The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-08-02
CENTENARY OF THE TREATY
 ENDING NAPoLEoNIC WARs

May the pens of the diplomats not undo what we have won with the sword"
 Thus. spoke Butcher in h1s famous toast at Wellingtons great banquet to celebrate the downfall Of Napoleon and the surrender of Paris. The stern Prussian soldier need not have wor- ried, for the diplomats of the conquer ing nations were not inclined to let France off easily They soon assem- bled in the captured capital, and there for several months the statesmen of Prussia, Austria, Russia and Great Britain discussed the fate of France.
 Today is the centenary e the first of the two treaties of Paris signed by the representatives of the allies in ds15. On the second of August treaty was signed styling Napoleon the prisoner of the four powers and con fdfng his safeguard to England, which maker to St. Helena.
 The negotiations concerning the various details Of peace dragged on for months. Butchers levy of a hun dred million francs from Paris arouns- ed much anim osity among the French. All the loot gathered by Napoleon in his years of triumph had to be restor- edr The bronze horses of St. Mark were sent back to Venice. and the books and precious manuscripts of Heidelberg and other German univer- sites were returned to their rightful place. Most of the pillaged art treas ures were lost to France, but the sword of Frederick the Great was hidden.
 Prussia demanded the line of border fortresses in Alsace-Lorraine, but Vel Ington and the Car of Russia oppos- ed this claim, and the coveted prov inces did not pass to Prussia until af- ter the war of 1870 While the Bour- bons reigned in France, and speedily proved that they had t1earned nothing and forgotten nothing,'' the armies of the victorious powers remained on French soil as a security for the pay ment of a new war indemnity of l. 900. 100000 francs.
 After long and heated discussions, the diplomats finally agreed on a sec in November, 1915, and which estab- Iished the boundaries of France. By the terms of this treaty the war fn- fSdemnity imposed on France was re- duced to 7O0,00 900 francs,t and, until the sum was paid, the Germans and English were to retain a number of border fortresses. The French from tiers were restored to the old limits of 17eo, and five of the forts on the east ern border were surrendered to the German States. The old fort of Hun ingen in French Flanders was de- stroyed. Frances possessions in Sa- voy were turned over to Sardinia. All that TaIleyrand had saved out of the wreckage at the Congress of Vienna in the previous year was lost to France. In addition to the big in- demnity, France had to pay special claims amounting to more than half as much more. Of it's island posses sions, France lost the Seychelles, the He de France, Santa Lucia and Toba- go. England left France her posts in India, but deprived her of the right of fortifying them.
 Great as were the French losses by these treaties, she might have fared much worse except for the jealousies of the allied powers. Prussia's s deter imitation to take A1sace and Lorraine was foi1ed by England and Russia, al- though in Alsace Strasburg was un- covered by the loss of Landau. British magnaninnity and Emperor Alexan- ders' friendship for France saved her from even greater disasters. for France was utterly defenceless and wholly in the power of her invaders.