violent and unmeasured attacks against German Powers or against the Germanic Confederation, my despatch of the 29th May shows clearly enough that we attach no particular importance to incidents of this nature.

We, therefore, think that we should abstain from ransacking the public reports of the Parliamentary sessions of Denmark since 1850, and from pointing out all the violent attacks of which the German Powers have been the object in the Danish Chamber. I confine myself to calling the attention of M. Hall to the debates which took place in the two Danish Chambers from the autumn of 1851 to the spring of 1852, and which furnish numerous examples in support of what I asserted on this subject in my despatch of the 29th May.

I instruct you, Monsieur, to read the present despatch to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and to leave him a copy of it, as well as of the Memorandum, if expresses a desire for it.

he

Accept, &c.

(Signed)

SCHLEINITZ.

THE Danish Minister for Foreign Affairs, in his despatch to Baron Brockdorff of the 10th June instant, advanced the following assertion :-that Denmark, in the negotiations of 1851 and 1852, contracted no obligations towards the German Confederation in regard to Schleswig.

The correspondence which took place in the months of December 1851 and January 1852, between Copenhagen, Vienna, and Berlin, indisputably prove the contrary.

His Majesty the King of Denmark, on the ground of Article IV of the Treaty of Peace of the 2nd July, 1850, had sought the intervention of the German Confederation in order again to be put in possession of the Duchy of Holstein. By that very provision, as well as by Article XXVII of the Final Act of Vienna of the 15th May, 1820, this was dependent on the King's making known to the Confederation the measures to be adopted for the pacification of the country.

A first explanation which the Danish Government had given, on the 26th August, 1851, to the Courts of Berlin and Vienna, who were empowered by the Confederation for this matter, was considered by them insufficient for proceeding thereupon to re-establish the authority of the Sovereign.

Upon this the despatch of the Copenhagen Cabinet of the 6th December, 1851, was written. This document stated that legal guarantees for the adoption of future measures could not be demanded by Germany, nor ought they to be given by Denmark. But if the desire of the King were gratified by restoring the full sovereign authority, it might, indeed, be possible for him at a future time, which it was to be hoped would not be distant, to strengthen the moral guarantees which constituted the foundation of the internal and external peace of the Monarchy. But such guarantees, by their essence and nature, could only be given of his own accord.

To this end the intentions of the King were more particularly developed in a separate annex of the despatch No. 2, confidentially, with the addition that the King would not fail to carry them out eventually. These intentions were drawn up in definite items; they are of interest here only so far as they relate to Schleswig. It was said in this document:

"First. If, by consideration for the advice and wish of his high allies, His Majesty resolves to govern not only the Duchy of Holstein, but that of Schleswig also, for the present, as absolute King, with the co-operation of the deliberative Provincial States, this resolution, which as regards the Duchy of Schleswig is taken solely of his own perfect free power, by no means infers the intention of re-introducing the Provincial-States institution into the Kingdom of Denmark, setting aside the fundamental law adopted for the latter, and now in force; but with the object in view to introduce in a legal and constitutional way (that is to say, through the deliberative Provincial States of each of those Duchies for itself, and in reference to the Kingdom by the Resolutions of the Diet, and in regard to Lauenburg with the co-operation of the Ritterschaft and Landschaft), an organic

and homogeneous constitutional union of all the parts of the country in one whole Monarchy.

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'Secondly, As, on the one hand, the King has already promised, he now further declares, that no incorporation of the Duchy of Schleswig with the Kingdom shall exist, nor shall any steps be adopted with this view; so, on the other hand, His Majesty cannot agree to anything by which either an amalgamation of Schleswig and Holstein should now take place, or be eventually introduced, or generally any other or closer connection of these Duchies with each other, or between either of them and the Kingdom of Denmark, &c."

Under No. 3, it is then further said that the above principle is not opposed to the continuance of such connection between the two Duchies as might subsist between border lands having fundamentally similar territorial conditions, and with people under analogous circumstances in respect of their means of living, either such as is based upon the non-political institutions which appertain to both parts of the country, or such as affect the common social circumstances of certain classes.

Under No. 4, it is further expressed as a necessary requisition that the Federal Diet should abstain from setting up any jurisdiction ("competenzbegründung") in or referring to the Danish Crownland of Schleswig.

On this occasion, however, the German Powers did not assent to the position taken up by the Danish Government, according to which the latter repudiated every obligatory promise.

In the reply sent from Vienna on the 26th December, 1851, to Copenhagen, it is said very definitely, "that with a view to hastening the winding up of this affair, we do not hesitate to declare, in regard to the intentions of His Majesty the King, now communicated to us, that on our side we cannot do this, except on the supposition that we have before us a declaration considered binding by its author, and therefore secured as to its execution.

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Satisfied, as we are, that the solution of the still-remaining difficulties cannot continue long unaccomplished when once a material agreement upon the steps to be taken in relation hereto by the Danish Government shall have been entered into between the latter and the German Powers, we could hardly feel really any anxiety that in such a favourable case the Danish Government would hesitate to secure the actual execution of this step by a definite promise." The reply goes on to say, "After having, then, once more stated our point of view upon the whole question, we are glad to be able now to pronounce that we certainly perceive in the tenor of those resolutions a conciliatory accommodation of opposing views, such as is suited to the altered state of things.

"The statement which follows, taking, point by point, the Annex 2 to the Danish despatch, explains the reasons for our assent, as also the expectations we entertained of a corresponding execution of the same.

In the annex of the despatch quoted, it is said :—

1. "The Imperial Court sees with satisfaction the resolve of His Majesty the King of Denmark again to put in action the Provincial-States Institutions de jure subsisting, not only in the Duchy of Holstein, but in that of Schleswig also; and if His Majesty at once make known this intention, legally and constitutionally, that is to say, after consultation with the Provincial States of the said Duchies, to introduce an organic and identical constitutional union of all the parts of the country to one entire Monarchy, the Imperial Court can only look upon this intention of the King, as directed to the fulfilment of an act which cannot be refused, &c.

"But His Majesty the Emperor, sincerely desirous of seeing the tranquillity and prosperity of the Danish Kingdom as soon as possible augmented by a definitive organization adapted to its requirements, confidently cherishes the hope that the Danish Government, by its efforts directed to this important end, will not show an exclusive preference to such institutions as have been conferred in recent years upon the Kingdom of Denmark Proper, but that it will have in view therewith, as the only safe guide, the permanent circumstances of the whole Monarchy, and the object of internally advancing its union to a whole. Once satisfied upon this point, His Majesty will not delay to participate with other friendly Powers in strengthening this union by internationally securing a common succession in all parts of the Monarchy.

"2. In the declaration of His Majesty the King of Denmark that there hould be no incorporation of the Duchy of Schleswig with the kingdom, nor

should any measure tending thereto be adopted, the Imperial Court sees with satisfaction a fresh confirmation of that promise which had already been given by the late King Christian VIII to his subjects, and subsequently renewed by the now reigning King immediately after the Treaty of Peace of the 2nd July, 1850, in the Proclamation of the 14th day of that month; this, in accordance with Article IV of the aforesaid Treaty of Peace, was communicated to the German Confederation as a resolution taken by the King for the pacification of the country."

In the further course of this document the Imperial Government fully acknowledges the competence of the King to annul the former union between Schleswig and Holstein as relates to administration and justice, and also this principle that the authority of the Federal law, and, therefore, also the competence of the Confederation, which arises from that alone, cannot have any force over a land not appertaining to the Confederation, and consequently not over Schleswig.

Finally, a confident expectation is expressed, "that the King, as in the question of the future organization of the Monarchy, so also in the provisional conduct of the business of the State, will know how to maintain with equal care, by suitable provisions, the proper position of the different parts of the country, as members of a whole, in which no one part is subordinate to another."

With reference to these explanatory remarks the Vienna despatch of the 26th December, 1851, then continues:

"If now the Danish Government should find itself induced to acknowledge as its own that meaning of its programme which we have set down in the present despatch and in the annex to the same, if it would secure to us at once, in the binding form of a declaration made at the command of His Majesty the King, the actual fulfilment of the intentions which it has hitherto officially communicated to us only as a possible contingency, and if it would also direct its action thereto, so far as occasion is now afforded, we might confidently rely upon a speedy conciliatory termination of the differences hitherto subsisting between the different parts of the Danish Monarchy, as also between these and the German Confederation. We would lay aside the mandate by which we, in common with Prussia, represent the German Confederation in this matter, and with the evacuation of Holstein at the same time, and the re-establishment of the full sovereign power in that Duchy, we would become security in the Federal Assembly for the accomplished union, and would at once look upon the new internal establishment of a union of the country under one ruler as sufficiently far advanced to make us participate in an international security for the integrity of the Monarchy through the recognition of a common succession."

The Danish Government did not hesitate to declare its assent to these overtures.

In reference to the assent given by Prussia to the Vienna despatch the Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs declared in his reply of the 29th of January, 1852 :-

"Under these circumstances it can but conduce to my especial satisfaction to make hereby, in furtherance of authority conferred on me from the highest quarter, the declaration that the King our gracious master acknowledges as being in coincidence with his own, that interpretation of the supreme intentions communicated to the Courts of Berlin and Vienna which is given in the despatch of the Imperial Court of Vienna of the 26th December of last year, and in the annex thereto, both generally and particularly also in reference to the nonincorporation of Schleswig with the Kingdom."

The Royal Proclamation issued the day before, under date the 28th January, 1852, was at the same time communicated to the two Powers. It repeats the promise of a common constitution for affairs common; and then it promises "to confer upon the Provincial States of the Duchy of Schleswig, as well as upon those of Holstein, such a constitutional development that each of the said Duchies, in regard to the affairs which have hitherto appertained to the sphere of action of its deliberative Provincial States, shall retain a Statesrepresentation, with power to vote resolutions" (" beschliessenden Befügniss ").

"The proposed law to be elaborated with that object for the Duchy of Schleswig," continues the Proclamation, "will especially contain the necessary provisions for procuring a perfectly equal settlement and effectual protection to the Danish and German nationalities in the said Duchy."

The Copenhagen despatch of the 29th January, 1852, continues :-"The tenour of this supreme Proclamation will, as the Royal Government may confidently hope, most fully satisfy every just expectation; and as the assent expressed on our part, through the above declaration, to the views of the Imperial Cabinet communicated to the Prussian Government, is decidedly manifested, there can be no doubt that the form in which we have chosen to express the Royal intentions will appear perfectly satisfactory to the two Courts, so as no longer to delay the execution of the measures contemplated on their part." At the close of the despatch the exchanged declarations are signed expressly as "an Agreement concluded."

The two German Powers were satisfied with this: they withdrew the Federal troops from the Duchy of Holstein in reply to the promise given, and they placed the full governing power, in this part of the country, in the hands of His Danish Majesty.

By the agreement thus fulfilled on the German part, the German Confederation obtained, in regard to Schleswig, the right to demand from Denmark :— 1. Non-incorporation of Schleswig with Denmark.

2. The grant of an independent position, with equality of rights in the whole Monarchy, to Schleswig, as to the other parts of the territory.

3. Like rights for the German and Danish nationalities in Schleswig. The Minister Hall, according to the tenour of his despatch of the 10th June instant, now is of opinion that he can repudiate the above explained obligations of the Danish Government, by the assertion that a Final Act of the negotiations that have taken place exists in the Federal Resolution of the 29th July, 1852; that under such circumstances it is not allowable to found on preceding negotiations a claim which is not grounded upon the Final Act, and that the Federal Resolution says not a word about Schleswig.

But this reason is in obvious contradiction with the circumstances.

First of all, the whole of the above account of the historical course of the negotiations proves that the declarations exchanged in the despatches of the 6th and 26th December, 1851, and the 29th January, 1852, were not restricted to the limits of the preceding negotiations, but, as the Copenhagen Cabinet itself expressed in the last-named despatch, constituted a concluded agreement, which was forthwith, on the German part, carried into effect in favour of Denmark, and which binds the Danish Court to a like fulfilment on its part.

Further, the drawing up of a Final Act upon the negotiations transacted, of which the Minister Hall speaks, has not really taken place; at least the Federal Resolution of the 29th July, 1852, is not equivalent to such act.

This Resolution refers expressly to the preceding motion of Prussia and Austria. But this motion again is essentially based upon the Historical Report of the two Powers previously sent, and it can only be correctly interpreted in connection therewith. But that Report, in referring to the Royal Proclamation of the 28th January, 1852, brings forward those very points in relation to Schleswig as special obligations incurred by Denmark, which are described in the above narration as the result of the exchange of despatches several times mentioned. It can, therefore, by no means be asserted that the negotiations of the Diet of the 29th July, 1852, make no mention of Schleswig.

In the session of that day there was no question of an Agreement then first to be made. The mission of Prussia and Austria was rather, according to the wish expressed by the Copenhagen Cabinet in the despatch of the 29th January, 1852, only to represent an agreement already made in order to operate its acceptance by the Diet.

After sending in a brief historical review of the action which the two Powers had developed, in virtue of the mission entrusted to them, the Deputies of Austria and Prussia declared as follows:

"The Supreme Proclamation of His Majesty (the King of Denmark), of the 28th January last, is laid before the High Federal Assembly by the Legation of Denmark and Holstein-Lauenburg." (This followed shortly after:) "The Deputies of Austria and Prussia, on their part, are instructed to declare that this Proclamation, in such of its provisions as refer to the questions in dispute between Denmark and the German Confederation, contains the expression of the understanding which the exalted Courts acting in the name of the Confederation have agreed to with the Danish Government.

Then entering into an explanation upon details, they observe, in continuation, word for word :

"Perfectly equal and efficient protection is assured to the German and Danish nationalities in the Duchy of Schleswig."

And further:

"In the recognition of the independent and equally-privileged position of the different constituent parts of the Monarchy, no one of which is subordinate to or incorporated with another, the Proclamation of the 28th January agrees particularly with the earlier Royal Proclamation of the 14th July, 1850, in which a promise was made that there should be no incorporation of the Duchy of Schleswig with the Kingdom of Denmark."

The agreements come to were of course subject to the laws and rights of the Confederation, and thereby liable to the Constitutional revisal and decision of the Diet, only so far as they had reference to the territories appertaining to the provinces of the Confederation, that is to say, Holstein and Lauenburg. In respect of Schleswig, the question regarded only agreements of an international character, for the adjustment of the disputed claims set up in reference hereto by Holstein. It was therefore only in strict harmony with the state of things, that Prussia and Austria, in the motion they brought forward, gave expression to such distinction. They asked, it is true, for the acceptance, the recognition of the adjustment which had been made of the disputes hitherto subsisting, in their whole extent, but that the same should be in harmony with the laws and rights of the Confederation, only so far as the resolutions made in the case should refer to the Duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg, and, according to the state of the case, as they were subject to the Constitutional revisal, and resolutions of the German Confederation.

In accordance herewith, the Federal Assembly, in its session of the 29th July, 1852, then fully resolved, in exact conformity with the motion, to recognise, as being in harmony with the laws and rights of the German Confederation, the provisions of the Proclamation issued by His Majesty the King of Denmark and Duke of Holstein and Lauenburg, on the 28th January last, so far as they relate to the affairs of the Duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg, and as, according to the state of the case, they are subject to the Constitutional revisal and resolutions of the German Confederation; and therefore to grant the reserved definitive acceptance of the adjustment of the disputes hitherto subsisting between Denmark and the German Confederation, which has been operated by His Majesty the King, in concurrence with the Governments of Austria and Prussia, acting in the name of the Confederation."

My Lord,

No. 36.

Mr. Paget to Lord J. Russell.—(Received July 9.)

Copenhagen, July 3, 1860.

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge the receipt on the 1st instant of your Lordship's despatches dated the 20th and 27th of June.

In the first of these despatches your Lordship expresses a desire to learn my opinion respecting the controversy between Denmark and the Germanic Diet, and as to the ulterior views of the parties concerned; and in the latter despatch your Lordship desires me to furnish you with a concise report on the present state of affairs in Holstein, pointing out especially how far the terms of the compact uniting that Duchy to the Germanic Confederation have been infringed; and also with a Report showing clearly in what respect Denmark has failed to keep the engagements which she entered into respecting Schleswig.

I will endeavour to explain these matters as briefly and clearly as possible. After the war between Denmark and the Germanic Confederation, the Danish Government announced the intention of uniting the different parts of the country, namely, Holstein, Schleswig, Lauenburg, and Denmark Proper, into one Corporate Monarchy by legal and constitutional means. This intimation, in so far as it regarded Holstein and Lauenburg, was accepted as satisfactory by Austria and Prussia, and afterwards by the Diet.

As a consequence of the understanding thus arrived at, His Danish Majesty issued a Royal Patent on the 28th of January, 1852, announcing the decision which he had taken, which was to be carried out on the principle of "equality and independence" for each portion of the Empire.