She might have played a glorious
part in the new empire. Instead she has resisted every attempt at
financial reform. She might have resisted the oppressive policy
against the Poles. Instead she has connived at oppression. She might
have opposed the orgies of militarism. Instead she has voted every
increase in the army and navy. She has bartered her dignity and
spiritual independence to secure confessional privileges, and to get
her share in the spoils of office.

The Protestant Churches have not had the same power for evil, yet
they have fallen even lower than the Catholic Church. They have lost
even more completely every vestige of independence. German University
theologians may be advanced in higher criticism, but they are
opportunists in practical politics. They are very daring when they
examine the Divine right of Christ, but they are very timid when they
examine the Divine right of the King and Emperor. Protestantism
produced one or two prominent progressive leaders; but they have had
to leave their Churches. Dr. Naumann has become a layman; Stoecker,
when he espoused the cause of the people, was excommunicated, and the
Kaiser hurled one of his most violent speeches against his once
favourite Court chaplain."

XV.--THE PAN-GERMAN PLOT.[8]

[8] This was written and published in 1906.

"For forty years Germany had been seeking an outlet for her teeming
population and her expanding industries. Hitherto emigration had
seemed to be a sufficient outlet and a sufficient source of strength.
But as Germany was becoming more and more the controlling power of the
Continent, she refused to be contented with sending out millions of
her sons, who, as mere emigrants to foreign countries, were lost to
the Vaterland.[9] How different would the power of Germany have been,
German Imperialists were ever repeating, if the 20,000,000 Teutons who
have colonized the United States, or Brazil, or Argentina, and have
been absorbed and Americanized and Saxonized, had settled in
territories under the Imperial flag!

[9] To-day the immigration into Germany exceeds the
emigration.

And thus Pan-Germanists have been looking towards every part of the
horizon. They have first looked to the north and the north-west, and
they have reflected that the Rhine ought to belong to the Vaterland;
that Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and Antwerp are the natural German
harbours; that Denmark, Holland, and Flemish Belgium are the outposts
of Germa