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212 has nothing to dread from her neighbours. So far the revolutionary movement has been nothing but a deliberate attempt on the part of a small minority to overturn the existing form of government, and to impose their own reforms by their own methods. But in that political duel, both parties retain the complete control and the full responsibility of events. If to-morrow the opposition chose to give up their systematic opposition to all government proposals, and if, on the other hand, the government gave unmistakable proofs that they are resolved to carry out a far-reaching programme of political and social reform—the present anarchy would cease at once, and a constructive revolution would at once be possible.

It is only if both the opposition and the government prove unequal to the great crisis, if they both refuse to come to terms—then, but only then, the fatal logic of events will begin to unfold its consequences: but fatality will not have been in the events themselves, but in the weakness and stupidity of a government incapable of steering the country through the tempest, and in the folly of an opposition which sacrificed the welfare of their country to their