position have not only intensified patriotism, but have given
also a certain nobility of breadth to her statesmanship up to the
middle of this century.

Why, then, should not Germany, whose political unity was effected near
two centuries after that of Great Britain, do wisely in imitating a
policy whereby the older state has become an empire, that still
travels onward to a further and greater unity, which, if realized,
shall embrace in one fold remote quarters of the world? Where is the
folly of the one conception or of the other? The folly, if it prove
such, has as yet no demonstrable existence, save in the imaginations
of a portion of the people of the United States, who, clinging to
certain maxims of a century ago--when they were quite applicable--or
violently opposed to any active interest in matters outside our family
of States, find that those who differ from themselves are, if
Americans, jingoes, and if foreigners, like the present Emperor
William and Mr. Chamberlain, fools. The virtues and the powers of the
British and German peoples may prove unequal to their ambitions--time
alone can show; but it is a noble aim in their rulers to seek to
extend their influence, to establish their positions, and to knit them
together, in such wise that as races they may play a mighty part in
the world's history. The ambition is noble, even if it fail; if it
succeed, our posterity may take a different view of its folly, and of
our own wisdom in this generation.

For there are at least two steps, in other directions than those as
yet taken, by which the Emperor, when he feels strong enough at
sea--he is yet scarcely in middle life--might greatly and suddenly
increase the maritime empire of Germany, using means which are by no
means unprecedented, historically, but which would certainly arouse
vehement wrath in the United States, and subject to a severe test our
maxim of a navy for defence only. There is a large and growing German
colony in southern Brazil, and I am credibly informed that there is a
distinct effort to divert thither, by means direct and indirect, a
considerable part of the emigration which now comes to the United
States, and therefore is lost politically to Germany--for she has, of
course, no prospect of colonization here. The inference is that the
Emperor hopes at a future day, for which he is young enough to wait,
to find in southern Brazil a strong German population, which in due
time may seek to detach itse