The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-07 00:00:00

Austria, Prussia, and the Duchies.

The Wiener Abendpost, the official journal of
Vienna, publishes in its edition of Tuesday evening
the following article :
" The declaration formerly made by Austria at
the last sitting of the Germanic Diet hands over to
the Confederation the further dealing with the
Schleswig-Holstein question, so far as Austria was
in a position to exercise in respect of that question
a direct and determinate influence. The motives
which induced this step of the Austrian Government
are well known ; those motives are based upon the
conviction, fully established by events, that an un-
derstanding with Prussia for a definitive arrange-
ment in accordance with German rights and with
those of the Duchies is impossible. If we look for-
ward to the consequences of this act of the Austrian
Government, we find that the Cabinet of Vienna
has not departed from the original and undoubtedly
legitimately principle of Austro-Prussia action, and
that the terms agreed upon by both Powers are
based upon an admission of the German right of re-
cognition. Austria assigns as her legal basis of
action the Treaty of Vienna, and she is far from
contesting, even with respect to the definitive settle-
ment of the affairs of the Duchies, the importance
of the provisional arrangements of the Treaty of
Gastein. The convocation of the Estates of Hol-
stein is a proof of that disposition. The position of
affairs stood thus :—The peace of Vienna gave to
the two great Germen Powers the right of disposing
of the Duchies, but certainly not of doing so con-
trary to law and right. The essential points of the
arrangement may be stated briefly--that the trea-
ties confer upon Austria and Prussia the right of
seeing that right be done. The first-mentioned
right could, perhaps, when we remember the assis-
tance afforded by Pussia to the deliverance of the
Duchies, the position of that Power in the north of
Germany, as well as her political necessities, be
subjected to certain restrictions, but to ignore it
altogether is what neither Austria nor Prussia
could do without repudiating the object of their
common action against Denmark, without
substituting in the Duchies a mere arbitary domi-
nation in place of that which has been driven ou
by the triumphal march of the German armies to the
frontiers of Jutland, nor without inflicting a suicidal
blow upon the fundamental conditions of the exist-
ence of the Germanic Confederation. Any natural
and impartial interpretation of the treaties must
lead to the conclusion that the Schleswig-Holstein
dispute ought to be referred to the decision of the
Diet. If the rights of the Duchies had been from
the beginning established beyond doubt, and if,
especially, Austria and Prussia had been able to
agree upon a definitive settlement of the question
upon the bases of those rights, there would have been
no necessity for an appeal to the assistance of the
Confederation in order to arrive at an arrangement
based upon the disposing right conferred upon the
two great Powers by the Treaty of Vienna. But
all the efforts of Austria directed towards obtaining
the concurrence of Prussia to an arrangement which
all the rest of Germany recognised as right and law-
ful were unavailing. What, then, was more natural
than that Austria should transfer her free action to
Federal right—a right which had the claim of prio-
rity, and which could not disturb the agreements
entered into between Austria and Prussia? What,
therefore, could be more natural than to leave the
further prosecution of the business to the decision of
the Diet ? As to Prussia, she appears less entitled
to dispute the action of Austria, because her position
in respect of this question rests mainly upon her
connection with the Confederation. It is a fact that
during the long course of years in which Prussia
has taken an active part in the Schleswig-Holstein
question she has done so in her character of a
member of the Confederation, and not as a great
European Power. She entered upon a conflict with
Denmark in order to give effect to a decree of Fede-
ral execution before the contest had assumed the
gravity of war. She now raises pretensions over
the Duchies of which it is impossible to permit her
to constitute herself the sole judge. If momentary
advantages do not constitute the fundamental prin-
ciples of her policy, if she has preserved, despite her
system of military conventions, separate alliances,
and dallyings with foreign Powers, one remnant of
fidelity to Federal right, she will submit to the de-
cision of the Diet as Austria has determined to sub-
mit herself. It is not her rivalry with Austria—a
rivalry which has been the occasion of more than
one complication--which can now determine the
course she should pursue. Austria, indeed, without
at all attacking the right of Prussia and without
prejudging the ultimate decision of the Diet, retires
individually from the conflict, and thus opens a new
path for the maintenance of peace. If Prussia should
refuse to follow that path such refusal will be directed
against the Confederation. By rejecting the deci-
sions of the Diet she breaks the links which unite
Germany. Is it possible that people in Prussia can
be alive to the consequence to which the next pro-
ceedings of the Bismarck Cabinet may lead ? Let
us hope that those proceedings may be dictated by
really German sentiments, freed from all passion—
from that belief in the destiny of the Prussian
Monarchy which has for too long a time exercised a
dominating influence upon the policy of the Cabinet
of Berlin."