Bremen has petitioned the German Parliament to ask the Bing-
President to demand Saigon, that is, the French Colony of Cochin- China, in the forthcoming treaty. Parliament refused to act, as it was unbecoming to divide the bear's skin till the bear had been killed, but the discussion may furnish food for thought to the Duke of Argyle. How will the India House like the cession of Pondicherry and Chandernagore to the German Emperor ? The French have no genius for colonies, and we get along with them very well, though we pay them tribute to protect the salt and opium monopolies, but the Germans are men of different stuff. Suppose the new Kaiser stations 10,000 men in Pondicherry, and then remarks that he shall grow opium and sell salt just as he likes ! We should have to encircle the settlement with a cordon of custom-houses. How far, too, would Germany observe the agree- ment that no troops are to be sent to the aid of any native power? A hundred questions which, as between France and us were settled a century since by arms, would once more be re-opened.
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