delegates from the State Council, and other local bodies. There was prayer with music and an address by Mr. Parkes. The General then descended from the platform, and after a box containing American and various other coins and copies of Swiss and English papers had been placed under the foundation, the General struck the stone with the hammer, ornamented with the American colors, and declared the stone "well laid in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." Mr. Parkes

thanked the assembly in the name of General Grant for the gathering and welcome. M. Carteret, Vice-President of the Council of State, in the name of the Canton expressed the satisfaction he felt at the laying of the foundation stone of an American church in Geneva, which, he said, was not only a proof of the growing importance of the American colony in Geneva, but evidence of the liberty accorded by Switzerland to all religious creeds. M. Levrier and Pastor Jaquet also delivered addresses. At half-past twelve there was a déjeuner at the Hotel de la Pays, Mr. Parkes presiding. He welcomed

General Grant to Geneva, and the General replied, thanking his friends for the welcome accorded to him. He had, he said, never felt himself more happy. "I have never felt myself more happy than among this assembly of fellow republicans of America and Switzerland. I have long had a desire to visit the city where the Alabama Claims were settled by arbitration without the effusion of blood, and where the principle of international arbitration was established, which I hope will be resorted to by other nations and be the means of continu

ing peace to all mankind." The ceremony in Geneva was the most important incident in General Grant's tour in Switzerland. There was a visit to Mont Blanc, which was illuminated in honor of the General's trip, and the wonderful scenes of that glorious Alpine range were studied. The General then crossed the Simplon Pass, made a tour of the northern part of Italy, and returned by the 14th of August to Ragatz, where he spent some days in the enjoyment of the baths. From Ragatz he visited the interesting country-interesting because of the events of the recent warof Alsace and Lorraine.

It was on the return to England, where in easy stages the General came from Alpine rambles-Italian lakes, and pleasant restful days in Ragatz-that a visit was made to Alsace and Lorraine. There is, perhaps, no spot in Europe around which associate so many fresh memories of conquest and humiliation as Alsace and Lorraine. It was not my fortune to accompany

General Grant on this part of his journey. I had, however, made a tour of the provinces some time before his coming, and my notes of that journey, considering the transcendent importance of Alsace and Lorraine in the politics of Europe, may be worth reading now. The occasion of the writer's visit was the French exodus from Alsace and Lorraine, when the Prussian Government compelled all residents to take the option of becoming citizens of Germany or emigrating to France.

Take an old map of France and look at what might be called the right shoulder of the map, and you will find a strip of land about as large apparently, in comparison with France, as New Hampshire is to our country, and not unlike it in shape, stretching from Luxembourg and the Belgian frontier down to Switzerland, bulging out on the line toward Paris so as to include Metz, and tapering almost to a point near Switzerland, so as to exclude Belfort. This irregular patch, looking like an inverted Indian club, includes the province of Alsace and a great part of what is called Lorraine, and is now, perhaps, the most famous strip of ground in the world; for the eyes of the world are looking here, amazed at certain phenomena and historical transactions, and trying to solve their meaning. As you know, it is now a disputed land. It has been in dispute for twenty centuries, and its fertile soil has been enriched with the blood of generations of slain men, from the time of Cæsar to Wilhelm of Prussia. Thirteen hundred years ago Clovis conquered it, and although Charlemagne was a benefactor, the wars that came with his successors channeled and furrowed its fair fields. The Hungarians went through it with fire and sword, and it suffered under the religious wars which swept over Europe in the sixteenth century, the Swedes "honoring God" in the most extravagant and bloodthirsty manner. Then Louis XIV.-about 1690-took it. The Germans came to retake it, but were defeated by Turenne. Again they made the effort, but the great Condé drove them over the Rhine. That ended German effort for nearly two hundred years, and Alsace rested at peace under the French rulers until Sedan undid the work of Condé and Turenne, and France, with Prussian cannon at her gates, surrendered it to Prussia.

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In extent this dismembered shoulder of France is about five thousand five hundred and eighty English square miles-not more than three per cent of the total area of France; in population about one million six hundred thousand souls, or nearly five per cent. of the total population. You will see, therefore, that the rate of population exceeds the average of the country. It has a fine canal system and many forests of pine and oak. There are quarries and coal mines, iron and stone deposits, lead and copper, in limited quantities. In the earlier times there were gold and silver, but not enough to ex

COLOGNE.

cite any one in these Californian days. In the Southern Department of Alsace there are 46,000 acres given to the vine, which produced at the last enumeration 30,000,000 gallons of wine. In the Northern Department there are about 28,000 acres in vines, yielding 12,000,000 gallons of wine. You may know how generally the land is divided (thanks to the Revolution) when you are told that these 28,000 acres are owned by 36,000 proprietors! The total revenue from cattle and stock raising in the year last on record

was 18,000,000 American dollars, while from agriculture the return showed 28,000,000 dollars-one half from cereals. It might be called a land of milk and honey, remembering that there are in this province alone 25,000 beehives, whose industry is not interrupted, I take it, by any questions of authority or annexation. An ancient record notes that the people, as became honest farmers, were of a cheerful temper and much

given to dancing and fiddling. Among other points note that the population is little more than twice as large as it was in 1800, and that if all France had kept growing with the same pace it would now be about 55,000,000 instead of nearly 37,000,000 that the books have written down.

This briefly is the extent, appearance, character, and wealth of that Alsace-Lorraine which France gave to Germany by a treaty signed with the Prussian sword at her heart. The two columns upon which the province rests are the cities of Strasburg and Metz.

The city of Metz in its brightest days must have been an unlucky town, smothered over with forts and ditches and all the elaborate mechanism of engineering art. The great Vauban accomplished these results in Louis XIV.'s days, when that king was doing a little royal stealing on his own account, and was anxious to protect his acquisition. Within a few miles of its gates the great battle of Gravelotte was fought, where Prussia burst the French army asunder, driving one fragment, under Bazaine, into Metz, to starvation and surrender; the other fragment, under MacMahon, up into Sedan, to surrender with its Emperor at the head. Gravelotte looks very calm and fruitful this autumn morning, and shows no trace of the gigantic strife of two years ago. The fields are giving forth corn and hops and vines, and the merry laugh of the harvesters is heard where the cannon sounded upon that dreadful day. As the writer passed down the road along which the King of Prussia advanced, looking out over the rolling, hilly plain, there came a group which would have been made into a picture by the pencil of Teniers. A donkey, with a ribbon or two around his neck by way of encouragement, was doggedly pulling small, rude cart. This was heaped with baskets of grapes. In one corner, cunningly protected from self-destruction by an ingenious arrangement of baskets, was a wide-eyed infant, just old enough to stand, not knowing what the demonstrations meant, and its eyes firmly fixed on its mother, who came plodding behind, clapping her hands and chanting nursery rhymes. An old man, with his staff, marshaled the group with grave