protested and the conflict which followed, in 1792, was the first war against the French Republic.

In the report which the well-known civilian, Merlin de Douai, made to the Constituante, October 28, 1790, is the following passage, very characteristic of the bonds which unite Alsace to France: "The Alsatian people have united themselves to France because they wish so to do; it is their own desire, therefore, and not the treaty of Münster which has legalized the union."

In February, 1790, Dietrich was elected mayor of Strasbourg against the conservative candidate, and in June, 1790, the partisans of the Constituante celebrated amid great pomp and with the co-operation of the clergy of different denominations, the fêtes of the Federation of the Rhine.

The Alsatian National Guard set up in the middle of a bridge over the Rhine, a tri-coloured flag which bore the inscription: "Here the Land of Liberty begins."

It was on the night following the day that it was known at Strasbourg (April 25, 1792), that war had been declared, that Captain Rouget de l'Isle composed "the War Song for the Army of the Rhine," which under the name of La Marseillaise became the national hymn of France.

Kléber, who at that time commanded a battalion from the Upper Rhine, writes, November 15, 1792, in reference to the warlike enthusiasm of the Alsatian volunteers, "not one of them ever dreams of deserting his flag; the wounded, yes, and even the sick have implored me for mercy's sake, to keep them with the battalion."

In 1799, there was the menace of another war, and the inhabitants were most zealous in strengthening the fortresses. An official of the Lower Rhine wrote in his report on the subject of the Alsatians: "They will, like the Rhine, always be the impregnable bulwark of the Republic" (G. Weil).

The assimilation of France and Alsace was made complete during the Revolution. Fustel de Coulanges well summed up this truth when he wrote in 1870: "Do you know what has made Alsace French? It is not Louis XIV., but it is our revolution of 1789. From that moment Alsace has followed our fortunes; she has lived our life; she thinks as we think; she feels as we feel; our glories and our faults, our joys and our sorrows."

The wars of the Empire gave to the Alsatians a chance to display their military aptitude which they rendered the more generously to the service of the country, as promotion was given to each according to his merits; each soldier carried in his knapsack the baton of a Maréchal de France!

The generals of Alsace and of Lorraine who distinguished themselves in the army of the Republic and with Napoleon are numerous. Among the best known are Kléber, Kellermann, Rapp, Lefévre, Ney, Mouton, Lasalle, Shérer, Westermann, and Schramm. The names of twenty-eight Alsatian generals are engraved upon the Arc de Triomphe at Paris.

Many able Alsatians devoted themselves to the administration of the German countries that were at that time under the French Government. Their knowledge of German helped them in their task. After the disasters in Russia and in Leipzig, in 1813, the Alsatians showed exemplary devotion in their preparations for defence and sacrifices for the army.

In his Mémoires, Ségur says on this subject: "There were no better, braver, more generous Frenchmen in all France." Never, during all these trying days, did they remember that their forebears had been subjects of the Holy Empire.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, after the fall of Napoleon, the pan-Germans made a campaign for the annexation of Alsace-Lorraine in launching the slogan: Der Rhein, Deutschlands Strom nicht Deutschlands Grenze (The Rhine is a German river and not Germany's boundary). This found no echo in Alsace, which forced from the poet, Rückert, the heartfelt cry of indignation which fell from the lips of the German soldiers, who were obliged to evacuate Alsace: "And thou Alsace! Degermanized race, thou too dost jeer at us, oh, deepest infamy!"

The Alsatian poet, Ehrenfried Stoeber, whom the Germans readily invoked on account of his dialect, said that if his harp was German his sword was French. Referring to the Revolution he said: "If we speak of the wars of the Revolution in which we fought for our independence and the protection of the indefeasible rights of man, it is because we are proud of our fervent ardour and enthusiasm."

Under the restored kingdom of the Bourbons, orderly citizens knew how to command respect in their new country without sacrificing in the least their democratic and republican ideals. A prefect of the Upper Rhine registered in his report of 1818: "All are submissive, but none are royalist." De Serre, an elector of the Department wrote: "Ultra-royalism is not the spirit which actuates my constituents."

The prefect, Puymaigre, candidly complains in 1821 of the advanced ideas of the citizens: "They give faith," said he, "with a most deplorable credulity, to all the most dangerous political systems."

The same year, after his tour in Alsace, General Foy expressed himself as follows: "If all that is good and generous in the hearts of the inhabitants of ancient France ever becomes enfeebled, they must journey over the Vosges and come to Alsace to renew their patriotism and energy."

The monarchy of July marks a period of uninterrupted prosperity for Alsace. The return of the tri-colour was hailed with joy. The democratic idea grew and was represented chiefly by the Courrier du Bas-Rhin which influenced public opinion. After 1815, the reactionary persecutions abated against the Germans who were liberal minded and they received an hospitable welcome to Alsace. With their innate absence of tact, many of them tried to convince their hosts that Alsace was still a German province, and in this way they forfeited all sympathy.

The Alsatians desire there should be no misunderstanding as to the nature of the sympathy shown to unjustly persecuted refugees, and the international courtesy practised by them even towards the Germans. In 1842, when the German delegates to the Scientific Congress of France were received at Strasbourg, the mouthpiece of the Alsatians spoke of the sympathies of his countrymen for Germany; but to avoid any mistake he added: "But if we gaze toward her, it is not with the eyes of a child torn from the paternal home, but rather, if you will permit the comparison, with the affectionate look with which the young wife greets once more her mother's house, happy under the new roof which shelters her, and with the name of her husband which she bears with pride."

Alsace has never wavered from this fidelity to France. In 1848 the second Republic was accepted with satisfaction. Under Louis Philippe the country had enjoyed great material prosperity, but the middle classes were restless because the government took no measures to reform the electorate in the democratic sense. At this time great fêtes were held to celebrate the two hundredth anniversary of the union of Alsace and France. The mayor of Strasbourg said on this occasion: "It is without doubt no longer necessary to make a solemn and public profession of undying devotion to France. She does not doubt us, she has faith in Alsace; but if Germany still lulls herself with futile illusions, if she still finds in the persistence of the German language a sign of irresistible sympathy and attraction toward her, she is mistaken. Alsace is just as much French as Brittany, Flanders, and the country of the Basques, and she will so