The morning news., 1899-02-07

! ity of Luxemburg was guaranteed by the
! powers, condition being made that its
| fortifications should be forthwith disman-
| tied. So vast was their extent however,
| and so well had they been builded and
| digged, that thirty years of demolition
| seems to have made a quite insignificant
! impression upon their proportions. But all
| round Luxemburg there is chain of nat
| ural fortihcations much more capable of
defense under modern conditions of war
than Vauban's elaborate works. The pro-
visions of the treaty of London, respected
in 1870, will hardly serve to secure Lux
umburg immunity from invasion in the
event of another conflict between France
and Germany. Both powers have long since
set their eyes upon little Luxemburg as the
key to the possession of the present from
tier whether for defense or invasion. The
Luxemburgeois know this, and have
watched apprehensively for the last decade
the close and more close approach of Prus.
sian and French gaTrisons TO their city
| The latter are a little further away than
the former; but, on the other hand, the
sympathies of the grand-duchy are French
rather than Prussion. In the seven weeks
war Luxembourg drew a tardy and impo-
tent sword for Austria, and escaped lightly
with her neutrality and the placing of her
self within the German zollverein. AL
though your inhabitant of the grand
duchy speaks a singular compound tongue
in which, perhaps, every other word is
German and the intermediate only French
while using a French verb and placing It,
according to the German plan at the end
of the sentence, his own patriotic senti-
ment is, I'VE will never be Prussans!'
Since 1915, and by confirmation under the
treaty of London, the King of the Neither
lands was sovereign of Luxemburg. Upon
his death an 1880, the operation of the Salic
law gave the crown TO the present HerZog,
Alphonse, now a potentate of ST. the soli-
tary voluntary absentee monarch of IIu-
rope, since he almost always resides in
Bavaria Many of the younger generation
of LuXembOurgeois have never set ewes
on him. But the Grand Duke Alphonse
has only one son, the hereditary Grand
Duke William, and, alasl the latter has
but a daughter. So the death of both
these princes will bring the house of Mas
sau to an end, and promises to make their
item of territory the bone of European
contention. France sees in its acquisition
at once partial compensation for the loss
of Alsaee-Lorraine and an advantageous
weapon for use in the recovery Of the
long lamented Rhineland. Prussia, too,
appreciates this most clearly. Holland
will probably advance a claim to sover-
eighty, while Belgium will doubtless claim
as she perfectly well might the little
grand duchy as geogra phically her own.
To the great Powers the strategic value
of the country, to the smaller it's forests,
orchards, and vineyards are the attractive
and the makings of a very pretty quarrel
lie in the extinction of the house of Mas
sau. The question is likely to be compli-
Gated by considerations of alliance since
by his first marriage with the Archduch-
ess Elizabeth Michaelevna, the reigning
Grand Duke allied himself with the Cars.
while his second wife was a princess of
Anhalt and the wife OF his son, the here
ditary grand duke, princess of Bragan-
"a, his daughter having married the fu-
ture Grand Duke of Baden. There are
still further complications which il is
needless to go into here, but which will
doubtless play a part in the conflict when
the time comes.
The real danger lies in the Prussian
passion for aggrandizement, not yet by
any means extinct, and in the very natu-
raj determination of France to oppose
Prussia's intention of carrying a non-neu-
tral frontier some distance further north
TO Longwy, and so effectually protecting
the only exposed flank of the fortress of
Metz