The reference to the organisation of a great Navy in
order to win a place for the Empire which is not yet attained, and the concrete objects which are sought, are discussed by us at length elsewhere. We will only say here that though we realise the greatness of the Emperor's aspirations, we do not feel sure that they will be realised so early as he imagines. The wish is not father to the thought, for we have no feeling of jealousy or dislike in regard to Germany. Again, we recog- nise fully the many splendid qualities of the Germans—their love for and use of knowledge, their manliness, their courage, their sound morality, and their domestic virtues—and realise that these are among the qualities on which great Empires are founded. The possession of these qualities is, however, not enough for empire of the enduring kind. Until the Germans can rise to a conception of personal freedom, and can organise for themselves free institutions, they will not be fit for empire,—for imperiunt et libertas is no chance conjunction of words. A country ruled, as Germany is, by the despotic will of an hereditary Monarch, may create an Asiatic Empire which will last for a couple of generations, but world-power is not given to what is, after all, the most insecure of all forms of government. The Germans, if they want to govern a great piece of the world, must begin by learning how to govern themselves,—a feat of which they are surely not incapable. As a proof of what we are saying, imagine a world-wide German Empire ruled by a virtual autocrat, with his " my policy," " my Army," and "my Navy." Then let him meet with a heavy series of reverses and fall into a run of bad luck. What then would be the attitude of the Socialists and the Agrarians and the Particulariats, not restrained by self-government, but eager to make a scapegoat of the essential factor of their Constitution ? Autocracy has little staying power in adversity, and a world-wide Empire must risk adversity in a special degree.
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