field and cockpit of Europe."

XXI.--THE COMING WAR WILL BE A POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS CRUSADE.

"If a war between the two countries did break out, it would not be
merely an economic war, like the colonial wars between France and
England in the eighteenth century; rather would it partake of the
nature of a political and religious crusade, like the French wars of
the Revolution and the Empire. _The present conflict between England
and Germany is the old conflict between Liberalism and despotism,
between industrialism and militarism, between progress and reaction,
between the masses and the classes._ The conflict between England and
Germany is a conflict, on the one hand, between a nation which
believes in political liberty and national autonomy, where the Press
is free and where the rulers are responsible to public opinion, and,
on the other hand, a nation where public opinion is still muzzled or
powerless and where the masses are still under the heel of an absolute
government, a reactionary party, a military Junkerthum, and a despotic
bureaucracy.

The root of the evil lies in the fact that in Germany the war spirit
and the war caste still prevail, and that a military Power like
Prussia is the predominant partner in the German Confederation. The
mischievous masterpiece of Carlyle on Frederick the Great, and his
more mischievous letter to _The Times_, have misled English opinion as
to the true character and traditions and aims of the Prussian
monarchy. Prussia has been pre-eminently for two hundred years the
military and reactionary State of Central Europe, much more so even
than Russia. Prussia owes whatever she is, and whatever territory she
has, to a systematic policy of cunning and deceit, of violence and
conquest. No doubt she has achieved an admirable work of organization
at home, and has fulfilled what was perhaps a necessary historic
mission, but in her international relations she has been mainly a
predatory Power. She has stolen her Eastern provinces from Poland. She
is largely responsible for the murder of a great civilized nation.
She has wrested Silesia from Austria. She has taken Hanover from its
legitimate rulers. She has taken Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark,
Alsace-Lorraine from France. And to-day the military caste in Prussia
trust and hope that a final conflict with England will consummate what
previous wars have so successfully accomplished in the past. They are
all the more anxious to enter the li