When Von Moltke had conquered France, his first care for the future
was to protect Germany, by the seizure of the French frontier
fortresses, from all danger of successful attack in time to come;
yet at Belfort one gap in the line has been left in the keeping of
France--possibly, like the heel of Achilles, the point at which
a hostile shaft may one day wound the German empire. The Berlin
_Börsenzeitung_, which claims that with Metz, Strasburg, Mayence,
Coblentz and Cologne, and with the enlargement of Ulm and Ingoldstadt
and the new line of Bavarian defence, "Germany has a barrier of
fortresses unequaled in the world," yet admits that the project of
establishing a new German fortress near Mulhouse or Huningue, "so as
to take the place of Belfort," has now been abandoned--a fact which
seems to show that there is one little loophole in the defensive armor
of Germany, otherwise invulnerable.

* * * * *

"A man may steal the livery of Heaven to serve the devil in." It has
always been a favorite device of Napoleonism to dress itself up in the
garb of popular government, and to appropriate the peculiar phrases
of democracy, with a view to confound the distinction between the
sovereign will of one and the sovereign will of the many. Napoleon
III. enjoyed proclaiming himself the great champion of universal
suffrage, although what his _plébiscites_ really were the caustic
pen of Kinglake has told us. The other day the French imperialists
celebrated at Chiselhurst the fête of the late emperor; and there
Prince Louis had the audacity to say: "Planting myself as an exile
near the tomb of the emperor, I represent his teachings, which may be
summarized in the motto, 'Govern for the people, by the people.'"