treaties, whose existence was safe-guarded only by honour. To Bethmann-Hollweg the ideas of his speech were merely current truth. His friends and family circle had been nurtured in these doctrines; and he showed a kind of pride in proclaiming them.

There was something worse than mere stupidity in Germany's mode of opening this war, there was infatuation. Here was Germany, flanked on the east by armed Russia, on the west by armed France. One would have thought that such a situation would suggest a conservative foreign policy. And yet during thirty years she openly avowed that she was going to conquer the world, and especially that she should begin by shattering the empire of England. Thus we perceive that Germany's foreign policy was bred in her own bowels. It had nothing to do with what the eye of man could see on the foreign horizon. It grew out of her own psychological needs. It was not based on international conditions; but on domestic conditions. It was the product of a metaphysical and brooding isolation which ended by making her court, as it were, the hatred of mankind. This is the famous "realpolitik." I mention it here merely to show that it is tarred with the same stick as the rest of Germany's conduct. It is insensate, passionate, dogmatic.

VII

THE INTELLECTUALS

THE following manifesto of the Intellectuals of Germany reached America in time to be published on October 10th:

TO THE CIVILIZED WORLD

As representatives of Science and Art we hereby protest to the civilized world, against the lies and calumnies with which our enemies are endeavouring to stain the honour of Germany in her hard struggle for existence,-in a struggle which has been forced upon her.

The iron mouth of events has proved the untruth of the fictitious German defeats, consequently misrepresentation and calumny are all the more eagerly at work, As heralds of truth we raise our voices against these.

It is not true that Germany is guilty of having caused this war. Neither the people, the Government, nor the Kaiser, wanted war. Germany did her utmost to prevent it; for this assertion the world has documental proof. Often enough during the twenty-six years of his reign Wilhelm II has shown

himself to be the upholder of peace, and often enough has this fact been acknowledged by our opponents. Nay, even the Kaiser, whom they now dare to call an Attila, has been ridiculed by them for years because of his steadfast endeavours to maintain universal peace. Not till a numerical superiority, which had been lying in wait on the frontiers, assailed us did the whole nation rise to

a man.

It is not true that we trespassed in neutral Belgium. It has been proved that France and England had resolved on such a trespass, and it has likewise been proved that Belgium had agreed to their doing so. It would have been suicide on our part not to have been beforehand.

It is not true that the life and property of a single Belgian citizen was injured by our soldiers without the bitterest self-defence having made it necessary; for again and again, notwithstanding repeated threats, the citizens lay in ambush, shooting at the troops out of the houses, mutilating the wounded, and murdering in cold blood the medical men while they were doing their Samaritan work. There can be no baser abuse than the suppression of these crimes, with the view of letting the Germans appear to be criminals, only for having justly punished these assassins for their wicked deeds.

It is not true that our troops treated Louvain brutally. Furious inhabitants having treacherously fallen upon them in their quarters, our troops, with aching hearts, were obliged to fire a part of the town as a punishment. The greatest part of Louvain has been preserved. The famous Town Hall stands quite intact, for at great sacrifice our soldiers

saved it from destruction by the flames. Every German would of course greatly regret if in the course of this terrible war any works of art should already have been destroyed, or be destroyed at some future time, but inasmuch as in our love for art we cannot be surpassed by any other nation, in the same degree we must decidedly refuse to buy a German defeat at the cost of saving a work of art. It is not true that our warfare pays no respect to international laws. It knows no undisciplined cruelty. But in the east the earth is saturated with the blood of women and children unmercifully butchered by the wild Russian troops, and in the west dum-dum bullets mutilate the breasts of our soldiers. Those who have allied themselves with Russians and Servians, and present such a shameful scene to the world as that of inciting Mongolians and Negroes against the white race, have no right whatever to call themselves upholders of civilization.

It is not true that the combat against our socalled militarism is not a combat against our civilization, as our enemies hypocritically pretend it is. Were it not for German militarism German civilization would long since have been extirpated. For its protection it arose in a land which for centuries had been plagued by bands of robbers as no other land had been. The German Army and the German people are one, and to-day this consciousness fraternizes 70,000,000 of Germans, all ranks, positions, and parties being one.

We cannot wrest the poisonous weapon-the lieout of the hands of our enemies. All we can do is to proclaim to the world that our enemies are giving false witness against us. You who know us, who

with us have protected the most holy possessions of man, we call to you:

Have faith in us.

Believe that we shall carry on

this war to the end as a civilized nation, to whom the legacy of a Goethe, a Beethoven, and a Kant is just as sacred as its own hearths and homes.

For this we pledge you our names and our honour.