The die is cast.  The great European struggle which the nations have so long struggled to avert has begun.  Germany declared war upon Russia on Saturday evening, and yesterday her troops entered Luxemburg and crossed the French frontier in Lorraine without any declaration at all.  It is idle to dwell upon events such as these.  They speak for themselves in a fashion which all can understand.  They mean that Europe is to be the scene of the most terrible war that she has witnessed since the fall of the Roman Empire.  The losses in human life and in the accumulated wealth of generations which such a contest must involve are frightful to think on.  That it should have come about despite the zealous efforts of diplomacy, and against the wishes of almost all the nations whom it is destined to afflict, is a grim satire upon the professions of peace yet fresh upon the lips of those who have plunged the Continent into its miseries and its calamities.  The blame must fall mainly upon Germany.  She could have stayed the plague had she chosen to speak in Vienna as she speaks when she is in earnest.  She has not chosen to do so.  She has preferred to make demands in St. Petersburg and in Paris which no Government could entertain, and to defeat by irrevocable acts the last efforts of this country and of others for mediation.  She has lived up to the worst principles of the Frederician tradition—­the tradition which disregards all obligations of right and wrong at the bidding of immediate self-interest.  She believes that her admirable military organization has enabled her to steal a march upon her rivals.  She has been mobilizing in all but name, while their mobilization has been retarded by the “conversations” she continued until her moment had come.  Then she flung the mask aside.  While her Ambassador was still in Paris, while by the customs traditional with all civilized peoples she was still at peace with France, she has sent her soldiers into Luxemburg, and invaded the territory of the republic.  It is hard to say which of these acts is the grosser infringement of public right.  With Luxemburg she makes no pretense of quarrel.  She is herself a party to the guarantee of its neutrality contained in the Treaty of 1867.  The other guarantors are Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, and the Netherlands.  She solemnly pledged herself with some of them, including France and ourselves, to respect this neutrality.  The world sees how Germany keeps her word.  She has been weak enough, or cynical enough, to issue an explanation of her breach of faith.  Let Englishmen, who have been disposed to trust her, judge it for themselves.  She has not, she says, committed a hostile act by crossing the frontiers, by forcibly seizing the Government offices, and by forcibly interrupting the telephonic communication.  These are merely measures to protect the railways from a possible attack by the French.  For the sudden invasion of France no excuse has yet been published.  When it comes it will doubtless be of about equal worth.