At that time he was not prepared to break with Austria, and he still hoped that some peaceful means of acquisition might be found, as he wrote some months later to Goltz, “We have not got all the good we can from the Austrian alliance.”  Prussia had the distinct advantage that she was more truly in possession of the Duchies than Austria.  This possession would more and more guarantee its own continuance; it was improbable that any Power would undertake an offensive war to expel her.  On the whole, therefore, Bismarck seems to have wished for the present to leave things as they were; gradually to increase the hold of Prussia on the Duchies, and wait until they fell of themselves into his hands.  In pursuit of this policy it was necessary, however, to expel all other claimants, and this could not be done without the consent of Austria; this produced a cause of friction between the two great Powers which made it impossible to maintain the co-dominium.

There were in Holstein the Confederate troops who had gone there a year ago and had never been withdrawn; Augustenburg was still living at Kiel with his phantom Court; and then there were the Austrian soldiers, Prussia’s own allies.  One after another they had to be removed.  Bismarck dealt first with the Confederate troops.

He had, as indeed he always was careful to have, the strict letter of the law on his side; he pointed out that as the execution had been directed against the government of Christian, and Christian had ceased to have any authority, the execution itself must ipso facto cease; he therefore wrote asking Austria to join in a demand to Saxony and Hanover; he was prepared, if the States refused, to expel their troops by force.  Hanover—­for the King strongly disliked Augustenburg—­at once acquiesced; Saxony refused.  Bismarck began to make military preparations; the Saxons began to arm; the Crown treasures were taken from Dresden to Koenigstein.  Would Austria support Saxony or Prussia?  For some days the question was in debate; at last Austria determined to support a motion at the Diet declaring the execution ended.  It was carried by eight votes to seven, and the Saxons had to obey.  The troops on their return home refused to march across Prussian territory; and from this time Beust and the King of Saxony must be reckoned among the determined and irreconcilable enemies of Bismarck.

The first of the rivals was removed; there remained Austria and the Prince.

Just at this time a change of Ministry had taken place in Austria; Rechberg, who had kept up the alliance, was removed, and the anti-Prussian party came to the front.  It was, therefore, no longer so easy to deal with the Prince, for he had a new and vigorous ally in Austria.  Mensdorf, the new Minister, proposed in a series of lengthy despatches his solution of the question; it was that the rights of the two Powers should be transferred to Augustenburg, and that Schleswig-Holstein should be established as an independent