Highly honored, most gracious Baroness:
First of all I beg your kind indulgence for my long delay in answering
your friendly communication. The highly interesting inclosure I return
with thanks, having taken a copy from the address circular (which
should perhaps be sent also to Smolka and Trautmannsdorf?).
My now somewhat overcrowded affairs, and especially my attempts to
sound some of my more prominent colleagues, are responsible for this
delay.
Taking all together, I believe that I find among the great men of our
party very little agreement with our—_your_—great ideas; that is to
say, in theory they may assent, but hardly as regards working to bring
them over into practical life.
Hofrat Beer regards it as inopportune and impossible to go to Rome as
a representative of the parliamentarians; Professor Suess is a kind of
war man himself in spite of his peace-breathing utterances;[31]
Bärnreither considers public talk about the matter as premature, and
so it goes. The proposition receives most assent, and, as it seems to
me, practical appreciation, among a few cultured Poles—why? because
they, having a tinge of cosmopolitanism, do not take that parochial
standpoint which unfortunately plays the principal part among our
German deputies.
I think I have also a strong inclination to sail in the cosmopolitan
channel; which has stamped me with a certain foreignness in the
circles with which I am in closest political harmony, and yet—wrongly.
But never mind—to business!
The opinion of the Poles with whom I have talked agrees with mine that
the present condition of chauvinistic hatred of Germany in France, and
likewise the danger threatening us on the side of Russia, cause the
Triple—or rather Double—Alliance, with its foundation of exorbitant
military preparation, to be a defensive necessity, a guaranty of
peace, even in the eyes of the populaces concerned. There is much
truth in this too, since the French _of to-day_ are not to be
capacitated, and Russia is only looking for a chance to conquer the
rest of Europe and British India by a sudden attack at an unexpected
moment—which, considering her supply of half-savage, battle-tried, and
pugnacious men, may easily be realized some day when Russia’s
shortcomings shall be exceeded by those of Europe; so probably nothing
remains but to wait for the ultimate undoing of this perpetual Gordian
knot, whether through the arduous work of a peaceful partition or
through the horrors of war.
But still there can and must be endeavor after that which can
_prepare_ for the final victory of arbitration, and under this head
come economic questions: customs unions, the facilitation of rail and
water transportation by unified tariffs, reciprocity of the credit
system and of the circulating medium, and so on. This will at least be
now attempted between Germany and Austro-Hungary, and will probably be
extended to Switzerland, Belgium, Italy, and some of the Balkan
states. The aim of these agreements is doubtless, among other things,
to make the burden of military preparations more endurable, and that
is _something_.
Furthermore, an effort should be made to diminish the horrors of war,
especially to put some limitation on the use of explosives[32] so as
to bring the destruction of property—to say nothing of human life—not
utterly out of proportion to the military purpose to be attained
(_vide_ the bombardment of Alexandria by Admiral Seymour, etc.).
This is the aim of the Polish gentlemen, one of whom, Koslowski, is my
fellow member in the Cobden Club of London and was also present at the
last Peace Congress. The second Pole would be Sopowski, who has
studied the Oriental question as very few have, and has written very
interestingly on it; finally, Szepanowski, whose long residence in
England has made him a genuine thorough-going cosmopolitan.
As regards arbitration, you will admit, most gracious Baroness, that
in a great political question arising, for example, between France and
Germany or between Russia and Austria, and affecting their very
existence, it will doubtless be impossible to find a power which could
undertake the office of arbitration, or to which it would be
intrusted. Perhaps the Pope? Yes, the idea would be quite worthy of
the Supreme Head of the Church, but will Protestant Germany or
schismatic Russia ever acquiesce in such an award? I doubt it. Yes, in
minor territorial questions (Luxemburg, Samoa, the Carolines, etc.)
submissiveness to an arbitrator who occupies a suitable neutral
position is possible and probable; but in such world-affecting
questions as those I have mentioned, probably not so soon, probably
not in the first thousand years.
This I desired to lay before you, most gracious Baroness. You know how
much I admire and appreciate you and your noble activities, and would
so gladly share in them as your faithful follower; but our
contemporaries will not heartily coöperate, and this must be taken
into consideration. But the modus to be provisionally adopted, as I
have permitted myself above to indicate it, bids fair to be successful
in securing many present advantages; and to this I should like to draw
your attention.
Accept, etc.