I think it must
have been very late in July that the noble lord spoke--upon the 23rd,
I believe--and I have here the dispatches which, nearly at the same
period, were being sent by the Secretary of State to the German
Courts. For example, hear how, on July 31, the Secretary of State
writes to Lord Bloomfield at Vienna:
You will tell Count Rechberg that if Germany persists
in confounding Schleswig with Holstein, other Powers of
Europe may confound Holstein with Schleswig, and deny
the right of Germany to interfere with the one any more
than she has with the other, except as a European Power.
Such a pretension might be as dangerous to the independence
and integrity of Germany, as the invasion of Schleswig
might be to the independence and integrity of Denmark.
(_Denmark and Germany_, No. 2, 115.)
And what is the answer of Lord Bloomfield? On August 6, after having
communicated with Count Rechberg, he writes:
Before leaving his Excellency I informed him that the
Swedish Government would not remain indifferent to a
federal execution in Holstein, and that this measure of the
Diet, if persisted in, might have serious consequences in
Europe. (P. 117.)
I am showing how sincere the policy of the noble lord was, and that
the speech which we have been told was mainly for the House of
Commons, was really the policy of Her Majesty's Government. Well, that
was to Austria. Let us now see what was the dispatch to Prussia. In
the next month Earl Russell writes to our Minister at the Prussian
Court:
I have caused the Prussian charge d'affaires to be informed
that if Austria and Prussia persist in advising the
Confederation to make a federal execution now, they will
do so against the advice already given by Her Majesty's
Government, and must be responsible for the consequences,
whatever they may be.
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