Alsace, alone, had never been a state. This is how the learned professor of the University of Caen, Georges Weil, describes in his remarkable book, _French Alsace from 1789 to 1871_, the period after the reunion of Alsace with France: "It was a strange mosaic of different freeholds, of principalities both lay and ecclesiastical, of free cities or those almost autonomous. Among these freeholds many belonged to German princes. A sixth part of Alsace was owned by foreigners." The Emperor's authority had been only nominal. On his visits, which were few and far between, he was received with courtesy, money was freely given to him, but the people always rejoiced when they saw him leave. The Alsatians received but little assistance from the Empire; Alsace secured no help when menaced or invaded by foreign armies. The ten ancient cities flourished under an almost autonomous rule. Even before the reunion with France, cultivated society was filled with the French spirit. After the Thirty Years' War, the country felt the benefit of the protection of a powerful State with a well-ordered government which respected its habits and customs and which administered justice. So their sympathies were quickly given to their new political country with which, by reason of their democratic ideals, they were already politically in sympathy. That which rapidly attached the people to the new régime was, on the one hand, the friendly and intelligent interest of the royal intendants who protected the subjects from arbitrary lords and other local authorities, and on the other hand, the sovereign Council of Alsace, sitting at Colmar, which was to simplify, and, if possible, to unify, the customs that were in force in different parts of the country and also insure a sound administration of justice. The success was complete. A German, François d'Ichterscheim, was obliged to acknowledge, in a work published in 1710, that the Sovereign Council "rules with strict justice, law-suits are not too lengthy, expenses are not too heavy, and above all, no favour is shown to either litigant, the subject often winning his suit against the sovereign,--the poor against the rich, the layman against the clergy, the Christian against the Jew, and _vice-versa_." The people were contented and satisfied. The Alsatian has always had a pronounced taste for the military career. Many young peasants enlisted in French regiments and were well received. The nobility furnished a number of officers to the French army. Alsatian gentlemen enjoyed taking part in the gay social life of the French aristocracy. Alsatian scholars kept in constant touch with Paris, where they received every encouragement and were much appreciated. It is not astonishing then, that Monsieur Schmettan, Ambassador of Russia to the King of France, should write in 1709: "It is well-known that the Alsatians are more French than the Parisians themselves."