T HE letter of the German Emperor authorising the Stadtholder of
Alsace-Lorraine to withdraw " the dictatorship paragraph" from the Constitution of the State is more important than has been at once perceived. It is, of course, a great relief to the population, who are no longer liable to see the laws suspended by the fiat of an official, or to find their newspapers suppressed by decree, and their leaders banished across the frontier without trial ; but that is only a pleasant local effect. The letter means more than that. It means that the Emperor, who has re- peatedly visited the Reichsland, and his most influential local advisers are convinced that the people of Alsace-Lorraine, whether reconciled to their fate or not, have honestly accepted it, and intend in future to be " loyal " subjects of the Empire, perhaps subjects who, like the people of Saxony or Baden, may be trusted after a short interval with the complete management of their internal affairs. The Emperor says he is sure of it, seeing that not only has fidelity to the Empire been firmly established in the Reichsland, but that loyalty has been repeatedly manifested towards the " Imperial person." His Majesty, who takes himself very seriously, is perhaps over-inclined to believe in the love of his subjects, though he does not relax the dread- ful law of lese-majeste ; but still he is an acute observer, and he must receive from his agents masses of information. He may therefore be right, and if he is the governing men of Germany have achieved a very remarkable triumph. They have obtained the acquiescent obedience of a people who only thirty-two years ago were their bitterest foes. It is true the.people of Alsace-Lorraine were originally Ger- mans, and still speak German ; but kinship inirace has not bound Swedes and Norwegians together, and, as the North- erners found in the great war of 1861-65 and we always find in Ireland, community of language is but a feeble bond. No people could be more disaffected than the population of the Reichsland at the time of their subjugation, and to be able to trust them after only one generation has elapsed is a civil victory of the highest moment. It suggests that the dreams of German Professors may not be altogether base- less ; that the Germans of Austria, who are Roman Catholics, like the Lorrainers and Alsatians, may be good subjects to the Hohenzollern ; that the Dutch, though they are further removed from the old stirpo, might feel German attraction ; and that even the Jutlanders may one day be drawn in by the hope of wealth and careers such as as subjects of Denmark they can never enjoy. Count von Moltke, the greatest but one of modern Germans, though born in Germany, was by origin and training a pure Dane, who entered the Prussian service when a grown man in the hope, as servants say, of " bettering " himself.
The event, if this is its true explanation, is the more remarkable because the Germans have by no means suc- ceeded in reconciling the peoples in all their conquests. The Poles hate them more bitterly than the Celtic Irish hate us, though, like the Irish, they accept commissions with great readiness, and feel themselves completely bound by the military oath. They never, however, relax from opposition, and show none of the acquiescence shown in Galicia, or of the personal loyalty so often displayed towards the Austrian Kaiser. It is said that the differ- ence is due to difference of creed ; but the Catholics of Rhenish Prussia are among the most devoted subjects of the Hohenzollern Crown. The true explanation, we fancy, is that Germans dislike Slays, and that consequently all the laws which, like the Education Laws, press sharply on the latter race are carried out not only severely, but with somethino, of insolence. This is the cause also of the bitter dislike both of negroes and Chinese for their German rulers, who, they say, are cruel as regards discipline, and in civil affairs ignore all differences of civilisation, and treat them as persons who if they resist must at once be whipped into obedience. If the Chinese ever rise again against Europe, it is the Germans who will have to hear the first brunt of their onslaught.
The Austrians are very successful in governing, perhaps from the personal good-nature which distinguishes them. There could he no better test of this than the administra- tion of Bosnia and Herzegovina, where populations, Slav and Orthodox, or Turkish and Mahommedan, have ac- cepted Austrian dominion with genuine acquiescence, are trusted to raise separate regiments, and what is more remarkable still, bear rather severe taxation, which pays for the whole expenses of the dependency, without protest or resistance. It is usual to attribute this success entirely to the administrative ability of Baron Kallay ; but he must have worked through agents, and it is agents rather than Ministers who in Germany are harsh, and the success has been regular and continuous. It is said that he employed many Slays, and it is certain that Slays when not resisted are considerate Governors. They are liable to outbursts of fury, during which they show no respect for human life or suffering ; but in the ordinary work of administration, when they' are not alarmed, as they are in Poland, for the safety of their " system," they have something of that laxity which Asiatics prefer. They are, in fact, nearer to the people they administer than any other white men in Asia, and although many among them are corrupt, Asiatic feeling does not abhor corruption like the feeling of Western men. They think that it very often lubri- cates business, and prevents oppression by the lowerofficials. It is the distance between the rulers and the ruled which is the difficulty of the Indian Government. The people of India are acquiescent but not loyal. No sensible native denies that the members of the Imperial Service are just, that their laws are lenient, and that they carry them out with great exactitude; but the same man, if he speaks con- fidentially, complains of the aloofness and disagreeableness of the Englishman, and of the faint tone of contempt which he tries so hard to conceal. The cleavage in the majority of cases is not the fault either of the Englishman or the native, but is the result of an incurable differ- ence in manners, in the way of looking at things, and in ultimate ideals. The objection to native juries in India is not that they are too democratic, but that when great person of their own people is under accusation they are so disinclined to find him guilty.
The Germans would, we are satisfied, greatly strengthen their political grip on Europe if they would treat all their dependencies as they have treated the Reichsland,—that is, with a strong but rather honorific than suspicious and vexing administration. The European races of the Con- tinent are willing to leave great powers to the chiefs of the State, as we see in Germany and Austria, and have seen in France ; but they ask of those chiefs a certain amount of sympathy and an entire absence of the feeling that they are placed on a lower plane than their fellow-subjects. It was this feeling which originally exasperated Irish discontent, and although it has ceased to be justified, the Irish being petted both as regards their representation and their pecuniary grants, the tradition lives, and, owing to t difference of creed which does not exist in the Celtic High- landers, has been found difficult to extirpate. If the Emperor would govern his Polish provinces as he governs German Prussia, he would soon evoke loyalty, or, rather, produce acquiescence, and perhaps find that his frontier on the Russian side was as strong as his frontier on the side of France.
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