to-day I depart from my rule
and content myself with saying that I lately read in an important
newspaper a letter dealing with Mr. Asquith's distinction between
"Prussian Militarism" and "German Democracy." For my own part,
I did not think that distinction very sound. The experience of
the last three years has led me to the conclusion that the German
democracy is to the full as bellicose as the military caste, and
that it has in no way dissociated itself from the abominable crimes
against decency and humanity which the military caste has committed.
I hold that the German people, as we know it to-day, is brutalized;
but when one thus frames an indictment against a whole nation, one
is bound to ask oneself what it is that has produced so calamitous
a result. How can a whole nation go wrong? Has any race a "double
dose of original sin"? I do not believe it. Human nature as it
leaves the Creator's hand is pretty much the same everywhere; and
when we see it deformed and degraded, we must look for the influence
which has been its bane. In dealing with individuals the enquiry is
comparatively simple, and the answer not far to seek. But when we
deal with nations we cannot, as a rule; point to a single figure,
or even a group of figures, and say, "He, or they, did the mischief."
We are forced to look wider and deeper, and we shall be well advised
if we learn from Burke to realize "the mastery of laws, institutions,
and government over the character and happiness of man." Let me
apply Burke's teaching to the case before us.

The writer of the letter which I am discussing has a whole-hearted
dislike of the Germans, and especially of the Prussians; charges
them with "cruelty, brutal arrogance, deceit, cunning, manners
and customs below those of savages"; includes in the indictment
professors, commercial men, and women; recites the hideous list
of crimes committed during the present war; and roundly says that,
however you label him, "the Prussian will always remain a beast."

I dispute none of these propositions. I believe them to be sadly
and bitterly true; but if I am to follow Burke's counsel, I must
enquire into the "laws, institutions, and government" which have
prevailed in Germany, and which have exercised so disastrous a
"mastery over the character and happiness of man." In this enquiry
it would be obvious to touch military ascendency, despotic monarchy,
representative institutions deprived of effective power, administrati