t: "I am glad to declare that I
am not led here by a chance client, I am not here to-day as an advocate
pleading for his clients. I am here in a complete and full community of
ideas with friends, for whom it is less important that I should defend
their liberty, than that I should explain and justify their thought and
their writings."

There can be no question that the opinions expressed by Briand at this
time are approximately those of the majority of the European Socialists
to-day. Some of the leading spokesmen of the Socialists are no doubt
somewhat more cautious of the form of their statements. But the
modifications they would make in Briand's statement would be due, not to
any objection in principle, but to expediency and the practical
limitations of such measures as he advocates in each given case.

The great majority of Socialists feel that a premature revolutionary
crisis at the present moment would endanger or postpone the success of a
political revolution, peaceful or otherwise, when the time for it is
ripe. The position of Kautsky will show how very cautious the most
influential are. The movement has become so strong in Germany that it
might be supposed that the German Socialists would no longer fear a test
of strength. But this is not the case. They feel, on the contrary that
every delay is in their favor, as they are making colossal strides in
their organization and propaganda, while the political situation is
becoming more and more critical.

"Our recruiting ground," says Kautsky, "to-day includes fully three
fourths of the population, probably even more; the number of votes
that are given to us do not equal one third of all the voters and
not one fourth of all those entitled to vote. But the rate of
progress increases with a leap when the revolutionary spirit is
abroad. It is almost inconceivable with what rapidity the mass of
the people reach a clear consciousness of their class interests at
such a time. Not alone their courage and their belligerency, but
their political interest as well, is spurred on in the highest
degree through the consciousness that the hour has at last come for
them to burst out of the darkness of night into the glory of the
full glare of the sun. Even the laziest become industrious, even
the most cowardly become brave, and even the most narrow gains a
wider view. In such times a single year will accomplish an