To us it seems a marvel that any people should accept such a doctrine, and should willingly give their lives and their fortunes to the work of carrying it out in practice; but it is not so marvellous as it seems.  The German peoples are brave and obedient, and so make good soldiers; they are easily lured by the hope of profit; they are naturally attracted by the spectacular and sentimental side of war; above all, they are so curiously stupid that many of them do actually believe that they are a divinely chosen race, superior to the other races of the world.  They are very carefully educated, and their education, which is ordered by the State, is part of the military machine.  Their thinking is done for them by officials.  It would require an extraordinary degree of courage and independence for a German youth to cut himself loose and begin thinking and judging for himself.  It must always be remembered, moreover, that their recent history seems to justify their creed.  I will not go back to Frederick the Great, though the history of his wars is the Prussian handbook, which teaches all the characteristic Prussian methods of treachery and deceit.  But consider only the last two German wars.  How, in the face of these, can it be proved to any German that war is not the most profitable of adventures?  In 1866 Prussia had war with Austria.  The war lasted forty days, and Prussia had from five to six thousand soldiers killed in action.  As a consequence of the war Prussia gained much territory, and established her control over the states of greater Germany.  In 1870 she had war with France.  Her total casualties in that war were approximately a hundred thousand, just about the same as our casualties in Gallipoli.  From the war she gained, besides a great increase of strength at home, the rich provinces of Alsace and Lorraine, with all their mineral wealth, and an indemnity of two hundred million pounds, that is to say, four times the actual cost of the war in money.  How then can it be maintained that war is not good business?  If you say so to any Prussian, he thinks you are talking like a child.

Not only were these two wars rich in profit for the Germans, but they did not lose them much esteem.  There was sympathy in this country for the union of the German peoples, just as there was sympathy, a few years earlier, for the union of the various states of Italy.  There was not a little admiration for German efficiency and strength.  So that Bismarck, who was an expert in all the uses of bullying, blackmail, and fraud, was accepted as a great European statesman.  I have always believed, and I still believe, that Germany will have to pay a heavy price for Bismarck—­all the heavier because the payment has been so long deferred.

The present War, then, is in the direct line of succession to these former wars; it was planned by Germany, elaborately and deliberately planned, on a calculation of the profits to be derived from operations on a large scale.