Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-07-24
THE RHINE.
Historical Facts Concerning tho
boundary Between France and

|
boundary Hetween France and
Germany -afs
Il From the New York Times
1 Startling as it may appear, the histori
cal fact of Rhine frontier is ] 400 years
old. 1t came in with the Franks when
they overran the Roman province of Gaul
In the fifth century. it was established
by Clovis, the first of Frankish Kings /;
it was restored and then overleapt by
Charlemagne, the f Emperor of the
west" three centuries later; the great
Philip Augustus made, in the beginning
OF the thirteenth century, forty years
reign glorious by ruling over territory
that extended from the Rhine to the Pyr-
enees. Louis, the Saint, retained the
hhlne boundary, and added Provence and
Languedoc, while Louis Quatorze, g the
great monarch" par excellence, con-
vulsed Europe at the end of the seven
teenth century, by his efforts to regain
the provinces on the left bank of the
Rhine, which had been wrested from his
predecessors. Napoleon only fulfilled
national aspiration when he made Elan
ders, Luxembourg, and other territories
between the Rhine and the sea, an inte-i
gral portion of the First Empire, and
Napoleon III is perfectly aware that he
would cover his name with imperishable
glory by making the Rhine, the Pyrenees,
the Alps and the ocean, the bounda-
ries of modern France. 10
1t needs but superficial glance at the
map to perceive that there is a species of
territorial fitness in this much coveted
Rhine frontier. Beginning at the Medi-
terranean, France is separated from Italy
by the Var and the Alps; from Switzerland
by the Rhone and the mountains of Jura,
and finally, from the Grand Duchy of Ba-
den by the Rhine. Just at the angle which
the Lauter forms by falling into the Rhine,
the natural boundary ceases, and an imag-
mary line commences, which runs to the
North Sea. Taking this line as the base
OF triangle, and the further course of
the Rhine and the sea coast as the two
sides, we have a territory, one-half of |
which is occupied by the Kingdom of |
Belgium, and the other by Rhenish Ba-
varia, Rhenish Hesse, Rhenish Prussia.
and small slice of Holland, compre- |
hending superficial area which NAV be
roughly stated at "a, 600 square miles, &C.
cupled by population which probably
numbers 5000, 900. In language, not |
over 8, 900, 900 of these speak French, the |
remainder using their Flemish, Dutch or i
German, with an occasional mixture of |
pdtOiS, compounded out of some two of |
these four languages. So far as national
go, the German population and
The Flemish sections of Belgium have an
intense aversion to France, while the
avowed partisans of an extension of the
Empire only exist in some of the large
cities of Belgium, and even there have
but little power of influence.
Any obvious determination on the part
Of France to make comprehensive an
1exation of the left bank of the Rhine
would probably be signal for contest
rom which scarcely any of the Great
Powers of Europe could stand aloof. The
of Belgium is guaranteed by
Russia, Prussia, Austria and England, as
veil as by France. On the partition of
europe in 1915, it was given to the King
# Holland, and after the successful revo-
ution in 1880, the same powers that had
to the treaty of Vienna con-
uded fresh agreement in London,
which made the maintenance of the newly
reated kingdom, shortly after accepted
y Leopold, of Saxe-COburg, question
which each and all of them would be |
bliged to support by force of arms. The
russian possession on the left bank of |
be Rhine may probably become the i'm
Mediate theatre of war, and the develop
nent of French policy will, no doubt, be
mainly guided by the success or failure of
he early Onerations there