TOPICS OF THE DAY.
THE ITALIAN VISIT TO BERLIN. THERE is something very picturesque and attractive in the meeting of King Humbert with the Emperor William, of the Savoyard and the Hohenzollern, each at last in possession of his House's long-fought-for prize. The historian cannot see without interest such evidence that the strange link which for so many centuries has bound together the fortunes of Germany and Italy is as strong as ever, and that, though each is now nominally independent, the fortunes of both are as closely united as in the days when Guelf and Ghibelline were not forgotten words. The soldier smiles with gratified contempt of the civilian, as he reflects that one main result of a struggle of ages has been to bring the two fighting dynasties of Europe to the top, and that William and Humbert are among the first men in the world because for centuries their Houses have produced men who have been soldiers from the cradle. And the politician, at least the English politician, is pleased, because he sees in the meeting either a•guarantee of peace, or a proof that the millions of Slav riflemen will not be allowed to crush the freer civilisations of the West. Very few, as is natural, pause to think of the less cheerful meaning of the meeting ; and yet there is much in it which should make the thoughtful reflective, if not sad. The two soldier-monarchs who are embracing with such effusion represent the triumph of militarism as well as of the nationalities ; they are great because they can slay on an unprecedented scale ; and as they drive down through the long city which has risen on the Spree, the acclaim of the endless multitudes contends, as the correspondents report, and contends almost in vain, with the roar of the welcoming artillery. The symbol of the Savoyard, now at the top of his world, is the crown with its inner bar of iron ; and the symbol of the Hohen- zollern, the stone throne supported on feet of cannon-balls. A cynical poet might end each stanza of a hymn of con- gratulation to the two monarchs with the refrain, " For the sword is master still ;" and his thought would not be altogether a cheering one for mankind. The place of force in the world is great, for only the hammer can weld iron ; but in a meeting like this, in this vast show of mili- tary grandeur, in this huge concourse of workers, every man of whom would spring to attention as he heard the order—that actually occurred during a Berlin riot—in this council of statesmen in uniform, the ascendency of force is too conspicuous, and it is impossible not to ask how it would be with modern life if the force were but misused. It is the most improbable of thoughts, and therefore the safest for an illustration ; but imagine how it would be if those two men who are Kings, but are at ease only in uniform, were to command that the freedom of Switzerland should cease ; and Switzerland is not the only thing that is safe because of monarchs' divisions. The alliance of Central Europe seems to Englishmen a good thing, and to Lord Salisbury " glad tidings of great joy ;" and in the former estimate we concur, for without the alliance, Gaul and Slav might be in motion, intent on conquest and revenge. But as no words of ours will affect the affiance even in English opinion, we may be forgiven if we point out that in these vast alliances, these huge aggregations of military power, there may yet be a lurking danger. A universal Monarchy —we use the phrase in its old political sense—would not be the less oppressive to the world because it was three- headed. It was two-headed when the Bourbons were at their worst as troublers of the world. Prince Bismarck, Count Kalnoky, and Signor Crispi say in every despatch and speech that they are working together for peace, and we entirely believe them ; but how, if perceiving great advantages ready to their hands, they should work together for war or aggrandisement ? Prince Bismarck never quite ceases to hope that Russia may join the League, which would mean a partition of the Eastern Peninsula, and what should we think of the great alliance then ? The idea is afloat in England that such combinations to take spoil are impossible, because of the progress of democracy, because, in fact, "the peoples," who are assumed to be good, will prohibit them ; but is that calculation or dreaming ? We do not ourselves believe that " peoples" are often better than the individuals who compose them, and see how strongly they are moved by ambition, how im- periously by the hope of commercial gain ; but we will admit the plea of the democrats, and what can the people do ? Not a third of Prussia approved the great war of 1866, and not a Prussian resisted it except by criticism. Nations are now too highly organised, war is too rapid, the consequences of defeat are too severe, for real resistance to the central will in matters of military concern. Let but the order be given, let but the troops move, let but the cannon sound on the frontier, and the armed nation of the Continent must fight, be the cause what it may. It cannot risk an invasion of revenge. An alliance which cannot be resisted is an alliance under temptation to do great things ; and great things in external politics mean great spoliation, which may no doubt ultimately be beneficial, but also may not.
There is, moreover, another reason which, so far as we know, has never been pressed upon politicians, which gives to these great alliances an aspect of possible menace. They remove the limitations on the use to be made of victory even after just war. It is of the highest im- portance to civilisation that the use to be made of victory should be moderate ; and when they stand alone, victors often remember the future, and try not to sow the seeds of hatred to endure for ages. Prince Bismarck after Sadowa acted on that principle, and Austria received. terms such as, we think, were never granted before to a defeated dynasty. The Hapsburgs did not lose a florin or an acre, and are, consequently, the close allies of the Hohenzollerns. But imagine a League as completely victorious over France as Prussia was over Austria,— would France continue to exist, and would Europe lose nothing by her burial, nothing in her rate of progress, nothing in her effort to understand Nature, nothing in her chance of ever reaching a restful and disarmed stage in which the energy of the Western world should be devoted to increase the happiness, or, better still, the nobleness, of mankind ? It is not only that a great alliance has to find " compensations " for three or four Powers instead of one, though that necessity is most serious—for instance, in 1815 it completed the destruction of Poland, broke up Italy, and nearly destroyed. Saxony—but that the chiefs who wield so terrible an aggregate of physical force think themselves beyond the reach of retribution. Had France in 1866 been an ally of Prussia instead of a watchful though unprepared enemy, Bohemia and Belgium would have passed, must have passed, into what their people would have regarded as permanent slavery. It is while the Te Deums are singing that the danger lurking in great alliances becomes most apparent.
We trust we shall not be mistaken. We are not of those who believe that war will cease, for war has its source in human nature. We entirely acknowledge that alliances may at times be beneficial, or, as in 1813, indispensable for defence. And we quite agree, that the alliance celebrated by the Emperor William and King Humbert was needful to avert serious calamities from more than a hundred millions of peaceful labouring folk. Austria and Germany were in serious danger from a Franco-Russian attack by land, and Italy in still greater peril of a French attack by sea. Indeed, we are disposed, as we have often shown, rather to exaggerate than to undervalue the danger with which Italy was and is threatened by France, and by the Ultramontanes. She might be once more broken up. The situation required and found a great remedy, the formation of a nearly irresistible force for defence. But we cannot join in the chorus of approval without remembering that an irresistible force is a grand tempta- tion, or believe that enormous powers can be entrusted to minute Committees without a possibility of their being misused. Prince Bismarck is a very great man, not given, when he has got all he wants, to further aggres- sion ; but still, when an opponent too feeble to fling an epigram at him, flings " Pfui !" instead, he nearly loses his reason with rage, and would, if be could, reply with a sentence to the triangles. An alliance with him as its brain is, therefore, at least subject to the chance of human impulses ; and when an impulse can loosen an avalanche, apprehension is at least as legitimate as awe. No harm, as a matter of fact, will probably come of this alliance, unless it should. be joined by Russia ; but should that contingency ever occur, should the three Emperors and the King ever shake hands in a new Field of the Cloth of Gold, we shall not all view that spectacle with the sort of exultation with which we are now watching the popular joy and the Imperial splendour displayed so lavishly in Berlin.
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