man people to attack the Hohenzollern stronghold
would be as hopeless as for a madman or a prisoner to break down the
walls of his prison or cell. The prisoner would only break his head,
and the madman would only get himself put into a "strait-waistcoat."
The German rebel is confronted by the impregnable structure of a solid
and efficient Government, a Government based on the prestige of the
past, and surrounded by the glamour of triumphant victories achieved
in great national wars.

The argument might have been valid after 1863 and 1870, when the
Catholics fought the battle of Liberalism and when the Social
Democrats fought the battle of democracy against Bismarck. But the
argument ceases to be valid to-day. For this is not a national war for
the Germans. When the conspiracy of lies and the conspiracy of silence
come to an end, when the diplomatic intrigues, when the pan-Germanic
plot, are revealed in their naked and hideous horror, it will be
clear, even to the blindest and dullest German mind, that this war was
waged neither in defence of national existence nor in defence of
national interests. It began primarily as a war against Russia, who
for a hundred and fifty years was the close ally of Prussia. It began
as a war against the Russian people, who were by far the best
customers for German industries. It developed into a war against
England, who, like Russia, was for one hundred and fifty years the
ally of Germany, who fought on many a battlefield with the Germans,
who never on any single battlefield fought against Germany.

Neither can this war be described as a national war for the German
people, nor has it resulted in a German victory. Here, also, when the
conspiracy of silence is broken, the net result of the war will prove
to be universal ruin, bankruptcy, millions of cripples walking the
streets of every German city, the loss of the goodwill of the world.
"Tout est perdu sauf l'honneur," said the French King after the
disaster of Pavia. "Everything is lost, even honour," will be the
verdict of the German people after the war.

In so far, therefore, as Prussian reaction was hitherto based on the
glamour of victory, that glamour is dispelled. The Hohenzollerns were
supposed to be the unsurpassed practitioners of _Realpolitik_. They
have only proved reckless and romantic visionaries. The Prussian
Government was supposed to be a marvellously efficient instrument. Its
efficiency has mainly shown itself in wanto