ing sentence, which is
really worthy of meditation: "_We find just that the King of France,
as promptly as possible, takes possession of the towns of Toul, Metz,
and Verdun, where the German language has never been used._" So that
the Germans themselves put on the same line the towns of Metz, Toul,
and Verdun, and recognized that the town of Metz was not German.

All this is extremely simple and clear. What happened several
centuries later is equally clear.

When, in 1871, on February 16th, the deputies of Alsace-Lorraine
learned that their provinces would be given up to Germany, they
assembled, and in an historical document which was signed by all of
them--there were thirty-six--they protested in the following terms:

Alsace and Lorraine cannot be alienated. Today, before the
whole world, they proclaim that they want to remain French.
Europe cannot allow or ratify the annexation of Alsace and
Lorraine. Europe cannot allow a people to be seized like a
flock of sheep. Europe cannot remain deaf to the protest of
a whole population. Therefore, we declare in the name of our
population, in the name of our children and of our
descendants, that we are considering any treaty which gives
us up to a foreign power as a treaty null and void, and we
will eternally revindicate the right of disposing of
ourselves and of remaining French.

And, three years later, in January, 1874, when for the first time
Alsace and Lorraine had to elect deputies, they reiterated the same
protest. They elected fifteen new deputies; some were Protestants,
some were Catholics, one of them was the Bishop of Strasbourg, but
they unanimously signed a declaration which was read at the Tribune of
the German Reichstag. The declaration was the following:

In the name of all the people of Alsace-Lorraine, we protest
against the abuse of force of which our country is a
victim.... Citizens having a soul and an intelligence are
not mere goods that may be sold, or with which you may
trade.

The contract which annexed us to Germany is null and void. A
contract is only valid when the two contractants had an
entire freedom to sign it. France was not free when she
signed such a contract. Therefore our electors want us to
say that we consider ourselves as not bound by such a
treaty, and they want us to affirm once more our right of
disposing of ourse