Allies of France

“ A Royalist would say, 'Ah, it is very impolitic in the Allies to think of taking any territory or money from France, for good Frenchmen, united under the Bourbons, will become more formidable than the nation ever was under Bonaparte, and woe to Europe, in the course of a year or two, for what she now inflicts on us.' A military man would gurgle a sacré out of his throat, and anticipate the day of revenge, under some new leader, when France would show that she had not been beaten, although she had been betrayed.... ”

“ Now, the truth is, that the allies are firmly determined to carry on the war to the last extremity, and that, at the best, they will leave to your majesty the frontiers of France as they were under the Bourbons. I venture, therefore, once more to implore your majesty to make peace; sire, peace at any cost! Perhaps it may be time yet. Send me once more to the allied monarchs! Tell them that you will now accept the ultimatum offered us at the congress of Chatillon, and that you will content yourself with the frontiers of France, as they were previous to the rise of the empire. ”

“ Each of our Allies thought himself entitled to raise his demands to the most extravagant height. They had been encouraged to this, first, by the engagements which we had entered into with several of them, with some to draw them into the war, with others to prevail on them to continue it; and, secondly, by the manner in which we had treated with France in 1709 and 1710. ”

“ Among the Allies, the two chief Imperial Powers, measured by the extent of territory they control, are Britain and France, and each of these is more completely prepared to-day than ever it has been before to consider its imperial possessions as a trust for their inhabitants and for mankind, and its position in the more fertile and less settled regions of the world as that of a mandatory and trustee. These admissions involve a plain prospect and promise of the ultimate release and liberation of all the peoples in these great and variegated Empires to complete world-citizenship. ”

“ No one was in a hurry, but every one was quick and alert. The army, officers and men, seemed to be an army of real soldiers, masters of their profession, and not a collection of bunglers. If mistakes had been made, or should be made, they would have to be rectified. But no mistakes and no defeats, and no possible combination of circumstances, would alter the final issue, because France and her Allies were fighting for the cause of the liberty of the world, the triumph of which was absolutely certain. That was the spirit of the French a year ago, and it is so now more than ever. ”

“ At the bar of the nations we must be judged, when the war is over. But meanwhile, while it is still in progress, we can get some idea of the way in which the other nations regard us from the opinion of the neutral states and even of our Allies. Fas est et ab amicis doceri.
Since the war began I have watched it and England’s share in it from Belgium, Holland, France, Italy, and German and French Switzerland, and have talked about it with the inhabitants of various other countries, including Serbs, Greeks, Russians, Swedes, Montenegrins, and Americans. ”

“ Now France is a wreck, and we stand isolated in Europe. The head of the Latin nations lies shattered in the dust; and the people whose independence we assisted her to build up, are unable by themselves to lift an arm, or to afford any effectual barrier against aggression. Their sole resource now is in England, who stands alone, looking with dismay upon the effacement of the two allies, upon whom she mainly relied in her difficulties, and upon the alliance of two military monarchies in Europe who dominate the situation. ”

“ In 1871, for instance, after the peace of Versailles, Germany 64occupied some French provinces; and, in this case, the conquering armies had only to deal with the inhabitants—there were no hostile troops in their vicinity. But, in 1816, the Allies were placed in another position, and French soldiers were in their neighbourhood. Europe, moreover, had caused a revolution in France, and had to support the new government, until its power was established. ”

“ The allies did not make war to destroy the kingdom of France, but to dethrone a monarch who had proved himself to be the enemy of mankind. The Peace of Paris. peace of Paris was signed by the plenipotentiaries of France, Great Britain, Russia, Prussia, and Austria, on the 30th of April; and Christendom, at last, indulged the hope that the awful conflict had ended. The Revolution and its offspring Napoleon were apparently suppressed, after more than three millions of men had perished in the struggle on the part of France and of her allies alone. ”

“ To-day the French army is as one man; France has behaved with a splendour that cannot be over-extolled, and she will never lose that power of cohesion she gained through the opening stages of this conflict. Indeed, in all the countries of the Allies I fancy the old questions will never recur in the same degree. ”

“ If the coalesced armies could penetrate beyond the Pyrenees, the Alps, or the Rhine, then the day of peace could not shine upon France; there could be no peace till we should repulse the enemy, and drive him far from our territory. Noble sons of our dear346 France! generous defenders of our glorious country! you, who close the entrance of France against the English, the Russians, and their allies, you shall not be left without support in the holy and honourable struggle to which you have devoted yourselves. ”

“ The concensus of opinion of these friends is that failure of the Allies to win the war means the death-warrant of France and the British Empire; that there is no middle course; that the war will be fought to a finish and the Allies will be victorious; that the Kaiser and the Prussian military system will be annihilated, the German people will arise, and the Republic of Germany will be the result. ”

“ The king shall then issue a decided proclamation forbidding his brothers and the emigrants to advance another step toward the invasion of France, declaring, in terms which can not be misinterpreted, his determination to maintain the Constitution, and announcing his readiness to place himself at the head of the army to repel the enemy. [Pg 273] This decisive measure will satisfy France that the king is its friend not its foe. The allies can make no headway against France united under its monarch. ”

“ War with France.—In the war that followed England had, at first, as allies, Spain, Holland, Austria, and Prussia. England had to provide much of the money for the war, which owing to bad generalship and lack of energy was full of disasters for the Allies. The French drove the English out of Toulon, captured Amsterdam, and seized the Dutch fleet. Prussia soon made peace, while Spain cast in her lot with France against England. ”

“ The French cabinet, which had fled from Paris to Bordeaux when the German army drew close to Paris, had returned to the former capital, and affairs of state were being conducted as before. With several millions of fighting men at the front, France still had an additional two million to hurl into the thick of the fray at the psychological moment. ”

“ The following placard is from the Courier of the Departments, published by the Girondin Gorsas:
PLAN OF THE ALLIES AGAINST PARIS.
More than two hundred Royalist chiefs, scattered about in the different centers of France, have their rendezvous.—They hold the signatures of numerous persons who are ready to join the armies of the allied Kings when they shall have cleared the frontier.—The combined armies will march on the fortified towns as if to lay siege to them ”

“ With a similar spirit the news of the death of the king was hailed by the leaders of the republican party in the United States; and when intelligence of the French declaration of war against England went over the land, a fervor of enthusiasm in favor of the old ally was awakened which called loudly for compliance with the spirit and letter of the treaty of 1778, by which the United States and France became allies in peace and war. ”

“ The German Crown Prince, realizing the cause of this lull by the French, thought to take advantage of the foe, and launched assault after assault; but, tired out as the French were, there was still energy and courage enough among them to resist successfully the fierce charges of the foe. ”

“ We’ll have need of men like that. But look! we seem to be coming to some place.”
“We’ll stop and make sure of our bearings,” said Hal, and brought the car to a stop before a group of French soldiers.
For the benefit of the reader, it may be said that up to this time, the American troops had not been acting independently of their British and French allies. Up to this time there was no distinct American army in the field. ”

“ In sheer human interest the battle of Verdun surpassed all other individual events of the war. For six months and more the defenders of the gateway to France withstood a storm at the fury of which the world stood aghast.
Foot by foot, almost inch by inch, the Germans forged ahead with a reckless disregard of their lives, a tenacity and cool courage which was only equalled by the cool determination of the French. Five months after the opening of this great battle, the unofficial estimate of German dead was a half million men. ”

“ After the battle, which it was unkind and unjust to refuse to call by the name of "La Belle Alliance;"—after this battle, in which so many thousand human beings lost their lives,—the French submitted to sacrifices, galling to every man of every party among them; for in France it is permitted to every man to be a patriot. ”

“ If "hypocrisy be the homage which vice pays to virtue," where stands that country whose public opinion requires no hypocrisy in the open profession of unbelief? For these and other reasons, then, I conceive that the Church of God is best seen in France working by her own intrinsic powers, not only unaided by the world, but most cruelly afflicted by it, and so externally oppressed and degraded, that nothing but the irrepressible life of the Gospel could penetrate and leaven society under such conditions. ”

“ If they became masters of France, there was no strength left to resist them, neither Italy divided between Lombards, Greeks, and the old inhabitants, subjects of one or the other, nor Germany divided among various peoples. The whole world seemed to be reserved for the anti-Christian kingdom of Mohammed: all nations about to pass under the hard servitude of a conquering Arabian tribe, instinct with hatred to the Christian life; all women to become slaves of man's passion: all reason to endure subjection to a lie imposed by the scimitar. ”

“ It shall undertake no war aimed at conquest, nor shall it ever employ force against the freedom of any people. §15 Subject to reciprocity, France shall consent to the limitations upon its sovereignty necessary to the organisation and preservation of peace. §16 France shall form with its overseas peoples a Union founded upon equal rights and duties, without distinction of race or religion. ”

“ This must be our message to France; "that all of us are cordial well-wishers to France; we do not grudge her all possible welfare and glory; we mean never to encroach on it, and we will stand by the new Government as by the old, foi de gentils-hommes. But the first breach of the peace, be it with reference to Italy, Belgium, or Germany would be, undoubtedly and at the same time, a breach with 'all of us,' and we should, with all the power that God has given us, let France feel by sea and by land, as in the years '13, '14, and '15, what our union may mean." ”

“ To my mind, the idea of an alliance between a French republic and one of the two empires of the North against the German Empire is one of those impossibilities which need but to be asserted, not to be argued. If France could succeed in reuniting the separated links of her history, in reconciling her present with her past, if she were to again become a traditional, representative, and free monarchy, one holding itself equidistant from the abuses of the old régime and the errors of the Revolution—oh! ”

“ France, without a disciplined army; France, ruined, reduced to a paper currency, torn by factions, by the civil war which we priests will let loose in the west and south—France will be unable to resist all Europe. But, in order to exasperate the foreign rulers, to excite their hatred, their fury, they must be made to behold the head of Louis XVI rolling at their feet! ”

“ There is no longer thought of conflict between any two nations of Europe. The next war is to be one of tremendous combinations. National alliances are shifting and uncertain. But at the time this is written (1894) Germany, Austria, and Italy are drawn together in one hostile camp, while France and Russia, in loving embrace, stand in the other; and England, aloof and suspicious, holds herself ready to hurl her weight against whichever one obstructs her path to India. ”

“ These two provinces, associated with France for more than two centuries in good and evil fortune and constantly opposed to hostile attack, have consistently sacrificed themselves in the cause of national greatness; they have sealed with their blood the indissoluble compact that binds them to French unity. With one accord, citizens who have remained in their own homes and the soldiers who have hastened to join the colors, proclaim by their votes or by their action on the field, to Germany and to the world, the unalterable determination to remain French. ”

“ You cannot look at the map of Europe and lay your hand upon that country against which France has not either declared an open and aggressive war, or violated some positive treaty, or broken some recognized principle of the law of nations. ”