22

THE NEUTRALITY OF BELGIUM

its ruler the secondary title of Grand Duke of Luxemburg. The position it occupied after 1815 was in
some ways anomalous; for lying as it did between th e
Meuse and the Rhine, and possessing in the town of
Luxemburg a fortress whose natural strength some
competent critics reckoned as second only to that of
Gibraltar among the fortresses of Europe, it was considered to be an indispensable link in th e chain of
defences of Germany against French aggression. Not
being able to trust the Dutch to hold this great fortress
against the French, the Congress of Vienna laid clown
as a principle that all Janel between the Meuse and
the Rhine must be held by Prussian troops on behalf
of the newly formed Germanic Confederation. Thus
Luxemburg was held by Prussian troops on behalf of
this foreign confederation, and ove1· this garrison th e
only right allowed to the Grand Duke, the sovereig n of
the country, was that of nominating the governor.
This strange state of affairs was not modified by the
Belgian Revolution of 1830; for though more than half
the Grand Duchy threw in its lot with Belgium to form
the modern province of Belgian Luxemburg, the Grand
Duchy, confined to its modern limits, still contained the
great fortress with its garrison of Prussian troops. It is
not surprising that, under these circumstances, the Grand
Duchy joined the Prussian Zollvcrei11, and so drew
nearer to Germany, in spite of the independent character
of its inhabitants, who have strenuously resisted any
attempt at absorption into Germany. France naturally
continued to cast envious eyes upon the small state with
the powerful citadel, but no opportunity presented itself
for reopening the question until r866.
In that year Napoleon III had anticipated that the war
between Prussia and Italy on one side and Austria and th e
small German states on the other would be long and
exhausting, and would end in France imposing peace
on the weary combatants with considerable territorial