porary
Germany, is more hopeful of the situation than are other writers and
observers. Professor Werner Wittich maintains that the best of the
intellectual side of life in Alsace is impregnated with French culture
and traditions; and even German officers long stationed in the two
conquered provinces admit the stubborn allegiance of the people to
French customs, habits, beliefs, and traditions. But however that may
be, and it is admittedly a question that different prejudices and
hopes will answer differently, there is no denial on the part of any
one, high or low, that the Prussian bureaucratic mandarins have made
no progress in winning the affection or the voluntary loyalty of the
people. The Prussian has had recourse to the advice given by Prince
Billow, "if you cannot be loved, then you must be feared." A friend
who is only a friend, an ally who is only an ally, a servant who only
serves you because he is afraid of you, is not only an uncomfortable
but a dangerous factor in any establishment, whether domestic or
national. Corporalism, begun by Frederick the Great and fastened upon
Germany by Bismarck, has had its successes. I recognized them, indeed,
on returning to Germany after twenty-five years, as astounding
successes, but they have their weak side too. A barracks can never be
the ideal of a home, nor a corporal the ideal of a guide, philosopher,
and friend. Their own philosopher Nietzsche writes: "the state is the
coldest of all cold monsters."

Joseph de Maistre, writing of the Slav temperament, says: "Si on
enterrait un desir Slave sous une forteresse, il la ferait sauter."
Germany has some reason to believe that this is true.

In the northeast of Germany live some 3,000,000 Poles under Prussian
supervision and laws, and ruled by a Prussian governor. There are some
7,000,000 or 8,000,000 Poles divided between Russia, Austria-Hungary,
and Prussia, and behind these are 165,000,000 Russians. The boundary
between this mass and Germany is one of sand; and the railway journey
from Posen to Berlin, is a matter of only four hours. If we were in
Germany's shoes, we should probably take some pains to be well guarded
in that quarter. We should, however, do it in quite another fashion.
We should, if possible, turn over the inhabitants to their own
governing, as England has done in South Africa, as we have tried to do
in Cuba, and as we would do gladly in the Philippines, if every
intelligent man who knows the situation