say loose—­Polish element has become decidedly more favorable for the Germans.  Our national figures are forty-eight million Germans and two million Poles; and in such a community the wishes of the two million cannot be decisive for the forty-eight million, as must be apparent, especially in an age when political decisions are dependent on a majority vote as a last resort.  The forces which guarantee the union of these territories are strong enough both in the parliament and in the army to assure it, and no one can doubt that the proper authorities are ready to use these forces at the right time.  No one mistakes the meaning, when the announcement is made from the highest quarters:  “Ere we shall yield again Alsace, our army will have to be annihilated” (and words to this effect have been spoken).  The same thing is true, to an even stronger degree, of our eastern frontier.  We can spare neither, Posen even less than Alsace, and we shall fight, as the Emperor has said, to the last man, before we renounce Alsace, this protection of our Southern states.  Yet Munich and Stuttgart are not more endangered by a hostile position in Strassburg and Alsace than Berlin would be endangered by a hostile position near the Oder.  It may, therefore, be readily assumed that we shall remain firm in our determination and sacrifice, if it should become necessary, our last man and the last coin in our pockets for the defense of the German eastern frontier as it has existed for eighty years.  And this determination will suffice to render the union between your province and the empire as positively assured as things can be in this world.

We confined our demands to what was necessary for our existence and what enabled the big European nation which we are to draw a free breath.  We did not include territories where German used to be spoken, when this had been largely due to a propaganda of the German courts.  More German used to be spoken in the East, North-east, and elsewhere than today.  Remember our ally, Austria, and how familiar German was there in the days of Joseph II. and of the Empress Maria Theresa, when German was a greater force in parts of Hungary than it is or can be today.  But, for everything we gave up in the shape of a linguistic and outward union, we have found rich compensation in the intensity of a closer union.  If the older gentlemen will think back to the time before Emperor William I., they will realize that the lack of love among the various German tribes was much greater at that time than it is today.  We have made notable progress in this direction, and, when we compare the unequivocal expressions of opinion from Bavaria and Saxony today with the familiar sentiments of earlier times, we must say that Germany, which for the past one hundred years had lagged behind the other people of Europe in national development, has rapidly caught up with them.  Forty years ago we were far behind all other nations in national feeling and love of one another.  Today we are no longer behind them.