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308 abuse in that her civilization is not as advanced as that of the Old World. But do these persons recollect how many centuries Great Britain, France, and Germany spent in all kinds of struggles before arriving at the state in which they are to-day? And if civil wars, for which the Haitians have been so severely taken to task, were an evidence of the incapacity of a nation to govern itself, then the great Powers of to-day would not have existed. All of them have gone through trying ordeals, have paid for their advancement with the blood of the best among their citizens; every effort toward a higher ideal was marked by hecatombs; and those who have sacrificed their lives for the advancement of civilization cannot be numbered. Having now arrived at the pinnacle of glory the great Powers of to-day overlook the obstacles which they had to surmount; in their natural tendency to treat with disdain the young States that are now striving, as they themselves did in the past, to mount up step by step to the summit, they liken themselves to the upstarts who look with contempt upon the poor who are endeavoring by hard work to enrich themselves in their turn. By the position they occupy in the world, Great Britain, France, and Germany are unquestionably the most important nations of Europe; they are justly proud of their position. But has such an end been attained at the cost of no sufferings or struggles? To obtain religious freedom alone has caused blood to flow freely in Germany. When in 1517 Luther nailed his celebrated protest at the door of the church of Wittemberg, his action stirred many souls who theretofore had been either passive or indifferent; their awakening set Germany ablaze. Massacres and incendiarisms were the order of the day throughout almost the entire sixteenth century. Catholics and Protestants did not cease to shed one another's blood until the seventeenth century, after the Thirty Years' War. This struggle left Germany dismembered and worn out, her commerce entirely destroyed, famine adding its horrors to the trials she had just gone through. This discord and