said he was quite at a loss to know what it meant.  The French Plenipotentiary followed in the same tone; and for a long period we were quite unable in the Conference to say what was really the intention of the two Powers.  We asked who was to be the Sovereign of these two Duchies which were to be thus governed?  The answer of the German Plenipotentiary was that that was a question to be decided by the Diet.  Austria and Prussia, but more especially Austria, had declared hitherto that the Treaty of 1852 was a question that was decided—­that the late King of Denmark had a right to settle the succession, and that his decision in favour of Prince Christian, the present King of Denmark, would be respected by those Powers.  It was equally notorious that the Diet, if it met, would, by a considerable majority, declare against the title of the King of Denmark.  Count Bernstorff did not deny that, and the Plenipotentiary of the German Diet declared at once that the majority of the Diet would never consent to an arrangement which even in an eventual or conditional form, would sanction a union between the Duchies and Denmark.  Thus, while the two Powers, Austria and Prussia, were in appearance consenting to the maintenance of the Treaty of 1852, telling us that the Diet might ultimately decide in favour of the King of Denmark as the legitimate heir, the German Plenipotentiary, who, in fact, had greater power than either the Plenipotentiaries of Austria or Prussia, because they never at any time ventured to oppose that which he declared to be the will of Germany, declared that Germany would never consent to the restoration of the Duchies to Denmark.

My Lords, at the next meeting of the Conference, which took place on the 17th of May, there was a more positive declaration.  Austria and Prussia then declared that they could no longer acknowledge the King of Denmark as Sovereign of the Duchies; that the whole of the two Duchies ought to be separated from Denmark and placed under the sovereignty of the Prince of Augustenburg; that he should be declared the rightful possessor of the throne of these Duchies, and that that was a declaration which would be hailed throughout Germany and would meet the wishes of the German people.  Before this declaration was made, in preparation for such an event, the Plenipotentiaries of the neutral Powers had met to consider the situation.  The Government of France had had some communication with the Government of this country.  The French Government had declared that they thought the personal union could not be the foundation of a lasting peace, and that the only mode of obtaining such a peace would be to separate the Danish nationalities in the Duchies from the German nationalities.  After these communications I consulted the other neutral Plenipotentiaries, who met at my private house for the purpose of considering the matter.  We came to the conclusion that it was useless to propose that the two Duchies should remain under the King of Denmark.  It was quite