, 1866-05-11
From tie Spectator, Apr1 IT,
ENGLISH SYMPATHIES IN GER
MAN AFFAIRS.

is true that the text of the order placing
the Army on a war footing has appeared
in the Prussian Gazette, and that the ex-
port of horses from Austria has been
prohibited lest they should find their way
to Berlin. 1t is true, also, that notes
have been interchanged between Berlin
and the smaller Powers, in which the
Kings Government announces lis unal-
terable determination to remodel the
Confederation, which since the breach
with Austria has become unmanageable.
1t is true, also, that a pamphlet has APP
peared in Paris recommending an alliance
of France with Prussia, and announcing
that Count Won Bismark is ready to cedc
the district of Saar-louis, with its coal
fields so much needed by French COM
merce. But the initiative of action now
rests with Prussia, and there is hesita-
tion in Berlin-an inclination, it would
seem, to doubt whether after all the d.
plom9tic possibilities can have been eX-
hausted. The hesitation does not amount
to much, for the situation remains uu-
changed, and the King understands that
if he recedes he gives up his last chance
Of dispensing with Parliamentary aid,
and his best prospect of cementing his
power over all Northern Germany. But
hesitation means time, and with time the
sense that war between German States
is civil war may perhaps grow strong.
The probabilities are still in favour Of
war, but they are not stronger than they
were last week, and in the lull it would
be we'll if this country asked itself to
which side its ~sympathies ought in the
tong run to incline. The merits or de-
merits OF the combatants may be about
equal, but there seems some danger least
the final judgment should be based upon
a false issue. The flood of sentimental
wash with which it is the custom in this
country to receive auy declaration of war
is a little larger in volume even than
usual, than it was, for example, before
the Italian War-a war at once Just In in
ception and most benefcent in result.
The talkee talkee about ambition, and un-
scrupulOusness, and violence may Of
course be accepted as the kind Of remark
always volunteered when anybody threat
ems to break the comfortable mon0tony
of European life, but many of the jour
nails descend to most unreasonable parti-
culars. Austria, to begin with, usually
in the wrong, is in this instance in the
right. She simply refuses to give up TO
threats her right to influence in Germany,
or to be bullied out of a province which
was allotted to her not by Europe, but
by the Power which is now trying to
take it away. Whether judged by the
old public law or the new, the faith of
treaties or the will of the people con-
cerned, her argument is im~pregnable, for
she offers either to obey the Convention
of Gastein, or to submit the fate of the
Duchy to a vote of it's own Estates. But
Austria being in the right, is Prussia so
absolutely in the wrong? If we look for
one moment beyond the technicalities of
diplomacy, and the minor question of
her claim to govern Holstein because
she has half a right to do so, the position
of her statesmen is clearly this. The
unity of North Germany is worth a war.
That arrangement would open to twenty
five millions of people, one in language,
in literature, in aspirations, and in the