News and Miscellany

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 30, 1867

News and Miscellany.

Can ye not discern the Signs of the Times? Matt. xvi, 3.

The Luxemburg Question.

THE European news is warlike. What we get by the cable is meager, frequently very stupid, and seldom very trustworthy; but it points in a blind way toward an outbreak somewhat earlier than had been expected. Last summer it was generally agreed that this was to be a year of peace; not because the causes of war had been put out of the way, nor because the treaty of Prague was a final settlement, but for a number of less conclusive reasons. Napoleon had set his heart on a quiet summer for his great Exposition at Paris. Bismarck, having driven Austria out of Germany by arms, was inclined to pursue the work of consolidating the German States by diplomacy, and by the same means to strengthen the alliances of Prussia, as well as by a period of rest to recruit the resources which extraordinary efforts had strained. If these two men agreed on peace, there was nobody bold enough to challenge their determination, or strong enough to dispute it with a prospect of success.

For many weeks, therefore, the ramblings on the Continent passed without exciting great alarm. It is quite recently that the Bourse and the Exchange have felt something akin to a panic, the two nearest causes of which were the publication of the secret treaties between Prussia and the South German States, and the sudden emergence of the Luxemburg business. This latter, like the Schleswig-Holstein question, may become another instance to prove on how small a pivot the affairs of Europe will sometimes appear to turn. What the negotiations said to have taken place in regard to Luxemburg may be, we do not fully know—much less do we know how far either Prussia or France may be disposed to go in asserting their respective views. What is known may be briefly stated. The importance of the duchy as a piece of territory is not very great. Its whole population is less than one-fourth that of the city of New York, and its area in square miles not more than a seventh of Massachusetts. But this little plot of ground lies on the frontier of France, in a position of great strategic importance, and contains one of the strongest fortresses of Europe—the strongest after Gibraltar, said Carnot. It belongs since 1814 to Holland, but has a German-speaking population, and a political connection with the German Confederation, and its fortress has been occupied by troops of the Federal army. The German Confederation having gone to pieces, Luxemburg is occupied by Prussian troops, and is at present wholly in the military control of that power. Pending the final determination of the relations between Holland and the new Confederation, negotiations have sprung up for the cession of Luxemburg to France. Whether the King of Holland proposed, or the Emperor of France solicited, this cession, is not known; but it is stated in the news which came by the last steamer, that Holland has agreed (undoubtedly under no slight pressure from Berlin) that Luxemburg shall not be ceded without the consent of Prussia—a consent very certain not to be given, except for a consideration, and not likely to be given for any consideration. The statement of this pledge may or may not be true. Meanwhile, negotiations with respect to the cession, commenced with Prussia and France, and Count Bismarck had notified the Emperor that the consent of Germany was necessary to the sale of a fortress completed by the German Confederation, and that the bargain must be ratified by the powers which guaranteed the treaty of 1839, by which the disposition of the Luxemburg territory was settled.

Thus stood matters when we received by the cable, a week ago and more, the startling intelligence that Count Bismarck had addressed an energetic note to the Tuilleries demanding of the Emperor his reasons for arming, and declaring that Prussia would hold France responsible for consequences if she did not cease immediately her warlike preparations. Accompanying this dispatch was another, stating that Rastadt, a fortified town of Baden near the right bank of the Rhine, had been suddenly re-inforced by two Prussian regiments, and that orders had been sent from Berlin to Wurtemberg and Baden for the transportation of cavalry horses. The well-known boldness of Count Bismarck gave a color of probability even to this statement, and it was not generally discredited until ten days had elapsed without bringing any intelligence to confirm it. Of course, if it were known in Europe that such a dispatch had been sent, the uneasiness would have increased to a panic, and the journals would have been filled, if not with intelligence, at least with rumors and with comment, some of which might before this have found their way to this side. The fact that nothing came tended to show that the original statement was an invention or an exaggeration. On Friday of last week, however, came a dispatch asserting that Napoleon is strengthening his forces on the frontier, and making other warlike preparations, and that the French reserve of 1868 will be called out on the 1st of this coming May. Prussia, on the contrary, is represented as making less active preparations. On Saturday came a repetition of the original statement that Bismarck had sent to Napoleon a demand for explanation; but the sources of information are not indicated. Out of this jumble of inconsistent and fragmentary information, it is impossible to form a positive opinion, or to base upon it more than a conjecture of the probability of the earlier approach of that struggle for supremacy which cannot be for many years postponed, and of that convulsive effort at re-organization to which the European States are irresistibly impelled.—N. Y. Independent.