The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-06-30
what Europe is Going TO Fight Abouf.

w udt EuEOpc 10 UOAhkl ~ rs <ADOHAs
No single cause can be assigned for
the war which has Just burst upon
Europe but the preteXt upon which
Prussia and Austria fight is a very
simple matter. By the defeat of Den
mark, whom England encouraged to
go to war and then deserted, the two
great German Powers became in 1864
Joint rossessors of the Duchies of
SchIeswig, Holstein, and Lauenburg.
Less than year afterward, Austria
sold her rights in Lauenburg for 2 500,-
600 Ihalers, and by the Convention of
Gastein il was agreed that the joint
occupation should terminate, that Aus
tria should take possession of HolStein,
and Prussia of Schleswig. This was
one step in the negotiation by which
Prussia expected ultimately TO become
master of both the Duchies, but beyond
this point Austria refused to go, and re-
iected every proposition for the final ceS-
sion of her rights TO HolStein-a prov
ince of to Austria, but ofgreat
value to Prussia on account of its near
ness to her frontiers, and of its seaport,
Kiel. As the diplomacy of Prussia
grew more and more urgent, Austria,
on the first of June last, handed over
the question to the Federal Diet of Ger
many. This step Prussia inst tntly de-
pounced as violation of the COnven
ton of Gastein, since by that Conven-
ton it had been agreed that all matters
relating to the Duchies should be settled
between Austria and Prussia indepen-
IDENTIFY OF the Confederation. Prussia,
therefore, declared that Convention at
an end, and insisted that, as c0nse-
uuence, her right TO the joint occupa
ton of Holstein was revived. She pre-
pared, therefore. to march troops into
that Duchy.
Long before the dispute had reached
this point, the menacing point of The
negotiations between these Two great
Powers had warned Europe that the
Continent was on the eve OF war; and
the rest of the States were not less in
terested in the approach of war than
Austria and Prussia themselves. There
are, in the first place, the minor States
of Germany, forming with Austria and
Prussia the GerInanic Confederation.
In that Confederation, two struggles
have long been proceeding side by side;
frSt the struggle between Austria and
Prussia for u controlling influence on
the whole Confederation; second, the
struggle of the people, including the
people of Austria and Prussia as well
as OF the minor States, toward IA Ger
man nationality, which should embrace
under one government all German
speaking populations. No war could
occur which should not have an inn
mense influence upon these two issues.
Austria has succeeded in attaching tenn
pOEdfllY 10 neE Slu6 LudIOElIy
of the minor States, and the Feder-
al Diet, representing population of
Is, ,UOO, 900, exclusive of Austria and
Prussia, has declared in favor of the
former. Neither Austria which still
obeys the despotic traditions of the
Hou of Hapsburg, nor Prussia which
| is ruled by Blsmark, a minister whose
policy is nothing by the people, hasany
sympathy with the aspirations of the
| Germ1G Liberals, but both have con-
ciliated and used the popular feeling as
one instrument in their struggle for SUI
premacy. In point of fact, 1t is this
desire Tor leadership in Germany which
drive Austria and Prussia to arms, and
| by no means their misundersLaDdings
about the petty State of Holstein. All
the Holstein difficulties could be read
| lily enough arranged we're il not for the
| irrepressIble conflict between the two
great German Powers either to estab-
lish an ascendency in the present coun-
cils of the nation, or to BECOME its
recognized head whenever its political
reorganization shall take place. The
minor German States, however, are not
at this moment the most important ele-
ment in the situation.
An OLD SUPERsTrT1oN.-AI little girl
was recently drowned in a mill-race at
TitusyilIe, Pa Her parents are of for
/ aiUT1f birth and fhav haua sinrn hrOuOht