tical or
opposed. Statesmen and Members of Parliament would be compelled to
read such a paper. A knowledge of foreign opinion would render the
greatest services to public opinion in this country, for it would
compel our somewhat self-centred mind to take into consideration the
judgment of others, to determine the justice or the harshness of the
criticism directed against us, and to draw, from the study of these
things, warnings and rules of conduct.

To take an immediate instance, let me give my readers an extract from
the _Muenchner Nachtrichten_, a newspaper, which as a rule does not
share the brutal harshness of the Berlin Press with regard to our
feelings and their expression in French newspapers--

"These foolishly vain Frenchmen, sitting in their meagre little thicket
of laurels, contemplate with evident displeasure the stirring of the
winds in the great forest of German oaks, and their discontent finds
expression in ways that are frequently comical. The _Figaro_ for
example, has expressed it in an article which is particularly silly
(with a kind of foolishness not often found even in a French newspaper,
which is saying a good deal). It denies to Germans the right to
remember the glorious years of 1870 and '71, for the reason that French
people might thereby be hurt. Does it mean to say that the French
would threaten us with war if we continue to celebrate our victories
over them? Well, if these gentlemen are of that opinion, we will
answer them that Germany is peacefully inclined, but that, if the
French are not satisfied with the severe lesson that we gave them in
1870-71, we are quite prepared to begin it all over again."

And these are the people, mind you, who would have said that we were
trying to provoke them if, faithful to the memory of our defeat, as
they are to the memory of their victory, we had abstained from going to
Kiel to sing the glories of the conqueror. Like William II, their
Sovereign and Lord, Germany will never admit that our actions should be
a counterpart to their own, even though such actions should include
recognition of their former victories. They wish to impose upon us,
not only the acceptance of defeat, but a definite recognition of their
conquest, a final sacrifice of our ancient rights, together with
unlimited scope for their new ambitions. The German Emperor, King of
Prussia, has never made two consecutive speeches in which one did not
contain some threat for us, l