The Third Republic of France has passed its twenty-fifth anniversary,
and the German Empire has just celebrated its semi-jubilee. The French
held their fête in September of 1895, and on the eighteenth of the
following January all the Fatherland shouted greetings to the grandson
of old Wilhelm the Kaiser. The Gaul and the Teuton have thus agreed to
be happy coincidently; but for very different reasons! The Gaul has
his Republic and the Teuton his Empire. Side by side on the map lie
the two great powers, representing in their history and present aspect
one of the strongest contrasts to be found in human annals.
What the German Empire is we may permit the Emperor himself, in his
recent anniversary address, to explain. His speech shows that Germany,
of all civilized nations, has gone furthest in the direction of
unqualified imperialism. The utterances of Emperor William surpass the
speeches of the Czar himself, in avowing all the pretensions and
fictions of monarchy in the Middle Ages. The Hohenzollern potentate
openly makes the pretence of governing his subjects by rights and
prerogatives in nowise derived from the people, but wholly derived
from himself and his grandfather. Why should Germany be an Empire and
France a Republic? How could such an amazing historical result come
into the world? The French Republic and the new Empire of Germany were
not made by generals and kings and politicians in 1870-71. Indeed,
nothing is made by the strutters who are designated with such titles.
The two great powers having their centres at Berlin and Paris have
their roots as deep down as the subsoil of the ages. They grew out of
antecedents older than the Crusades, older than Charlemagne, older
than Augustus and the Christ. They came by law--even if the result
_has_ surprised the expectation of mankind.
When Cæsar made his conquest of Europe, he found the country north of
the Alps in the possession of two races--both Aryan. These two races
were as unlike then as they are now. The Gauls west of the Rhine were
proper material for the reception of Roman rule; but the Germans
beyond the Rhine were not receptive of any rule but their own. The
Gallic races became Romanized. Gaul was a part of the Roman Empire and
reasoning from the facts, we should have expected the Gaulish nations
to develop into the imperial form.
For like reason we should expect the Teutonic races to develop into
the greatest democracy of the modern world. Contrary to this double
expectation, we have a French Republic and a German Empire. In 1870
the Gallic race became suddenly democratic, and at the same time the
Germans became the greatest imperialists among civilized mankind! The
German Empire has arisen where we should have expected a democracy;
and the French Republic has arisen where we should have expected an
Empire.
The illogical Empire lies alongside of the illogical Republic. They
have a line of demarkation which, though drawn on the map, is not
drawn on the ground. The great antagonistic facts touch each other
through a long line of territorial extent, but the ethnic diversity
does not permit political union. The Teuton and the Gaul continue to
touch, but they are not one, and cannot be. Two neighbors living
between Verdun and Metz are only a quarter of a mile apart. They
cultivate their grounds in the same manner, raise the same fruits,
have vines growing on the two sides of the same trellis. They speak
the same language, exchange gossip and poultry; but their children do
not go to the same school! One of them is a French democrat; the
other, a German imperialist!
The reason for this reversal of expectation, by which the anticipated
institutions of France are found in Germany and those of Germany in
France, is this: It seems to be a law of human progress that mankind
moves forward by reactions against its own preceding conditions; that
is, Progress disappoints History _by doing the other thing_! The
French race has done the other thing; and so has the German race! They
who should have been logically the imperialists of Western Europe are
the republicans and democrats. They who should have been logically the
democrats and republicans of Europe--who should have converted
Germania into the greatest democracy of the world--have accepted
instead the most absolute empire. The phrase "German _Empire_" is, we
think, the greatest paradox of modern history; and the phrase "French
_Republic_" is another like it. But history has decreed it so; and the
reason is that human progress works out its highest results by doing
the other thing!
But this philosophical speculation or interpretation does not trouble
either the French or the Germans. They both seem to rejoice at what
has come to pass, and do not trouble themselves about the logistics of
history. They celebrate their quarter centennials, the one for the
Republic, and the other for the Empire, with profound enthusiasm,
shouting, _Vive_ for the one and _Hoch_ for the other with an
impulsive patriotism that has come down to them with the blood of
their respective races from before the Christian era!
Great Battles.