The Sun.
London, England, 1858-09-14 00:00:00

GERMANIC• T.

The following is the official extract from the
minutes of the sitting of the Germanic Diet on the
9th :—" In execution of the resolution of the 12th
ult., relative to the constitutional affair of the
duchies of Holstein and Lauenbourg, the Danish
representative has made the following declaration:
—After his Majesty's Government had expressed
in the sitting of the 15th July, and in view of the
Federal resolution of the 20th August last, relative
to the affair of the duchies, its intention of tempo-
rarily considering the general constitution of the
2d Oct., 1855, as being no longer in force for
the duchies of Holstein and Lauenbourg, it was re-
quested, by a resolution of the High Assembly, on
the 12th of last month, to explain itself in a more
precise manner as to the question whether, with
the constitution of the 2d Oct., the Danish Govern-
ment also meant to put out of force for the duchies
the Royal patents of the 16th Oct., 1855, relative to
the establishment of a Ministry for the internal
affairs of the duchy of Holstein. At the same time,
the King's Government was requested by the said
resolution of the Diet to make a confidential com-
munication as to the manner in which it intended
to settle the constitutional affairs of the duchies of
Holstein and Lauenbourg. On the first point, it
has been already remarked in the report of the
29th July, which preceded the last federal reso-
lution, that the Royal Government expressed in
its declaration of the 26th March last its intention
to enter into negotiations with the States on the
disputed provision of the constitution of Hol-
stein, as well as in the ordinance of the 23d June,
1853, and that consequently there was every reason
to suppose that the provisions relative to the gene-
ral constitution would be extended to the laws and
ordinances which are in necessary relatign with it,

It appears to be the less useful to enter into discus-
sion relative to the ministry established on the 16th
Oct., 1855, for the internal affairs common to the
whole monarchy, that the King has thought proper
to suppress that ministry by an ordinance of the
29th July last. Moreover, the King's Government
can completely adhere to that supposition of the
committee as regards the patent of the 23d June,
1856, and the articles 1 to 6 of the ordinance of
the 23d June, 1856, it being fully understood
that in so doing no prejudice be done to the
tenour of the latter articles, in so far as they
repose on preceding laws and rules ; in this
respect it will suffice to recal as an example that
Art. 1 refers to the law which regulates the suc-
cession to the Crown, Art. 2 to the rights and
duties of his Majesty as member of the Germanic
Confederation for the Duchies of Holstein and
Lauenbourg, &c. As, besides, the King's Govern-
ment has perceived, in the form of the confidential
communications indicated by the last federal reso-
lution, a step towards the negotiations, properly so
called, which he proposed in his declarations of the
26th March and the 15th 7uly last—which nego-
tiations are still, in its opinion, the sole means of
coming to a satisfactory arrangement—it has au-
thorised its representative to make to the united
committees of the Diet, in case he be invited, the
confidential communications which are possible in
the present state of things on the manner in which
it understands the definitive regulation of the con-
stitutional situation of the Duchy of Holstein and
the Duchy of Lauenbourg in the Danish monarchy."

ANOTHER ANGLO-AMERICAN ENTER-
PRISE. OVERLAND ROUTE TO THE
PACIFIC.

On the 10th of July last a large meeting of citi-
zens was convened in the House of Representatives
at St. Paul, Minnesota, to discuss the project of a
northern route to the Pacific. A report of a com-
mittee was read, several speeches delivered, and a
series of resolutions adopted. The first resolution
reads as follows :

" Resolved,--That the citizens of Minnesota, in
common with the states of the north-west, are
deeply interested in a connection between the nor-
thern lakes and the Pacific Ocean ; and if sec-
tional counsels shall prevail at Washington, ex-
cludin.g the great national highway between Lake
Superior and Puget Sound from its equal and just
recognition by Congress, then we congratulate the
citizens of the lake states; that by
.co-operation
with our Canadian brethren, an international
route-through the valleys of the Red River of the
North, the Saskatchewan and the Columbia, is not
only practicable, but will develop the most valuable
portions of the North American continent into
powerful and populous states."
This is rather a significant declaration, and we
see no good reason why it should not at a future
time, not very remove, be realised. It is quite cer-
4-'— -

am some means of expeditious communication
across the continent between the two oceans is a
desideratum which the social, political, and com-
mercial developments of the age must soon and
inevitably achieve; and it is just as certain that no
single connection of the kind will satisfy the exi-
gencies of the time, and the rapidly expanding em-
pire that is growing up and spreadins itself out
over the whole face of the North American section
of the hemisphere. The Congress of the United
States has been strangely insensible to the immense
,and urgent importance of this subject, and with the
present and long-to-be-protracted controversies and
jealouses which divide the North and South—the
free and the slave States of the Union—in the
councils and action of the Federal Government, we
fear that the question of opening the desired com-
munication with the Pacific by railway, will con-
tinue to be wrangled over and deferred by Congress
for an indefinite period. The only alternative,
therefore, will be the independent action of the
people of the northward, the middle, and the sou-
thern departments of the Confederacy, and the city
of Minnesota have very distinctly and boldly de-
clared their purpose to take their interest in this
matter into their own hands, provided the further
delay of just and liberal legislation at Washington
drives them to that extremity. Nor does their
manifesto contain any vain boast when we consider
the manner in which they propose to carry it out.
Affirming in more explicit terms the intention of
the resolution we have quoted above, a .Mr. James
Taylor, in a very forcible and intelligent speech to
the meeting at St. Paul, used this emphatic lan-
guage :
" But if the determination to exhaust the diplo-
macy and treasury of the country in spasmodic
attempts to sectionalise this vital subject is per-
sisted in, Minnesota, at least, has only to reach a
friendly hand across her northern border to extri-
cate herself from all the , consequences of congres-
sional injustice. We have come to know the people
of Canada—equally American citizens with our-
selves—at least under the auspicious influence of
reciprocal trade and future identity of interests if
not of political association. English capital also,
sensitive to the immense benefit of attracting the
boundless transportation of the north-west over the
public improvements of British America, and fully
conscious that the Canadian railroad system can
never be carried to the north of Lakes Huron and
Superior, crosses the Detroit river, builds a road
through Michigan even at this season of financial
depression, and will yet co-operate with the citizens
of Wisconsin and Minnesota in a connection with
British America at Pembina. ' Thence to Van-
couver,' will be the watchword of progress, con-
tinental in the grandeur both of design and
result. The time has long passed when the danger
of future wars with England will deter from
undertaking and consummating such an inter-
national enterprise. If, in the late war with Russia,
a secret compact mutually exempted from its hazard
the British and Russian fur trading posts on this
continent—if we have at this moment an agree-
ment with Great Britain that neither Power shall
exceed an insignificant number of guns on the great
lakes, and if the telegraph, when successfully sub-
merged on the Atlantic plateau, is unquestionably to
be neutralised during the accident of international
hostilities—surely an emigrant route in the first in-
stance, and the railroad soon thereafter to succeed
tho- waggon or mule track, may be safely entrusted
to the guardianship of peace and civilisation. No
other guarantee of protection is needed than the en-
lightened intelligence and moral sensibility of the
Anglo-Saxon communities, only separated by an
ocean."—Philadelphia .Evening Journal.