a . N c „ '/-t "^,C^ .^■-^ * ., -^^^ " 4'- « '/ l--*^ . N <. '' It .-^' o*^ i^' ^^ .pP )yO^^. •• ^0 D ", . V '^, -u 1 •/ ^ I M 0- x° ^' •^ .r- ^0^ :/ aV • -Js ,0 o. 'V ^/^ ^X^^' ^-^. ■^c.. .(,,> M 8, -V .vx^ . ,0 o. :i^ \^ -^-. "OO^ .0' z^^;^' '^\v: jo;-" .^ vv'?- •^'-Vi-v^' .'' -x*^ r-^'^' .-i" ^ .<" ... 1 \ M .^ % .0- vX' ,0 c .H -r^ k\^ v> s^'^'., .,^' ^ s^-^. ^0 ^ '^. %. '■ *.. c. .Oo, ,5 -% ^^^v^ x^^^. v^ •i^ '^-.^>' .-^^ ■•y->' oo^ o'^\n^,..'>-^!''^ "^ ^0 oo' vtV o^ vO o. 'P.c'^ '^' ^x\- ^A v^'^' "^ ■'i.o* \° o. / "* •^ y^J^^^-; V ^0o. o "M HOW DIPLOMATS MAKE WAR HOW DIPLOMATS MAKE WAR BY FRANCIS NEILSON Member of Parliament, January, 1910-Deccmber, 1915. The whole theory of the universe is directed to one '^v single individual — namely, to You. — Walt Whitman. NEW YORK B. W. HUEBSCH MCMXVI Copyright, 1915, by B. W. HUEBSCH First edition, November, 1915 Second edition, May, 1916 Third printing, January, 1918 PRINTED IN U, S. A. r PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION Now that it is necessary to publish a second edition of this book, and as I have resigned my seat in Parlia- ment, I wish to take this opportunity of making the name of the author public. I am grateful to my friend, Mr. Albert Jay Nock, for his kindness in editing the work and fathering the book upon its first appearance. Francis Neilson. New York, April 17th, 19 16. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE 1815 I Waterloo — After 1815 — Long period of unrest — Na- tional rights and individual rights — Unpatriotic critics — "After the Kaiser is crushed" — New values — Litera- ture and Jingoes — Britain and her vvarraongers — Might and Right — The interests of the people — What the na- tions are fighting for — The power that makes wars — The god of battles — The diplomatic machine — The work of diplomacy. CHAPTER n "Scraps of Paper" 15 The Treaties of 1831 and 1839 — Holland and Belgium — Palmerston and Talleyrand — Treaty-making and the balance of power — Lord Granville and the Crimea — Sevastopol — After the Treaty of Paris — Wars from 1837 to 1850 — Sir Robert Peel and armaments — The Duke of Wellington and France — After 1854 — Disraeli and Gladstone — The panic of i860 — Cobden and the utterly futile theory of secrecy — The rise of Bismarck — The in- fluence of Lassalle — George Brandes on Lassalle and Bis- marck — Might and Right — Poland 1862 — Prussia and Russia — Letter from King of the Belgians to Queen Vic- toria — Fitzmaurice on the diplomacy concerning the par- tition of Poland — Schleswig-Holstein and Denmark — Britain's relation then to France — The diplomatic squab- bles of the Continent — "Scraps of Paper" — Queen Vic- toria works for peace — Letters to Lord Granville — Dis- raeli's motion in the House — John Bright and the balance of power — The people and treaties — The condition of Britain, 1864. xi xll CONTENTS CHAPTER III PAGE 1870 39 Succession to the Spanish throne — Bismarck and Moltke — The Ems telegram — Editor Bismarck — British neu- trality — The Queen's advice — Belgium in 1870 — The schemes of Bismarck and Napoleon III — Morley on the British attitude — The Treaties of 1870 — Gladstone to John Bright — Diplomatic unrest — The neutral league — The Foreign Office then and now — Thiers and Prussia — The military party and the political party in Prussia — Peace negotiations — Alsace and Lorraine — Gladstone's fears — Britain free from Continental entanglements in 1870 — Lord Granville and neutrality — Britain's posi- tion in 1914 — Secret understandings — Foreign friend- ships — Neutrality of Belgium — Foreign policy and viola- tion of the Treaty of 1839 — The provisions in Treaties of 1870 — Britain's action now not comparable with that of 1870 — War first, law after — Russia and Black Sea — Essential principle of the law of nations — Interna- tional law — The casus belli — Belgium's preparations — The moral value of treaties — Diplomacy and territory — Palmerston's letter to Clarendon, 1857 — Lord Gran- ville's difficulties — The condition of Britain in 1884. CHAPTER IV Friendships 66 Germany and colonies — Bismarck's policy — Fitz- maurice and the Luxembourg quarrel — Odo Russell on Bismarck and British foreign policy — Bismarck's letter — Lord Acton to Mary Gladstone — Resolution in the House of Commons on embarking in war without the knowledge and consent of Parliament — Naval expenditure, 1887 — Russia and France — Toulon and Kronstadt — The rise in armaments — Germany before and after the Boer War — Forcing the pace — Germany versus France and Russia — Morocco — Secret articles — Von Bulow on relations of Britain and Germany — M. Delcasse — The Kaiser's visit to Tangiers — The press campaign — Baron d'Estour- nelles de Constant on the Anglo-French Agreement — CONTENTS xili PAGE Germany ignored — Lord Lansdowne on war — Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman — Mr. Balfour's statements in 1905 — Lord Rosebery on violent polemics — Sir Edward Grey and alliances — Undesirable entanglements — Mr. Cham- berlain and Germany — Continuity of foreign policy — Mr. Asquith on caretakers — Lord Rosebery on the An- glo-French Agreement — The new Government — Mr. Asquith and the Kaiser at the Guildhall — Lord Cro- mer's startling information. CHAPTER V Enemies / . 91 Nietzsche and Germany — Britain after the Boer war — The Tariff Reform campaign — The press campaign against Germany — The Schleswig-Holstein invasion rumours and M. Delcasse — The armament ring — M. de Pressense on M. Delcasse — The interview in Le Gau- lois — Mr. Bryce and Mr. Morley on the dangers of the press campaign — The yellow press — Lord Roberts and the Expeditionary Force — Lord Halsbury — Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman and the Hague Conference — The march of events — Scaremongers — Mr. Churchill's speech at Swansea — Germany before and after the out- break of hostilities. CHAPTER VI Panicmongers . .Ill The Franco-German Declaration — The people and diplomatic traffickings — Forces against democracy — The panic of 1909 — The Government's case — The Ger- man Government's naval declaration to Britain — The Jingo storm — Mr. MuUiner — Mr. Asquith on German expansion — Mr. Balfour's estimates of German naval strength — 'Sir Edward Grey on armaments — The Gov- ernment bow before the storm — The budget of 1909 — Lord Rosebery and Armageddon — The General Election of 1910 — Mr. Churchill on the methods of his political opponents — The British strength in ships 1904 and 1910 xlv CONTENTS PAGE — Mr. Balfour's speech at Hanley — The Jingo press campaign increases in violence — Mr. Asquith's remon- strance — Dreadnaughts and pre-dreadnaughts. CHAPTER VII Insurance 132 The policy of European naval expansion — Secret for- eign policy — Pacifists and militarists — The Govern- ment's blunders of 1909 — The German Fleet Law — The disquieting rumours of 1908 — British naval expansion — The first dreadnaught — The Anglo-French Agreement and its effect on German estimates — Arming against Germany — The work of the British and French naval and military experts — The Anglo- Russian Agreement — "Under which King?" — The Kaiser-Tweedmouth corre- spondence — The Kaiser complains — Fury of the Jingo press — Old Liberal watchwords abandoned — German feeling against Britain — The policy of isolating Germany — Comparison of navies, 1908 — The figures for new con- struction, 1909 to 1914 — Big business — What intelligent Germans must have thought of British foreign and naval policy — Figures of Triple Entente and Triple Alliance for new construction, 1914, compared — Ministers misled in 1909 — Sir Edward Grey and German naval pro- gramme — Lord Roberts and Lord Haldane — The Pan- ther's visit to Agadir after the French expedition to Fez. CHAPTER VIII Apostles of Peace 154 Office — Mr. Churchill at the Admiralty — The new public policy — The supremacy of Entente Powers — Mr. Dillon on Morocco — The publication of the secret Articles — Sir Edward Grey on foreign friendships — Mr. Bonar Law on Germany — Lord Morley on Germany's ambi- tion — Lord Rosebery on foreign policy — Lord Haldane's visit to Berlin — Mr. Asquith on the crisis of 1911-^ The German Chancellor and the British Government's mission to Berlin — "Strategy" and foreign policy — Mr. Church- ill's declaration — The "naval holiday" — Bernhardi CONTENTS XV PAGE quoted in the Commons — Germany isolated — The naval position in the Mediterranean — The attitude of the masses — Mr. Bonar Law's warning — The conscription- ists — Lord Roberts' speech at Manchester — Thucydides — Lord Percy's startling statement — The disposition of the British and French fleets in 1912 — Belgian preparations — The position of Belgium. CHAPTER IX " Not INT THE Public Interest " 182 Secrecy and heredity — Awkward questions — Foreign Affaira — Debate on the Army — Secret alliance with France — The Foreign Secretary questioned again^ — Naval policy not for the public — Mr. Swift MacNeill on secrecy in foreign affairs — Questions about Fez ^ The Comite du Maroc — British "interests" in Morocco — The Agadir crisis — Secret, agreements — Ministers at vari- ance — The basis of Government — Spinoza. CHAPTER X The Power to War 201 The debate on the Expeditionary Force — Mr. Amery's remarkable speech — Sir Reginald Pole-Carew on the War Office secret — The Nowvelle Revue — The entente and naval policy — Lord Hugh Cecil questions Mr. As- quith on the secret understanding — Major-General Sir Ivor Herbert on a Continental Alliance — More awk- ward questions to Ministers — The naval estimates of 1913 — Mr. Lee and Lord Charles Beresford on the naval policy in the Mediterranean — Contradictions — Lord Hal- dane on the Entente Powers' naval policy — The "naval holiday" again — Expenditure on navies for 1913 — The burden on Britain — The Foreign Secretary's power — Questions in 1914 on secret understandings. CHAPTER XI The Work of Diplomatists 222 Britain in 1914 — Condition of Germany — The inter- nal affairs of France — Italy's position before the war — xvi CONTENTS PAGE The crisis in Austria — Russia — The White Paper — When the House of Commons heard of the crisis — Des- patch-making — What the House was not told — Sir Ed- ward Grey in the toils — Despatch No. 17 — Russian mobilization — German diplomacy — Orders to the fleet — The attitude of Russia after the fleet sailed — Diplomatic chess — M. Sazonof — Depression in Berlin — Telegrams of the Czar and Kaiser — "All would depend on Russia" — Events in Petersburg — The freest assembly in the world — The Commons a week before the declaration of war. CHAPTER XII A Game of Chess 261 The Foreign Secretary's statement on July 30th — Des- patch No. 85 — The "infamous bargain" — Belgian fore- sight — What the German Foreign Office knew — Mr. Asquith makes a statement — No questions until Monday — What the Commons did not know — German pressure on Austria — The Foreign Secretary warns Prince Lich- nowsky — Strange methods of diplomatists — Britain and peace — M. Cambon reminds Sir Edward Grey of the understanding — Black Friday — Kriegsgefahr proclaimed — Sir Edward Grey's struggle — Dilatory methods of the Cabinet — Neutrality of Belgium — Rejoicing in Petersburg — The Belgian diplomatic correspondence — The plans of General Staffs — "Technically impossible" — Austria concedes Russian demands — Despatch No. 123 — The position of the Foreign Secretary — Grave news from Berlin — Saturday, August ist — Cabinet consent to give France naval support — Sunday Cabinet meetings — Feverish military activity. CHAPTER XIII The Foreign Secretary's Statement .... 296 The House of Commons — The speech — The con- fession — Cryptic speeches of 1905 made plain — Sir Edward Grey's letter to M. Cambon — The French fleet and the Mediterranean — Strange discrepancies in Franco- CONTENTS xvii PAGE British documents — What the Foreign Secretary did not tell the House — Secrecy to the bitter end — Striving for Peace — Bound to France — What France and Belgium were doing meanwhile — More strange discrepancies — Germans invade Luxembourg and Belgium — Co-opera- tion — More explanations — Despatch No. 123 again — What Jingoes toiled for — Who began it? — Signposts — Secret diplomacy. CHAPTER XIV Recrimination 317 Anatole France — Friendly Societies — Basil Williams on Anglo-German relations — Mr. Lloyd George on Ger- man alarm — The year 1912 again — Mr. Asquith's rev- elations at Cardiff — Hoodwinking the people — Friendly speeches and unfriendly affairs — Mr. Churchill at Dun- dee — Lord Welby — More light on the Treaty of 1839 — Mr. Lloyd George and Belgian neutrality — Military un- derstanding with Belgium — Lord Palmerston on the Treaty — The Times editorial — Official Tory position in the '80s — " Diplomaticus " — The Standard gives ad- vice. CHAPTER XV On Brotherly Terms 341 Mr. Lloyd George at the City Temple — The faith of the Puritan Fathers — Jesus — " Resist not evil " — Wars — Justice and right — The long ago — Greece and China — The god of battles — Luther on war — After the Treaty of Peace is signed — Lessons that might be learned — Christianity and Humanists — The new hope — Browning — The fight against poverty — Atrocities — Religions — The masses and Jesus — Mr. Blatchford and the future — What is justice? — Mr. Asquith and Socialism — Indi- vidual justice — Cromwell — Milton. CHAPTER XVI Aftermath 366 Back to the causes of the war — Danger of forgetting what brought it about — Nothing so cheap as human life xvlii CONTENTS — War and poverty — Disarmament not probable — Rus- sia as dominant power — Suggested changes in Foreign Office system — Parliament must have complete control — Fixed period for Parliament — The problems of arma- ments and war — Recruiting — Equal opportunity the remedy — What the war means — Christianity has not done its work — Hope of the soldiers. Appendix 377 HOW DIPLOMATS MAKE WAR CHAPTER I 1815 " What, speaking in quite unofficial language, is the net purport and upshot of war? To my own knowledge, for example, there dwell and toil, in the British village of Dum- drudge, usually some five hundred souls. From these, by certain ' Natural Enemies ' of the French, there are suc- cessively selected, during the French war, say thirty able- bodied men: Dumdrudge, at her own expense, has suckled ^ and nursed them; she has, not without difficulty and sorrow, fed them up to manhood, and even trained them to crafts, so that one can weave, another build, another hammer, and the weakest can stand under thirty stone avoirdupois. Nevertheless, amid much weeping and swearing, they are selected; all dressed in red; and shipped away, at the public charges, some two thousand miles, or say only to the south of Spain ; and fed there till wanted. And now to that same spot in the south of Spain, are thirty similar French artisans, from a French Dumdrudge, in like manner wending: till at length, after infinite effort, the two parties come into actual juxtaposition; and Thirty stands fronting Thirty, each with a gun in his hand. Straightway the word * Fire ! ' is given: and they blow the souls out of one another; and in the place of sixty brisk useful craftsmen, the world has sixty dead carcasses, which it must bury, and anew shed tears for. Had these men any quarrel? Busy as the Devil is, not the I 2 HOW DIPLOMATS MAKE WAR smallest! They lived far enough apart; were the entirest strangers; nay, in so wide a Universe, there was even, un- consciously, by Commerce, some mutual helpfulness between them. How then? Simpleton! their Governors had fallen out: and, instead of shooting one another, had the cunning to make these poor blockheads shoot. — Alas, so it is in Deutschland, and hitherto in all other lands; still as of old, * what devilry soever Kings do, the Greeks must pay the piper!'" — Carlyle, Sartor Resartus. Within a year of the centenary of Waterloo, Europe is again engaged in a conflict, in which three Powers are united in awful bonds, to overthrow an- other military tyrant. Another hundred years of treaties, alliances, understandings, secret engage- ments, and ententes, leave Europe now in the throes of Gargantuan battles, the like of which Napoleon never in his wildest dreams imagined possible. A century ago, the vast majority of the millions of Europe believed it was absolutely necessary for na- tions to spend every energy in subduing the French Emperor, because he was a danger to the peace of the world and a menace to democracy. Twenty years of carnage, over fields extending from Mos- cow to Corunna, were spent In crushing the might of the " hero-monster " who rose at Toulon to be master of Europe. When at last the aim of the allies was accomplished, and the " man of blood " was safely isolated on St. Helena, Europe knew little peace, nor did Britain rest from the labours of the arsenal. The nations of Europe did not disband their armies. They did not beat their swords into ploughshares, nor did they decide that battleships would be required no more. WHAT THE PEOPLE GET 3 All wars we are told are fought In the interest of the people. It is their land, their nation, their homes, that are at stake. It is their pride, their honour, their patriotism, that are called upon by re- cruiting statesmen when a diplomatic squabble is to be settled by force of arms. The same appeals were broadly made onp hundred years ago that are made to-day. But what do the people, the workers, get in return for all the vast sacrifices they make? The economic, industrial, and financial condition of Eng- land, for over a generation after the Second Treaty of Paris, was not a whit less miserable than when her people suffered from the ravages of Napoleonic wars. National distress and widespread disaffection brought agitation and revolt. Riots in the large towns, and rick-burnings in the agricultural districts, were every-day occurrences. For seventeen years artisans and labourers suffered terrible privations. Parliament gave little or no heed to the lamentations of the people who had supplied the armies for Wellington and had made a thousand sacrifices to crush the militarism of Napoleon. After the down- fall of military France, diplomacy secured for a time the privileges of some small nations, but Parliament did not secure the rights of those men who had di- rectly and indirectly helped to conquer the man who, no matter what he thought of national rights, had a better conception of individual rights than British statesmen of the time. Parliament was indeed more concerned In those days In transporting to Van Die- men's Land men who had the courage to ask the nation's representatives to observe the first duty of a Parliament: to grant economic, political, and re- ligious rights to all men. National honour, pride. 4 HOW DIPLOMATS MAKE WAR and patriotism did not run to that. The rights of in- dividuals could wait, but the privileges of nations were urgent affairs. The aftermath was enough to satisfy the most war-loving patriot. Over £530,000,000 were added to the National debt. The honour and glory of an all-conquering nation filled the empty stomachs of the people, who knew they were at last safe from the atrocities of the Corslcan terror. Carping crit- ics, ignorant, no doubt, of Britain's superb achieve- ments on land and sea, said that corn at eighty shillings a quarter was a poor return for all the peo- ple had done to save Europe from the mailed fist of Napoleon. But, it was ever thus. There have been unpatriotic critics in all ages. It may be pre- sumed that after Agincourt some stay-at-home grumbled about the net result of Henry's campaigns. In extenuation it might be said that a short-sighted people may not expect to see the political significance of the work of kings and diplomatists. Patience, a virtue carried to excess by the people of warring nations, is required to an almost unwarrantable de- gree if one generation is to appreciate the full diplo- matic glory the next one will enjoy. Still, peace is not consummated when war on foreign fields is trans- ferred to the villages and towns of one's own coun- try. And even when all the military nations of the earth stand at ease, — not only indulge in an armed peace but disarm altogether, — the people will suffer without cessation all the horrors of economic and in- dustrial war. But this war is different from any other that has been waged. We are told it is a " holy " war; some say it is a "spiritual" war; there seems to be no PROMISES AND FULFILMENT 5 doubt in the minds of most journalists that It is a " just " war. The end of it is to be a democratic millennium. No one is to be left out of the apotheosis of the nations. Russia will be the freest land on earth; Pole and Jew, Finn and Slav, will all unite in a liberty which, in the press, already touches the confines of licence. No more Balkan troubles, no more aggrandizement, no more envy, greed, or bully- ing. Disarmament is only one of the blessings which will come to the race of man, after the Kaiser is shut up on the Island of Juan Fernandez, or some other pacific spot. It is a pity Nietzsche died before he completed his Transvaluation of All Values. When the bu- reaucrats of Prussia and Russia regard the inter- ests of all Germans and Russians as a first charge on the departments, then we shall not know what to do with many volumes that now occupy so much space on our book-shelves. New values will be nec- essary when the churches cry, " We have no work to do." And when war is known no more the woes of the armament ring will call for a system of new values beyond the inventive powers of the sanest superman that ever lived. But what will the heathen think of it all? A real Christendom in the place of a sham Christendom will revolutionize everything that mortal man can think of. Unfortunately history, that rude awakener from such dreams, jeers at all the fine prognostications of the journalists and statesmen of to-day, and makes us pause while we ponder the question: "Will men, much less Governments, change so quickly?" The noble aspirations of men writing under the strain of a great war are not always warranted unshrink- 6 HOW DIPLOMATS MAKE WAR able. Written in the heat of wartime they suffer when the chill of peace sets in. Still, a touch of Pharisaism is a virtue at a time like this, for it makes us forget our vices. Now that the public is reading the works of au- thors whose names it never heard of before, it is diffi- cult for a pohtician who does not see eye to eye with the present Government to say anything pro- found. The simple middle-class household that was content last spring with the Daily Mail, or the Daily News, at breakfast, will now take nothing less than copious extracts from Treitschke or Sybel. Since Mr. Archer discovered Thus Spake Zarathustra, no afternoon tea is complete without a discussion on A Genealogy of Morals. Sociology, Carson, and suffragettes are no longer subjects of interest now that Bernhardi and Beyerlein are household authors. No war was ever the means of discovering so much literature as this. Everybody is so learned that a person of limited knowledge must perforce sit mute in a club, in a restaurant, in a railway train, or in a bus, while some stranger who has read the Times expounds the philosophy of some German whose name he cannot pronounce. But Germany has had no monopoly of Treitschkes and Bernhardis, not any more than Britain has had a monopoly of Cremers and Carnegies. The senti- ments of Bernhardi were expressed in many a home in Britain long before Germany and the Next War was published. The notion that wars are necessary for the development of the race is not new; and years before Kipling tickled the souls of British Jingoes, a large section of the people of Britain worshipped the god of battles. The wife of an archbishop bap- MEMORIES 7 tized a dreadnaught not so long ago. During the Boer War, when Britain was busy attending to the " rights " of small nations in South Africa, ministers of the gospel gave the Prince of Peace the cold shoulder. The most popular pictures on the walls of church schools were copies of Maclise's Battle of Waterloo, and Battle of Trafalgar. Church armies and juvenile regiments of various kinds have been fostered by the clergy; and "leaders of thought," afld soldiers, and war office organizers, have joined societies founded for the propaganda of peace, — so that the useful doctrine, " the best way to keep the peace is to be prepared for war," should not be lost sight of altogether. Scarcely one society for the propaganda of useful knowledge has escaped its Jingo. The Psychical Society had a prominent member in the man who led the Jingoes in 1909, when the cry was, " We want eight, and we won't wait." This Jingo made an attempt to show his sympathy with Bergson when in the debate in the House of Commons, on August 3rd, 1914, he said the speeches of the pacifists, who had the courage to express their opinions, were " the very dregs and lees of the debate." Perhaps he was conscious" that " We trail behind us, unawares, the whole of our past; but our memory pours into the present only the odd recollection or two that in some way com- plete our present situation." It is most strange what a revolution British thought has passed through since the beginning of August, 19 14. No one seems to remember what the nation suffered from 1908 to the end of July, 19 14. No one remembers that the contempt of the militarists of Britain for the advo- cates of peace at home, was just as deep as that of 8 HOW DIPLOMATS MAKE WAR Bernhardi for the pacifists of Germany. It seems to be forgotten that the section of the British press given over to the crusade of hatred and greed, pushed their campaigns as unscrupulously as did any Krupp-owned journal in Germany. Forgotten are the armament firms that welcomed half-pay officers to their boards of directors. Forgotten, too, are those leaders of religious bodies who did not hesitate to associate themselves with the business of warfare, and its dividends. But all these methods of stimulating interest in the destruction of life and property were, we are told, not to be held parallel with similar designs in Germany. Not by any means. Even comparison is not to be tolerated for a moment. For the Germans have a war-lord who is absolute; a melodramatic vil- lain, jealous of Britain's might. Besides, our war- like preparations were not made for the purpose of aggrandizement; our objects were pacific, our in- tentions laudable. Defence, not defiance, was our motto. Nothing could be clearer. We had as much territory as any one but a Kaiser could wish for, and all we asked of other nations was to let us alone in the enjoyment of our vast empire. Britain had only one desire, and that was to keep what she had got. Germany, on the other hand, had a strictly limited area for expansion, because she came rather late into the game of pushing afield. Her ambitions were behind the times. Still, though it was unfortunate for her colonial policy, it was but natural, all the same, that she should want to get from us what we took from others. Neither Machiavelli nor Plato understood the British posi- tion. " Might is Right," — up to a point. When MAXIMS FOR MONARCHS 9 an empire Is established nowadays nothing can be right that questions Its fundamental notion, that God sanctioned Its making. " Might Is Right," ceased to have any virtue as a doctrine, once the British Em- pire was formed. Plato's notion that Justice is the end for which a state exists. Is classical; in modern days, no such Utopian idea can exist. When the Kaiser was studying the law of nations, Bismarck should have taught him those two useful maxims (which every monarch should In future memorize) ; " First come, first served," and " Pos- session is nine points of the law." It is true Na- poleon did not always let those useful precepts guide him; but it must be remembered that a century has passed since his methods of laying the basis of an empire upset so many Europeans. Besides, Na- poleon was a mere amateur at making war, and wag- ing war. His Government never voted £52,000,- 000 in a single year for naval purposes. In these days a boy scout could tell him things about ex.- plosives and submarines that would make his ^hair stand on end; so far has science carried us onward and progress left the victor of Jena behlpfd. [ Per- haps the writers of books on Napoleon do hot know how harmful their works are in giving raise, notionis or what can be accomplished by studymg strategy and empire-makmg; the monarchs and generals that nave been led astray m thLS .respect are legion. Even so, it is not to be interred that tnis war would not have taken place if the Kai&er, had not taken to reading books on ]