The French are greatly delighted with the vote of Alsace-
Lorraine. In spite of the Stadtholder's proclamation, and of some severe measures against prominent "protesters," every seat was carried by candidates opposed to the annexation. Nothing else could be expected from the Lorrainers, and the Alsatians are as resolute as other Germans. The French affect to see in the vote a new guarantee for peace, as Alsace-Lorraine, they say, will, in the event of war, require a heavy garrison lest it should cut off the invader's communications ; but that is nonsense. The province cannot be stronger for war than it was when it was French, and it never interfered with communications then. So far as its vote tells at all, it will be against peace, as Prince Bismarck will calculate that its moral conquest cannot be achieved until its release from Germany is visibly impossible. Venetia, however, waited seventy years.
