THE RACE DIFFICULTY.
IF we were quite sure, which we are not, that the difficulty could be overcome by human wisdom, we should say that the statesmanship of Europe in dealing with the question of fusion had shown itself decidedly incompetent. All the Great Powers have had to fuse subjects of different races and languages into one common whole, and all with one partial exception have failed. France during the tremendous excitement of the Revolu- tion did succeed in running a sort of steam-roller over all differences of race, language, and mode of thought, with- out exciting inextinguishable hatreds and was able in consequence to set up the most centralised, and therefore most scientifically organised, administration in the world. Alsatians still spoke German and Bretons Breton, but an impulse from Paris was instantly felt in Nancy or in Rennes, and produced an obedience which was not unwilling. The Germans of Alsace loved France, and though the Bretons did not, they fought for her, died for her, and readily manned her fleets. Alsace and Lorraine have been torn away by superior military power, but no Breton dreams now of a destiny apart from the destiny of France. The English, on the other hand, though they have killed the Irish language, and have arrived at a working agreement with Irishmen about military service, have not won the Celts, either by a policy of oppression or a policy of equality, and are hampered and vexed at every turn by the distaste of the Celtic peoples. The Russians, by using the ter- rible weight of their mass, have crushed all open resistance on all the frontiers of their Empire, but their policy of Russification has left behind it venomous hatreds and an ill-repute which together constitute grave obstacles in the way of their career. The Germans have tried another plan, that of "encouraging" all German subjects as against all subjects of any other race or tongue, and the result is that they are simply loathed by the Danes and Poles whom they have absorbed, and will keep probably for ever. The Dutch, who are the Germans' close kins- men, have failed equally with them. They lost the Belgians mainly through the loathing they excited, and their descendants will lose the States they had founded in South Africa because they have roused the race feeling in their guests the English. If they had succeeded in attract- ing the Outlanders as, for instance, the Spaniards of the Plate succeed in attracting their Italian emigrants, or even as the Americans attract their German settlers, the Republics might have gone on for ever, and perhaps have become when fused together the Empire State of a South African Federation. The Austrians, with whom fusion for practical purposes is a question of life and death, have tried half-a-dozen schemes ranging from outrageous oppression to equality, and have failed in all, the Emperor being at this moment harassed by a race problem which seems insoluble, which rages round the pivot of language, and which from year to year, and even from month to month, threatens to produce a civil war. The Government has just tried the experiment of equality and failed in it, the Germans resisting so stronglv that the wheels of the State were locked, and legislation 'became impossible. The "language ordinances " which established that equality have, therefore, been withdrawn, and the whole ques- tion has to be fought over again until some settle- ment is found. The first result, of course, will be that the Czechs will in their turn lock the wheels, and so the whole machine will be once more stopped, to the imminent danger, not only of this or that Adminis- tration, but of the Emperor's authority. Hungary, which is now the more powerful half of the Dual Monarchy, does not at all like bargaining with an Austrian Executive in a doubtful position ; and the contest if carried on for years will infect the troops in the end, and make of part of the conscripts, at least, unwilling or even mutinous soldiers.
And yet what was the Emperoi to do ? The problem before him may well be absolutely insoluble. It is easy for the English to say, as they do say, that, being in a minority, the Germans in Austria should act on the principles of Liberalism, and obey the larger vote ; but the Germans have something to say on their side too. They declare that they are bound not to obey, because men are never justified in degrading themselves, and if they accept the lower position permanently they will degrade themselves. Their civilisation, they say, is the higher, their ideals are the nobler, their language is the better instrument of culture, and they will not, by giving them up, permanently consent to lower their own future and that of both the contending populations. The Slav, they assert, who is Germanised becomes a nobler creature than he was, while the German who is Slavicised has distinctly and visibly sunk in the scale of creation. Their duty, therefore, is to remain at the top as the only way of " diffusing an influence" which is of distinct benefit even to the majority who resist it. Allowing for the element of vanity in all races, this argument must be admitted to be substantially correct. The Germans are certainly at present the higher race in Austria, or if that adjective begs the question too much, the race which has of the two advanced further in civilisation. The Czechs, however, while denying the fact, declare that even if it is true for this minute, in them and in all Slays are the greater potentialities, that they are more receptive than their rivals, and that their inferiority, such as it is, arises from having been kept down through many ages. They will not, therefore, agree to submit, but plead that as they are the majority, theirs, upon all Liberal principles, is the right to rule., It must be admitted that they, too, have a good case, and the arguments being mutually destructive, what is to reconcile them even sufficiently to allow of those who use them working politically together ? In the old times, of course, the decision would have been left to the sword, and as the German minority has more coherence, more capacity for organisation, and more energy, it would probably have won ; but at present the object is to end the struggle without a civil war, and how is that to be effected ? We believe the only possible answer is by maintaining absolute equality under some common authority. Let each race show- its superiority as it best can in its mode of life, let each language be a legal language in all respects, and let everybody use that which is most convenient to him as regards the matter in hand. Meanwhile let order be kept and insult be punished as if it were equivalent to assault. In the end either one language will absorb the other, as the Latin in France, Spain, and Italy absorbed the barbarian tongues ; or the nation will become bilingual; or the difficulty will settle itself by each tongue retreating to its own most convenient centres. That this solution is probably inconsistent with Parlia- mentary government, and requires the acknowledgment of some supreme but non-elective authority, may be ad- mitted ; but what is the alternative ? The one govern- ment to which in our day no one submits willingly is government by caste. That the Germans of Austria are a higher people at present than the Slays of Austria, we concede at once ; but that if the Germans were compelled or allowed to govern as a caste, ruling a majority by force, they would remain a higher people, is more than doubtful. At all events equality of rights, which must include equality of rights in the use of the tongue they think in, is the only possible basis of the freedom which both races affirm that they desire. The Swiss system, which ignores any inferiority of race, language, or culture in any citizen of Switzerland, is the only one which will work, and it is not quite certain that that will. Representative govern- ment is more severely tried when the electors are divided by race than by any other subject of quarrel, even if it be connected with religion. Quarrels about race, or language, or civilisation are easily adjusted if the ultimate referee is an impartial despot, but if a Parliament is to rule, perfect tolerance of a grave but unavoidable inconvenience is the only alternative to anarchy. We get along fairly well, though a good manyIrish Municipal Councillors, moved by race and tradition, are talking with open mouths undis- guised treason.
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