stands that the whole Schleswig-Holstein question is one that
involves the modern principle of "nationality," and, as such, enters of
necessity into the present European crisis. It is broadly understood by
Dr. Eliot and willfully misapprehended by his critic.

Passing on to consider Alsace-Lorraine, Dr. Dernburg declares that "it
had belonged to Germany until it was taken, against the will of the
people, under Louis XIV."

In this statement, as in the treatment of the previous question, facts
are mutilated and wrong impressions are given. Alsace, it is well known,
was included within the confines of ancient Gaul, its original
population was Celtic, and it passed, late in the fifth Christian
century, under the rule of the Franks, one of whose chieftains, Clovis,
became the founder of the first French monarchy. In dealing with its
later history Dr. Dernburg confuses the Holy Roman (Germanic) Empire
with Germany, considered in its modern sense. He appears to forget that
the reign of Louis XIV. was an age of absolutism and not of plebiscites.

He also ignores that the most strenuous efforts on the part of Germany
to strangle the French nationality and language in the imperial
territory (Alsace-Lorraine) have proved useless, although they have been
exerted constantly for almost a half century.

IRENE SARGENT.

Professor of the History of Fine Arts.

Syracuse University, Nov. 3, 1914.

DR. ELIOT'S FOURTH LETTER.

Germany and World Empire

_To the Editor of The New York Times:_

Each one of the principal combatants in Europe seems to be anxious to
prove that it is not responsible for this cruelest, most extensive, and
most destructive of all wars. Each Government involved has published the
correspondence between its Chief Executive and other Chief Executives,
and between its Chancellery or Foreign Office and the equivalent bodies
in the other nations that have gone to war, and has been at pains to
give a wide circulation to these documents. To be sure, none of these
Government publications seems to be absolutely complete. There seems to
be in all of them suppressions or omissions which only the future
historian will be able to report--perhaps after many years. They reveal,
however, the dilapidated state of the Concert of Europe in July, 1914,
and the flurry in the European Chancelleries which the ultimatum sent by
Austria-Hungary to Servia produced. They also testify to the existence
of a new and influentia