The Germans are still not prepared, after twenty-four years, to
allow Alsace-Lorraine to govern itself as a province of the Empire. A motion to that effect was made in the Reichstag on Wednesday, but the Chancellor refused to accept it. He said the Reichsland was not now governed dic- tatorially, but the Government must keep the dictatorship bestowed on it by a law of 1871 in reserve. The people were becoming Germanised, and were most industrious; but France could still, if she chose, raise an agitation in the annexed country, and the law was "a good signboard" to warn the population against being led astray. Prince Hohenlohe has governed Alsace-Lorraine for so many years, that his testimony must be accepted; and it seems to amount to this. The Alsatians accept Germany because they have no hope of release; but if they had one, there would be trouble still. That is a much less roseate account than the one which is now usually published. Reconciling conquered provinces is difficult work to Germans. They have not succeeded in the least in Poland ; and in Danish Schleswig their success, in spite of the total absence of any ground for expecting a change, has been most incomplete. We have not succeeded either with our Poles, so we have little cause to boast ; but we think we might have succeeded if, as in Alsace- Lorraine, there had been no question either of race or creed.
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