The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1867.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 115, 18 May 1867, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. SATURDAY, MAY 18, 1867.

The items of European intelligence which reached us yesterday afternoon — mirabile dicni — with unusual punctuality, are, with one exception, destitute of any features of very striking interest. In making this exception, we allude to the fresh proof afforded by the announcement of the existence of treaties, offensive and defeusive, between Prussia, Bavaria, Baden, and Wurtemburg, and of the annexation to Prussia of the Duchy of Luxemburg by Holland — of the still advancing encroachments of that subtle and ambitious policy which has procured for Prussia the influential position she now holds in the councils of Europe. We need hardly point to the all-importaut effect which this combination of some of the most important constituents of the South German Confederation must exercise upon the future stability of the new Empire. French Flanders was always considered to be the important quarter where France required a harrier against Germany ; the occupation of Luxemburg by Prussia must therefore obviously break down this bulwark, and as we find from the latest telegrams to haud, has produced a corresponding panic in the French capital. It is impossible to surmise to what collisions the overweening ambition of the astute statesman who now directs the destiny of Germany may lead, but it may be hoped that the representations of the other great Powers will have the effect of presenting any rupture between these two great military States. No doubt the aggrandizement of the House of Brandenburg in the wide field of the German Empire has been the passion of her rulers and her people ever sinee — to use the words of Frederick the Great himself — " that seed of ambition was sown by the concession of the regal crown." By military prowess, by astute diplomacy, by an isolated policy at one time and by a combined policy at au other, by commercial union, and even by an affected sympathy with the exorbitant designs of democratic revolution, Prussia has pursued aud is pursuing the same end. It is plain that Austria and Prussia must either live in harmony with each other, exercising a joint ascendancy over the affairs of Germany, and concurring in the fundamental conditions of their federal existence, as laid down in the conditions of peace proposed at the close of the late war, or Prussia must pursue that separate course which derives its origin from the policy of Frederick the Great, ever challenging the pretensions of Austria to be regarded as a first-rate Power, and ever striving to annex the minor states to her own orbit — a policy which led to the German wars both of the eighteenth century, and of much more receut date, and which must again inevitably lead to similar conflicts so long as Austria has the strength • to defend her immemorial rights, and so long as the minor kingdoms have a spark remaining of that independence, of which they seem to be so rapidly divesting themselves. It is superfluous to add that the peace and union of Germany must ever be matters of the highest interest to earnest politicians, since every change which threatens to disturb those relations is an injury to the -great bulwarks of

Europe ; but it is uo less certain that any attempt on the pari of Prussia to encroach unduly upon those limits which the foresight and sagacity of departed statesmen have laid down in order to insure the maintenance of what is termed "the balance of power" in Europe, will be regarded with jealousy and resentment, which may find their representation in something more poteut thau protests and protocols.