ed the mastery of Europe. All are, however,
dead against the idea that this mastery might pass
into the other camp. Comparatively easy as it is
to settle a dispute on questions of territory by
arbitration or to work out schemes for compromise
in regard to such, so difficult or almost
impossible it would be to arbitrate on a question
of actual supremacy or to settle it by compromise.

Particularly in the camp of the Allies is the
possibility lest Germany might emerge out of the
war the actual arbiter of Europe conceived as an
unbearable thought. None of the allied Powers,
neither England nor France and not even Russia,
Italy being in this respect quite out of question,
has during the last decades shown a disposition or
a pretence to play up to such a part.

But Germany is suspected of nourishing ideas of
this kind, and utterances of some of their
prominent men, _occasional sayings of the Kaiser
included_, tend to give substance to this
suspicion. In vain Germans object that their
country has all the 44 years since 1870 kept the
peace in Europe. We have done the same, would the
others reply, and we have not, as Germany has
done, again and again threatened war when things
did not run according to her wishes or humours.
_Germany has in fact abstained from actual peace
breaking. But she was regarded and has not a
little done to acquire the fame, as the latent or
virtual disturbing element in European politics._

This view in regard to political Germany has
greatly been enhanced through many of her actions
during the present war. It is natural enough,
though not particularly edifying, that in a war
each party ascribes all the guilt thereof to the
opponents and poses as the innocent who
maliciously was surprised when not dreaming of any
harm. But the cantankerous way in which almost the
whole political and intellectual Germany has
handled this question and has treated it as a
crime not to take in every respect the German view
of the case and of all the details of warfare has
strengthened the feeling that this nation has come
to regard itself as a sort of high judge of
Europe. People were reminded of that
ill-considered harangue to German soldiers at the
time of the China expedition when th