The glorification of William II at Kiel is founded upon shifting sands.  Schleswig remains Danish and resists the Germanising process with a force of energy at least equal to that of Alsace-Lorraine.  The Danes of Schleswig are still Danes, they have not bowed the knee in admiration of German Kultur, any more than the Alsatians, Schleswig says:  “Let them ask us by a plebiscite and they shall see what we want, what civilised men have the right to ask:  light and air and the right to dispose of themselves.”  The people of Alsace-Lorraine say:  “If you would know what Alsace-Lorraine, which was never consulted, thinks of the Treaty of Frankfort, ask her.”

I blush, and my soul is filled with shame, when I think of the degradation of French patriotism contained in the utterances of . . . ., of those words which, to our lasting sorrow, evoked in the Centre of the Chamber an outburst of enthusiasm.  May our patriots never forget this cowardly session of the French Parliament!  Thus, then, twenty-seven years after the war, when we have spent countless millions on the remaking of our army and navy, when every Frenchman has bled himself to the bone to make France so strong and independent that she might cherish the brightest hopes, a President of the French Council has the unutterable weakness, from the tribune, to threaten France with the German cane, should she dare to follow any other policy than that desired by Berlin!

And French deputies have applauded these shameful words, that are reproduced, with such joy as may be imagined, by the whole German Press!  That Press has every reason to be delighted and to find in these words clear proof that the official class in France has always looked upon the Russian Alliance as a show-piece, never relying upon it, and that since the Berlin Congress (how often have I said it!) this official class has never ceased to gravitate towards Germany.

And I, a Republican, a fanatic for the Russian Alliance, such as it might and should have been, a Frenchwoman, blind worshipper of my vanquished country—­how can I hold my head up in the face of such a shameful collapse!

In placing his services at the disposal of the Grand Turk for the persecution of Christians, in supporting those in Russia whose policy it is to urge their country into war with Japan and China and to divert it from its natural sphere of action in Europe, our Minister for Foreign Affairs has ruined one of the finest political situations in which France has ever found herself.  If the conduct of our foreign affairs had been entrusted to a real statesman, France might have recovered her position in Europe instead of going, with giant strides, down the path of hopeless decadence.

Are not the intentions of Germany plain enough now and sufficiently proved?  They must be stupidly foolish who cannot see that a great German war is being prepared against the Slavs and Gallo-Latins, under most disastrous conditions for us and for Russia.  It needs all the blindness of King Humbert, of Leopold II and of the Hungarian Centralists, to believe that if and when it comes, a German victory would confer any benefits on anything that is not German.