as his conviction that nothing could be more fatal than the policy pursued by Prussia in her border provinces. He condemned the persecution of the mother-tongue of the Danes and branded the encroachments upon the parental rights as an injustice that cried to heaven.

Of the Liberals several spoke in the same vein. Dr. Hänel, professor of international law at the University of Kiel, denounced the whole policy since 1888 as absolutely unjustifiable, particularly the decree of that year limiting Danish in the schools to four hours; this measure, he said, was a grievous mistake which ought to be rectified. His colleague, Herr Lenzmann, declared that according to his "purely human feelings it was an unparalleled cruelty forcibly to deprive one of his mothertongue, but that the cruelty became boundless when parents because of their national sentiments were robbed of that most sacred of rights the right to educate their own children."

It was, however, left for Herr Liebknecht, the Socialist leader, to arraign the government in the severest terms. Recalling a remark by King William IV. of Prussia in 1847, that "the hatred between Danes and Germans was one of the greatest follies of the nineteenth century," he continued:

Conditions in North Sleswic are a shame for us Germans, not only in the eyes of Europe, but in those of the whole civilized world. A system which makes such things possible must be abolished by the German people, lest they perish as a nation. This is the first duty which they owe themselves. Such a policy, the aim of which is oppression, is unworthy of Germany; it is a scandal. . . . . Germany is strong enough to be just.

... •

The Liberal press throughout the country echoed the same sentiments. Leading publicists and university men came forth and attacked the government's policy. It will be remembered how Professor Delbrück, of the University of Berlin, was severely punished for publishing an article in Preussische Jahrbücher, of which he is editor, in denunciation of its actions. For a while it seemed as though the North Sleswic question was on the point of entering a new stage-where from the administrative bureaus it would be transferred to the forum of public discussion.

But with the temporary lull in the evictions, public excitement, and consequently interest, soon subsided, without the temporary outburst of indignation having crystallized into tangible results.

For, after all, it may well be questioned whether the vast majority of the German people are not in fullest accord with the foreign policy of their rulers. Much goes to bear out this theory. Dazzled by the glitter of the arms that welded the national union, they are not as yet ready to emancipate themselves from the magnetism of the mailed fist that pointed out to them their "manifest destiny" as the world's greatest military power. The spirit of Bismarck is still hovering above the waters of Germany's national aspirations.

It is undoubtedly for reasons connected with this fact that, while the suppression of foreign nationalities within the borders of the empire is held to be perfectly justifiable- nay, commendable- the highest degree of sensitiveness prevails in regard to the treatment of German residents in other countries. The position of the Germans in Bohemia and the Russian Baltic provinces can in no wise be compared to that of the Danes in Sleswic or of the Poles in eastern Prussia. Yet the Germans' sense of justice is continually being outraged by the iniquities to which their foreign-ruled compatriots are declared to be subjected by their masters. The selfsame methods which in Sleswic are decried as "traitorous are being employed, with official approval and support, in the propaganda for the perpetuation of German language and sentiment in Russia and Austria. According to this adjustable standard, a Sleswic man who refuses to join in a "Hoch der Kaiser!" is stigmatized as a "perjurer," while the German merchant of Prague who declines to change the inscription on his sign at the behest of a Czechish mob is hailed as a hero. What in Flensborg is styled "agitation" in Riga is proclaimed as martyrdom. The modern ideal of pan-Germanism is conceived of as comprising all Germans from everywhere plus so many non-Germans from anywhere as can comfortably be digested. The means adopted for furthering the digestive process seem relatively immaterial.

A German politician has called Art. V of the Prague treaty a mortgage issued to the Danish population of Sleswic, which cannot lawfully be canceled without the consent of its holders. About the result of a vote taken on national lines in Sleswic nobody has any doubt. But were Sleswic's fate made dependent upon a referendum of the general electorate of Germany today, with the question put as a choice between a diminution of territory and the redemption of a national word of honor, the scales, there is reason to fear, would sink in favor of holding on to what they have. No foot of German soil," says Kaiser Wilhelm, "shall ever be ceded except over the bodies of my dead soldiers." That sort of sentiment still strikes a responsive chord in the breasts of millions of his subjects.

It is a fact, also― and one which Denmark might do well in taking ad notam-that of all the speakers and writers who in Germany of late years have condemned the Prussian administration of Sleswic and urged fairness in dealing with the Danes, not one has been known to advocate a division according to nationality and the return to Denmark of the northern districts. All appear to agree that wherever the German flag has once been raised it cannot again be hauled down.

If such, then, are the ideal and the goal, pretexts will easily be found. The arguments advanced in justification of the annexation of Sleswic, and its political sequel, may be grouped under the following heads: (1) geographical, (2) ethnical, (3) historico-political, and (4) cultural.

I. THE GEOGRAPHICAL ARGUMENT.

Sleswic, it is asserted, is needed to "round off" the domains. of the empire. It is part of the German mainland, a continuation northward of German Holstein, no natural barrier of any kind separating the "twin duchies." No geographical line can be drawn between the two nationalities, which, furthermore, largely overlap, making any scheme of division impracticable.

This, were it true, would seem a somewhat artificial defense of forbidding the singing of Danish songs and the wearing of Danish colors. Moreover, is not the division of populations on geographical lines a device which might with profit be relegated

among the relics of a past age ? But a glance at the map will convince any unprejudiced observer that it is not so. Sleswic is an integral part of the Cimbrian peninsula, the southward extension of Danish Jutland, field joining to field and forests being cut into halves where the political ditch has been dug. And as to the narrow belt where Danish and German meet - let the majority rule. Such a line of demarkation would not only be theoretically just, but also easy of determination and practically well defined, as witness the percentage map inserted above.

II. THE ETHNICAL ARGUMENT.

But, it has been alleged, racially the people are Germans; the Sleswicians are Low Germans like the Holsteinians.

This is the plea of ignorance, betraying an utter lack of acquaintance with real conditions, and scarcely worth refuting. As Sleswic geographically is part of Jutland, so its people ethnically and linguistically belong to the same stock as the northern Jutes-i. e., they are Danes, Scandinavians, in racial traits and in speech. In rural North Sleswic this stock is absolutely pure; the family tree of the Dane has no branches pointing southward. And even south of the Sleswic "Mason and Dixon line" the population still exhibits all the marks of an essentially Danish origin—the facial characteristics, the patronymics. The North Sleswic popular idiom is chemically free from German admixtures; and the place-names-those incorruptible witnesses-throughout the length and breadth of the land are hopelessly Danish, though ofttimes caricatured almost beyond identification by Prussian spelling reformers. And those grand old monuments, the rune stones, of which several have been unearthed in the southernmost part of the province, bear mute but unimpeachable testimony to the fact that nine hundred years ago this country was Danish and Danish men were engaged in the same struggle, with the same foe, for the maintenance of their land and their language.

III. THE HISTORICO-POLITICAL ARGUMENT.

Germany has a historic right to Sleswic, it is claimed.

Since from the dawn of history down to 1864 Sleswic has

never for a single day passed out of actual possession of the Danish crown, this right must be of a different nature from that claimed to Alsace-Lorraine-German territory reverting to the mother-country after a long period of estrangement. Behind the phrase "historic right" there lurks in reality another idea. It is charged that Denmark through misrule and abuse of her German wards forfeited her title to the province, and that the Danish population is now simply being paid back in coin of Denmark's own mintage-with interest added.

Does one wrong, then, justify another?

Must punishment be meted out to innocent people for mistakes committed by their government in years gone by? If this rule were to hold, where would the Germans themselves be today?

But as to the facts in the matter, let these things be noted: It is true that for long centuries Sleswic was treated as a step-child in the Danish household. Ever since the times of Charlemagne a buffer against German aggressions, it suffered the fate of all border provinces. Away back in the Middle Ages. the kings of Denmark sliced it up into fiefs for younger sons to keep them from plotting against the throne. Matrimonial alliances between these and the Holstein counts led to close political relations; and thus the trouble began. In course of time a sort of quasi-sovereignty was obtained by the Sleswic dukes, more or less reluctantly acknowledged by their Danish suzerains. Constant intrigues and family feuds added fuel to the flame. Aided by the old historic doctrine of the "inseparableness" of Sleswic and Holstein, a strong separatistic sentiment— the so-called "Sleswic-Holsteinism"-developed, aiming at independence under the protectorate of the North German Confederation, to which Holstein, though a part of the Danish monarchy, belonged since 1815. These aspirations were winked at by Germany; and finally in 1848 the Danish government, which by its indifference had so long been sowing the wind of particularism, reaped the whirlwind of open rebellion. It took three years to quell the insurrection; and the fire of discontent still smoldered in the ashes. In 1864 the separatists hailed Germany as liberator and fought valiantly under her banner.