ern and eastern bases was
concentrated now upon the task of blocking Germany's oversea trade.
Practically no loss of life was involved, but day by day the ocean-going
vessels of Germany's mercantile marine were being transferred to the
British flag. The great oversea carrying trade, whose growth had been
the pride of Germany, was absolutely and wholly destroyed during that
half-year. The destruction of her export trade spelt ruin for Germany's
most important industries; but it was the cutting off of her imports
which finally robbed even the German Emperor of the power to shut his
eyes any longer to the fact that his Empire had in reality ceased to
exist.

The actual overthrow of monarchical government in Prussia was not
accomplished without scenes of excess and violence in the capital. But,
in justice to the German people as a whole, it should be remembered that
the revolution was carried out at remarkably small cost; that the people
displayed wonderful patience and self-control, in circumstances of
maddening difficulty, which were aggravated at every turn by the
Emperor's arbitrary edicts and arrogant obtrusion of his personal will,
and by the insolence of the official class. One must remember that for
several decades Germany had been essentially an industrial country, and
that a very large proportion of her population were at once strongly
imbued with Socialistic theories, and wholly dependent upon industrial
activity. Bearing these things in mind, one is moved to wonder that the
German people could have endured so long as they did the practically
despotic sway of a Ruler who, in the gratification of his own insensate
pride, allowed their country to be laid waste by the stoppage of trade,
and their homes to be devastated by the famine of an unemployed people
whose communications with the rest of the world were completely severed.

That such a ruler and such a Court should have met with no worse fate
than deposition, exile, and dispersal is something of a tribute to the
temperate character of the Teutonic race. Bavaria, Wuerttemberg, Saxony,
and the southern Grand Duchies elected to retain their independent forms
of government under hereditary rule; and to this no objection was raised
by the new Prussian Republic, in which all but one of the northern
principalities were incorporated.

Within, forty-eight hours of the election of Dr. Carl Moeller to the
Presidency of the new Republic, hostilities ceased between Great