The bases of the Alsace Treaty as accepted by the
French Assembly prescribed that the departments of the Aisne, Doubs, Jura, Haut Saone, Cote d'Or, and Aube should be evacuated, and the army of occupation reduced to 50,000 Germans ; that till the end of this year Alsace should export free into Franoe as much as the average she used to export in the later years before the war ; that for the first six months of 1872, Alsatian goods should pay only 25 per cent. of the proper tariff dues ; that for another year till 30th June, 1873, they should pay only 50 per cent. thereof ; after which they are apparently to pay the whole. France was to have reci- procity with Alsace,—the article which is still in debate between the French and German Governments, and the introduction of which was a condition sine qua non of the assent of the French Bureau and Assembly. Whether M. Thiers can persuade the Germans to accept this condition, which, of course, is quite as much to the advantage of Alsace as of France, is still doubtful. The treaty, whether accepted or not, will rank one day as one of the rarest of the curiosities of ignorant statesmanship.
