stagnation and aimlessness were everywhere apparent.  On all sides it was recognised that the existing system had become unworkable, and that a catastrophe could only be averted by speedy reforms.  To many far-seeing patriots the last hope of salvation for the State seemed to lie with the late Heir-Apparent, not perhaps as the ideal Prince, but as a man of courage and force of character, possessing the necessary energy to carry through drastic political changes.  His removal was a crushing blow to all who still hoped against hope in the regeneration of the Monarchy.  His place was filled by a young man, lacking both experience and prestige; never was there less sign of the heaven-born genius who alone could save a desperate situation.

In the life of nations and States, as in that of individuals, there sometimes comes a moment when it is possible to make the “Great Refusal” of which Dante sang; and “History teaches that those who decline, or prove unworthy of, the leading role which is offered to them, are trodden mercilessly underfoot.”  In closing the German edition of my book with these words, I expressed the conviction that “for a State such as Austria there could only be one choice”; but unhappily her statesmen have preferred the fatal alternative.[1] “The historic mission of the House of Habsburg is the vindication of equal rights and liberties for all races committed to its charge.  The abandonment of this mission would endanger the very existence of a Great Power upon the Middle Danube."[2] Austria has proved untrue to this mission, and the inexorable forces of history seem at this moment to be working her destruction.  Nations, like individuals, sometimes commit suicide; and those who have most earnestly warned them against such a crime are left as mourners in the funeral procession.

[Footnote 1:  In July 1911 I dedicated The Southern Slav Question to “that Austrian statesman who shall have the courage and the genius necessary to solve the Southern Slav Question.”  In April 1913, in publishing a German edition, I added the words, “At the twelfth hour this dedication is repeated.”  In November 1914 it is unhappily only too evident that that hour has already struck.]

[Footnote 2:  See Racial Problems in Hungary, concluding sentence.]

The war-fever which seized upon the populace of Vienna and Budapest last July typified the feelings of the three dominant races in the Monarchy, the Germans, the Magyars, and the Jews; but it is no criterion for the attitude of large masses of the population.  In fact, the war has accentuated the centrifugal tendencies which were so marked a feature of recent years, and which the introduction of Universal Suffrage and the annexation of Bosnia arrested but failed to eradicate; a stringent censorship may conceal, but cannot alter, this fact.  Disaffection is rife in portions of the army and affects its powers of resistance, while the financial and economic crisis grows from week