The North German Peninsula! Look at the map and then say whether any more arrogant pretension was ever brought forward in a national Parliament. Lord Salisbury was not the only Englishman who knew what were the motives urging on Germany. Lord Palmerston, at the end of the session of 1863, spoke plainly on the subject. Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald, who had been Conservative Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, had asked a question in the House of Commons as to what was the policy of Her Majesty’s Government in regard to the Danish Question—Lord Palmerston’s answer was as follows: “There is no use in disguising the fact that what is at the bottom of the German design, and the desire of connecting Schleswig with Holstein, is the dream of a German fleet and the wish to get Kiel as a German seaport. That may be a good reason why they should wish it; but it is no reason why they should violate the rights and independence of Denmark for an object which, even if it were accomplished, would not realize the expectation of those who aim at it. The hon. gentleman asks what is the policy and course of Her Majesty’s Government with regard to that dispute. “As I have already said, we concur entirely with him, and I am satisfied, with all reasonable men in Europe, including those in France and Russia, in desiring that the independence and integrity and the rights of Denmark may be maintained. We are convinced, I am convinced at least, that if any violent attempt were made to overthrow those rights and interfere with that independence, those who made the attempt would find in the result that it would not be Denmark alone with which they would have to contend.” Could language be clearer than this pronouncement _urbi et orbi_ of the Prime Minister of England? But that was not all. Lord Russell in despatch after despatch, many of which are quoted by Lord Salisbury in his famous article, gave it to be understood at Paris, Berlin, Vienna and St. Petersburg that an attack on Denmark would lead to a rupture of relations between England and Germany. “Her Majesty could not see with indifference a military occupation of Holstein,” etc. “Should it appear that Federal troops had entered the Duchy on international grounds, Her Majesty’s Government may be obliged to interfere.”