ses the chance of making these good
by the achievement of national unity would probably sweep away the
dissentients, who would no longer represent a triumphant system, but a
beaten and discredited caste. The old idea of the "seventy-million Empire,"
which appealed so strongly to the Liberals of Frankfurt in 1848, should
prove irresistible under these circumstances. The influence of Austrian
Germans, already so marked in literature, art, music, and above all in
political theory, might make itself felt in other spheres also.

Meanwhile, in view of the wild talk in which certain sections of the Press
are already indulging, it cannot be too strongly emphasised that only the
Germans can reform their political institutions, and that any attempt at
external interference will not merely fail lamentably, but produce the very
opposite effect from that which is intended. If the German Emperor insists
upon confusing the relative positions of the Deity and some of his
self-styled vicegerents upon earth, only the German people can restore him
to a sense of proportion and modesty. All believers in human progress hope
that after this war the monstrous theories of divine right propounded
by the House of Hohenzollern will be relegated to the lumber-room of a
vanished past. But the sooner references to St. Helena as a residence for
deposed emperors are dismissed as arrant nonsense, the better. The future
of German dynasties, as of German Unity, rests with the German people
itself; and those who challenge this statement repudiate _ipso facto_
the two principles of Nationality and International Law, which we have
officially adopted as our programme for the future.

The fate of the German provinces of Austria is one of the central problems
raised by this war, since it is the link between the fate of two Empires.
The present writer most emphatically disclaims all idea of prophecy; but
he feels that the time has come for outlining some of the possible
alternatives which confront the statesmen of "the new Europe." So far as
Austria-Hungary is concerned, it is clear that the splendid dream of "a
monarchical Switzerland," as conceived by many serious political thinkers,
has already died a violent death; but it would be quite premature to
dogmatise on the future grouping of the races of the Dual Monarchy at a
moment when its ultimate fate has still to be decided on the field of
battle.

Sec.11. _Italian Aspirations._--We have already alluded to