DENMARK AND THE DUCHIES

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXI, Issue 1195, 11 February 1864, Page 2

DENMARK AND THE DUCHIES

It is believed that the German Sovereigns are likely to lose no time in contesting the right of King Christian of Denmark to the inheritance of the Duchies. A person oi considerable influence, the Duke ot SaxeCoburg Gotha, has at once recognised the hereditary Prince of Augustenburg as Duke of Schleswig and Hoi stein, and has informed the representative of Holsteinat the Federal Diet that any other pretension will be met by a proposition to the Diet requesting it to protect the right of the legitimate Prince, and, if necessary, to establish it by force. This- is bold speaking, and in any other country than Germany would portend a speedy appeal to arms, the invasion of the Danish dominions, followed either by the disruption of the Monarchy or the defeat and disgrace of the Pretender. But so much alarm need not be excited by the resolution of the Gotha Government. Among the countrymen of Duke Ernest the assertion of a principle generally precedes by a long way the reduction of it to practice ; and though a certain number of Germans have been looking forward for years to the event which j has now rather unexpectedly occurred, it is hardly likely that Europe in the latter half of the 19th century will be treated with the spectacle of a real genuine war of succession. It must strike even the long-descended Princes who are represented at Frankfurt that in the present day the march of an army to settle genealogical niceties would be a strange proceeding. The pretension of the Gotha Government —and it will no doubt be followed by others —is one founded on the purest and strictest principles of legitimacy. For once the noble and the democrat, the reactionist and the liberal, will be found on the same side. All are anxious to urge the strictest technical interpretation of old laws, to insist on the antiquated rights of petty families, and to ignore all the principles of modern European polity, in order to break up the Danish Kingdom, and bring Holstein and Schleswig completely within their own cumbrous Federation. In order that our readers may understand the nature of the present claim it will only be necessary that we should give a slight sketch of the relations between the Monarchy and these Duchies.

3 Originally tlxe Duchies both of Schleswig 1 and Holstein were independent States, but i, about the middle of the 15th century they were connected with Denmark by the elec--1 tion of Christian I. of that country as Duke r of both Duchies. Christian on taking poss session acknowledged the tenure to be distinct from that of his Danish Crown; he also acknowledged the right of the States to elect a successor, and admitted the principle " that Schleswig and Holstein should be for r ever united. It is on these declarations, i made just 400 years ago, that the patriotic antiquaries of Germany base their claim, and * demand that the connexion which has lasted r so long and produced so many benefits should I. be dissolved. In the course of the 17th - century the respective rulers of what were called the Royal and the Gottorp Duchies made arrangements whereby the succession ~ was entailed on heirs male. In 1608 Duke e John Augustus of Gottorp promulgated a i decree to this effect, and left his share of the 1 Duchies to his son, and Frederick 111. of " Denmark in 1650 made a similar law with ® respect to the Royal Duchies, so that the whole of Schleswig and Holstein descends i only to heirs male. This decree was ops posed by both Schleswigers and Holsteiners at the time, but is now, according to German interpretation, the everlasting, unchangeable law of the two Duchies. After this, in 1665, . the lex regia of Denmark was promulgated, ; by which a change was made in the mode of - succession to the Danish Crown, and females > as well as males permitted to inherit. Thus the seeds of future trouble were sown. What often takes place with our old baronies was sure some day to take place with the j complex Danish Monarchy. Probably when ] the Crown was declared to belong to the descendants both male and female of Frederick 111. the present contingency was not ; thought of, and certainly the Duchies were not so closely linked to the kiugdom that a separation would have the importance that it has in our time. However, this diver- ! gency in the law of succession, produced by ; the acts of Princes in the 17th century, has 1 been the occasion of all the trouble which , has afflicted Northern Europe in our time. The questions relating to these Duchies have indeed, been the cause of ill blood for several generations. As early as the 16th century the family was divided into two—the Roval House of Denmark and the Dukes of Hol-stein-Gottorp; and the marriageof aHolsteinGottorp with the daughter of Peter the Great brought Russia into the lists. Only the death ot Peter 111. prevented the march of a Russian army to wrest the Gottorp portion of Schleswig from the Danes. Other families branched off subsequently, of which the survivors are the Houses of SchleswigHolstein - Sonderburg - Augustenburg and Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Gliicksburg. Of the elder the chief is the Duke of Hol-stein-Augustenburg, whose son the Duke of Coburg now recoguizes; to the younger belongs Prince Christian, father of the Princess of Wales and the King of Greece, and now, according to the treaty of May,' 1852, King of Denmark and* Duke of Schleswig and Holstein. The pretension of the Germans is that this treaty gives no rights over Schleswig and Holstein at all. Of course, if it could give no rights over Denmark the succession would pass to females, and Prince Christian would have no throne whatever. But the Germans do not go so far as this. They do not meddle with the succession of Denmark proper. Their argument is that the succession to Holstein has not failed, and belongs now to the Duke Augustenburo-. That succession cannot be changed without the consent ot the German Bund, because Holstein is a part of Germany, and the Duke of Holstein a German Sovereign. Also, the consent of the States of Holstein is re- ; quisite for such a change. Now, say they, these necessary sanctions to the order of ' succession, established by the treaty of .1852, ! have never been given. Holstein lias never ' assented, the Federal Diet has never assen- j ted. Prussia and Austria, though they 1 signed the treaty, did so conditionally, and 1 have never ratified it. Consequently/ as far 1 as Holstein is concerned, the treaty is worth- i less, and the Hereditary Prince of August- i enburg is now actually Duke of Holstein i the renunciatiou of his father having no £ power to keep him from his rights. But ] how it will be asked, does this affect Schles- c wig, which the Duke of Coburg also claims e for the Augustenburgs ? This is the most I singular part of the affair. The Germans r allege that Schleswig must go with Holstein c because Christian I, in the year 1461, de- t

clared that the two Duchies were for ever united.

Such is the question which seems likely to trouble Europe for a time, but which, as it has not reached a crisis, may probably be at last settled. The claims of the Germans evidently cannot be conceded by statesmen in any other country. In these days, when nations from the highest to the lowest, from the Empire of France to little States like Greece or Servia, change their rulers, when the succession, even in immovable Spain has been modified for reasons of public convenience, we cannot have the indefeasible claims of legitimacy urged upon us, and a war of succession begun, founded on acta two or four hundred years old. The theory of the Germans is that the family 0 f the Augustenburgs cannot be passed over even after the renunciation of its head. Tim We must hold to be utterly inadmissible. I n such a case the head certainly binds the junior members and all who would succeed him or claim through him, or no arrangement could be effected. Nor if he had the right to allow the Crown to be settled on a Prince of a younger branch, had Germany any right to interfere. The present King of Denmark is in the line of succession to the Duchies. There is no violation of their right. It is Denmark proper that has submitted to a change in its own order of succession, and if anybody had a right to complain it would be the partisans of the female descendants of the Royal House. Nor can it be admitted that the Federal Government, or any sovereign of the Federation, has a right to attack-any State merely for changing the person of its ruler, so lone as the new ruler fulfils his federal tions. If King Christian, as Duke of Holstein, pays his quota yearly, and sends his 3,900 men to the defence of Germanv when attacked, that is all that the Diet has a right to demand. Europe can never allow that the German sovereigns should be able to constitute themselves judges of each other's legitimacy, and use force to overthrow all whom they do not approve. Thi-> would be establishing in Northern Europe the reign of violence which brought ruin upon the Austrian rule of Italy. King Christian has been made King of Denmark and Duke of Schleswig and Holstein by one of the most solemn instruments ever framed; the five great powers have sanctioned the principle that the Duchies should remain united to Denmark, two of these powers being the leading monarchies of Germany. Surely this title is as valid as that by which any Crown in Europe is worn ? It would be the extreme of weakness and folly for the States of Europe which are parties to this treaty to yield in any way to assumptions so bold and so unfounded as those likely to be advanced by the German Diet.—Times, November 13.