t of the following elements:

"The bulk of the workmen, artisans, and peasants, who are peace
loving by instinct.

"Those members of the nobility detached from military interests
and engaged in business, such as the _grands seigneurs_ of
Silesia and a few other personages very influential at court who
are sufficiently enlightened to realize the disastrous political
and social consequences of war, even if successful.

"Numerous manufacturers, merchants and financiers in a moderate
way of business, to whom war, even if successful, would mean
bankruptcy, because their enterprises depend on credit, and are
chiefly supported by foreign capital.

"Poles, inhabitants of Alsace-Lorraine, and
Schleswig-Holstein--conquered, but not assimilated and suddenly
hostile to Prussian policy. There are about 7,000,000 of these
annexed Germans.

"Finally, the governments and the governing classes in the large
southern states--Saxony, Bavaria, Wuerttemburg, and the Grand
Duchy of Baden--are divided by these two opinions: an
unsuccessful war would compromise the Federation from which they
have derived great economic advantages; a successful war would
profit only Prussia and Prussianization, against which they have
difficulty in defending their political independence and
administrative autonomy.

"These classes of people either consciously or instinctively
prefer peace to war; but they are only a sort of makeweight in
political matters, with limited influence on public opinion, or
they are silent social forces, passive, and defenseless against
the infection of a wave of warlike feeling.

"An example will make this idea clear: The 110 Socialist members
of the Reichstag are in favor of peace. They would be unable to
prevent war, for war does not depend upon a vote of the
Reichstag, and in the presence of such an eventuality the greater
part of their number would join the rest of the country in a
chorus of angry excitement and enthusiasm.

"Finally it must be observed that these supporters of peace
believe in war in the mass because they do not see any other
solution for the present situation. In certain contracts,
especially in publishers' contracts, a clause has been introduced
cancelling the contract in the case of war. They hope, however,