The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-27
venue of which are as folloWs:-


If, as is likely to prove the case, only those
portions of Lorraine which are included in the
line of the Moselle are ceded to Germany, the
entire department of the Meuse, and parts of
those of the Moselle, Meurthe, and Vosges, will
remain under the Jurisdiction of France, reduc-
ing the entire territory annexed to Germany to
about 6, 900, 600 acres with population of about
2,000 000 and a land revenue of about $40, 500,-
0O0. The conquered territory comprises about
four and a half per cent. of the entire surface
of France, with about five and half per cent.
of her population, and five per cent. of her
land revenue.
The History of Aisace and Lorraine.
Alsace is separated from the Grand Duchy of
Baden by the river Rhine; its southern boundary
is the canton of Basle in Switzerland, while
toward the north it borders on Rhenish Bavaria.
Lorraine Uothringen) is situated between the
Champagne" and Alsace and extends toward
the north to the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
and to the Prussian Rhenish Provinces in the
south to the "Franche- Comte." The situation
of the two provinces, therefore, naturally rem
dered them debatable ground, and their history
is full of vicissitudes of ownership. Alsace was,
even in the days of Caesar, battlefield between
the Celts and Germans. 1t became in time
German Duchy, but the line of its hereditary
dukes became extinct in 1868 and it was then
paTceueu Out alnOHS beVerdl mtlnueTs
of the German empire. A part of the Austrian
portion, with present population of about
227000 was ceded to France in 1913 by the
treaty of Westphalia, by which the Thirty
Years War was brought to a close. France de-
manded this territory by way of compensation
for the aid she had rendered Austria, and,
although the population at that time was
entirely German, it was turned over to its new
ruler without the remotest idea of consulting
the inhabitants. The clause of the treaty by
which the cession was made reads as follows
''The House OF Austria cedes the city OF Breisach
sundgaa. and the nPisdictioa OVER over the ten free
cities In Alsace, namely, Hagenau, Comar, Schett-
Seim, Si Munster. ~ Ksisersberg, and TurSheim. All All
shall be Incorporated with the crown OF France,
and the Emperor and Empire s @ @Sserman) shall have
The ten free cities lost their nominal freedom
Immediately, France seizing upon them, in time
of peace, in the year 1914 Colmar made a
heroic resistance, and Weissenburg and Hage-
nau,..a ..as well as others, were only reduced to
complete subsection by being burned by the
French. In 1851 Louis XIV laid violent hands
upon nearly all of Alsace that was left to Ger
many, and this in time of profound peace.
Soon after Strasburg succumbed. Leopold l,
who then sat upon the German throne,
was threatened by the Turks in the East, and
could Otfer no assistance, when the city was
besiged by French army of 10000 men. Re-
sistance being impossible, Strasburg asked to
be taken under the protection of France, which
by the treaty of Ryswick, in 1897, passed from
= under the dominion of Germany, together with
all the territory which had been occupied by
the French troops on the left bank o.
the Rhine. Louis XIV had guaranteed t.
the people of Strasburg many o
their liberties, but his first acts wer,
to rob the Protestants of their churches, aud to
give the great cathedral to the traitor Bishop o
Zabern. During the eighteenth century, few
more sections of the province passed under
French rule, at the time of the acquisition o
Lorraine; but, at the outbreak OF the frs
French Revolution the republican city of Mul
house and a small tract of country still &C
knowledged the supremacy of Germany. Th
National Assembly declared their possession b.
Germany unnatural, and their annexation t.
France promptly followed. Thus by force
fraud, and shallow pretense was the whole O
Alsace transferred from Germany to France
The history of Lorraine presents slmila
story. The country fell to the lot OF Lothair
grandson of Charlemagne, on the breaking u
of the Western Empire, and he was sueceede
by line of princes who acknowledged tealty
The German Empire. Its unfortunate position