did we not
sympathise with the misfortunes of those who, like ourselves, were the
vanquished victims of tyranny! We, Frenchmen and Germans alike, were
defending the same principles, the same cause; we were fighting the
same good fight for the emancipation of ideas, for the levelling of
intellectual frontiers, etc., etc.

How well I remember the friendly _abandon_ of Louis Bamberger in our
midst! Truly these Prussian Liberals and ourselves held the same
opinions concerning everything, far or near, which bore upon
intellectual independence, upon progress and civilisation. And since
we were united by such a complete understanding, such identity of
ideas, it was our duty to work together: our German friends for the
triumph of liberalism in France, and we, for the triumph of liberalism
in Germany. As to such questions as those of territorial frontiers, or
the banks of the Rhine, Bamberger used to ask, "Who thinks of such
things in Germany? No one! They had other things to think about!"
The heart's desire of the sons of the German revolution of 1848-49 was
a universal republic, universal brotherhood, and nothing else. We
believed him, but for what an awakening! Hardly were the Germans in
France, than all the orders dictated by Bismarck were translated into
French by Louis Bamberger.

A book by Dr. Hans Blum, which has just been published in Berlin under
the title of "_The German Revolution of 1848-1849_," throws even more
light on the "brotherly" sentiments of German republicans. In this
book Dr. Blum recalls a speech made in the Palatinate on May 27, 1832.
This is what the orator said: "There can only be one opinion amongst
Germans, and only one voice, to proclaim that, on our side, we would
not accept liberty as the price of giving the left bank of the Rhine to
France. Should France show a desire to seize even an inch of German
territory, all internal dissensions would cease at once and all Germany
would rise to demand the retrocession of Alsace-Lorraine, for the
deliverance of our country."

That is how German Republicans thought, as far back as 1832. In
1868-69 they made us swallow once again ideas of brotherhood from
beyond the Rhine, by lulling our perspicacity, by enervating the
courage we used to display towards _foreigners_, and it was several
weeks before we realised in 1870 that _all Germany_, from one end to
the other, was of the same type of honesty, the same character as the
Ems telegram.

We a