I hoped that this would not be the case. Her Majesty's
Government would do all in their power to avoid it. I
presumed I might give them the assurance that the Imperial
Government were not decided to reject the notion of
a Conference. (No. 4, 444.)
Well, Sir, this received a curt and unsatisfactory reply. Nothing
could be obtained from the plaintive appeal of Lord Cowley. Well, what
did Her Majesty's Government do? Having received information that the
threat of federal execution had been fulfilled, having appealed to
France, and been treated in the manner I have described, what did the
Government do? Why, the Secretary of State, within twenty-four hours
afterwards, penned the fiercest dispatch he had ever yet written.
It is dated December 31, 1863, and it is addressed to Sir Andrew
Buchanan:
Her Majesty's Government do not hold that war would
relieve Prussia from the obligations of the treaty of 1852.
The King of Denmark would by that treaty be entitled
still to be acknowledged as the sovereign of all the dominions
of the late King of Denmark. He has been so
entitled from the time of the death of the late King. A
war of conquest undertaken by Germany avowedly for the
purpose of adding some parts of the Danish dominions to
the territory of the German Confederation might, if successful,
alter the state of succession contemplated by the
Treaty of London, and give to Germany a title by conquest
to parts of the dominions of the King of Denmark.
Pages:
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453