M. Gambetta's speech at Cherbourg has naturally enough been taken
rather ill in Germany, and on the anniversary of the battle of Gravelotte, which took place on Wednesday, the Em- peror of Germany delivered a sort of rejoinder to that very guarded threat. Reviewing his Guards on that day, the Emperor told them that he considered them as representing his whole Army, and, taking off his helmet, added that he esteemed all those "who gave up their life for the glory of the Fatherland." "Never shall the gratitude I feel for the honour, the valour, the resignation, the endurance, with which the army fought, vanish from my heart I" This is not to be called a menace,—only a reminiscence with meaning in it. And assuredly that meaning is the kind, of meaning which M. Gambetta will be the last to ignore. There is no danger, we hope, of his underrating the almost insuperable difficulty of the task of squeezing any concession out of Germany by military pressure alone. M. de Freycinet, in his speech at Montauban on Wednesday, was careful to make most pacific professions.
Previous page
