Prince Hohenlohe, Stadtholder of Alsace-Lorraine, has issued a manifesto to
the electors of those provinces. It is out- spoken, at all events. He says that the German Government demand the Septennate, "being convinced that the German Empire will be threatened with war directly the bellicose portion of the French nation believes the military forces of France to be superior to those of Germany. Is it your will that Alsace- Lorraine should again be exposed to the horrors of war ?" The election of pacific and conciliatory Deputies will, he says, tend to preserve peace, and by pacific Deputies he means men "who will unreservedly recognise the Treaty of 1871." If Alsace-Lorraine, on the contrary, sends up men who refuse the Septennate, then "if peace should be further imperilled," they will be responsible. The Stadtholder advises those who have no loyalist candidates to drop blank papers into the urns, and concludes by assuring them that "the reunion of this old German country with the German Empire is irrevocable, and can only end with the duration of the German Empire itself." Prophecy on the eve of a war is not wise, but it is difficult for an Englishman, as he reads this proclamation, not to wonder to himself what Prince Bismarck would do with Ireland if he had it. Jury-packing would not be the first subject of discussion then.
