Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-05-08


These two provinces were originally a part of
Germany. A very large part of the people are
Germans, the really French portion of the in
habtants having come into Alsace and Lorraine
since they were annexed TO France. The Ger
man portion of the people are either very glad
to be restored to Germany, or not very sorry to
| dissolve their connection with France. Most of
| the French inhabitants regard the change with
regret; aud many of them will leave the prov
inces. The time will come, soon, when the OPP
ton of nationality must be declared. The Ger
man government will not force any of them to
become German citizens. They may choose for
themselves between France and Germany; but
if they choose France, they must, of course, 90
to that country. A letter from Franklort.on-
the-Main, which we find in the New York Trib-
une, gives the following account of these prov
inces under German rule:
"a German territory with hostile population
OF French citizens-that would be absurd and
difficult enough TO manage in time of peace
and III war worse thing than a folly-a per-
haps fatal uncovering of the country on its most
vulnerable frontier. The best that could be
done has been done; all may choose under which
tiag they will live All who will be Germans
will stay; all who will be Frenchman must 20
to France.
"The end is easy to foresee. Many are glad
to be Germans in name and affiliations, as they
| are in ancestry and in speech. Many will be
| neither glad nor sorry, but are of that
| type common in frontier regions-without very
| strongly marked national characteristics or sen
timent; material interests will decide these TO
declare for German nationality. Many will be-
come Germans, also, for the sake of their home
and local associations, quietly bearing their
grief at sundering national ties and relations
and glad only that they may live and die amid
old scenes, and that their children will grow up
with no such bitter choice to make. MANY
however, will, for love of France, give up their
homes, and follow the tricolor, and begin life
anew IN their old country, to be sure, but amid
new scenes and strangers. For such is the sad
paradOX-they will emigrate TO their native
land-they leave their home TO find their flag.
ut is hopeful indication as to the present
feeling and future conduct of the people OF these
provinces that well nigh all the anti German
utterances and agtations there are inspired not
by the natives, but by demagogues from France
proper. The much talked Of Ligne dAlSuce
and few similar organizations of course have
genuine Alsatian and Lorraine members, but
their promoters and managers are Frenchmen
OF whom their compatriots may well be ashamed,
and Tor whom even the France of the present
is far too quiet. The "head centre" of the Lime
dAtSdce was recently arrested, and will agtate
no more save in the "pent-up Utica" of fortress
walls. If report is true, the French government
should rejoice at his confinement. Meantime
the German administration of the provinces is
wise, firm, kind, honest, and, although there is
that left in French character and institutions
forwhich the world cannot afford to have France
denationalized in the least, only restored to its
better self, it is a pity that the whole country
could not be so governed for some years to
come. Schools of every grade and kind are en-
dowed and crowded; polytechnic institutes and
courses of lectures are opened; the university of
Strasbourg bids fair to repeat the history of that
of Berlin in its rapid rise to a prominent posi-
ton among even German universities, and has
opened its sessions with large and brilliant
faculty, with an unexpected ihrong of students,
and splendid library-thanks to the liberality
of German universities and publishers. The
latent, or at least undeyeloped, higher qualities
oil population that even Edgar Quinet recog-
nizes as substantially Teutonic are revealing
themselves admirably and Germany may well re-
joice over the recovery of these, her old-tme
provinces -