only be too delighted to discover that I am
wrong.

Such being the attitude of those who are primarily responsible for our
national education, can we wonder at the attitude of the general
public? Can we expect it to take any more interest in German culture
than the educational authorities? Let those who have any doubt or
illusion on the subject make inquiries at booksellers', at circulating
libraries and public libraries, at London clubs. I have tried to make
such an investigation, and all those institutions have the same sorry
tale to tell. It is impossible to get an outstanding book which
appears in Germany, for it does not pay the publisher to stock such a
book. At Mudie's, for every hundred French books there may be two
German books. At the Royal Societies Club, with a membership of
several thousands, every one of whom belongs to some learned society,
you may get the _Revue de Deux Mondes_, or the _Temps_, or the
_Figaro_, but you cannot get a German paper. For the last twenty years
I have not once seen a copy of the _Zukunft_, or the _Frankfurter
Zeitung_, or the _Koelnische Zeitung_, at an English private house, at
an English club, at an English bookseller's, at an English library.

A few months ago the most popular and most enterprising daily paper of
the kingdom published some articles on the German elections, which
were justly rousing a great deal of attention in this country. I was
very much impressed by the cleverness of those articles, but my
admiration knew no bounds when the author confessed that he was
writing without knowing a word of German, and that when attending
political meetings he had to make out the meaning of the language by
the gestures and facial expression of the orators. Have we not here,
my classical friends, an exhilarating instance of the results of your
monopoly? _Ab uno disce omnes._

We are constantly being told that "knowledge is power," and that the
knowledge of a foreign language means not only intellectual power, but
commercial and political power. Yet those in authority do not budge an
inch to get possession of such power. We are constantly warned by
political pessimists that Germany is making gigantic strides, and that
we ought to keep a vigilant outlook. Yet we do nothing to obtain
first-hand information of the resources of a nation of sixty-five
millions, who is certainly a formidable commercial rival, and who
to-morrow may meet us in deadly encounter.[20] On the other hand