[15] Le flamand et le français dans le nord de la France, 2^{me} Congrès international pour l’extension et la culture de la langue française, Weissenbruch, Brussels, 1908. [16] Le flamand dans le nord de la France, _Ann. de Géogr._, Vol. 20, Dec. 15, 1909, pp. 374-375. [17] P. Reclus: Les progrès du Français dans l’agglomération Bruxelloise, _La Géogr._, Vol. 28, No. 5, Nov. 15, 1913, pp. 308-318. [18] M. Wilmotte: Le Wallon, histoire, littérature des origines à la fin du XVII^e siècle, Rosez, Brussels, 1893. J. Demarteau: Le Wallon, son histoire et sa littérature, Liége, 1889. [19] J. Demarteau: op. cit., p. 134. [20] Germany’s violation of Belgian neutrality in 1914 has been followed by systematic endeavors to induce Flemings to favor annexation of their land to Germany on the plea of ancestral kinship. [21] Luxemburg’s neutrality was guaranteed by the treaty of London, May 11, 1867, to which Britain, Austria, Prussia, France, Belgium, Holland, Italy and Russia were signatories. [22] The Neutral Territory of Moresnet, Riverside Press, Cambridge, 1882, p. 14. [23] Children under two and foreigners are included under this heading. CHAPTER III THE FRANCO-GERMAN LINGUISTIC BOUNDARY IN ALSACE-LORRAINE AND SWITZERLAND With the exception of a few districts in Alsace-Lorraine, the political boundary between France and Germany is also the linguistic line between French and German languages. This condition is a result of the modifications which French frontiers have undergone since the treaty of Utrecht in 1714. Unfortunately the Napoleonic period and its disorderly train of political disturbances brought about an unnatural extension of the northern and eastern lines. France departed for a time from the self-appointed task of attracting French-speaking provinces to itself. Between 1792 and 1814 almost all of the territory of Belgium and Holland was annexed and the eastern frontier extended to the Rhine. Teutonic peoples in Holland, Flanders, Rhenish Prussia and the western sections of Hesse and Baden passed under French control. But their subjection to Napoleon’s artificial empire was of relatively short duration. The German-speaking people in 1813 united in a great effort to drive the French across the Rhine. They were merely repeating the feat of their ancestors who, at an interval of eighteen centuries, had defeated the Latin-speaking invaders of their country led by Varus. Success in both movements was largely the result of the feeling of kinship based on language. In 9 A.D. the Romans were forced back to the Rhine from the line they occupied on the Weser. The treaty of Vienna restored French boundaries to the lines existing in 1790. French territory was once more confined to the normal boundaries which inclose members of the French-speaking family. A natural frontier thus became determined for the country. The union of Frenchmen into a compact political body was shattered, however, by