The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-27


into duchy under the rule of
Regnier, the hero of the celebrated satire of
'Reynsrd the Fox" Subsequently about half
of the province was torn away from France by
Germany, and placed under the sway of dukes
who were nominated by the German Emperor.
Eighty years afterwards the German Emperor
Henry III again succeeded in uniting the whole
province in one duchy, which was bestowed
upon Albert of Alsace. The line of princes
founded by him lasted seven centu-
ries producing during that period
some of the most gallant rulers who figured in
the stirring events of the Middle Ages. Simeon,
the fourth of the line, after reigning twenty-five
years, retired into a monastery. His nephew
Frederick, who succeeded him, was celebrated
as one of the most accomplished men of his
time, but pershed miserably by poison at the
hands of favorite mistress. His brother, Mat
thew II, lives in history as a monster of cruelty.
One of his exploits was the skinning alive of
the governor of some small town. who was ac-
cused of maladministration. Raoul, his sue
cessor, was killed at the battle of Cressy, aud
John, who followed, left his kingdom in order
to follow the fortunes of his godfather and
namesake, the King of France. He was cap
tured by the Black Prince at the battle of Poic-
tiers, and shared the captivity of the French
monarch. While he was away his dukedom was
the prey of internal troubles, the unscrupulous
oppression of the mobiles having provoked the
peasantry into insurrection. This rebellion
was for time successful, and the horrors of
the Revolution of 1792, were enacted on
smaller scale, much of the best blood in the
duchy being poured out by the infuriated
Jacquerie. Next came the war of the disputed
succession, which forms so prominent a feature
in Walter Scott's novel, 'Anne of Geierstein.
Charles of Burgundy claimed the duchy for his
vassal, the Comte de Vermandois, but was de-
feated near Nancy by the rightful heir, Duke
Rene H. and died in marsh Just outside the
city. Rene acted with the greatest magnanimity,
refusing to confscate the lands of such of the
nobility of Lorraine as had supported the pre-
tensions of Charles, and only taking a crystal
vase out of all the rich spoils of the Burgundian
camp. In this vase, on the evening of the
funeral of Charles, be drank to.the "oblivion of
vengeance" Upon his death his wife took the
veil, and the ceremony of her initiation presents
one of the most striking pictures
| in medieval history. This house
| reigned over the destinies of Lorraine
| until 1916, when Francis Stephen exchanged his
| hereditary duchy for that of Tuscany, in order
| to be able to marry Maria Theresa, the Empress
| of Austria. The province was then conferred
upon Stanislaus, King of Poland, the father-in-
law of Louis XIV of France, who made his resi-
dence until 1766 in Nanzig (Nancy) and Luen-
stadt (Luneville) He was one of the most
singular men of his times, by turns reckless
debauchee and a superstitious devotee, more
interested in kitchen affairs and poor attempts
at rhymipg than in the concerns of State. One
day, as he was STOPPING down to light his pipe,
his dressing gown caught fire, and he was
| burned TO death. Lorraine then passed under
| the dominion of France, but not without re-
peated and serious manifestations of discomfort
on the part of the population.
| Under French Rule.
Thus a century has passed away since the
whole of Alsace and Lorraine has been under
the sway of France. At the end of the great
wars which resulted in the downfall of the first
| Napoleon, there was an earnest desire on the
part of Germany to recover possession of her
lost provinces but Russia and Austria interfered
in behalf of France, and only Landau and few
other unimportant places were restored to Ger
many by the treaty of 1915.
French customs and the French language
gradually made inroads upon the customs and
language of Germany, practically supplanting
the latter in the western portions of Lorraine,
but never obtaining more than an equality in
the remainder of the provinces. Until the Revo-
luton of 1889 but little effort had been made to
substitute the use of the French for that of the
German language. The present idea of COM
pact nationalities, co-extensive with the bounda-
ries of the several countries, was then almost
unknown. Germans remained unmolested in the
use of their language as the French subjects OF
several German princes in Alsace and Lor-
raine had always enjoyed full liberty in using
their idiom. But from the time of the Revo
luton the French Government has been inces
SAINT in its efforts to make the German popula
ton of Alsace and Lorraine homogeneous
element of the French Empire, and by the
gradual Introduction of the French Language
into churches, schools courts and all othe
public relations, to extirpate the last remnants
of the German nationality OF the Inhabitants
The results of these efforts have, thus far, no
been considerable. Even to this day, there are
large number of communities where French 1
unknown. The number of churches and school
in which German is still used exclusively i
very considerable, and in nearly the whole ter
Titory which since 164S has been torn from Ger
many, the German language is even to this da.
the predominant language. This territory 0
the German language embraced, in 1861, il
/ Alsace a population OF l,OO74T inhabitant
out of a total population of l,093,37t
and in three departments of Lorrain
, CMoselle, Meurthe, and Vosges) Germa
( population of 351 ,6S1 in a total population @
3 ], $50, 5s5. Thus France had in its easter
provinces German-speaking districts with
( population of ], $50 1853. Besides these Germans
' France had IN the two departments OF Pas
r Calais and Nord population speaking Flemish
I the dialect of Belgian Germans, numberin
t together 34l ,9l7 inhabitants, who added to tn
= above number give aggregate German popu
: lation of ,70l, 175. OF these about 2000 900 ar
6 supposed to have more or less lost their nation