ish
Government was required to retract its course. It refused, and war
followed. What will be the result of it, what even the Prussian
Government wishes to be the result of it, is a matter of uncertainty.
Suspicions of a secret treaty between it and Austria find easy credence,
according to which, as is supposed, nothing but their mutual
aggrandizement is aimed at. Certain it is that none even of the best
informed pretend to know definitely what is designed, nor be confident
that the design, whatever it is, will be executed. Yet for the time a
certain degree of enthusiasm has been of course awakened in all by the
successful advance of Prussian troops through Schleswig, and the
indefinite hope is cherished that somehow, even in spite of the apparent
policy of the Government, the war will result in rescuing the duchy
entirely from the Danish grasp. Thus, temporarily at least, the popular
mind is again diverted from internal politics; and perhaps the
Government was moved as much by a desire to effect this diversion as by
any other motive. The decided schism between Prussia and Austria on the
one hand, and the smaller German States on the other, a schism in which
the majority of the people even in Prussia and Austria side with the
smaller states, favors the notion that these two powers dislike heartily
to enter into a movement whose motive and end is mainly the promotion of
German unity at the expense of monarchical principles. For, however much
of subtlety may be exhibited in proving that the prince of Augustenburg
is the rightful heir to the duchy, the real source of the German
interest in the matter is sympathy with their fellow Germans, who, as is
not to be doubted, have been in various ways, especially in respect to
the use of the German language in schools and churches, abused and
irritated by the Danish Government. The death of the late king of
Denmark was only made the occasion for seeking the desired relief.
Fifteen years ago the same thing was done without any such occasion. But
it would be the extreme of inconsistency for the Prussian Government to
help directly and ostensibly a movement which, whatever name it may
bear, is essentially a rebellion: if there are Germans in
Schleswig-Holstein, so are there Poles in Poland.

But, although, for the time being, the excitement of actual war silences
the murmurs of the Progress party, the substantial occasion for them is
not removed. On the contrary, there is reason to e