The manifesto goes on to speak some very plain words
about the Social. Democrats, in whom, Prince Billow thinks, lies the true danger of reaction. Their dreams of the future are inimical to progress, and " brutal compulsion" is the means proposed for their realisation.. they aim at the :destruction of "constituted authority, property, religion, and the Fatherland," and be makes the significant remark that Robespierre, the frenzied bourgeois, was succeeded by the .sword of Bonaparte. It does not appear, we may remark in .passing, how the "compulsion" of the one differs from that of the other in "brutality." Germany, Prince Billow thinks, is at heart opposed to all Socialist creeds, though she is apt to play with fire. "It is characteristic of the Germans that till the hour of danger we let our political attitude be deter- mined by sentiments and general ideals rather than by actual interests. and_ national' aims." He appeals to the nation to prevent the unhallowed alliance-by which anon-Socialistparty ,would, with the assistance of . Social Democracy, occupy a dominating position. Germany, it is likely,, would have found the Chancellor's appeal more attractive if he had kept out
• of it his metaphor about Napoleon, and had addressed it to somebody less reactionary in his views than Lieutenant- General von Liebert.
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