achine of State made less and less progress:
stagnation and aimlessness were everywhere apparent. On all sides it was
recognised that the existing system had become unworkable, and that a
catastrophe could only be averted by speedy reforms. To many far-seeing
patriots the last hope of salvation for the State seemed to lie with the
late Heir-Apparent, not perhaps as the ideal Prince, but as a man of
courage and force of character, possessing the necessary energy to carry
through drastic political changes. His removal was a crushing blow to all
who still hoped against hope in the regeneration of the Monarchy. His place
was filled by a young man, lacking both experience and prestige; never was
there less sign of the heaven-born genius who alone could save a desperate
situation.

In the life of nations and States, as in that of individuals, there
sometimes comes a moment when it is possible to make the "Great Refusal"
of which Dante sang; and "History teaches that those who decline, or
prove unworthy of, the leading role which is offered to them, are trodden
mercilessly underfoot." In closing the German edition of my book with these
words, I expressed the conviction that "for a State such as Austria there
could only be one choice"; but unhappily her statesmen have preferred the
fatal alternative.[1] "The historic mission of the House of Habsburg is the
vindication of equal rights and liberties for all races committed to its
charge. The abandonment of this mission would endanger the very existence
of a Great Power upon the Middle Danube."[2] Austria has proved untrue to
this mission, and the inexorable forces of history seem at this moment to
be working her destruction. Nations, like individuals, sometimes commit
suicide; and those who have most earnestly warned them against such a crime
are left as mourners in the funeral procession.

[Footnote 1: In July 1911 I dedicated _The Southern Slav Question_ to "that
Austrian statesman who shall have the courage and the genius necessary to
solve the Southern Slav Question." In April 1913, in publishing a German
edition, I added the words, "At the twelfth hour this dedication is
repeated." In November 1914 it is unhappily only too evident that that hour
has already struck.]

[Footnote 2: See _Racial Problems in Hungary_, concluding sentence.]

The war-fever which seized upon the populace of Vienna and Budapest last
July typified the feelings of the three dominant races in the Mona