GERMANY. 



359 



led to obtain information concerning the or- 

 ganization of European armies, to establish re- 

 lations with Polish officers in Austrian, Ger- 

 man, and Russian service, and to take an active 

 part in all European events. The members 

 acted on this principle with the Garibaldian 

 volunteers in 1866, under Wolowski in the 

 German War of 1870-'71, and in the Turkish 

 service in the Russian War. They were era- 

 ployed by Colonel Samuel, of the statistical 

 bureau of the French War Ministry, to furnish 

 information regarding the armies of Europe 

 from 1873 to 1877, when the bureau was abol- 

 ished. Wolowski was then intrusted by Gam- 

 betta with the formation of an intelligence 

 bureau, which had its chief center in Dresden, 

 where Kraszewski had resided since the Polish 

 insurrection of 1863. Kraszewski, speculating 

 on the prospects of restoring the independence 

 of Poland through a European convulsion, un- 

 dertook to obtain information concerning the 

 German military arrangements. He employed 

 a Hungarian Jew, named Adler, who hired 

 Captain Hentsch for this purpose. The latter 

 was a man of insinuating address who was 

 received in army circles and endeavored to 

 support his family by military journalism. 

 Hentsch compiled papers on various military 

 subjects, which were transmitted to Paris under 

 the pretense that they were intended for pub- 

 lication in a military journal. When Hentsch 's 

 sources of information were closed, about 1881, 

 Adler removed to Vienna, where he offered to 

 supply the Russian Government with march- 

 ing routes of the German army corps to the 

 frontier, and received an offer of 7,000 marks, 

 about the sum that Kraszewski had paid him 

 altogether. General Feldmann, the Czar's 

 military representative, paid him various small 

 sums, but complained that his information was 

 not reliable. He also black-mailed Kraszewski, 

 and because the latter would give him no more 

 money carried out his threats and betrayed his 

 accomplices to the German ambassador in 

 Vienna. The reports furnished by Hentsch 

 embraced the method of transporting troops 

 to the western frontier by road and rail, the 

 plans of the fortifications of Metz, the principle 

 of a new repeating rifle, the method of ob- 

 taining reserve mounts, the system of field 

 railways and telegraphs, etc. Captain Hentsch 

 and Kraszewski were both found guilty and 

 sentenced, the former to nine years' imprison- 

 ment at hard labor and the latter to three 

 years and a half confinement in a fortress. 



Alsace-Lorraine. The new regulations con- 

 cerning optional nationality anLthe military 

 service, which gave offense to the Danes of 

 Schleswig-Holstein, were preliminary to the 

 introduction of similar measures in the impe- 

 rial province. Marshal Manteuffel, the Stadt- 

 holder of Alsace-Lorraine, issued, September 

 1st, a rescript affecting the young men of the 

 Reichsland who claim foreign nationality. 

 Frenchmen by origin or by option having sons 

 are required to naturalize themselves or their 



sons when the latter have reached the age of 

 military service. In case of refusal the young 

 men will be expelled and will only be per- 

 mitted to visit their relatives for three weeks 

 in the year. Young men recognized as for- 

 eigners by the option committee must become 

 naturalized and report for military service, on 

 pain of expulsion. If a father or his son be 

 not considered a proper subject for naturaliza- 

 tion, the son will be expelled. Young men 

 who have gone abroad with emigration certifi- 

 cates, that is, the sons of wealthy families edu- 

 cated in Paris, must serve their time in the 

 army unless they can prove that they have 

 received a new nationality, in which case they 

 will be banished like the others. There are 

 4,500 families residing in the province, contain- 

 ing 14,900 persons who are recognized as for- 

 eigners. These, the rescript says, might in- 

 crease until they formed a considerable French 

 colony, to the detriment of the German army. 

 A class more obnoxious to the Germans than 

 those with which the rescript deals is that of 

 the rich Alsatian mill-owners who have taken 

 up their residence just across the border in 

 Switzerland, giving the Swiss cities the benefit 

 of their profuse expenditures. The new build- 

 ings of the university at Strasburg, which is 

 lavishly supported in the hope of cementing 

 Alsace-Lorraine to Germany, were opened with 

 pomp and ceremony on the 27th of October. 



The Lasker Incident. In the beginning of Feb- 

 ruary Minister Sargent handed to Count Hatz- 

 feld the resolutions of condolence passed by 

 the House of Representatives at Washington, 

 after the sudden death in New York of 

 Prince Bismarck's great antagonist in the 

 Reichstag, Eduard Lasker. Instead of deliv- 

 ering these resolutions to the President of 

 the Reichstag, Bismarck sent them back to 

 Washington, and instructed Minister von Eisen- 

 decher to return them to the House of Repre- 

 sentatives, with the explanation that they con- 

 tained an expression of opinion which was at 

 variance with his own, regarding Laskers 

 services in the cause of political progress in 

 Germany, and that he could not ask the Em- 

 peror to signify approval of his communicating 

 to the Reichstag an expression of opinion con- 

 cerning the internal affairs of the empire which 

 assigned the deceased deputy a higher position 

 than he occupied, and which implied that the 

 progress of the German Empire was in the 

 direction of political liberty. When attacked 

 in the Reichstag on account of this unusual 

 proceeding, the Chancellor said that the Amer- 

 ican minister could have conveyed the address 

 directly to the President of the Reichstag in- 

 stead of through the Foreign Office, that his du- 

 ties as the highest officer of the realm should 

 not be confounded with those of a letter-car- 

 rier, and that the Chancellor of the German 

 Empire could not be expected to allow himself 

 to be yoked to the triumphal car of the opposi- 

 tion. 



The Brunswick Succession. The death in Octo- 



