upport to France."

X.--GERMANY STANDS FOR REACTION.

"There still remains for us to examine one deeper reason why Germany
is distrusted and disliked in Europe. _She is mainly distrusted
because she continues to be the reactionary force in international
politics._ Outside the sphere of German influence the democratic ideal
has triumphed all over the civilized world, after centuries of heroic
struggle and tragic catastrophes. But in Germany the old dogma is
still supreme. Wherever German power has made itself felt for the last
forty years--in Italy and Austria, in Russia and Turkey--it has
countenanced reaction and tyranny. In politics Germany is to-day what
Austria and Russia were in the days of the Holy Alliance, the power of
darkness. Whilst in the provinces of science and art the German people
are generally progressive, in politics the German Government is
consistently retrogressive. It cannot be sufficiently emphasized and
repeated that, more than any other State--more even than
Russia--Prussia stands in the way of political advance. It was Prussia
that helped to crush the Polish struggle for freedom in 1863; when, a
few years ago, English public opinion was protesting against the
Armenian massacres, the Kaiser stood loyally by Abdul Hamid and
propped his tottering throne; when the Russian Liberals were engaged
in a life-and-death struggle with Czardom, the Kaiser gave his moral
support to Russian despotism. It is not too much to say that it is the
evil influence of Prusso-Germany alone which keeps despotism alive in
the modern world."

XI.--PRUSSIA CONTROLS GERMANY.

"It is difficult to exaggerate the political domination of Germany by
Prussia. The practice belies the theory: it is not as German Emperor
but as Prussian King that William II. rules the confederation. The
larger is merged in the smaller. The poor barren plains of Brandenburg
and Pomerania rule over the smiling vineyards and romantic mountains
of the south and west. The German people are governed more completely
from Berlin and Potsdam than the French were ever governed from Paris
and Versailles. And they are governed with an iron hand. In theory,
every part of the empire may have a proportional share in the
administration of the country; in reality, Prussia has the ultimate
political and financial control. Germany pays the taxes; Prussia
spends them. Germany provides the soldiers; Prussia commands them. And
the Prussian War Lord and his Junke