The Sun.
London, England, 1866-06-22 00:00:00

HANOVER AND PRUSSIA.

GoirINGEN, Wednesday.
The Hanoverian Minister for Foreign Affairs has
communicated the reply of Hanover to the Prussian
ultimatum to all European Governments, accom-
panied by the following circular, which justifies the
refusal given by the Hanoverian Government to the
demands of Prussia:—

"The undersigned has the honour to enclose the
copy of an ultimatum forwarded upon the 15th inst.
by the Prussian Ambassador Extraordinary and
Minister Plenipotentiary, Prince . Von Ysenburg
Budingen, to the Hanoverian Minister for Foreign
Affairs, Count Platen-Hallermund, together with
the answer returned the same day by the latter in
the name of his Government.

" The undersigned has further further the honour to
communicate that upon the evening of the 15th
inst., and before the return of the annexed reply,
Prince Ysenburg, upon receiving the verbal an-
nouncement of the non-acceptance of the demands ,
made by Prussia declared war against Hanover in
the name of his Government, and that at the same
time the Prussian troops advanced into the territory
of the kingdom of Hanover.
"His Majesty the King, accompanied by his Royal
Highness the Crown Prince, immediately repaired
to his army, and for the present took up his
Mops
head-
quarters at Gottingen, where all the bodies of troops
distributed throughout the kingdom have received
-
Order's to join his Majesty. The King's capital of
but w i with noble trust
wHasanoabvearn,dwonheicdhbiys uthnetentraobolpesas a
,military —osition,
p
her Majesty the Queen, with the Royal Princesses,
remained in the metropolis to observe the fate of its
citizens.

" This is the present position of affairs by which
the first step has been taken in a mighty contest
of. Germans against Germans. The undersigned has
the honour to state herewith that the King's Go-
vernment casts in the most solemn manner, and

BEIVSTARER
before the eyes of all Euro ::.,1—`7.44.7".":41a,‘
sibility of this terrible an %I --,:;, , ..;01,1-7:.,, '
d i -----
the Prussian Government. C,41:::::4:0:.;
..4-',:t7if
".During the whole pr IgNilit •''' A '' '•
that have broken out between
Austria and Prussia the Kings G nuolit has
....atua
used every effort to appease and arrange the lament-
able disputes. It has claimed for itself no other
rights and sought no 'other security than those based
upon the German Federal treaties, guaranteed by
the whole of Europe according to the laws of nations.
In its last vote also, at the Federal Diet, upon a mo-
tion brought in by the Austrian Government for
mobilisation of the Federal army, the King's Go-
vernment has most strictly adhered to the unequi-
vocal stipulations of Federal right, and it has at
the same time, with the most conscientious desire
for peace and agreement, combined the execution of
its duty with the most friendly consideration for the
Prussian Government—a course indeed which has
brought upon it in various public quarters the re-
proalichoowf
sbtexiong ngalyptlesrtitaounsotfhPe rKu,issniga.
,s
Government
was of adhering in the most friendly manner to a
thoroughly impartial point of view has been espe-
cially proved, within the last two days, by the fact
that after the Austrian Kalik brigade had passed
through Hanover, permission was most readily
granted the Prussian Government, upon its request,
for the passage from Harburg to Minden of 15,000
men belonging to the corps stationed in Holstein
under Lieut.-General Manteuffel. These same
Prussian troops, after arriving at Harburg, in con-
sequence of this permission, were then employed for
the hostile occupation of Hanover. The King's
Government is therefore unable, either with regard
to Federal right, or with regard to its especial po-
sition towards the Prussian Government, to recog-
nise even a pretext of justification for the forcible
measures adopted by the latter.
" When the Prussian GoVernment declared its
secession from the Confederation, on recount of a
motion brought forward in legal form, and of a vote
thereupon, in an equally legal shape, it acted in a
most positive manner in contravention of the prin-
ciples of the Germanic Confederation. But when
it attempts to couple with its own illegal secession
from the Confederation the consequence that the
entire Federal treaty has thereby ceased to exist, it •
adopts a proceeding by which the existence of all
treaties and the validity of international right
generally would be placed at the mercy of every
state strong enough to break the peace and to op-
pose the right with armed hand.

" The King's Government can, therefore, not ad-
mit the right of Prussia to secede from the Con-
federation for the reasons she has adduced, still less
to declare the Confederation dissolved in conse-
quence of that secession ; nor, lastly, to forward to
an allied Government with which she is upon a
friendly footing an ultimatum containing unaccept-
able conditions, and upon the refusal of those con-
ditions arbitrarily to commence war. But in proof
that the conditions required by Prussia were unac-
ceptable, the undersigned need only refer to the
comments in the annexed reply forwarded to the
Prussian Government :

" ' Every one acquainted with the circumstances
is aware that the demand for the reduction of the

Hanoverian armyto a peace footing is merely a pre-
text. It is apparent that a resolution neither ought
to nor can be arrived at in a few hoars apart from
the Diet upon the motion for a Parliament
brought in by Prussia—a motion affecting the exist-
ence of the entire German nation in its very roots.
Not less is the demand that Hanover should relin-
quish in favour of Prussia important, nay, the most
important, sovereign rights—viz., disposition over
the military force of her own country—opposed to
European international law as well as to Federal
rights. For the full and free sovereignty of the
kingdom of Hanover was indubitably recognised by
the whole of Europe before the establishment of the
Germanic Confederation, and the Hanoverian Go-
vernment entertains the hope that rights all Europe
has admitted will not be allowed to be sacrificed to
the one-sided good pleasure of the Prussian Go-
vernment.

" The undersigned is therefore forced to charac-
terise the case of war created by Prussia as an ille-
gal and arbitrary act. lie is instructed by his
Government solemnly to protest against the same,
and to declare that the Hanoverian Government,
with its army, occupies a position of necessary
defence against lawless and unheard-of attack upon
its independence and its honour.
" While the undersigned entertains the hope that
all Europe will take note of this solemn protest of
weaker right against temporarily stronger wrong,
gn d it L PLA HALL 11 ND."
he e
(Inrs embraces this e, to
Tarr; SZEC.mu