It is stated positively by the Strasburg correspondent of the
Daily Telegraph that the Bishop of Strasburg, daring his recent unsuccessful attempt to mediate between the besiegers and the besieged, was told authoritatively by the Prussian officer who was appointed to meet him that Alsace, "stolen from Germany 200 years ago," would be reclaimed for the German Fatherland, "never again to be given up ;" but " that Lorraine would be left to France, whose eastern frontier in future will be the Vosges." It was added that Metz would be left to France, "it being by no means Germany's desire to humiliate unnecessarily the French nation, with whom she desires tobe upon terms of sincere and durable friendship." This language is that of the Telegraph's correspondent, but he asserts that language to this effect was reduced to writing, and attested at the interview, which looks like authority. Germany would do far better, and gain infinitely more strength, by leaving the Alsatians—who are even more vividly French in feeling than many of the inhabitants of Lorraine, especially east from Metz—to the country which they have adopted. The language plea is worthless,—the Vosges patois, though of German origin, being quite unintelligible to Germans, and the people who speak it French in sympathy to the backbone. The military consideration probably moves the Prussian Generals most. We can only hope, somewhat against hope, that the rapidly rising greed for an- nexation will not go further than this. Even in this, France will no more acquiesce, than Italy in the German occupation of Venetia, and all Europe will be unsettled for years by expectation of the return match.
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