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 upbn 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 gay.e 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."

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.

TIMES.—The events which have attended the

abandonment of the Conference show that the pro-
spects of its success would have been faint indeed.
Though Austria alone proclaimed her reservations
beforehand, and so disposed of the attempt, yet it
seems almost evident that not only Italy, but Prus-
sia too, entertained similar resolutions of foregoing
nothing. Unless, indeed, the Government of Berlin
were determined to keep the Danish Duchies at all
hazards, it would have no ground of complaint against
the present proceedings of Austria in referring that
question to the decision of the Germanic Bund,
inasmuch as that, beyond all doubt, is the tribunal
to which the jurisdiction pertains. It is true that as
the case stands at present Austria is under a private
engagement with Prussia to reject the authority of
the Bund, and settle the question by 'special arrange-
ment, and that is the weak point of the Austrian
cause. Still, however, the Convention of Gastein,
by which this understanding was established, repre-
sented only a provisional or temporary agreement,
and left the ultimate settlement of the question still
in suspense. The termination of the understanding
even if it had not been provoked by the insolent de-
monstrations of Prussia in the Duchies, could hardly
be equivalent to the violation of a treaty. It would
merely place the contracting parties in the positions
occupied before the convention, and that, indeed, is
the-view on which the Prussian Government imme-
diately acted. Before the Convention of Gastein,
Austria and Prussia jointly occupied both Duchies.
After the agreement, Austria alone occupied Hol-
stein, and Prussia Schleswig ; and as the agreement
was terminated by the resolution of Austria to dis-
solve her private partnership with Prussia and refer
the whole case to the Bund, Prussia now claims the
right to share the occupation of Holstein as before.
This in itself is not unreasonable, but itmerely shifts
the difficulty from one point to another. The pre-
sent policy of Austria is just as irreconcilable with
the joint occupation of the Duchies as with their par-
tition, and the title of Prussia to occupy the Duchies
at all forms the new question before Germany.
It is as well to remember at this conjuncture how
the conflicting claims arose and were constituted.
The Germanic Bund, or Confederation of German
States, decrees " execution" against the King of
Denmark as Duke of Holstein, and marched a
Federal army into his Duchy. Had the operations
which ensued been conducted by these forces only,
and under this authority, the whole affair would
have borne a legal aspect according to European
law. We might have doubted whether the Duke
of Holstein had really provoked such treatment, or
whether the Confederation had been honest in its
pretensions, but the Diet or Federal Assembly was
undoubtedly competent to coerce or chastise a re-
fractory member of the body, such as the Duke of
Holstein was assumed to be. If, therefore, the
Federal troops, directed by Federal authority, had
first occupied Holstein and then directed the right
of succession in that Duchy, there would have been
no overt illegality in the proceeding. But such a
proceeding did not suit the views of Prussia. She
anticipated, with good reason, that the Diet would
assign to some independent Prince—probably the
Duke of Augustenburg the Principality torn
from Denmark, whereas she had long coveted the
territory for herself. She therefore thrust herself
rudely between the combatants, ejected the Federal
army, and took the work of " execution" into her
own hands. Austria, jealous of her pretensions,
and apprehensive of the consequences, demanded to
share in the expedition, and the Duchies—Schles-
wig as well as Holstein—were conquered by the
combined armies of these two great Powers.
The conquest was followed, first by the joint
occupation of the whole territory, and then, in
pursuance of the arrangement at Gastein, by the
allotment of Holstein to Austria and Schleswig to
Prussia till a final settlement could be agreed upon.
These proceedings, however, were all in defiance
of German law. The combined expedition of Aus-
tria and Prussia into the Duchies was wrong ; the
joint occupation of the Duchies was wrong ; the
private Convention of Gastein between the wrong-
doers was wrong ; and it is only now, in forsaking
that Convention, that Austria is right. Austria
now, in acting with the Confederation for Federal
purposes, is in her proper path, and Prussia is just
as liable to a decree of Federal " execution" as Den-
mark was some time ago. She has not, indeed, a
single claim to advance, and it will have been seen
that she has confined her complaints to the " arma-
ments" of other Powers, and her pretensions to vague
and obscure assertions of " legitimate" interests and
expectations. But these pretensions have no foun-
dation whatever. They only mean, plainly inter-
preted, that the Duchies were wrested from Den-
mark mainly by Prussian arms and at the cost of
Prussian blood ; that the actual position of Prussia
in Northern Germany points her out as the proper
successor to Denmark ; and that the Prussian Go-
vernment intends to support by might the small
amount of right which could thus be constituted.
But the Prussian army had never any business in
the Duchies at all. If any Power whatever had any
grievance against Denmark, it was not Prussia, but
the Germanic Confederation. The Prussian inva-
sion of Denmark was actually in violation of law,and
no lawful claims can be founded on its results. The
aggrandizement, again, of Prussia on the coasts of
the Baltic is a proposal to which Austria and the
other German States may fairly take exception.
Austria thinks her rival strong enough already ; the
others have found her insolent enough and domi-
neering enough, and have no desire to see
her territory extended or her power increased.
It is instructive to see how the great tempest is
rolling round to this point_ the point where the
first wrong was done. It is all for Holstein that
Silesia is menaced. The armies of Austria were
drawn into Bohemia by the proceedings of Prussia
in Holstein, and by nothing else. The Middle States
of Germany are collecting their forces to aid in
settling the Holstein question. Prussia knew all
this perfectly while she was complaining of gratui-
tous and offensive armaments. She herself had not
armed, but she was not, therefore, innocent. She
treated the Duchies, both in word and deed, as her
own, and it seems as if she would now have to fight
for them at last. But it is terrible-to think how this
storm may spread. Italy, though not declining to
attend the Conference, made no secret of her designs
upon Venetia, to be asserted in any event and at all
hazards. But in the rear of Italy stands France,
and in the rear of Austria stands Russia, already
committed, in common opinion, to some interest in
the fray. It is even said that the designs of Italy
against the Adriatic provinces of Austria have sug-
gested some political concert between the Emperor
and the Sultan ; nor dees anybody seem to doubt,
indeed, that the war which begins upon the Baltic
may extend to the Black Sea. All this is for terri •
tory. If the Austrian condition of forbidding, in
any case, the territorial aggrandizement of any
litigant Power had been admitted, the Conference
would simply have been superfluous, for on that
presumption there would have been nothing for
either Prussia or Italy to fight about. The neutral
Powers, of course, discerned the inevitable conclu-
sion. • If Prussia would forego her intentions of
annexing the Duchies, and Italy her hopes of
acquiring Venetia, there would be no need for
States to meet in Conference. If Austria would not
allow of the annexation or give up her Italian pro-
vince, the Conference could make no approach to
an arrangement. So the appeal is left either to pri-
vate negotiation or to the sword.
DAILY NEWS.—The condition of the freedmen in
the Southern States is the subject of much discus-
sion and of great divergences of opinion in the
American press. Mixed up as the question is with
the political quarrels of the hour, it is almost im-
possible to arrive at definite and trustworthy infor-
mation about it. On the one hand, the President
and his friends try to represent it in the most favour-
able light, and to prove that Congress, in its care
for their welfare, is doing more harm than good.
On the other hand, the advocates of negro suffrage
—among whom we may reckon many of the old and
honoured names of the anti-slavery party—repre-
sent it in the darkest colours, and ask for stronger
measures of protection than the constitution em-
powers Congress to provide. Each of the parties
has its theory, and interprets the facts in accordance
with it. The President's theory is that the South is
the true friend of the negro, and that the true wis-
dom is to leave his status to be determined and his
condition to be fixed by his former masters. His
policy proceeds on the assumption that a people
who went to war for slavery, who tried to build a
new social and political fabric with negro slavery as
its chief corner stone, are not only ready to accept
their disappointment and defeat, but to do justice
to the race they had thus hoped to wrong. The
theory of Congress is that they who have freed the
negro are bound to protect him, and that having
given him the rights of manhood, they should secure
those rights against infringement. The policy which
this theory suggests is that which is represented by
the present Freedmen's Bureau, by the Civil Rights
Bill, and by the proposed Constitution al Amendment.
It proceeds on the conviction that the best friends of
the negro are those who have given him his liberty
and elevate him from the condition of a chattel to
the status of a man, and that to leave him unpro-
tected and helpless in the hands of his former masters
would be to give him back to as much of the reality
of slavery as is consistent with the semblance of
freedom. Looked at in the light of those irrecon-
cileable theories, the most indisputable facts are
read in opposite ways. The President and his
friends charge the violence which so frequently
happens to the account of the very measure which
Congress has taken to provide against it. It is the
injudicious interference of the Freedmen's Bureau,
we are told, which excites the anger of the Southern

~at
population against its wards, and leads to so many
outrages against their freedom, their property, and
even their persons. Let them alone, and they
would be gentle enough. On the other hand, every
act of high-handed violence that is attempted con-
firms Congress and the Northern majority in their
conviction of the need of protective measures. While
one side quotes the many favourable reports to
show the friendly tone of Southern society, the
other quotes them to prove the excellent disposition
of the freedmen towards their work, and the ad-
mirable working of the Freedmen's Bureau. Mean-
while it is hardly possible to discover what is the
real disposition of the mass of Southern people, or
the actual condition of the great body of the freed-
men. We are, however, promised an inquiry into
this. The President has had a commission hostile
to the Freedmen's Bureau inquiring into its work-
ing, and exposing some irregularities in its ad-
ministration • and now a joint committee of Con-
gress is likely to be appointed to take evidence
on it, and to report in full at a future day.
It is not in the least to be expected that the
two races will adjust their new relations without
difficulty on the one side and suffering on the
other. All the world knows what the " mean
whites" of the South are. Constituting, asthey do, a majority of the Southern population, and
coming, as they now must, into direct contact, and
even competition, with the freedmen, it is abso-
lutely certain that they will not at once lay down
their pride of race, or learn to tolerate with dignity
the equality of the negro with them. The least
civilised part of the American population, celebrated
alike for their pride and their poverty, their violence
and their idleness, they are not likely to allow the
despised race of former slaves to stand on any equa-
lity with them without the protests characterieticof
them. We cannot but think that General Grant's
desire for the increase of the permanent Federal
army arises in part from the conviction that it will
.not be safe for a long time yet to leave the freedmen
unprotected. They have publicly complained that
they are frequently told, " When the Yankees
leave you had better leave with them, or you will
wish you had." And one of the latest reports from
the South mentions that in the State of Virginia, a
freedman who was merely importuning a whitewall
for wages due to him was shot by the man on the
spot, and that on his trial by a white jury the mur-
derer was acquitted. But all this tendency to vio-
lence is miserably increased by the present state of
politics. The Southerners feel that they have a
friend in the President, and that he may possibly
succeed in thwarting the efforts of Congress to tie
their hands. A lingering hope still exists that some .
substitute for slavery is even yet possible. Already,
efforts are often made to enforce " vagrant laws,"
which are mere relics of slave legislation ; and were
the Freedmen's Bureau withdrawn, and the Civil
Rights Bill declared unconstitutional (as a Southern
judge has already ventured to declare it), such laws
would be at once in action as would make the freed-
man only free in name. This is the real issue be-
tween Congress and the President. Mr. Johnson's
policy is responsible in great degree for the unsettle-
ment of the relations of the two classes in the South.
It fosters illusive hopes on one side, and renders
beneficent legislation almost impossible on the other.
And if the great work of emancipation should re-
ceive a serious check, and its completion be delayed,
history will hold President Johnson responsible for
the calamity.

COUNTRY MARKETS.

SALISBURY.-T UESDAY.

The Bath and West of England Agricultural ahoy,
thinned the attendance at the corn exchange this morning.
A short supply of wheat was offered of various quality',
and more money was asked by holders in consequence of
the warlike character of foreign news. Business, however,
was limited, at rather more money than last week. In
barley there was nothing doing, but oats, peas, and beans
ruled firm, at previous quotations. For flour a moderate
inquiry prevailed, at 33; 35; and 378 per sack.
The following are the quotations :—Wheat realised from
38s to 52s ; barley, 35s to 42s ; oats, 22s to 328 ; beans, 403
to 525; and peas, 42s to 50s per qr. Tare; from Gs to 7°
6d per bushel ; Best bread, 13d ; household ditto, 12d
per 81b loaf. Flour, 34s to 38s per sack.

HULL.—TUESDAY.
At our market to-day there were few buyers, and very
little business was done. No material change can be made)
in quotations. Barley supply equal to the demand. The
market for linseed was firmer

English old white wheat, 50s to 54s ; old red, 44s to 48. q.
Barley, English, 36s to 375. Oats, Russian, 24s to 250.
Beans, new English, 43s to 445. Peas, English blue, 403
to 41s Od ; grinding, 40s to 41s Od per 36 stone.

NE WCAS TLE- ON- T YNE—TUESDAY.
At our market to-day there was a small supply of wheat.
from the growers, and a moderate quantity coastwise, but
a good arrival from abroad. A much better demand NvO
experienced, and a largo business was done in both English
and foreign, at an advance of fully is per qr on Saturday's
rates. Barley, beans, and peas were unchanged. Malt
was firm. Oats wero more inquired after at late priceS•
Flour was from Gd to is per sack dearer.

MONMOUTHSHIRE—TUESDAY.
The following are the average quotations: —Wheat, red,
5s 6d to 5s 9d per bushel ; inferior ditto, 5s Od to 55.3c1,,;
white, 6s to 6s 3d ; malting barley, 38s to 42s per qr ; grin'
ing ditto, 27s to 325; beans, 44s ; white oats, 24s 6d to 265 i
black ditto, 23s Gd to 24s 6d.

LYNN—TUESDAY.
The supply of wheat was rather limited, and there Nylo
a firm demand evinced at the full rates of last weep'
The supply of barley was short and the demand middling')
at late rates.
New wheat, 42s to 46s ; new red, 41s to 44s ; old whiP;
51s to 53s ; old red, 48s to 51s per 36 stone. Barley
malting, 37s to 40s ; secondary, 33s to 355. Oats, new,
24s to 26s per 24 stone. Beans, small, 43s to 465. rea9'
36s to 40s per 28 stone.