Prince Bismarck on Tuesday delivered a great speech to the
Reichstag in defence of the terms of his treaty with France, a speech reported in extenso in the Telegraph only. The Chancellor- employed the well-known arguments for seizing Alsace and Lorraine, but stated some new facts. One was that Napoleon had in 1866 offered him the alternatives of ceding Mayence or accept- ing war, and when he had accepted war, drew back. He objected to neutralize Alsace, because neutralization only succeeded when the inhabitants wished to be neutral, and the Alsatians were thoroughly French. He admitted this twice, adding that they had been a kind of aristocracy in the French bureaux, and that he- hoped to convert them by the grant of large communal liberties.. He thought German statesmen "ruled more benevolently, though often more clumsily, than French statesmen." He desired to govern Alsace through the Empire for three years, but altogether- declined to prophesy what its position would be after that time. "To calculate that it would be necessary to read the future which, depends upon conditions that cannot be ruled by us." He dilated much on the importance of Strasburg as the gate of Germany, declaring that the King of Wurtemburg had .told him that while Strasburg was in French hands his State must be at peace with France.
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