468 



LUXEMBURG. 



Lutherans and German Protestants in Victoria, 

 and a number in the other Australian colonies. 



LUXEMBURG, a grand-duchy, united by 

 " personal union " with Holland, but which has 

 an independent constitution and administration. 

 The Governor is appointed by the King of Hol- 

 land. Present Governor (since 1850), Prince 

 Henry, brother of the King of Holland. The 

 present constitution dates from July 9, 1848, 

 and was revised in 1856. The electoral law 

 (adopted on November 17, 1857) provides for 

 an Assembly, consisting of 31 members, who are 

 elected for a term of six years. The grand- 

 duchy belonged from 1815 to 1866 to the old 

 German Confederation. Area 990 square miles; 

 population, in 1864, 202,937 inhabitants; in 

 1866, 203,851. The country is divided into 

 three districts : Luxemburg (87,799 inhabitants) ; 

 Dickirch (71,305), and Gevenmachern (44,747). 

 There are seven towns, the larger of which are 

 Luxemburg, the capital, with 13,487 inhabitants, 

 and Echternach with 4,100. In the budget for 

 the year 1866-'67, the receipts amounted to 

 4,958,520 francs, and the expenditures to 5,074,- 

 392 francs; there was consequently a deficit of 

 115,872 francs. The public debt in 1866 was 

 about 13,000,000 francs. The army consists of 

 two battalions of chasseurs, each of which has 

 18 officers and 763 under-officers and privates. 

 There is also a corps of gensdarmes composed of 

 3 officers, 27 under-officers, and 379 gensdarmes. 



After the dissolution of the old Germanic 

 Diet in consequence of the withdrawal from it 

 of Prussia, the position of Luxemburg became 

 at_once the subject of a diplomatic correspond- 

 de'nce between Prussia and the Netherlands. 

 Later the Government of France entered into 

 several negotiations with the Netherlands, with 

 a view to the purchase of Luxemburg. The 

 determined opposition of Prussia to this project 

 led for a time to a serious European complica- 

 tions, threatening a war between France and 

 Germany. Thus " the Luxemburg question " 

 occupied for several months a prominent place 

 in the history of Europe during the year 1867. 

 It was finally peaceably solved by the London 

 Conference, at which France relinquished her 

 project of purchase, and Prussia her claim- to the 

 fortress of Luxemburg, and at which the inde- 

 pendence of Luxemburg and her neutrality in 

 case of Avar was placed under the joint guaran- 

 tees of the great powers. 



The negotiations between Prussia and the 

 Netherlands began as early as the 23d of June, 

 1866 (only nine days after the withdrawal of 

 Prussia from the Frankfort Diet), with a dispatch 

 from Baron de Tornaco, Minister of State of the 

 grand-duchy of Luxemburg, to Count de Per- 

 poncher, Prussian minister at the Hague, asking 

 in what light Prussia for the future considers 

 the position of her troops in the fortress of Lux- 

 emburg, as they have up to the present day 

 been there solely in the character of Federal 

 troops. The Prussian ambassador at the Hague 

 replied on July 1, 1866, that the Prussian gar- 

 rison of Luxemburg did not occupy that fortress 



solely in the capacity of a "Federal " garrison, 

 but also in virtue of the international treaties 

 concluded in 1816 and 1856 between Holland 

 and Prussia ; that, actually, Prussian troops had 

 already garrisoned the fortress four years befdre 

 the Germanic Diet, in 1820, took charge of the 

 Federal occupation of Luxemburg ; and that, 

 consequently, the dissolution of the diet could 

 not impair the conventions between Prussia and 

 the Netherlands. To this dispatch Baron de 

 Tornaco replied on July 2, 1866, that the Gov- 

 ernment of the King-Grand-duke could not ad- 

 mit the claims of the Prussian Government, as 

 Luxemburg had been declared a Federal fortress 

 as early as 1814 and 1815 ; that the final solu- 

 tion of the question might be postponed, but 

 that the government of Luxemburg deemed it 

 of importance to make known at once its reser- 

 vations and its protest against the Prussian view. 

 The question slumbered until the month of Oc- 

 tober, 1866, when the legation of France at the 

 Hague addressed to Paris two dispatches in 

 succession, calling the attention of the French 

 Government to the dangers which the question 

 might give rise to. Early in 1867 the efforts of 

 France for a purchase of Luxemburg seem to 

 have commenced, but the supplement to the 

 " Yellow Book " on the Luxemburg question 

 (a volume of 87 pages), which the French Gov- 

 ernment presented to both Chambers, does not 

 contain some of the most important documents 

 relating to these negotiations, nor the treaty 

 which it is asserted was concluded between the 

 Governments of France and the Netherlands on 

 March 22d. From the documents given in this 

 supplement of the Yellow Book we learn the 

 following facts: 



Two dispatches from the Marquis de Moustier, 

 French Minister of Foreign Affairs, to the 

 French minister at the Hague, of the 27th and 

 28th February, indicated the cession of the' 

 grand-duchy as likely to procure the solu- 

 tion most desirable. On the 21st of March, 

 the Minister of Foreign Affairs expressed anew 

 the desire that the King should leave to the 

 Imperial Cabinet the exclusive direction and 

 responsibility of the negotiation. The con- 

 fidential communications which would be en- 

 tered into with the Prussian Government were 

 not, he observed, to lead to a vexatious result, 

 since the object of the French Government 

 was to make this question the means of draw- 

 ing both governments closer together, and not 

 a cause of difference. A dispatch, under date 

 of 26th of March, emanating from the minister 

 of France at the Hague, shows that the King 

 had written to the Emperor, asking him to 

 smooth down difficulties at Berlin. However, 

 the King again expressed the desire to commu- 

 nicate to the minister of Prussia at the Hague 

 his intentions with respect to the cession of the 

 grand-duchy, and a want of accord subsisted 

 on that point between the Cabinet of the Tuile- 

 ries and the grand-ducal Government. 



A dispatch from the French minister at the 

 Hague, of the 28th of March, informs M. de Mous- 



