rength between a
nation and a Government. In a foreign war the armies will always be on
the side of the Government. In a revolution the armies may or may not
side with the people. They will side with the people if the people are
determined to fight.

The problem of revolution, therefore, is not primarily one of military
force, but of moral and political force. The people will dispose of
the necessary military strength if they dispose of the necessary moral
and political strength. In normal times the people are generally
unconscious of their moral and political strength, even as they are
unconscious of their military strength. But in times of revolution,
with their political consciousness awakened by their grievances and
their sufferings, with a quickened sense of political realities, the
attitude of the people to their rulers undergoes a radical change.
They suddenly discover that they are the source of all power. Once
that revelation has come to them, and once the subjects refuse to
support their rulers and are determined to resist them, the whole
fabric of government collapses like a house of cards. There lies the
reason for the fundamental differences between the slow development of
foreign warfare and the sudden and catastrophic termination of civil
war. The Bastille fell as if by magic and as by a flourish of
trumpets, like the walls of Jericho. The Revolution of 1848 overthrew
in twenty-four hours the strongest French Government of modern times.
And there, also, lies the reason why, in a civil war, the greatest
possible results are achieved with the minimum of sacrifice. To attain
the aims of a foreign war may require the sacrifice of millions of
lives. The aims of a civil war have often been obtained by the
sacrifice of a few hundred.

All revolutions have the same beginnings. The German Revolution of
1848 started in the same way as the French Revolution of 1848. The
insurrection of the people of Berlin very nearly succeeded in 1848 in
establishing a German democracy. The proudest of the Prussian Kings,
the most intoxicated with the dreams or delusions of absolute power,
was humbled to the dust. In an agony of terror, bareheaded, Frederick
William IV. of Hohenzollern had to salute the funeral procession of
the heroes of liberty, and the King's army had to withdraw from
Berlin, and Prince William, the future Emperor, had to escape to
England.

And the rising of the German people to-day will have a much better