all, counted fewer inhabitants than Denmark or
Greece."[19]

In all their internal politics and social advancement, Switzerland,
Holland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, Finland (until the paw of the Bear
was on her) and Belgium (till the claw of the Spread-Eagle) have been
well to the fore. It is they who have carried on the banner of idealism
which Germany herself uplifted when she was a small people or a group of
small peoples. It is they who have really had prosperous, healthy,
independent, and alert populations. How much more interesting, we may
say, would Europe be under the variety of such a regime than under the
monotonous bureaucracy and officialism of any Great Power! And to some
such scheme we must adhere. It would mean, of course, the alliance of
all the States of Western Europe, large and small (and including both a
remodelled Germany and a largely remodelled Austria) in one great
Federation--whose purpose would be partly to unite and preserve Europe
against any common foe, from the East or elsewhere, and partly to
regulate any overweening ambition of a member of the Federation, such as
might easily become a menace to the other members. A secondary but most
important result of the formation of such a United States of Europe
would be that while each State would probably preserve a small military
establishment of its own, the enormous and fatal incubus of the present
armaments system would be rendered unnecessary, and so at last the
threat of national bankruptcy and ruin, which has of late pursued the
nations Like an evil dream, might pass away. But in that matter of
finance it cannot be disguised that a terrible period still awaits the
European peoples. Already the moneylenders sitting on their chests form
a veritable nightmare; but with fresh debts by the thousand million
sterling being contracted, there is great danger that the mass-peoples
beneath will be worse paralysed and broken even than they are
now--unless, indeed, with a great effort they rouse themselves and throw
off the evil burden.

That the world is waking up to a recognition of _racial_ rights--that
is, the right of each race to have as far as possible its own
Government, instead of being lorded over by an alien race--is a good
sign; and a European settlement along that line must be pressed for. At
last, after centuries of discomfort, we at home are finding our solution
of the Irish question in this very obvious way; and it may be that
Europe,