It is strange to see Prince Bismarck repeating in Prussian
Poland the British mistakes in Ireland. Instead of winning the Poles, as France undoubtedly won the Germans of Alsace, he is trying the Cromwellian policy of expulsions, and the later policy of "plantations," both at once. He has expelled 30,000 immigrants from West Prussia and Posen, and now asks 25,000,000 with which to buy the large Polish e3tates. When purchased, he proposes to divide them among German peasants,
not by gifts, but by sales, and thus to increase the German population. The Bill, it is said, will pass, though the Polish Members of the Prussian Parliament resist with passion, as win also a Bill compelling all apprentices to attend German schools ; but the result will disappoint the Prince. The German peasants will not emigrate to Polish Prussia in order to remain subject to the conscription amid a hostile population ; and the habit of speaking German will not make faithful Germans. The Irish out of Donegal only speak English, and as far as ease of management is con- cerned, the English only wish they spoke Erse. The Germans have an idea that their civilisation has only to be understood -to be loved, and quite forget that men may detest a civilisation higher than their own. It is not quite certain that they them- selves would like to be governed by angels.
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