... ་ grand example, that she ought to begin a new era in which cessions of territory shall no longer be heard of. We are told that we must not nowadays have another Vienna Congress, in which "souls" shall be handed about from master to master without any regard to the wishes of the souls themselves. We are further told that the annexation of these provinces would be no gain to Germany, but rather a loss; that, as it is not just, so neither is it profitable, to reign over unwilling subjects; that by exacting a cession of territory a wound would be inflicted on France which would rankle in the national breast till some form of vengeance has been taken; that, in short, Germany, by demanding the cession of these provinces as a condition of peace, would in fact be sowing the dragon's teeth for another war. whose opinion is worth having attaches the least importance to what Mr. Russell does or does not say. It is a pity that Count Bismark does. As the matter stands, and as of course Mr. Russell will have his say, the Count seems to have done what the schoolboy in his verses thought impolitic, parvas volucres bombardâ cædere magnâ. What will be the end of it we cannot conjecture. Either Mr. Russell will eat humble pie, or, if he contradicts Count Bismark, Count Bismark will follow up his telegram. He can hardly tolerate at head-quarters the author or disseminator of "mere invention." And should Mr. Russell's place know him no more, and should he be forced to abandon Ferrières as he was obliged to fly America, the world will come to an end, and the Times will probably go in for France once more. From The Saturday Review. THE GERMAN VIEW OF ALSACE AND LORRAINE. to put ourselves into the position of an ordinary well-informed German, and to see how the question is likely to appear to him. Now we should suppose that no thoughtful German or partizan of Germany would deny that in some of these arguments there is no lack of strength or appearance of strength. Whether we believe all the stories of conversations with Count Bismark or not, we may be sure that the last at any rate of these arguments has been WE are not going to try to foretell what and will be carefully weighed by German will be the issue of the present war with statesmen before the final decision is come regard to those border provinces which to. That will be done which to certain Germany at this moment seems to have very clear heads may seem to be most made up her mind to hold, and which likely to lead to the lasting profit of GerFrance at least professes to have no less many. Meanwhile it may be well to try fully made up her mind not to give up. Neither are we going to say what, on any abstract principle, ought to be the issue, because nothing is more unlikely than that the strife should be ended by either side First of all, it is as well to remember submitting to an abstract principle of any that Germans do not, like ourselves, live in kind. But it is just as well that people an island. The fact of our living in an should fully understand that side of the island makes it somewhat hard for us case which, with regard at least to the thoroughly to understand the case of Conquestion of territorial cession, seems just tinential nations with regard to the purely now to be the less popular. Many people, artificial barriers which often separate even people who have on the whole taken them. Because Great Britain is something the German side, are beginning to cry out with a real physical being, with boundaries at the German claim on the lands which, which cannot be changed except by the act changed by French lips into Alsace and of God, we are apt, often quite unwitLorraine, still keep on German lips their tingly -to look on France or Germany, older names of Elsass and Lothringen. or any other Continental country, as someThe claim is spoken of as if it were some- thing which is equally unchangeable in the thing strange and monstrous, something nature of things, and whose boundaries it of which the like had never been heard is as unnatural to enlarge or to contract as before. Other people know better than it would be to enlarge or to contract the this; they know that, if Germany seizes boundaries of Great Britain. Secondly, Elsass and Lothringen, or a slice of French we should remember that Germans, as a territory much greater than Elsass and Lothringen, Germany will simply be doing what all conquering States have done since wars began among men. But they argue that Germany ought now to set a rule, understand the past history both of their own and of other countries very much better than either Frenchmen or Englishmen do. There are a great number of points which have no small bearing on the present case, about which an Eng- being a holy and unchangeable thing which lishman generally knows nothing at all, has existed, or ought to have existed, from about which a Frenchman is positively fed all eternity. It is simply that extent of upon falsehood, but which every well-ed- territory which the Dukes, Kings, Comucated German understands thoroughly. monwealths, and Tyrants of Paris have, in The Frenchman certainly believes that one age or another, contrived to win and there is some special sanctity about his keep. If he chooses to speak of France as own country and nation which gives it a revolted province of Germany, he will privileges above all other countries and not be speaking without authority. "A nations. It is in the eternal fitness of regno secessit Gallia nostro" is a very things that the French frontier should al- old saying indeed. If he is uncivil enough ways go forward and never go back; that to speak of a large part of existing France France should dismember other countries as made up of the stealings of the last six at pleasure, but that she should never be hundred years, he will be saying what the dismembered herself; that on every acces- historian cannot take upon himself to deny. sion of power by a neighbour she must in Instead of allowing that France has any common justice receive a compensating natural and eternal boundaries, he knows increase of territory, but that it is some- that the boundaries of France are of all thing wicked and preposterous for even a boundaries the most fluctuating. He conqueror encamped on French soil to knows that there was a time when Strasthink of keeping any portion of his con- burg and Metz, when Lyons and Marseilles, quests. It seems to him perfectly right were not yet French. He knows that that France should, even without provo- there was a time when Hamburg and Lücation, invade other countries and besiege beck, when Rome and Triest, were French, their capitals, but that a foreign army so far as French occupation could make should, even in strict self-defence, invade them so. He is tempted to think that, as France and besiege her capital, seems to French occupation has ceased in the one him not merely the adverse fortune of war, case, there may perhaps be no eternal law but something monstrous, unnatural, and forbidding French occupation to cease in sacrilegious. The Frenchman keeps on the other. He sees that all the acquisitions saying all this till he believes it himself, of France have been made at the expense and till the Englishman half believes it of the Empire of which Germany was once also. The Englishman of himself uncon- the head, that a large portion of them has sciously fancies France to be, not an arbi- been made at the expense of the German trary space on the map, but something as Kingdom itself. When this war began, he eternally traced by the hand of nature as saw within the French territory towns and his own island. He is fully prepared to districts which once were part of Germany, think it something contrary to nature for which still bear German names, and whose the France of the map, like the Great inhabitants still speak the German tongue. Britain of the map, to grow smaller. He saw one noble German city, the site of And when he has been duly lectured by the great master-pieces of German art, the Frenchman on natural boundaries, he held by France by virtue of an impudent half believes that the occupation of the robbery committed by a French King in a west side of the Rhine by some Power time of perfect peace. He saw mile after other than France is something analo- mile of the shore of the German stream gous to the occupation of the west side turned into a French province and of the German Ocean by some Power strengthened with fortresses directed as a other than England. Furthermore he menace against Germany. He knows, gets a confused idea that a compact and moreover, that other German lands, that united France is something which has ex- the whole length of the German river, had isted from all eternity, while a compact been marked out as the next spoil, and and united Germany is a dream of yester- that in this very war he is simply beating day, which perhaps first came into men's back those who would have seized them. heads at Frankfort in 1848. Altogether He sees, in short, in France simply a conhe gets, wittingly or unwittingly, a kind of vague impression that the annexation of French territory by Germany is a process of a much more dreadful kind than the annexation of German territory by France. Now the German has a different tale to tell. In his eyes France is very far from stant, restless, insatiable aggressor on every German land. At last the tables are turned. Instead of the Frenchman being encamped on German soil, the German is encamped on French soil. What then are likely to be his feelings? It would not be very amazing if he gave way to feelings of pure vengeance, if he deemed Strasburg the more enlightened feeling in Germany demands all that, like Strasburg, is still German, and rejects anything that is not. That a large body of German opinion carefully insists on this distinotion at least shows that the conclusion which it supports, whether sound or unsound in itself, is a conclusion based on argument and reflection, and is not the mere instinct of insatiable conquerors. The obvious answers which a neutral may be expected to make to any form of the claim have been already hinted at. They chiefly amount to this. The people that the time was at last come when he might do by his enemy as his enemy had so often done by him. Such feelings might be unchristian, unjust, impolitic, but they would certainly not be unnatural. If the conqueror were to dismember the conquered land according to no law but his own pleasure, he would be simply doing after the manner of conquerors. To declare Rouen and Bordeaux to be incorporated with Germany would not be more violent, more contrary to nature, than it was to declare Hamburg and Lübeck to be incorporated with France. It is worth bearing in mind that the furthest extrem- of the districts proposed to be annexed do ity of vengeance on conquered France would be simple retaliation, would be simply what conquerors have done over and over again upon incomparably slighter provocation. It might be easy to argue that in dealing with a State which has spent a life of aggression for the last six hundred years, the only way to hinder future aggressions is to crush it once and forever. Is there anything wonderful or blamable if German statesmen demand such a cession of fortresses, such a rectification of frontier, as may defend Germany at least for a while from the attacks of her restless neighbour? Is anything wonderful or blamable if German popular feeling goes a step further, and, taking a more purely historical and sentimental view, demands that a Power whose eyes are so ceaselessly set upon German lands shall be made to give up every inch of German land which it has still within its grasp? not desire annexation. Even where they are German in speech and origin, they have long become French in feeling, and altogether abhor the notion of separation from France. Their annexation would therefore be in itself unjust. And it would also be impolitic. No strength can be gained by the acquisition of unwilling subjects, and France would be so embittered by the dismemberment that she would never cease from efforts to regain the lost provinces, and a succession of wars would be the probable result. To arguments of this kind the German would probably answer that the rights of the people to choose their own government, and not to be transferred from one government to another against their will, though a good general rule, cannot be held, and is not held, to apply in all cases. He might possibly ask whether all of those who use this argument against him would be willing to trust the connexion between Great And here it will be as well to notice Britain and Ireland to a universal ballot how strictly the views of liberal and well- of Irishmen. He might go on to ask informed Germans, as distinguished from whether some of his opponents did not the possible views of either statesmen or deny the right of the Confederate States soldiers, confine themselves to the districts of America to choose their government which are still German in speech. The for themselves. If the safety of Germany Kölnische Zeitung, for instance, takes infi--he would perhaps add of Europe - calls nite pains to make its leaders distinguish be- for the cession of the whole or any part of tween Deutschlothringen and Wälschlothring- Elsass or Lothringen, he would argue that en, between that part - - much the smaller the wishes of the inhabitants cannot be part-of the Duchy which still keeps to allowed to stand in the way of the safety its German speech, and that part which of Germany. These arguments, these has become thoroughly French in speech retorts, may be sound or may be unsound; as well as in allegiance. Elsass and but they are so obvious that they are sure Deutschlothringen must be kept; but the to be made. The German might go on to notion of keeping Wälschlothringen is cast argue that the unwillingness of the people aside with a sort of horror. Statesmen of these provinces would not be very longand soldiers may settle as they will about lived; that, if they turned easily from the fortress of Metz; but Germany, as Germans into Frenchmen, they would Germany, simply claims so much territory still more easily be turned back from as still remains German, and not an inch Frenchmen into Germans, and that the beyond. Strasburg is won, and he must next generation would be good Germans be a sanguine Frenchman indeed who born. He might also perhaps argue that hopes to get it back again. And with the times are now very different from the times when France annexed them. It | the dismemberment would not be perceptimight well be that the district which in ble. Moreover one alleged object of the the seventeenth century was transferred dismemberment is, by giving Germany a from the rule of some petty German prince stronger frontier to do something to secure to that of the great French monarchy may her against the effects of the bitterness very well have immediately gained by the which the present war cannot fail to leave change, but that for the same district to behind it in any case. Such arguments as be transferred back again, not to the rule these may not convince neutrals, they cerof any petty German prince, but to form tainly will not convince Frenchmen; but part of the great German nation, with its it is as well to bear in mind that Germany mighty future before it, was a gain yet has arguments on her side, arguments alike more incontestable. As to the alleged historical, sentimental, and politic. And bitterness which the dismemberment would it implies no approval of annexation to leave behind in France, he would answer bear in mind, what is beginning to be forthat France, as it is, will be so em-gotten, that the most that Germany threatbittered by mere want of success, by the ens to do in her war of defence has at anycrushing of her schemes of aggrandize- rate more to be said for it than the least ment and by the invasion of her territory, of what France threatened to do in her that the increase of bitterness caused by war of aggression. MANY thousands of workers will rise this morning to pursue their work; many thousands of critics (their natural enemies as the workers would say) will rise to pursue their work. Without undervaluing criticism, we may admit that a great deal of needless pain is caused by it; and that, as a general rule, we all sympathize more with the doers than the critics. The object of this short essay is to aid the criticized in bearing criticism. The first thing is not to pretend not to care for hostile criticism. That form of insincerity never helped any man. One of the best conforts in the case of hostile criticism is to remember the proverb, "Many men, many minds." Any man who has done anything which provokes much comment, will tell you that it is astonishing how diverse are the opinions of persons whom you would admit to be equally qualified for criticizing. That which pleases one, disgusts another; and vice versa. This diversity of opinion in mankind might alone suffice to comfort those who furnish matter for the criticism in the world. culates the gain or loss by double entry. There were such and such prosperous winds in favour of the good ship Mary-Anne, and there were such and such adverse winds against the good ship. She came into a port where there were no British goods, or she came into a port which was overstocked with them. In a word, separate the venture from yourself, and consider it a distinct transaction. Vain and retrospective persons suffer most from hostile criticism. Go on working. What you have done what has been said about it— soon moves into the region of the past, and it moves much more quickly for you, when you give your mind to attempting something new. As a general rule, never reply to hostile criticism; do not waste your fire by returning the shot aimed at you from behind a stone-wall. This, of course, applies only to anonymous criticism, which is now the principal public criticism in the world. We must beware, however, of confining our views of criticism to that branch of it which deals with politics, literature, or art. DomesBut, unfortunately, the worst part of criti-tic criticism is perhaps the most common form cism is misrepresentation. No man can pre- of criticism, and not the least difficult to bear. tend to be quite indifferent to that. You, the But the general rules given above are not inapperson criticized, are made out to have said this, plicable in this case. And this additional rule thought that, done the other thing; and, in re- may be given-namely, that the person critiality, you did not say this, think that, or do the cized, who is most probably the active and deother thing. This is undoubtedly a great griev-cisive person, should reflect that there is little ance. But look at the whole matter as a question of forces. So much force is lost by this misrepresentation; but do not take the matter to heart, as if misrepresentation were a circumstance that belonged to you alone. It besets all human effort. else left for the other persons but to criticize; and he or she would not like their minds to be inert. It is only slaves who do not venture to criticize. Every ruler, whether of a family or of a kingdom, must admit that his actions and his decisions would hardly be of interest to himself if they would not endure, and ultimately triumph over, the criticisms of those whom he Arthur Helps. 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