Page:The New Europe, volume 1.pdf/217

 expedients in order to maintain substantially intact the army, which be regarded always as the main prop of the dynasty and the chief school of dynastic sentiment. The secret of whatever success he attained in his long reign lay in his own devotion to the idea to which he pitilessly sacrificed others—the idea of the divine nature of the Habsburg dynasty and of the divine mission of its head. Around this idea the whole Habsburg Monarchy is built up. Will Francis Joseph have been its last servant?

Author:Henry Wickham Steed.

 

since the first days of the war official Germany has been protesting, with remarkable insistence, that her conscience is clear. It was proclaimed on 4th August, 1914, both in the speech from the throne and in the Chancellor's speech, that the war had been forced upon Germany by Russia. Since then the Emperor William has many times protested his personal innocence. On 1st August of last year, the anniversary of the German official mobilisation, he solemnly declared: "I swear before God and history that my conscience is clear; I did not will the war." And in an interview which he granted to a neutral in the same month he is reported to have said (Daily News, August 15th, 1915): "I do not envy the man who has the responsibility for the war upon his conscience. I, at least, am not that man." The answer of Herr von Bethmann-Hollweg to Viscount Grey's recent speech is cast in the same mould. The Chancellor seized with alacrity upon that part of the speech which dealt with the Lokalanzeiger incident. It will be remembered that this paper published a special edition on July 30th, 1914, containing the Emperor's order for mobilisation. Lord Grey is represented as having adduced this fact as a proof that Russia's mobilisation, ordered on the night of July 30–31, was the inevitable answer to that of Germany, but argues the Chancellor, the sale of this edition of the Lokalanzeiger was stopped at once, the available copies were seized, and the Foreign Secretary hastened to inform the Russian Ambassador, as well as all the other Ambassadors, that the news it contained 