The Parisians have been amusing themselves with a paper in
the Figaro, in which a serious writer, M. Leo Lavedan, professes to reveal "the secret of Bismarck." The German Chancellor, he says, has framed the Tripartite Alliance in order to -dismember France. Germany would under this plan take the remainder of Lorraine, including Nancy ; Italy, Nice, Savoy, and Corsica ; Belgium, French Flanders; Switzerland, Chablais; and -Spain, Roussillon. Austria is apparently to get nothing, but -would presumably be compensated with territories in the Balkan, while England would receive a French port. The story, which involves the previous conquest of France in a war of pure aggression, during which England would look on benevolently, and would snatch a port on the Continent, is obviously absurd. but the French study it with avidity. It is possible that M. Lavedan has got hold of some scheme of Prince Bismarck's, sketching out what he would do if France, under a restored monarchy, were to attack Germany and to be totally defeated, but the Germans are not going to spend their children in scores -of thousands to make the fortune of Italy.
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