"REALPOLITIli."—THE FIRST AND MOST APPROVED SPECIMEN. G ERMAN statesmen and political
philosophers pride themselves upon being masters of Realpolitik. For them such abstract ideas as national honour, national probity, national good faith, do not exist. They are-fantastic pieces of idealism with no sure foundation of reality, or, if they do exist, limitations of that sovereignty which is the essential of the State, its cause causans. See how simple is the argument. A State is only sovereign in the true sense when there is no impediment to its will, when. it is unbound by any external ties, when it can do what it likes at any moment both as regards its own citizens and as regards its place in the world. Therefore a State may repudiate any bargain made by it if it thinks it is its true interest to do so. To hold any other view would be a derogation from, or denial of, that completeness of power which is the badge or proof of a sovereign State. The Germans have, of course, again and again in recent years put forth this view of sovereignty suite plainly, and it is to be traced throughout German poli- tical metaphysics. But that is theory. In practice the great German rulers like Frederick the Great and Bismarck, and even the small men of to-day, have always taken the line that, though appeals to sentiment-may occasionally be useful in order to entangle the legs of foolish Powers, sentiment plays no part whatever in the proper conduct of human affairs. You smash a State, not because you think it wicked or evil In itself, but because it is good policy to smash it. You pay no attention to its cries for mercy, but simply remind it that you have got the power to smash it, and that therefore there. is no course open to it but to surrender. The nearest approach you make towards a kindly sentiment is to remind the weaker Power of the terrible nature of the punishment that you are in a position to deal out to it, and to point out how much better its selfish interests will be served by sub- mission than by foolishly calling the gods to witness to its helpless condition and virtuous intentions. Such German appeals to Realpolitik, whether made in the abstract by the philosophers and professors, or illustrated practically as in Belgium, or even more clearly in the negotiations at Brest- Litovsk, are disgusting enough, but they have a certain clumsiness and grossness which also provoke a kind of mirth.
The. Athenians, who were the first exponents of Realpolitik, aid. the thing net only much more gracefully but much more thoroughly and much better. When one reads an exposi- tion. of their principles and sees them put into practice, one's blood simply runs cold, so inhuman, so brutal, so malignant are the principles laid down. The place in which to find the principles of Realpolitik exposed with absolute fullness and clearness is in the account of the " Malian Controversy " in the Fifth Book of Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War. In the course of his narrative Thucydidea desires to set forth how the Athenians, annoyed by the fact that the island of Melos resolutely maintained its neutrality and kept outside the struggle between Athens and Sparta,. determined that they would squeeze the Melian and force them to come under the yoke of the Athenian Empire, very much as the people of Finland or Courland have. been forced to come under the so-called protecting shield of Germany. The Athenians, who liked to do things in proper style, after a little show of physical force and a little skirmishing, sent-envoys to negotiate with the Magistrates of the Melian capital. Thucydides, always a master in reporting speeches and other public utterances, or at any rate in reporting .their. spirit, outdoes himself in his account the " Melian Controversy " and of the dialectical battle between the Athenian envoys and the unfortunate Melians. One can say without qualification that the dialogue in the " Mellen Controversy "" is the most brilliant piece of political dialectic in all literature. But it is not merely supreme as a work of art or as an example of dramatic polities. It makes an appeal to the sensations of pity and terror which is almost unbearable. One wonders indeed that Aristotle did not take• it.as.an it of his view of the functions of the drama, and of how the poet by his art finds a solution of the passions he has raised, passions which lacerate the heart too greatly magas there is some such solution. In the " Malian Controversy " the naked, horror is unassuaged. The " Controversy is so well known to scholars, and also, thanks to Jowett's admirable translation, to the general reader— it has twice already been referred to and quoted from in our columns—that we shall content ourselves on this occasion with a general reference. Our readers should look up the full text for themselves if they desire a peep into the chamber of horrors of the human mind. And yet at a, time of great crisis like the present it is good for all of us to know and understand the full scope of human wickedness—to see the dark side of life, and to comprehend of what cold brutality, as of some evil spirit, man is capable. Of the " Mellen Con- troversy " as told by Thucydides we may indeed say with Marston in his famous Prologue :- " If any spirit breathes within this round,
'Incapable of weighty passion, (As from his birth being hugged in the arms And nuzzled 'twixt the breasts of Happiness) Who winks, and shuts his apprehension up From common sense of what men were, and are ; Who would not know what men must be ; lot such Hurry amain from our black-visag'd shows ; We shall affright their eyes. But if a . breast, Nail'd to the earth with grief ; if any heart, Pierc'd through with anguish, pant within this ring ; If there be any blood, whose heat is cbpk'd, And stifled with true sense of misery : If aught of these strains fill this consort up, They arrive most welcome."
Happily we are not left in doubt as to Thucydides's view of the. proceedings. He recorded the facts, but he had clearly no sympathy with his fellow-countrymen who thus put a whole people on the rack. His last words on'the dread business may be quoted as a fine example of his historical method. When there was something- which needed saying, he was the fullest of recorders. When there was no need for words, he was the most reticent. Hostilities, of course, began the moment the negotiations broke down :— " So the Melians were induced to surrender at discretion. The Athenians thereupon put to death all who were of military age, and made slaves of the women and children. They then colonized the island, sending thither five hundred settlers of their own."
We. have said above that Thucydides provides no immediate and direct solution to quiet and steady the terrible' emotions he has roused. But it is also true that if we take his book as a whole he proves to us that God is not always mocked. It is impossible to read the historian's account of the final scenes of the tragedy at Syracuse without the thought arising in one's mind that the Melians were well avenged in every trireme that sank in the harbour and in every prisoner sent to the quarries. Some day Belgium, Serbia, Poland, and Alsace-Lorraine will find the same Justice, not poetic but real, in the doom and punishment of Prussian Militarism and Prussian Realpolitik.
It will perhaps be asked whether this exposure of Real- politik has any special significance just now. The Germans are now sure to be on the other tack. They will not say, as the Athenians said to the Melians, that appeals to Humanity, Mercy, and Divine Providence are only made by nations which feel uncertain as to their powers, and that when a State has the certainty of superiority such flourishes from the weaker nation are quite out of place. " The military repre- sentative " took this line at Brest-Litovsk, but now that Germany is the under-dog we shall have plenty of appeals to sentiment rather than to the realities and brutalities of international relations. But it is just because we shall have the sentimental appeal made so strongly that it is well to -remind the world of the principles of Realpolitik which underlie the German diplomatic camouflage. What these principles are can nowhere be more plainly read than in the Mellen Controversy." It is as perfect a piece of political anticipation as is to be found in literature.
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