minorities would still be left, but these could unquestionably be dealt with by a law of guarantees, similar to those which have played so conspicuous a part in the theory, but sometimes also in the practice, of the Dual Monarchy.  So many severe amputations might, however, prove too much for the vitality of the patient; and in any case we may assume that either Austria-Hungary will be able to prevent the operation, or that the Allies, if they can once bring matters thus far, will insist upon completing the process by a drastic post-mortem inquiry.  Any sympathetic qualms are likely to be outweighed by the consideration that a State of this hybrid nature would tend to be more than ever a vassal of Germany.  Moreover, there can be no doubt that one of the surest means of bringing Germany to her knees is by crushing her most formidable ally, and thus tapping some of the sources of her own military and economic strength.  It is safe to assume that this consideration plays an important part in the military plans of Russia; and for many reasons—­political, strategic, and economic—­a Russian occupation of Bohemia must be regarded as the essential prelude to a decisive victory of the Allies.  The war has thrown the Dual Monarchy into the melting-pot; but it is not enough to accept the possibility of its disappearance from the map, it is also necessary to consider what new organisms would take its place.  A complete partition would, as we have seen, remove the last obstacle to a unified Southern Slav State.  The dreams of Italia Irredenta and Greater Roumania would be realised.  Western Galicia and a part of Silesia would be united to autonomous Poland as reconstituted by the Russian Tsar.  Eastern Galicia, Northern Bukovina, and the Ruthene districts of Hungary as far as Ungvar and Munkacs, would be incorporated in the Russian Empire, though it is to be hoped that an early result of this change would be the grant of a certain modified autonomy, or at least of special linguistic and religious privileges, to the Ukraine population, thus united after centuries of partition in a single body politic.

Sec.9. Bohemia and Hungary.—­But the most striking result of the partition would be the revival of the famous mediaeval kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary as independent States.  Thus would be realised the dream of two races, the Czechs and Magyars, whose national revival forms one of the most romantic incidents of the nineteenth century.  But it is difficult to imagine a greater contrast than their respective development.  In Bohemia the Czechs, after losing their religious and civic liberty and enduring for two centuries the domination of the Germans, raised themselves once more in the course of two generations, by sheer force of character and tireless industry, to a position of equality, and reorganised their national life on an essentially democratic basis.  In Hungary the Magyars, thanks to their central position, their superior political sense, and their possession of a powerful aristocracy,