e Servian Government and approved by it,
by intriguing against Austria's right to cultivate her own territory,
Bosnia, spreading secret societies all over the empire, &c.

The awful crime, the assassination of the heir to the throne, was only
the finish of a long chain of like acts. These facts, which immediately
lead up to the ultimatum, ought to be considered in the first place by
judging Austria's justification for sending this ultimatum to Servia. A
just Judge in the Court of Civilization will, I am convinced, carefully
study the ante-history and in all probability arrive at the conclusion
that the ultimatum was amply justified and Servia fully deserved the
severest punishment possible.

Mr. Beck presents to the court the Russian interference with this
intended punishment and forgets to tell the Judge that Russia had not
the least right to this interference. No foreign power had.

Therefore, Austria was entirely within her right to decline any
negotiations with Russia about this punishment before its completion.
Nevertheless, the German Government brought these negotiations about,
and, while these negotiations proceeded satisfactorily, Russia
mobilized, mobilized all along her western frontier against Austria and
Germany, notwithstanding the fact that she had promised not to do so and
officials in Petrograd had pledged their words to the contrary.

Russia knew there could be no such thing as a war with Austria alone, as
well as Germany knew that a war with Russia meant a war with France. If
the laws of morality rule in the Court of Civilization, they should
above all be applied to the conduct of Servia and Russia. Austria was in
a state of self-defense, when she decided not to bear any longer
Servia's treacherous and murderous attacks against her existence; this
is entirely within the boundaries of the laws of morality. Russia,
however, without the slightest right, moral or legal, attacked Austria
from the back by interfering with Austria's own affairs.

Therefore I wish to point out that a careful student of the papers, by
considering the ante-history of the war, which, as you will admit, is
very essential, may come to a quite different conclusion and Mr. Beck as
State's attorney will have a hard stand against the counsel of the
defendant.

EDWARD PICK.

New York, Oct. 27, 1914.

[Illustration]

Defense of the Dual Alliance--A Reply

By Dr. Edmund von Mach.

Instructor of Fine Arts, Harvard