The Germans are still indignant that the Alsace-Lorrainers do not
love them. Marshal von Manta-eel, the Governor, has. addressed to the members of the Provincial Committee a speech, in which he told them that the restoration of constitutional rights, i.e., provincial self-government, depended on their cordial acceptance of the German Empire. They had not accepted it yet. In the very last Session, their representatives in• the Reichstag had moved the abolition of the law which makes. German the only language of official intercourse. One of the- Deputies elected had even been a man who sighed for "protesta- tion and action," which meant war. Well, "He should like- again to experience the elevated feeling of commanding in a_ pitched battle, knowing that the balls of the enemy are every- moment summoning men before the judgment-seat of God, and knowing that on the orders one gives depends the issue of the- fight." He had studied French war too deeply not to respect. the French Army, but he knew also the German Army ; and, " If this war is forced upon us, hundreds of thousands of German• women, like the ancient Spartans, will call to their sons to. return with their shields, or on them." Germany, it is clear,. will not suffer for want of plain-speaking, or of Generals who feel "the triumph and the vanity, the rapture of the strife ;" but for all that, her cultivated soldiers should read history right. Athens could not conquer Sparta,—but which lived ? Who forgets Athens; or knows or cares where- Sparta was ?
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