This example had infectious effect upon Holland. The phlegmatic but business Hollander was not, however, credited with being moved solely by an abstract idea, or even by the more concrete attraction of bringing happily once more together the two sections of the great old German race. He had also a bright restoration vision of "the buried cities of the Zuyder Zee," and of other improvements and advantages of all kinds, which the power and capital of a great empire at his back might bring to his country.
England, from old political association and relationship, took quite a parental lead in both of these high international arrangements. Nor did her after experience fail to confirm her expectation, that the best way to be rid of the constant anxieties and responsibilities about adjacent small states was to have none of them in existence. Her cordial response on these interesting occasions gave her an influence and prestige which she willingly turned to account for the general harmony and good-will so auspicious of these times and doings.
Thus it was mainly at her instance that France, upon the union with Belgium, solemnly gave up all claim for the restoration of her old German conquest, Alsace-Lorraine. Whereupon Germany, not to be outdone in these steps of international amenity, forthwith dismissed one-half of her army. This pleasant tide in the affairs of men did not stop here. When the Dutch bride was ready to pass to the arms of her husband, the marriage present of the island of Heligoland, with which we completed the attractions of her trousseau, was not more a gracious parental attention to our late ward, than
