When all is said and done, however, the murder of the Archduke, though an event of world-importance so far as the internal development and future of the Dual Monarchy is concerned, is none the less a side-issue in the Southern Slav question.  This seeming paradox will not surprise those who consider the currents of national life among the Southern Slavs.  The diplomatic conflict between Belgrade and Vienna or Budapest is but the outcome of a far deeper and wider movement.  We are witnessing the birth-throes of a new nation, the rise of a new national consciousness, the triumph of the idea of National Unity among the three Southern Slav sisters—­the Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes.  Fate has assigned to Britain and to France an important share in the solution of the problem, and it is our duty to insist that this solution shall be radical and permanent, based upon the principle of Nationality and the wishes of the Southern Slav race.  Only by treating the problem as an organic whole, by avoiding patchwork remedies and by building for a distant future, can we hope to remove one of the chief danger-centres in Europe.

BOOKS

Unfortunately some of the indispensable books are in German or French, but the following list offers a very considerable choice:—­

(A) AUSTRIA-HUNGARY

Austria-Hungary and Poland, by H.W.  Steed, W. Alison Phillips, and D. Hannay. (Britannica War Books.) 2s. 6d. net.  Uncritical reprint of very valuable articles from the Encyclopaedia Britannica.

LOUIS LEGER. History of Austria-Hungary. 1889 (from French) (out of print).

GEOFFREY DRAGE. Austria-Hungary. 21s. net. 1909.  A mine of economic facts.

H.W.  STEED. The Habsburg Monarchy. 1914. (3rd ed.) 7s. 6d. net.  Far the best summary of tendencies, on the lines of Bodley’s France and Bryce’s American Commonwealth.

R.W.  SETON-WATSON (SCOTUS VIATOR). Racial Problems in Hungary. 1908. 16s. net.

R.W.  SETON-WATSON. Corruption and Reform in Hungary. 1911. 4s. 6d. net.

HON.C.N.  KNATCHRULL-HUGESSON. The Political Development of the Hungarian Nation. 1910. 2 vols. 14s. net.  A good exposition of the extreme Magyar Chauvinist point of view.

R. MAHAFFY. The Emperor Francis Joseph. 1910. 2s. 6d.  A useful character-sketch.

C.E.  MAURICE. Bohemia. (Story of the Nations.) 1896. 5s.  An admirable text-book.

C.E.  MAURICE. The Revolutionary Movement of 1848-49. 1887. 16s.  The best epitome in English.

COUNT FRANCIS LUTZOW. Bohemia. 1896. (Everyman Library.) 1s.

EMILY G. BALCH. Our Slavic Fellow Citizens.  New York. 1910.  The best book on emigration. 10s. 6d. net.

(B) SERBIA AND THE SOUTHERN SLAVS