XX INTRODUCTION 



as it does on the durationof the Government for the time beingan France. . . . 

 Any day there may possibly arise a French Government whose whole policy 

 aims at living from the feu sacri, which is now so carefully cherished under the 

 ashes. ... 



"We are at present in possession of the object in dispute, if I may so' term 

 Alsace, We have no reason to fight about it; but that France is not striving 

 for its re-conq^uest can be maintained by no one who at all troubles himself about 

 the French press. Has there ever been a French Ministry which has dared 

 publicly and unreservedly to say, ' We abandon the re-conquest of Alsace- 

 Lorraine ; we will not go to war about it. We accept the situation of the 

 Frankfojt Peace, just as we accepted that of the Paris Peace of 1815, and we do 

 not intend to go to war on account of Alsace ? ' Has there been in France a 

 Ministry which dared to say that ? No ; and why not ? There is usually no 

 lack of courage on the part of the French. There has been no Ministry, 

 because the public opinion of France is against such a declaration, because it is 

 like a boiler filled with steam up to the explosion point, when an unskilled 

 movement might serve to blow the valve into the air, — in other words, to bring 

 about war." 



This fear, entertained by Germany of an attack by France, proves 

 the force of the words of Emmanuel Kant, " That every war, however 

 satisfactory the peace, always leaves behind, it. the germ of a future 

 and coming quarrel." 



" For what does war, but endless wars produce ? " 



We are told by Prince von Bismarck, in the above great speech, 

 of January nth, 1887, that he_ was opposed, in 1871, to the 

 annexation of Alsace and Lorraine, and these are his words : — 



" I must honestly say that, in 1871, I was for the linguistic frontier, and against, 

 the taking of Metz, but I was overruled by the military authorities, who argued 

 that, in the next war, this fortress would be equal to 100,000 men, and I then 

 gave in." 



" Gave in " ! What a humiliating acknowledgment by the most 

 powerful, and, at that time, the most sagacious statesman in Europe ! 

 The voice of diplomacy, he candidly admits, was drowned in the 

 boom of the cannon. Fatal and deplorable surrender of political 

 sagacity to the exigencies of a military despotism ! Well might the 

 late Emperor Frederick, when Crown Prince of Prussia, declare, 

 as it is affirmed upon unimpeachable authority, he did : "Annexa- 

 tion of territory from France by Germany means 100 years of war 

 for Europe." 



And what' is the result ? Germany now finds herself surrounded 

 by the vast armed hosts of Russia and France-^-s, 000,000 — at the 



