23 OCTOBER 1915, Page 13

DEMOCRACY AND WAR.

[To THE EDITOIL OP THE " SPECTATOR..."

Sin,—A great foreign writer—I rather think de Tocqueville- has said that, if the nations of Europe were Federal Republics of the American type, their population would probably be larger and more prosperous than at present, but that, if there were a single military monarchy among them, it would be, as it were, an anteater in an anthill, and would make short work with its neighbours. Happily, the conditions thus indicated are not now fulfilled to the letter; but it must be owned that the organized and ruthless strength of Germany casts a lurid light on the anti-democratic foreboding cited above.—I am, Sir, 86c., LIONEL A. TOLLEMA.OHIL Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall.