peoples outside the Russian Empire. Russia is also interested in the East, in such directions and under such circumstances that she could not tolerate a Germanic development either in Asia Minor or in the Far East.
Nevertheless, in its exalted enthusiasm, Pan-Germanism does in fact propose to remove all these obstacles.
"Dominion or Downfall" is and always has been the motto and ruling principle of the German Empire. The present German Empire, which came into existence, through the genius of Bismarck, as a chief result to Germany of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, was, and is, like the previous German Confederation of 1856, provided with an hereditary head, the Emperor. It would seem that the policy of Napoleon, which was the real origin of the Franco-Prussian War, was very similar in principle to the underlying object of the present war. The primary purpose of the French Emperor in his political manoeuvres which ended in the invasion of France by the Prussian army, was to arrest the progress of Prussia and to prevent the unification of Germany. One of the chief results which is hoped to be gained by the Allies in the present war may be said to arrest the progress of Prussia. This State, after all, really represents the German Empire, so far especially as Prussia's intention is to disturb the existing balance of power and obtain for the German Empire a dominating influence in European and world politics. This was the original idea and aim of Bismarck. The further extension and unification of Germany on the lines laid down by Pan-Germanism must therefore be prevented if only to protect the independence of the British Empire, to say nothing of Russia and France and the lesser and weaker Powers and States.
It is a remarkable and an ironic fact that the Palace of Versailles was the scene of the formal proclamation of German unity. There, in the great national palace of France, occupying it, for the time being, as conquerors of France, the German princes, led and persuaded by Bismarck, proclaimed King William of Prussia first German Emperor on the 18th day of January, 1871. The old King refused the gift of the Imperial Crown as coming from the German people—as was originally suggested. No, the people should not be the source of his authority and his sovereignty. So it was only as a gift from his fellow princes that King William eventually accepted the crown of Emperor. His subjects were to be princes and States. The people themselves were not to have rights in the sense that they might have political aspirations, the realisation of which, through a political machine, they might enforce.
