Prussia appears to have reconsidered her recent proceedings ; it
is now credibly reported that she has deferred active proceed- ings for a fortnight, or for a week from this data ; and the in- telligence in our Postscript suggests the reason.
Meanwhile the Minister of the Saxon Government has come forward to answer the circular of Prince Gortschakoff. M. Beast sarcastically admits that there is "a misunderstanding, but not on the side of the German Governments " ; and he proceeds to instruct Prince Gortschakoff in the fact that the German Con- federation is not " a combination exclusively defensive." His argument is, that the Confederacy retains the right of peace and war, under treaties signed by Russia, treaties which have entered into the public law of Europe ; while in '48, on the proposition of Austria and Prussia the Germanic Confederation resolved that. any attack on the non-German provinces of either of those Powers should be considered equivalent to an attack on the Federal territory,—a resolution met by no protest from Paris or London. What then ? It was not the mission of Paris or London, at that date, to protest against an act whioh did not operate adversely on the plans either of England or of France ; but if the Con-
federation thinks now to proceed aggressively against the Western Powers, the German Governments may find themselves obliged to choose the alternative of dropping their intent or abandoning the treaties of 1815. At all events, by this time, M. Beust has learned that his special pleading is not likely to divert either Great Britain or Russia from their neutral course ; and it is something in favour of the Germanic Confederation that Saxony, with its two millions of population, is left to answer Prince Gortsehakoff alone.
