The Sun.
London, England, 1866-04-12 00:00:00

be ignored even in Vienna, and whose reception anal
treatment must throw a decisive light for us upon
the attitude and intentions of the Imperial Cabinet,
have driven matters too closely to a point to permit
of less frank language being well-timed.
" Your Excellency is empowered to read the full
text of this despatch to the Imperial Minister, and
to leave it in his hands, should he wish you to do
so, for the purpose of communicating it to his Ma-
jesty the Emperor.
(Signed) " VON BISMARK."
The Austrian reply to this note was as follows :
" COUNT MENSDORFF TO COUNT KAROLYI.
" Vienna, Feb. 7, 1866.
" From my various communications, as well as
from the interviews recently had with me in Vienna,
your Excellency is fully acquainted with the views
of the Imperial Court, as to the Gastein convention
and to the position of affairs that has resulted from
the same.

" Mindful of the provisional character of this
agreement, we shall assuredly not forget that at
Gastein neither was a succession quarrel decided nor
a province incorporated with the Austrian monarchy,
nor were we endowed with the right of one-sidedly
and, without the assent of Prussia, disposing of the
political future of the duchy of Holstein. Such a
right is as little in our power as- has Prussia ac-
quired a right to one-sided disposition of the duchy
of Schleswig. The two Powers have not divided
between them the substance, but only the tempo-
rary possession of the acquisitions of the Vienna
peace treaty. They have reserved the definitive
solution of the question of sovereignty to a future
agreement. Your Excellency is aware that the
Imperial Court has recognised the binding power of
this reserve in its fullest extent. Although it was
net claims of Prussia, but rights of the Germanic
Diet and of the Duchies that formed the motive of
war against Denmark, it yet always appeared to the
Emperor, our most gracious master, as suitable to
the position of the two German great Powers to at-
tach the new political formations which must issue
from the war to the condition of a free agreement
between the Courts of Vienna and Berlin. The Em-
peror Francis has never misunderstood that such an
agreement must afford just satisfaction to the State
interests of Prussia. His Majesty's desire to facili-
tate the final solution by every possible concession
is apparent from incontrovertible proofs. Free from
all responsibility for the fact that this object is as
yet unattained, Austria still answers to the Govern-
ment of his Majesty the King of Prussia not to
permit anything that might prejudice the reserved
agreement between the two Powers. The Imperial
Government, however, according to the Gastein
Convention, is not subject to any control in the
provisional administration of Holstein. It is not
the sole possessor of the Holstein rights of sove-
reignty, but the method of its carrying out the
same is left to its own free judgment. As every-
where else, it represents in the North of Ger-
many strongly conservative interests ; and it is its
earnest care that its entire action in Holstein should
fulfil the demands of this duty. But its proceedings
in Holstein depend solely upon its own initiative,
and it regards every individual question which may
arise within the scope of its administration of that
province as exclusively pending between itself and
its governor, but withdrawn from every other in-
fluence. It concedes the same independence to the
Prussian Government in Schleswig.
" This view of the position is based on the plain
text of the Gastein Convention. It is just towards
Prussia as towards ourselves. It corresponds with
the sentiment of our dignity, and is required by
necessary care for our interests. The Berlin Cabinet
to which we have repeatedly represented all these
things, could therefore hardly have drawn up the
despatch, of which a copy is annexed, in te expec-
tation that we should deviate from the line of con-
duct so expressly and plainly marked out for us.
"I, who have the honour to write these lines,
maintain too willingly confidential personal inter-
course with Baron Werther to hesitate in discussing
with him every event of the day. Count Mensdorff
is undoubtedly able to inform Baron Werther what
the Emperor's Government thinks as to the permis-
sion to hold that Altona meeting to which too great
an importance appears to be attached in Berlin.
But the Emperor's minister must decisively reject
the claim of the Prussian ambassador to receive
satisfaction as to an act of the administration of
Holstein, and in saying this I only follow the orders
of my imperial master, to whom I considered it my
duty to submit Count Bismark's despatch.
"By the treaty of Gastein, observes the Cabinet
of Berlin, each of the two Duchies is, as it were, a
pledge of :the loyalty of one of the co-possessors.
Each of them possesses the right of demanding that
until the occurrence of the future understanding its
object shall be maintained in statu quo. That is in
reality the case. But this right evidently refers to
the undiminished preservation of the substance.
Were its meaning that of control of individual acts
of administration, the undivided community of go-
vernment which existed prior to the Gastein Con-
vention might just as well have been retained. And
if the complaint against us is, that by our luke-
warmness and passiveness the monarchical principle
in Holstein has been injured, the conservative feel-
ing that distinguished the Schleswig-Holstein people
has been changed, and the object of the future un-
derstanding has been deteriorated, the conscience of
collective Europe will join us in repudiating this
change ; for collective Europe knows that the efforts
now prevalent in Holstein are the same which
existed at the time of the Gastein Convention and
long before that period, and from which the resist-
ance of the Duchies against Denmark derived its

strength.

" We are further accused of having permitted the
same excesses to be committed against Prussia at
Altona which we condemned at Frankfort in com-
mon with Prussia. How has the Prussian Cabinet
been able to avoid perceiving the evident reply, that
it was precisely Prussia who refused to propose the
prohibition of such meetings as have taken place at
Altona throughout the entire Federal territory ?
Had th 3 matter been already settled by the Diet
there would have been no lack of positive law in
Holstein, and the King's Government would not
have been reduced to the necessity of demanding
from us the re-introduction of those Danish decrees
of whose pressure the Duchies generally loudly
complained, and which we no longer found in prac-
tical operation when we undertook the administra-
tion of Holstein.
"The Emperor, our most gracious master, deplores
this entire discussion. It will be difficult for his
Majesty to believe that King William will estimate
the value the Emperor attaches to his relations to
PdesruireiatobyanAnue sxt r itah'
es consents or
to
no r
un ,:soi
an s. e n
At inait.hme
so one-sided is no doubt far from the intentions of
the King. Nevertheless the King's Government
speaks to us as if our natural refusal to allow this
annexation to be completed could not be explained
otherwise than as the return to a policy of destruc-
tive jealousy and rivalry. Nay, it speaks as if it
had been abandoned by Austria in the conflict
against the common enemy, the revolution, and
thereby been checked in carrying out its wish to go
with us permanently on the same road. Let the
King's Government cast an unprejudiced glance at
recent events.
If it surveys the conditions of
te
in id
Ger-
many, it perceives the fact that, far removed from
wishing to form a coalition against
relations ia,
t,o the
we haved
i e
decidedly subordinated
as is proved by the
States to the :alliance with Prussia, and, indeed,
have seriously damaged them,
retribution they have taken
of recognising the Ita-
lian kingdom. If the King's Government looks at
the relations between European Cabinets, it will be
forced to acknowledge that we have never endea-
voured in any quarter to work upon Prussia by
pressure from without ; and even the labours of our
rnbassad
•
or at Paris—so roundly abused in scrim
--have —have alw
..Ys been directed solely towards the ob-
ject of strengthening France in her policy of hold-
ing aloof from the Schleswig-Holstein
ebythe
Emperor which has in-
variably The line of action of th
peace and order in Austria, highestintqeureessttsio of
m
been recmlated
Europe, could not thereforehasavein:jed Germanythe
King
a and
Prussia astray; and I must reject with firm con-
viction the reproach made to the Imperial Court
that its sentiments and acts constitute the ground
why the intimate community of en, r li ePo eyof the