note from Prince Hohenlohe on August
5, which alludes to various passages of my de-
spatch of May 31, replies to some of the objections,
and reserves to the King's Government to return to
the negotiations at a fitting period. This is the
formal position of the negotiations to which Prince
Hohenlohe's speech of the Bth inst. refers. Their
material situation is best seen from the interpreta-
tion of the principal point in dispute. The Bava-
rian and Wurtemberg Ministerial declaration pro-
posed that certain matters should be regarded is
common affairs of the further confederation, and
that Arts. 3 and 4 of the North German Constitu-
tion draft should be recognised as basis of the
negotiations as to settling what these affairs should
be. So far as they could not be regulated in ad-
vance by way of treaty according to the Federal
Constitution, they were to be settled by an enlarged
Federal Council, co-operating with the Parliament
in the North, 1: ith the Diets of the individual States
in the South. On behalf of this Government it
was proposed that the common affairs of Arts. 3
and 4 of the North German Constitution should be
settled by the addition of representatives of the
South German States to the Federal Council and
the Parliament, as has now been agreed upon for
customs and commercial matters. You see from
this that negotiations have taken place between the
South German States, that we have agreed upon
opening relations with the North German Band,
and upon the idea of establishing a further confede-
ration, but that the bases of its constitution are not
yet defitiitively laid down. The Bavarian and Wur-
temberg Ministerial declaration also contains a pas-
sage upon the relations of the further confederation
with Austria, according to which a corresponding
connection with that Power was to be striven for in
case it could not be attained simultaneously with the
conclusion of the treaty of federation. The Grand
Ducal Government has not yet expressed its opinion
upon this point, because it was only informed sub-
sequently by Prince Hohenlohe's note of June
1 of the agreement between Bavaria and Wur-
temberg upon this article, and because the
position Prussia and the North German Confedera-
tion intend to take up towards Austria must also
govern our relations with that Power. This would
probably have been settled in the course of further
negotiation. But the previous or simultaneous set-
tlement of our relation towards Austria is not made
a condition of the establishment of the separate
confederation, and no idea of an alliance with Aus-
tria in that shape seems to be entertained. Lastly,
the Bavarian Minister for Foreign Affairs has ex-
pressed his personal opinion that it would be neither
politically correct nor advisable, nor practicable
peacefully, if single South German States entered
into closer connection with North Germany. We
must respect this conviction of a distinguished and
conscientious German politician, and :assume that
the reasons upon which it was based may be of
weight according to given circumstances. We have
already repeatedly expressed our contrary convic-
tion, and demonstrated its compatibility with the
Nikolsburg preliminaries and the Prague Treaty,
and its agreement with Article 79 of the North Ger-
man Federal Act. That conviction of the Bavarian
State Minister rests probably simply upon an inter-
pretation of the aforesaid treaties differing from
curs, and upon general political views as to the state
of affairs in Central Europe. Peculiar circumstances,
and in especial statements of interested or foreign
Powers in political negotiations or diplomatic docu-
ments, upon which the aforesaid conviction might
be based are not known to us. The Grand Ducal
Government believes the time will come which will
permit the South German States to unite them-
selves with equal rights to the new Germany now
in process of formation. It is endeavouring to
create by acts the bases which will justify our
country in demanding national union, but it will
esteem itself fortunate if that union with the
North can be effected in . common with its neigh-
bours, south of the Maine, and will constantly
be ready until that period, as in the above detailed
neuociations, to take every preparatory step in
common with the remaining South German Govern-
ments."

THE EVACUATION OF LUXEMBURG.—A curious
story is told concerning the evacuation of the fortress of
the Luxemburg by the Prussians. The Prussian engineers,
during their 50 years' occupation of the fortress, have con-
sti noted great works underground, every part being sapped
and mined. Under the citadel is a crypt citadel, a sub-
terranean citadel which is a veritable labyrinth, composed
of an infinite number of galleries, passages, chambers,
posterns, and concealed doors. Now, in giving up the
Luxemburg, and handing over the fortress to the new
garrison of Luxemburgians, the Prussians say that they
have no plan of these works to give to the governor of the
new garrison. They have simply handed him over the
bundles of keys of the different doors and galleries, without
other guide. As thoro are 523 keys in the bundle the
00111115i0A q# tllO Unloll,llll* goYernor may be imagined,