five members to examine the small pamphlet of forty pages, which is all that was considered necessary for their enlightenment, and which has not even been presented to the English Parliament. That Commission drew up three separate Reports the first two signed by sixteen members was unfavourable to the absolute "Yes." All accepted with joy the nomination of the Duke of Glücksburg. Opposition took their chief stand upon the Lex Regia abolished by the message, and presented the singular anomaly of opposing the Crown by means of a charter of unlimited despotic power. But the most remarkable part of the story is, that they appeal to the Treaty against the Message!

These opinions were reechoed in the New Diet, and the government measure was opposed by forty-five to ninety-seven votes, which, as three-fourths was required, was its rejection. On this the Diet was again dissolved.

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Having been present at the election of the next one, I speak from personal observation. The prevailing sense was that of fatigue, the intimate conviction that of helplessness. 'In God's name let the matter be settled:" such was the expression on every one's lip. In Copenhagen there were out of nine districts but two contests, and one of these was a mere personal competition. In those districts where there was a contest but a small number of the electors voted:

institutions that the elective Assembly should pursue a rational and practical course with reference to the important questions which have recently occupied not only the Danish Cabinet, but the great powers of Europe; and nothing is more calculated to weaken the due authority of the representatives of the nation than a disposition to sacrifice the public engagements and common interests of the monarchy to a spirit of narrow and exclusive party feeling. We have taken so much interest in the gallant struggle of the Danes against the party which sought to effect the dissolution of the monarchy, and in the establishment of those liberal institutions in Denmark which no people is better qualified to enjoy, that we hope the observations we may venture to make on this Parliamentary crisis in their affairs will be favourably received before the country proceeds to the business of the elections on the 26th of February.”

it was a matter of surprise that one opposition member was returned. Such being the state of the capital, judge of the provinces. Not a single landed proprietor was returned for the Lower House. The rancour of the Tenant-Right question combining with the rage for the Glücksburg succession, excluded the distinguished men who had figured in the former Diets, and not one of the liberal members who had voted against the government was re-elected.

It is different with respect to the other House. It is also elected, but indirectly, that is to say, by electoral colleges, as in France. In this body the proprietors are represented, and consequently the two bodies are balanced against each other, or will be so upon the Tenant-Right question, where each will vote separately, while on that of succession, the two being united, the opposition of the Upper House will be overpowered. Thus then whilst the process of rapid and reiterated dissolution is employed to coerce the Diet into a concurrence of will with the ministry, the forms of a constitutional assent are obtained to a measure extorted by violence; and the authority of the powers of Europe is employed to effect a violence not contemplated in the act by which it has been produced.

Had the Government still been despotic, commiseration might have been awakened; but now, when in consequence of this act, Denmark comes to be used against England, she will no longer be looked upon as a suffering victim but treated as a willing instrument, and we will proceed as heretofore to complete her subjection, by partition, if need be, or by bombardment.

Denmark had a beneficent Despotism, that has disappeared; she was gratified with a liberal Constitution, that is trodden down; she had an established Succession, that is broken up by the blood she has spilt in a civil broil fifty millions of dollars have been added to her debt. Such are the results of Constitutional Diplomacy!

If the past conduct of the Diet did encourage abroad the hope that by its means the errors of the London Treaty

might be repaired, that hope is now extinguished: if the matter is now to be taken up, it can only be by England herself. There is now no possibility of mistake on any point; the statement of the case, which appeared so incredible when first made, is now re-echoed from every quarter.*

* "Lord Clarendon's declaration in the Upper House is here [Berlin] declared to be utterly false. He stated that 'the Emperor of Russia had acceded to the London Treaty settling the Danish Succession without bringing forward the slightest undue pretension.' The state of the case is exactly the reverse of what Lord Clarendon stated. By the London, as well as by the Warsaw Protocol, the whole of the Danish dominions are menaced with falling under the Russian sceptre. Germany may look forward to see Russia a member of the German Confederation in respect to the Duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg. It is wonderful how people can shut their eyes to anything so evident."-Aachener Zeitung, June 24th.

So much for Berlin: now for Vienna :

"No man can shut his eyes to the tendency of the reigning House of Russia to introduce itself into the Germanic Confederation in its quality of Sovereign of the Duchies of Holstein and Lauenburg, over which it pretends that it will have to exercise power after the death of Prince Christian of Glücksburg. The danger for the future fortune of Prussia is consequently imminent, and that is the reason why the Cabinet of Berlin would be most unwise to remain neutral in the Eastern question." (!)—Wanderer of Vienna, 24th June.

The Allgemeine Zeitung, June 23d, has the following:

"There appears to be a settled resolution at Copenhagen to despatch all the pending questions as rapidly and sine strepitu as possible. The royal message has indeed been read for the first time at the second meeting, in spite of the opposition of Lindberg. The former prime minister, A. W. Moltke, has actually adopted the motion formerly brought in by Oersted. But there is considerable scruple as to its effect; hence in fact that motion will not settle anything, for the Danish Diet is but a provincial diet; it cannot resolve for Schleswig, nor for Holstein either, and the Succession will not be settled for the collective Monarchy any more than for the Duchies. The Treaty of the 8th of May will step in with all its difficulties and embarrassments. There is in fact no doubt that England has of late attended very seriously to the Sound, and although David Urquhart is not properly to be considered as an agent of the Administration, yet you may rely upon his being the representative of no inconsiderable share of public opinion on the

The Danish nation has just spirit enough left to pretend to assume as its own will, the violence it suffers, and thus loses the only chance of that support on which in their hearts they yet rely. "Surely England will at last see to what she is bringing us," said one of the leading men in a conversation which had commenced with the stout assertion that the Treaty was an excellent measure and calculated to heal the wounds of Denmark. The answer to this melancholy avowal and pitiable appeal, could only be: "England acted when she was ignorant: now she is informed, but committed; three Administrations and five Foreign secretaries are partners in the deed." The Danes too are committed. Terrible word is that "committed"-dead lock of a political mechanism, possessed of functions and destitute of ends.

other side of the German Ocean. The new English minister, Mr. Buchanan, arrived at Copenhagen on the 15th inst., and he is understood to have very decided instructions. An English squadron is expected in the Baltic. In consequence of all this, Count Charles Moltke is said to entertain a desire of resigning as minister for Schleswig. It is supposed, and no doubt the supposi tion is founded in fact, that the measures which for upwards of a year have been showered down upon the Duchies, and the almost desperate complaints which are echoed back to the capital will only tend to embitter and to alienate the minds, and will necessitate the Government to fall back upon Russia. The late prime minister, all but in plain words, proclaimed this dependence upon Russia, in his place in the Diet."

CHAPTER VI.

The position of Austria in the North and in the South, as affected by the Treaty of the 8th of May.

AUSTRIA, above half a century ago, exchanged the Netherlands for a position on the Adriatic; from the North, where the increasing consistency of an Extrinsic Power closed the door to ambition, she turned to the South and East, hoping to reap in the expected dissolution of a great Empire a harvest of maritime power and military strength.

Her retreat from the North has enabled Russia to extend over Germany a controlling influence, and her advance on the South has brought her into collision with Turkey, now perceived to be possessed of great and increasing strength.

Placed by an internal distribution of a few Turkish soldiers at the mouth of the Cattaro, under the necessity of having to struggle to gain back, through external and compromising aid, the cession made to her formerly by France, she has discovered that the Ottoman Empire, instead of an inheritance to be divided, affords the basis on which to construct a system of defensive policy for the future.

The events of Poland, those more recent and alarming of Hungary, the usurpation of the Danube, and the habit of subverting Governments introduced amongst the Nations of the West, present so many additional reasons for seeking to escape from the control of her ally, and for looking in Turkey for friendship which will afford real support upon honourable conditions.

In a word, aggrandisement must be abandoned abroad, and