The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-13 00:00:00

THE. SCOTC.

PRUSSIA AND THE DIET.

(REUTER'S EXPRESS.)
FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAINE, June 10.
At the sitting of the Diet yesterday the Prussian
representative made the following statement upon
the position recently assumed by Austria in the

Schleswig-Holstein question :
" The envoy is instructed to repel again, as con-
trary to fact, the assertions by which the Austrian

Government insinuates that Prussia has desired to

effect the annexation of the Elbe Duchies by force.
" With regard to the overture in which Austria
remits the entire Schleswig-Holstein matter to the
decision of the Diet, and guarantees upon her part
the most implicit adherence to that decision, the
envoy is ordered to declare that his Government

cannot reconcile that act of the Imperial Court
either with the treaties existing between the two
Governments, or with the competence of the Con-
federation. The reciprocal relations of Prussia and

Austria in the matter of the Elbe Duchies have

been regulated from the beginning by precise agree-

Lucas,

" When, in January, 1864, the two Powers agreed
,o take personally in hand the defence of the rights

of the Duchies, they concluded a convention which
settled first, provisionally, the measures to be taken
immediately ; but foresaw, at the same time, the
case when the course of events would release the
two Powers from previous treaties. In this respect
the convention contains, under sec. 5, the follow-
ing passage, clear and unequivocal, and upon which
rests the legal basis of the ulterior relations of
Prussia and Austria :

" ' In case hostilities should take place in Schles-
wig, and in case, consequently, the situation created
between these Powers and Denmark shall have
ceased to exist, the Courts of Prussia and Austria
reserve to themselves the right of settling the future

,uation of the Duchies by common agreement
only. To bring about this agreement they will con-

cert, in case of need, such ulterior measures as may
be required. They will not in any case settle the
question of succession to the sovereignty of the
Duchies save by reciprocal agreement.
" Conformably to the position thus taken up by
the two Powers, the rights of King Christian IX.,
the King whom these Powers had recognised, were
ceded to Prussia and Austria by the Vienna Treaty
of Oct. 30, 1864, and the common right of the two
Powers to dispose of the Duchies was admitted.
Out of this right of dispOsition sprang the conven-
tion concluded at Gastein, Aug. 14, last year. By
this convention the exercise of the rights ac-
quired by the Vienna peace became the object
of a geographical partition ; but the right
itself of sovereignty over the two Duchies re-
mained by express reserve common to the two sove-
reigns—a fact which gave a new sanction to the
principle by which the question Of the Duchies
could not be decided, nor could the Duchies them-
selves be disposed of save by mutual agreement.
Austria contravenes these conventions, when with-
out having previously secured the adherence of Prus-
sia, it expressly dispenses with that adhesion, places
the matter in the hands of the Confederation, and
engages to submit to the decision of the latter.
" The King's Government seeks in vain for ar-
guments capable of defending this rupture of the
engagements imposed upon Austria by treaty, stipu-
lated from the beginning of the war complications
and maintained by the Gastein Convention. It can-
not accept as a reason for this rupture the pre-
text that in the conviction of the Aus-
trian Government the Germanic Confederation
has a primordial right to settle by itself the question
of the Duchies. The Austrian Government cannot
pretend that the competence of the Germanic Con-
federation has hitherto been based upon any right
whatever further than a right extending to the Fe-
deral country of Holstein, and not touching the
Duchy of Schleswig. The Imperial Cabinet, in
accord with Prussia, demanded by its vote of Feb.
11, 1864, that the Diet should establish its right.
It further, in a despatch of Jan. 10, that same year,
to the Austrian Minister at Munich, laid down its
objections to and its doubts upon the extension
given by the Federal Diet to its competence in terms
so precise that the envoy (Prussian) considers it
needless to dwell thereupon, the situation having
since suffered no essential modification.
" The King's Government does not hesitate to
declare that, looking at the question of the Duchies
as a national question, owing to the tie which unites
Holstein and Schleswig, it is far from wishing to
settle it in a different way to that it has taken up.
Already, in a despatch forwarded the 7th of last
month to Vienna, it has stated that it was ready to
treat the Schleswig-Holstein question jointly with
that of Federal reform, seeing therein the means of
rendering a pacific solution easier. Even now it
only awaits the time when it can settle this ques-
tion with a Federal Power, in whose midst the assis-
tance of the national Parliament will serve as a coun-
terpoise to the influence of individual interests, and
will supply a guarantee that the sacrifices made by
Prussia will be definitively turned to the welfare of
te entire country and not to the profit of dynastic

desires.
" Under present circumstances, and with regard
to the limits plainly imposed upon the competence
of the Federal Assembly by the existing constitution,
the King's Government is bound to oppose the
disposal without its assent of rights appertaining to
it in particular, which it has acquired by sanguinary
contests, and which international treaties have
ratified.
• "With regard to the notification of the Austrian
Government to the Federal Diet, that full special
powers have been forwarded to General von
Gablenz to Convoke the Holstein Estates, the envoy
is desired to point out that his Government con-
siders the convocation of the Estates as a right of
sovereignty, and that therefore that right, espe-
cially now that the stipulations of the Gastein Con-
vention have ceased to be in force, should be exer-
cised in common by the two sovereigns.

MARKETS.—This Day.

MARK-LANE.

Fresh up to our market to-day the arrivals of home-
grown wheat were very moderate. The ' trade was firm
both for rod and whit© samples, and Monday's advance in
prices was well supported.
There was a moderate show of foreign wheat on the
stands. The amount of business transacted was by no
means extensive ; nevertheless the quotations were very
firm.

'floating cargoes of grain were steady, at full quotations.
English barley was in short supply, but the market was
moderately supplied with foreign qualities. The trade
was steady, on former terms.
Malt changed hands slowly at Monday's currency.
Oats were in good supply, and the trade was heavy at
barely late rates.
Beans and peas were steady at full prices.
Thero was a fair demand for flour on former terms.

SHIP ARRIVALS THIS WEEK.
Wheat. Barley. Malt. Oats. Flour.
English and Scotch 1,190 880 620

Iriiii
6, 910 7 ,530
Foreign

24,470 1,610 sks
bls.

COMPARATIVE QUANTITIES AND PRICES OF GRAIN.
For the week ending June , For the corresponding week
9, 1866. last year.
Qrs. Aver.
Wheat 57,704-41s 5d
Barley 2,751-28s 8d
Oats

Qrs. Aver.
Wheat 47,666-17 s ld
Barley 983-35s 9d
Oats! 2,342-25s 8d

BOROUGH HOP.
The trade for all kinds of hops rules firm, and the late
advance in prices is supported.

WHITECHAPEL.

The supply of meat on sale is moderate. The trade is
slow at the subjoined currency :
Per 81b. by the carcase.
Beef 3s Od to 4s 8d Mutton 4s Od to 5s 8d
I
Veal 4s Od to 5s 2d Pork
Lamb, Gs Od to 7s 4d.

GOLD SHIP.—The Celmno, belonging to Messrs,
J. and a Parker, left Dunedin, New Zealand, on April 14,
with 8,8900 z. of gold, and 2,614 bales wool.
_ _ _

A WALK OF 82,000 MILES.—A wonderful old
man, named Thos. Bartrom, resides at the village
of Harome, in the North Riding. He has for 24 years been
a woodman on Lord Feversham's estate,. and during the
whole of that period has walked to and from his work, an
average of 10 miles per day. He still wields the axe and
continues his double march (night and morning), and is
somewhat proud of his nearing the distance of three times
round the earth. He is halo and strong, but not of any
great muscular power.