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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 December 2010
It was not until the 6th inst. that the forms to be observed on the occasion were regulated so as to enable the Central Commission to make over the Powers with which it had been entrusted for a year and a half, to the Commission deputed by the Diet to receive them. General Peucker took the opportunity, to the annoyance I believe both of his Austrian Colleagues and of the Diet's Commission, to make a lengthened statement of all that the central Commission had done since its instalment. Both the General and M. de Bötticher his Colleague are much vexed at the manner in which they have been dismissed. They were, as Your Lordship will recollect, originally nominated by their own Government, not by the Confederation. They have been since employed by that Government to make head against the Diet so long as the restoration of the Diet did not suit its views, and they now find themselves dismissed by a resolution of the very Assembly, to counteract the power and influence of which they had been engaged.
1 The four-man Bundeszentralkommission was established by the Austro-Prussian convention of 30 September 1849. It officially succeeded the Vicar of the Empire, Archduke Johann, as the highest authority in the Confederation on 20 December 1849.
2 On 30 May 1851, the Federal Diet decided to dissolve the Bundeszentralkommission. On 6 June, a commission of the Diet entrusted with the implementation of this decision took over the administration of federal property.
3 The Federal Diet was reopened on 2 September 1850 under Austrian leadership (the Frankfurt Rump Diet) after having been suspended in July 1848. All the remaining member states rejoined in May and June 1851, after the failure of the Dresden Conferences.
4 For the reconstituted Federal Diet see n. 3 in this section.
5 For the Dresden Conferences see n. 1 in Saxony section.
6 The Act of the Confederation of 1815 stated that the president of the Federal Diet was to be appointed by Austria. Prussian demands that this privilege be renounced were rejected. Austria also dismissed proposals to strengthen the position of the middle and smaller states in the Plenum of the Diet.
7 The constitutionalist Gotha Party – named after the meeting of former members of the Frankfurt National Assembly in Gotha in June 1849 – advocated German unification (excluding Austria) under Prussian leadership.
8 For the Darmstadt Coalition see n. 10 in Prussia section.
9 Commercial treaty of 7 September 1851. Prussia agreed to Hanover's entry to the Zollverein on 1 January 1854, without consulting the other Zollverein states.
10 Protocol C was the plan for an Austrian-led customs union excluding Prussia, and was one of three proposals submitted by Schwarzenberg to the Vienna Customs Conferences in January 1851. The announced conference met at Vienna on 30 October 1852 (see the following dispatch).
11 Enclosure: article in French from Journal de Francfort, 26 June 1852.
12 Schwarzenberg's plan for an ‘empire of seventy million’, which had been repeatedly brought forward since the end of 1848, was rejected at the Dresden Conferences of 1850–1851. It was also opposed by the British and French governments.
13 Malet alludes to the new Hanoverian government under Eduard von Schele, which was friendlier towards Austria than its predecessor, and Hanover's uncertain adherence to the treaty of 7 September 1851 (see n. 9 in this section) if the Zollverein were to be dissolved.
14 See n. 10 in this section.
15 See n. 10 in Prussia section.
16 ‘Premium’.
17 The Refugee Question revolved around the British policy of permitting revolutionaries and political exiles from all European states to settle in Great Britain, especially in London.
18 ‘Shilling subscription in aid of European freedom’, initiated in May 1852 and publicized in The Reasoner, a socialist newspaper.
19 According to Malet's dispatch No 21 of 8 April 1854, Bismarck stated that, owing to Austria's holding of the presidency of the Federal Diet, ‘Prussia would as much as possible slight and ignore the Diet, until its Constitution was effectively ordered’, as ‘they would not [. . .] subject themselves continually to having unpalatable measures thrust down their throats by Austrian majorities’.
20 Anton Prokesch von Osten.
21 During the 1850s, almost one million Germans migrated overseas. The peak years were 1853 and 1854.
22 For Prussia's position during the Crimean War see pp. 105–112.
23 In the secret circular of 14 January 1855, Count Buol announced Austria's intention to place the federal army on a war footing. This was proposed as a motion to the Federal Diet on 22 January (see n. 19 in Austria section). However, on 8 February, the Diet – on the basis of the report of its united committees – decided to take only preliminary steps for the mobilization of the federal army, which was to be directed against any external threat (and not only against Russia, as Austria had intended).
24 In his dispatch, Malet suggested that Clarendon consider the possibility of establishing a staff devoted ‘to the sole matter of watching and correcting the Press’, which he felt was beyond the scope of the work of the diplomatic corps.
25 Enclosure: copy of the memorandum of Dr Gaerth, regarding the establishment of a journal favourable to British interests.
26 Russian attempts to establish and fund a French-language newspaper in Berlin failed in March 1855, after the Prussian government refused its authorization. From July 1855, the pro-Russian Journal du Nord was published at Brussels.
27 On 16 January 1856, Russia accepted the terms presented in the Austrian ultimatum of 16 December 1855. The articles (an extension of the Four Points agreed by France, Great Britain, and Austria at Vienna on 8 August 1854) included: the abolition of the Russian protectorate in the Danubian principalities; free navigation of the Danube; a neutralized Black Sea; and the regulation of the rights of Christians in the Ottoman Empire.
28 Congress of Paris, 15 February–30 March 1856. Prussia was admitted to the congress on 10 March and joined the negotiations of France, Great Britain, the Ottoman Empire, Piedmont-Sardinia, Russia, and Austria from 18 March. The congress concluded with the Treaty of Paris, which officially ended the Crimean War.
29 Enclosures: extract from Frankfurter Postzeitung regarding the increasing cost of the necessities of life in Germany (original and translation).
30 From the repeal of the Corn Laws in 1846, successive British governments had been committed to policies of free trade and curbing tariffs and duties.
31 The conflict revolved around the failed attempts to restore Prussian authority in Neuchâtel (Neuenburg), which was simultaneously a Swiss Canton and a Prussian Principality, following the establishment of a democratic republic in 1848 with the support of the neighbouring Cantons. A failed counter-revolutionary uprising occurred in September 1856, and, when the Swiss authorities declined Prussia's demand to stop the prosecution of the participants, Prussia decided on military intervention. In December 1856, Prussia suspended diplomatic relations with Switzerland, mobilized a part of its army, and sent an ultimatum that Switzerland must release the prisoners by 15 January 1857.
32 On 28 November 1856, Napoleon III suggested that the Swiss Federal Council should release the prisoners.
33 The underlying principles of British policy in the affair were: the recognition of the right of the people of Neuchâtel to choose a republican constitution; the maintenance of Swiss independence; and the preservation of European peace. In its efforts to mediate between Prussia and the Swiss Confederation, the British government suggested a complete separation of Neuchâtel from Prussia and an amnesty for the rebels held by the Swiss authorities.
34 Royal decree of 14 September 1856, communicated as a verbal note to the president of the Swiss Confederation by the Prussian plenipotentiary, Rudolf von Sydow.
35 Third Baden Revolution, May–July 1849, which was put down by Prussian military intervention.
36 ‘Spread out’.
37 Bern.
38 On the basis of the law of 20 May 1854 (Gesetz betreffend den außerordentlichen Geldbedarf der Militärverwaltung), Prussia took out a loan of 30 million thalers.
39 In his dispatch No 74, Malet reported that, when Rechberg stated that he doubted France would permit Prussian territorial expansion into the Elbe Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein even if Prussia were to offer the Rhine provinces in exchange, Bismarck replied that Rechberg did not know what point negotiations had reached.
40 Malet refers to Bismarck's belief in Prussia's destiny to assume leadership in Germany.
41 The emperors met on 25–27 September 1857.
42 Prince Wilhelm.
43 Malet alludes to: Prussia's influencing of the elections for the Hanoverian chambers in January 1857; the revision on 24 March 1857 of chapter six (on finances) of the Hanoverian constitution of 1840; and the controversial valuation of the royal demesne.
44 In the 1850s, a number of prominent adherents of the Gotha Party (see n. 7 in this section) lived in Heidelberg, including Heinrich von Gagern, and they became known as the Heidelberger Kreis.
45 Prussia saw a change of policy after the accession of Wilhelm as prince regent on 9 October 1858, in place of his brother Friedrich Wilhelm IV. The liberal-conservative ministry of the New Era was formed on 5–6 November.
46 Malet most probably refers to the meeting on 13 November 1858 of the committee for the erection of a national memorial in honour of Freiherr vom Stein.
47 The elections of November 1858 saw a victory for the liberals; the chambers met on 12 January 1859 (sitting until 14 May 1859).
48 ‘Fetter of the state’.
49 ‘We are in full [18]48’. Rechberg is likening the political situation in Prussia to that of revolutionary France, where the extreme republican faction in both 1789 and 1848–1851 were referred to as the montagne (mountain).
50 In his address to the cabinet of 8 November 1858, Prince Regent Wilhelm declared ‘that Prussia was prepared to support law everywhere’ (Die Welt muß wissen, daß Preußen überall das Recht zu schützen bereit ist).
51 Austria had retained her Italian possessions after the revolutionary uprisings in Lombardy-Venetia in 1848 and the defeat of Sardinia-Piedmont in the First Italian War of Independence in 1849.
52 Le Patrie, Paris daily (established in 1841).
53 Prior to the Second War of Italian Independence (April–July 1859), France, as stipulated in the secret Pact of Plombières of July 1858, supported Piedmont-Sardinia's quest for Italian unity and the secession of the Kingdom of Lombardy-Venetia from the Austrian Empire. In return, Piedmont-Sardinia agreed to the cession of Savoy and Nice to France.
54 The War of Liberation in 1813–1814 against Napoleon's occupation of Germany led to a national movement and the political mobilization of the public.
55 In his speech in the chamber of deputies on 9 March 1859, Alexander Freiherr von Schleinitz presented the principle of Prussian policy as the ‘complete promotion of German interests’. The president of the chamber, Maximilian Graf von Schwerin-Putzar, agreed in the name of the chamber and stated that ‘Prussia's interest could not be separated from the right, the honour, and the interests of the whole German Fatherland’.
56 Malmesbury's instructions were sent in response to Malet's telegram of 1 May, which alleged that Württemberg intended to ‘move that the Confederation make common cause with Austria’ and support the mobilization of the federal army.
57 On 2 May 1859, Austria formally reported the events in Italy to the Federal Diet and justified military actions against Piedmont-Sardinia as legitimate resistance. According to the Austrian statement, the entry of France into the war threatened the security of the German Confederation as a whole. The matter was referred to the committee for military affairs.
58 Julius Gottlob von Nostitz-Jänckendorf and Ludwig von Reinhard.
59 ‘But yes, this closely concerns you. You could not allow the commerce of Hamburg to be ruined.’
60 Act of the German Confederation of 8 June 1815, formally a part of the Act of the Vienna Congress, 9 June 1815.
61 The preliminary Peace of Villafranca of 11 July 1859 ended the Second War of Italian Independence. Austria ceded Lombardy (without Mantua and Peschiera) to France, by whom it was to be handed to Piedmont-Sardinia. Venetia was to remain with Austria, although as a member of a projected Italian Confederation.
62 For Prussia's policy see pp. 125–127 and pp. 483–486.
63 Act of the Confederation of 8 June 1815.
64 During the Austro-Italian conflict, Prussia had declared to the Federal Diet on 19 May 1859 that, while she was prepared to defend the security and independence of Germany, she expected that the other federal states would leave the initiative for the necessary military measures to her.
65 Article 47 of the Vienna Final Act of 1820 provided a casus foederis (literally ‘case of the alliance’) for the Confederation to defend a member state against the danger of the infringement of federal territory.
66 Bundeskriegsverfassung (federal military law) of 9 April 1821 and its regulations of 4 January 1855.
67 For the Gotha Party see n. 7 in this section.
68 The first measures in Prussia were taken in December 1857.
69 By August 1859, the overdraft on Austria's national loan amounted to 26 million florins. This was mainly due to the costs of the Italian war and Austria's unsound and irregular financial policy.
70 Karl Graf Grünne was dismissed as adjutant general on 20 October 1859.
71 The Deutsche Nationalverein (German National Association) was officially founded in Frankfurt on 16 September 1859. Consisting mainly of liberals and moderate democrats, it called for German unification under Prussian leadership.
72 According to the Peace of Zurich of 10 November 1859 between Austria and France and Sardinia, an Italian Confederation was to be formed under the honorary presidency of the Pope.
73 The German Confederation (originally consisting of thirty-eight member states) came into existence on 8 June 1815. The Federal Diet, its chief organ, convened for the first time in November 1816.
74 Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation (dissolved in 1806).
75 In December 1857, the Austrian National Bank granted a loan of 10 million Mark Banco (Hamburg's account currency), repayable at the end of 1858.
76 On 18 November 1857, the explosion of the powder magazine caused over three hundred casualties (including thirty-six fatalities).
77 On 28 April 1849, Friedrich Wilhelm IV rejected the crown offered to him by the National Assembly at Frankfurt.
78 For Prussia's declaration to the Federal Diet of 19 May 1859, see n. 64 in this section.
79 On 24 March 1860, the Federal Diet ordered the government of Electoral Hesse to revise the constitution of 1852 and restore all the provisions of the constitution of 1831 (as far as they accorded with federal laws). On the same day, the Prussian government protested against this measure and refused to fulfil any obligations arising from the federal resolution. For the Hesse-Cassel Question see pp. 146–147.
80 First Würzburg Conference on federal reforms, 23–27 November 1859; see n. 55 in Hanover section.
81 On 5 January 1861, the government of Hesse-Darmstadt declared in the Federal Diet that the Nationalverein (see n. 71 in this section) should be banned according to § 1 of the federal law of 13 July 1854 (Bundesbeschluß über das Vereins- und Versammlungswesen).
82 Deutscher Schützenbund, founded on 11 July 1861 in Gotha.
83 Nationalverein (see n. 71 in this section).
84 ‘At the outset’.
85 For the Gotha Party see n. 7 in this section.
86 Referring to Ferdinand von Schill, Johann Palm, and Andreas Hofer, who were all executed for opposition to Napoleon I.
87 Ernst II.
88 The Franco-Prussian Commercial Treaty of 2 August 1862 stipulated the reduction of tariffs and a most-favoured-nation clause. Prussia made the renewal of the Zollverein treaty (due in 1865) dependent upon the approval of the Franco-Prussian Treaty. The plans of the south German states to admit Austria – which depended on protective duties – into the Zollverein were thus compromised.
89 Bavaria rejected the treaty on 8 August 1862, followed by Württemberg on 11 August. Prussia reacted in the notes to Bavaria and Württemberg of 26 August.
90 Württemberg repeated its rejection on 20 September 1862, Bavaria on 23 September.
91 On 14 August 1862, Austria and the German middle states submitted a proposal to the Diet to establish an assembly of delegates elected by the Landtage of the federal states to advise on federal laws. On 18 December, the Diet decided to put the question to a vote, to be held on 22 January 1863. Prussia insisted on the unanimity rule in the matter, considering the procedure of majority voting in the Diet to be an infringement of the federal constitution.
92 The Austrian invitation to the congress of German princes (see the following dispatch) was dated 31 July 1863.
93 The Austrian memorandum on federal reform was included in the invitation for the congress of German princes (Fürstentag), which took place at Frankfurt from 17 August to 1 September 1863. Enclosures: article from Europe (Journal de Francfort), entitled Bases de la réforme fédérale présentée par l'empereur François-Joseph; article from Frankfurter Postzeitung of 17 August 1863, entitled Die kais. österreichische Reformproposition: Ansprache Sr. K. K. Apostolischen Majestät an die versammelten Fürsten, Entwurf einer Reformacte des Deutschen Bundes (full text of Austrian reform proposal).
94 Act of the German Confederation of 1815 and the Vienna Final Act of 1820.
95 Leopold III, Prince of Lippe, and the Landgrave Ferdinand of Hesse-Homburg were absent.
96 Willem III was Grand Duke of Luxemburg and Duke of Limburg, member states of the German Confederation.
97 In the London Protocol of 8 May 1852, Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, Great Britain, Denmark, and Sweden acknowledged the integrity of the Danish monarchy as a ‘European necessity and standing principle’ and confirmed the personal union of Denmark with the Duchies of Schleswig, Lauenburg, and Holstein. The right of succession was decided in favour of Prince Christian, who, after the death of Frederik VII, was proclaimed King of Denmark on 16 November 1863. The claims of the Sonderburg-Augustenburg line of the house of Oldenburg in Schleswig and Holstein were based on the nullity of the Danish law of succession of 31 July 1853 for Holstein and the guaranteed indivisibility of the two Duchies, which had been in force since 1460. On 16 November 1863, Christian August renounced his hereditary rights in favour of his son Friedrich, who notified his accession as Duke Friedrich VII on the same day.
98 In the Protocol of Warsaw of 1851, the Russian emperor, as the head of the house of Holstein-Gottorp, renounced his eventual rights of inheritance in the Duchy of Holstein in favour of Prince Christian.
99 According to Article 31 of the Vienna Final Act and the Exekutionsordnung of 1820, the Confederation had the right to impose executive measures – including military occupation – on the government of a member state in cases of violation of federal laws and obligations. The federal execution (Bundesexekution) against Holstein and Lauenburg was agreed on 1 October 1863 and carried out in December.
100 Russell, in his dispatch No 70 of 26 December 1863, instructed Malet to point out to Kübeck ‘the serious complications which might ensue’ from ignoring the agreements of the London Protocol of 1852, which supported the succession rights of Christian IX (see n. 97 in this section). However, he stated that this issue could be discussed at a conference attended by the signatories of the protocol and the German Confederation. Russell repeated this proposal on 31 December. On 2 January 1864, it was communicated by Malet, and on 8 January the Federal Diet referred it to the committee for Holstein.
101 For the claims of the Sonderburg-Augustenburg family see n. 97 in this section.
102 Ernst II.
103 The Second Schleswig-Holstein War started with the Austro-Prussian invasion of Schleswig on 1 February 1864, following Denmark's refusal to abrogate the joint constitution for Denmark and Schleswig of 18 November 1863 (see n. 93 in Hanover section). Despite the temporary armistice of 12 May 1864, the crisis intensified with the Austro-Prussian proposal at the London Conference (see n. 106 in Hanover section) on 28 May for the complete separation of the Duchies of Schleswig and Holstein from Denmark. On 26 June, the war was resumed.
104 On 19 June 1864, Tsar Alexander II ceded his rights of succession in the duchies as the head of the elder branch of the house of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp to the Grand Duke Peter II of Oldenburg. Oldenburg, which was ruled by a cadet branch, claimed its right of succession at the Federal Diet on 23 June 1864. The explanatory statement was presented to the Federal Diet on 3 November.
105 In the note of 22 February 1865, Prussia declared her readiness to accept an independent state of Schleswig-Holstein, under the preconditions of the military and economic integration of the duchies into Prussia and the cession of certain territories. Austria declined the Prussian proposals on 5 March 1865.
106 In the notes to the Frankfurt senate of 6 and 8 October 1865, Prussia and Austria protested against the meeting of the Deutsche Abgeordnetentag (for which see n. 108 in this section) in Frankfurt on 1 October. The senate's reply was dated 20 October.
107 Johannes August Speltz.
108 The Deutsche Abgeordnetentag, consisting of members of the parliaments of the German states, was constituted on the Nationalverein's (see n. 71 in this section) initiative in September 1862. Its fourth meeting, in Frankfurt in October 1865, was attended by 271 persons.
109 The Committee of 36 was established by the Abgeordnetentag in December 1863 to coordinate the political agitation in the Schleswig-Holstein Question. Its objective was to enforce Friedrich von Augustenburg's claims as Duke of Schleswig and Holstein (see n. 97 in this section), ideally within a German federal state under Prussian leadership.
110 Act of the German Confederation of 1815 and Vienna Final Act of 1820.
111 Nationalverein (see n. 71 in this section).
112 In this dispatch, Clarendon stated that Prussia was following threatening policies that ‘appear calculated above all things to light up civil war’. Clarendon also came to the conclusion that Prussia and Italy were allied against Austria, and noted that Britain would remain strictly neutral in any conflict.
113 See n. 111 in Saxony section.
114 On 9 April 1866, Carl Friedrich von Savigny, the Prussian envoy to the Federal Diet, filed a motion to convoke a representative national assembly to discuss the reform of the constitution of the German Confederation. This motion was referred to a commission on 21 April.
115 On 8 April 1866, Prussia and Italy concluded a secret military alliance against Austria. The crisis was aggravated by Italian preparations for war, and the subsequent mobilizations of the Austrian (21 April) and Italian armies (29 April).
116 On 14 June 1866, the Prussian federal envoy announced Prussia's secession from the German Confederation. In addition, Savigny announced its nullification owing to the mobilization of the federal army against Prussia, which was proposed by Austria on 11 June and agreed by the majority of the Diet on 14 June.
117 Savigny presented the Prussian plans for reform on 10 June 1866 (before this they had only been communicated to the individual states). The central points were the establishment of an elected national assembly alongside the Federal Diet, a catalogue of legislative competences, and the assumption of the rights of foreign representation, declarations of war, and conclusions of peace by the new federal state (enclosure absent in FO 30/227, No 102).
118 Luxemburg and Limburg.
119 On 7 June, Prussian troops entered Holstein, which was under Austrian administration according to the Gastein Convention (see n. 116 in Württemberg section). On 9 June, Prussia rebutted Austria's insinuation that it had been Prussia's intention to annex the duchies with military force. Prussia also rejected Austria's policy of referring the Schleswig-Holstein Question to the Federal Diet, stating that this was inconsistent with former agreements and outside the Confederation's competency.
120 In his declaration, Kübeck cited the indissolubility of the German Confederation and negated Prussia's right of secession (all enclosures absent in FO 30/227, No 102).
121 See n. 116 in this section.
122 Proclamation by Queen Victoria, 27 June 1866. On 2 July, it was sent by Malet to the president of the Federal Diet, Alois Freiherr Kübeck von Kübau, who communicated it to the Diet on 4 July.
123 A minority Conservative government was formed under the Earl of Derby on 28 June, following the collapse of Earl Russell's Liberal administration in the course of debates over Parliamentary reform.
124 Enclosure: French translation of note from Kübeck, dated 22 August 1866 (Augsburg).
