The position of the Danes in Schleswig after the cession was determined, so far as treaty rights are concerned, by two instruments -the Treaty of Vienna (October 30, 1864) and the Treaty of Prague (August 23, 1866). By Article XIX. of the former treaty Thebmlsh subjects domiciled in the ceded territories had the right, op within six years of the exchange of ratifications, of opting gum n for the Danish nationality and transferring themselves, their families and their personal property to Denmark, while keeping their landed property in the duchies. The last paragraph of the Article ran: “ Le droit d'indigénat, tant dans le royaume de Danemark que dans les Duchés, est conservé a tous les individus qui le possédent at l'époque de l'échange des ratifications du présent Traité.” By Article V. of the Treaty of Prague Schleswig was ceded by Austria to Prussia with the reservation that “ the populations of the North of Schleswig shall 'be again united with Denmark in the event of their expressing a desire so to be by a vote freely exercised." Taking advantage of the terms of these treaties, about 50,000 Danes from North Schleswig (out of a total population of some 150,000) opted for Denmark and migrated over the frontier, pending the plebiscite which was to restore their country to them. But the plebiscite never came. Its inclusion in the treaty had been no more than a diplomatic device to save the face of the emperor Napoleon III.; Prussia had from the first no intention of surrendering an inch of the territory she had conquered; the outcome of the Franco-German War made it unnecessary for her even to pretend that she might do so; and by the Treaty of Vienna of October II, 1878, the clause relating to the plebiscite was formally abrogated with the assent of Austria.
Meanwhile the Danish “ optants, " disappointed of their hopes, had begun to stream back over the frontier into Schleswig. By doing so they lost, under the Danish law, their rights as Danish citizens, without acquiring those of Prussian sub'ects; and this disability was transmitted to their children. By Article XIX. of the Treaty of 1864, indeed, they should have been secured the rights of “ indigenacy, " which, while falling short of complete citizenship, implied, according to Danish law, all the essential guarantees for civil liberty. But in German law the right of Indigenat is not clearly differentiated from the status of a subject; and the supreme court at Kiel decided in several cases that those who had opted for Danish nationality had forfeited their rights under the Indigenat paragraph of the Treaty of Vienna. There was thus created in the rontier districts a large and increasing class of people who dwelt in a sort of political limbo, having lost their Danish citizenship through ceasing to be domiciled in Denmark, and unable to acquire Prussian citizenship because they had failed to apply for it within the six years stipulated in the Treaty of 1864. Their exclusion from the rights of Prussian subjects was due, however, to causes other than the letter of the treaty. The Danes, in spite of every discouragement, never ceased to strive for the preservation and extension of their national traditions and language; the Germans were equally bent on effectually absorbing these recalcitrant “Teutons ' into the general life of the German empire; and to this end the uncertain status of the Danish optants was a useful means. Danish agitators of German nationality could not be touched so long as they were careful to keep within the limits of the law; pro-Danish newspapers owned and staffed by German subjects enjoyed immunity in accordance with the constitution, which guarantees the liberty of the press. The case of the “ optants " was far other. These unfortunates, who numbered a large proportion of the population, were subject to domiciliary visits, and to arbitrary perquisitions, arrest and expulsion. When the pro-Danish newspapers, after the expulsion of several “ optant ” editors, were careful to appoint none but German subjects, the vengeance of the authorities fell upon “ optant " ty e-setters, printers and printers' devils. The Prussian police, indeecfi developed an almost superhuman capacity for detecting optants: and since these pariahs were mingled indistinguishably with the mass of the people, no household and no business was safe from official inquisition. One instance out of many may serve to illustrate the type of offence that served as excuse for this systematic official persecution. On the 27th of April 1896 the second volume for 1895 of the Sonderjyske Aarboger was confiscated for having used the historic term Sonderjylland (South jutland) for Schleswig. To add to the misery, the Danish government refused to allow the Danish optants expelled by Prussia to settle in Denmark, though this rule was modified by the Danish Nationality Law of 1898 in favour of the children of optants born after the passing of the law. It was not till the signature of the treaty between Prussia and Denmark on the 11th of January 1907 that these intolerable 7-'Hiya' conditions were ended. By this treaty the German January government undertook to allow all children born of II' 1907. Danish optants before the passing of the new Danish Nationality Law of 1898 to acquire Prussian nationality on the usual conditions and on their own application. This provision was not to affect the ordinary legal rights of expulsion as exercised by either power, but the Danish government undertook not to refuse to the children of Schleswig optants who should not seek to acquire or who could not legally acquire Prussian nationality permission to reside in Denmark. The provisions of the treaty apply not only to the children of Schleswig optants, but to their direct descendants in all degrees.
This adjustment, brought about by the friendly intercourse between the courts of Berlin and Copenhagen, seemed to close the last phase of the Schleswig question. Yet, so far from allaying, it apparently only served to embitter the inter-racial feud. The “ autochthonous Germans of the Northern Nlarches." regarded the new treaty as a betrayal, and refused “ to give the kiss of peace " to their hereditary enemies. For forty years Germanism, backed by all the weight of the empire and imposed with all the weapons of official persecution, had barely held its own in North Schleswig; in spite of an enormous emigration, in 1905, of the 148,000 inhabitants of North Schleswig 139,000 spoke Danish, while of the German-speaking immigrants it was found that more than a third spoke Danish in the first generation; and this in spite of the fact that, from 1864 onward, German had gradually been substituted for Danish in the churches, the schools, and even in the playground. But the scattered outposts of Germanism could hardly be expected to acquiesce without a struggle in a situation that threatened them with social and economic extinction. Forty years of dominance, secured by official favour, had filled them with a double measure of aggressive pride of race, and the question of the rival nationalities in Schleswig, like that in Poland, remained a source of trouble and weakness within the frontiers of the German empire.
Authorities.*Th€ literature on the subject is vast. From the German point of View the most comprehensive treatment is in C. Jansen and K. Samwer, Schleswig-Holsteins Befreiung (Wiesbaden, 1897); see also H. C. L. von Sybel, Foundation of the German Empire (Eng. trans., New York, 1890-1891); Bismarck's Reflections and Reminiscences, and L. Hahn, Bismarck (5 vols., 1878-1891). The Danish point of View is ably and moderately presented in La Question du Slesvig, a collection of essays by various writers edited by F. de lessen (Copenhagen, 1906), with maps and documents. (W. A. P.)
SCHLETTSTADT, a town of Germany, in the imperial province
of Alsace-Lorraine, on the Ill; 26 m. S. of Strassburg by the
railway to Basel. Pop. (1905) 9700. It possesses two fine
Roman Catholic churches, a Protestant church, numerous
remains of its old walls and some quaint houses of the 15th and
16th centuries. It has a theatre, a municipal library, a gymnasium,
and other educational establishments. The Roman
Catholic churches are the cathedral church of St George, a fine
Gothic building founded in the 13th century, and the church of St
Fides, dating from the 11th century. Its industries comprise
wire-drawing, tanning and saw-milling, and there is a considerable
trade in wine, fruit and other agricultural produce.
Schlettstadt is a place of very early origin. It was a royal
residence in Carolingian times and became a free town of the
Empire in the 13th century. In the IStl'1 century it was the seat
of a celebrated academy, founded by the humanist Rodolphus
Agricola, which contributed not a little to the revival of learning
in this part of Germany; Erasmus of Rotterdam was one of its
students. In 16 34 the town came into the possession of France,
and it was afterwards fortified by Vauban. It offered little
resistance, however, to the Germans in 187O, and the fortifications
have since been razed. The Hoh-Konigsburg, a great castle
standing at an elevation of 247 5 ft., was presented to the emperor
William II. by the town of Schlettstadt in 1899, and was completely
restored in 1908. The site is first mentioned as bearing a
castle in the 8th century. I
See Naumann, Die Eroberung 'von Schlettstadt (Berlin, 1876); and ]. Gény, Die Reichstadt Schlettstadt 1490-15 36 (Freiburg i. B. 1900).
SCHLEY, WINFIELD SCOTT (1839–1911), American naval
officer, was born at Richfields, near Frederick, Maryland, on the
9th of October 1839. He graduated at the United States Naval
Academy in 1860, and during the Civil War was in active service
as a lieutenant until July 1863. In 1867–1869 he was an
instructor in the U.S. Naval Academy. He took part in Rear-Admiral
John Rodgers's expedition to Korea in 1871, and was
adjutant of the American land forces in the attack on the Korean
forts on Salee river on the 10th and 11th of June. In 1872-1875
he was head of the department of modern languages in the U.S.
Naval Academy. He was promoted commander in June 1874;
in 1876-1879 commanded the “ Essex,” most of the time in the
South Atlantic, and then until October 1883 was inspector of the
second lighthouse district. In February 1884, after the failure in
1883 of the second expedition (under Lieut. E. A. Garlington)
for the relief of the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition commanded
by Lieut. A. W. Greely, Schley was appointed to command the
third Greely relief expedition; and near Cape Sabine on the
22nd of June rescued Greely and six (of his twenty-four)
companions. He was chief of the bureau of equipment and recruiting
