belonged to Germany, or rather to what then was known by that name.  It was useless as well as ungracious for Bismarck to tell France to seek compensation in Africa for what she had lost in Europe.  Like Rachel mourning for her children, France will not be comforted; and now, as from the heavy hour in which she lost the provinces, she grieves over the memory of them and nurses the hope, still mingled with hate, of one glorious day regaining them.  There are sanguine spirits who assert that the old feeling is dying out, and the German Government studiously encourages that view.  It may be so; time is having its obliterating effects; and in externals at least the Germanization of the provinces is slowly making progress.  Still the wound is deep, and there seems no prospect of its healing.

Several suggestions have been made with a view to an arrangement that might leave France without reason, or with less reason, for constant meditation on revenge One of them is the neutralization of Alsace-Lorraine on the model of Belgium, while another is the distribution of the territory, so that while Alsace is divided between Baden and Bavaria, Lorraine becomes a part of Prussia A third would divide the provinces between the two nations.  An illustration of the yet prevailing feeling is found in the fact that large Alsatian firms invariably use French in their correspondence with Berlin firms, and almost as invariably refer to the “customs-arrangement” with Germany in 1871.  They cannot bring themselves to use the word “annexation.”

Yet of late years—­to anticipate somewhat the course of events—­Germany has made two important concessions to Alsace-Lorraine.  The first was the abrogation of the so-called “Dictator-Paragraph,” which was part of the law for administering the new provinces after the war of 1870.  Under the paragraph the Lieutenant-Governor (Oberpresident) of the Reichsland, as the newly incorporated territory is now officially known, was empowered in case of need to take command of the military forces and proclaim a state of siege.  When announcing the abrogation of the Paragraph in the Reichstag in 1902, Chancellor von Buelow gave a resume of the relations of the provinces to the Empire since 1870.  He stated that immediately after the war the population were not disposed to incorporation in the Empire, as they thought the new state of things would only be temporary and that France would soon reconquer the provinces.  This state of feeling, the Chancellor explained, naturally reacted on the Government, which accordingly laid down the principle that the claims of the provinces to equal political rights with other parts of the Empire could only be recognized step by step, as the Government was satisfied that the population conformed to the new order of things.

The second important concession to the Provinces was made only recently, when the provincial committee was replaced by a popularly elected Diet and the Provinces were granted three seats in the Federal Council.  There is a proviso that in case of equality in the Council meetings the votes shall not be allowed to turn the scale in favour of Prussia.  The limitation is a concession to the susceptibilities of the other Federal states.