At Edinburgh on Friday week Mr. Asquith made two excellent
speeches on the war to crowded and enthusiastic meetings. He pointed out that a settlement of the Austro- Serbian question was actually in sight when Germany, by her now deliberate act, declared war. No attempt was made by Germany to controvert that fact except by "wanton false- hoods." Mr. Asquith was very happy in his quotations from Pitt and Gladstone as to the sanctity of treaties. Iii 1793 Pitt said : " England will never consent that another country should arrogate the power of annulling at her pleasure the political system of Europe established by solemn treaties and guaranteed by the consent of the Powers." In spite of all we owed to German philo.sOphy, science, and arts, the specifically German contribution to the world movement of the last thirty years was this: " the development of the doctrine of the supreme and ultimate prerogative in human affairs of material force." Surely that is a just summary.
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