Page:The Bohemian Review, vol1, 1917.djvu/162

 in 1556–1560 by Master Alexander Collinus of Malines in the Netherlands, cost 32,000 ducats. It is built of the Salzburg white marble, and on its square top are life size figures of Ferdinand I., his wife Anne and Maximilian II; along the sides are busts of Charles IV., his four wives Blanche, Anne of Svidnice, Anne of Pfalz and Eliška, Václav IV., Ladislav Posthumous and George Podebrad. The so-called singing fountain in the royal gardens received its strange name, because streams of water hurled to a great height fell back on a wide metal rim and called out ringing tones; it was the work of Master Thomas Jaroš of Brno who cast it from the model of Lawrence Kříž. He used eighty hundredweights of copper and four hundredweights of tin. The work was completed in five years.

Rudolf gathered in the Prague castle great collections of objects of art, paintings, statues and gems of artistic industry partly made in Prague, partly received as presents from rulers, provinces and cities, partly bought at great expense in all lands. After the battle of the White Mountain, during the vicissitudes of the long war, enemies and “friends” alike robbed the magnificent collections. The former took them as booty of war, the latter as “souvenirs”. The Bavarians carried away 1500 wagon loads, of artistic treasures. The Saxons carried them off by wagons and by boat down the Elbe, later came the Swedes, then the imperialists, and what was left over was sold by the Austrian government as recently as one hundred years ago. Prague had nothing left; only the royal tomb and the singing fountain could not be carried away. He who wants to admire these wonders today must buy a ticket taking in all the capitals of Europe and must visit public, royal and imperial museums and galleries of Vienna, Dresden, Munich and elsewhere in Germany, Stockholm and other spots in Sweden etc. Fifteen years ago work was commenced on the compilation of a photographic catalog of Rudolf’s collections with detailed description of each object and a note stating its present whereabouts. There will be a good many folios.

Besides the Pacifist, there is another and more plausible person, whom we may call the “Separate-Pacifist”.

There is an attraction in the idea of detaching one or more of the enemy group by a separate peace, and both the Central Powers and the Entente have felt its spell. The most conspicuous example of the attempt, and the one that came nearest to fulfilment, was the bargain that the Central Powers proposed to the Old Regime in Russia. It was only the loyalty of the Army and the people to the Western Allies that prevented the Reactionary Government from tearing up the Pact of London and contracting itself out of the war.

The question which at the present moment arouses wide discussion in the countries of the Entente and in the United States, is whether we can or should apply to Austria-Hungary the same policy which the Central Powers tried to apply to Russia. The chief argument in favor of the practicability of the scheme is that the young Emperor Karl, and his immediate entourage, would make almost any concession that would save the Habsburg dynasty and the fabric of the Dual Monarchy. Supposing that Hungary did not exist, and that Austria consisted only of Germans and Slavs, the Emperor might well have been content to purchase peace at the price of abandoning the alliance with Germany and giving a real and not a bogus home rule to the Slavs. Unfortunately Hungary not only exists, but is the dominating factor in the situation.

There is no better example of the pernicious influence on practical politics of popular ignorance of history than that Englishmen still habitually think and talk of “Austria”, when they mean “Austria-Hungary”. The Magyars, the strong and virile ruling caste of Hungary, will fight to the death rather than forego their ascendency over their Slav and Rumanian subjects. The only separate peace that they would conclude would be on the basis of the status quo.