NEWS OF THE WEEK.
PRINCE BISMARCK'S organ, the Correspondence, puts out a de- fence of the terrible blunder and oppression committed in enforc- ing the German conscription in Alsace. It may be reduced to this,— that the Alsatians, once enrolled in the German army, will catch German feeling and patriotism, while their relatives' "feelings will be soothed and their hearts touched" by turning their eyes to German regiments in which their sons and brothers are fighting. Read that fathers and brothers will be unable to rebel while their relatives are hostages in the German army, and we have probably the hard kernel of that bit of pulpy sentiment. The Polish soldiers 'have been a hundred years in the Prussian army, and Poles are not Prussians yet. Has the Prince never read the lists of Venetian prisoners captured in the Austrian army in 1866? Or does he, with the American war, Sadowa, and the Alabama affair before
is eyes, really believe that community of origin or language is a ,perfect guarantee for friendship ? And why, apart from language, does he imagine Alsatians less tenacious than the citizens of Venice ?
