l of
the future and foreshadowed in an almost miraculous fashion the situation
which faces Europe and England to-day. Nothing printed in this country
since the war broke out expresses more clearly the real issues of the
mighty conflict and the part our country is called to play in it than the
following words, in reference to the unredeemed peoples of Europe, uttered
by the great Italian more than half a century ago:

"They struggled, they still struggle, for country and liberty; for a word
inscribed upon a banner, proclaiming to the world that they also live,
think, love, and labour for the benefit of all. They speak the same
language, they bear about them the impress of consanguinity, they kneel
beside the same tombs, they glory in the same tradition; and they demand to
associate freely, without obstacles, without foreign domination, in order
to elaborate and express their idea, to contribute their stone also to the
great pyramid of history. It is something moral which they are seeking;
and this moral something is in fact, even politically speaking, the most
important question in the present state of things. It is the organisation
of the European task. In principle, nationality ought to be to humanity
that which division of labour is in a workshop--the recognised symbol of
association; the assertion of the individuality of a human group called by
its geographical position, its traditions, and its language, to fulfill a
special function in the European work of civilisation.

"The map of Europe has to be re-made. This is the key to the present
movement; herein lies its initiative. Before acting, the instrument for
action must be organised; before building, the ground must be one's own.
The social idea cannot be realised under any form whatsoever before this
reorganisation of Europe is effected; before the peoples are free to
interrogate themselves, to express their vocation, and to assure its
accomplishment by an alliance capable of substituting itself for the
absolute league which now reigns supreme.

"If England persist in maintaining a neutral, passive, selfish part, she
will have to expiate it. A European transformation is inevitable. When it
shall take place, when the struggle shall burst forth at twenty places at
once, when the old combat between fact and right is decided, the peoples
will remember that England stood by, an inert, immovable, sceptical witness
of their sufferings and efforts. The nation must rouse