The recent speeches of the German Emperor and his Chancellor
upon the Polish question have greatly irritated Slav feeling, not only in the Polish and Czech districts of Austria, but in Russia. They will, it is said, drive the Poles to accept the ideas of the Pan-Slavic organisation, and so help to throw them into the arms of Russia. This change of feeling will be the easier because the Poles are becoming much more united, and have ceased to dwell so entirely upon the idea of reviving Old Poland, with its aristocratic and conservative organisation. The dividing line is now almost exclusively one of creed. Many observers have predicted that this would ultimately be the course of Polish opinion,—i.e., the recognition that their quarrel with Russia was only, as Poushkine, the Russian poet, long ago declared it to be, "a household quarrel" which Europe never would understand. The total result of such a change, if it occurs, will be to give Russia a definite foothold both in Germany and Austria, and to deepen the dislike between the Slav and the Teutonic peoples, which arises from a radical difference of nature. The "plantation policy," which is the one now adopted in Prussia, has always failed, notably in Ireland, and in Prussia directly strengthens the Polish land- lords, who can always sell their estates at a liberal price to Government, and use the money in more profitable under- takings. A factory master is as influential as a landowne....
