And this fact gave the war its meaning.  The invasion of Belgium changed the whole face of affairs.  As by a lightning flash the issue was made plain:  the issue of the sacredness of law; the rule of the soldier or the rule of the citizen; the rule of fear or the rule of law.  Germany stands for army rule.  This was made clear when, a year ago, she passed under the yoke at Zabern.  However devious her diplomacy in the past, Britain stands today for the rule of law.  The British soldier is the servant of the British people, not their master.

The highest conception of human relations is embodied in the word law.  Law is the framework of civilization.  Law is the condition of security, happiness, and progress.  War is the denial of all law.  It makes scrap paper of all the solemn agreements men and nations have established for their mutual good.

The rape of Belgium made scrap paper of international law.  The sowing of mines in the fairways of commerce made scrap paper of the rights of neutral nations.  The torture of the Belgian people made scrap paper of the rights of non-combatants.

War may be never righteous, but it is sometimes honorable.  In honorable war armies fight against armies, never against private citizens.  If armies give no needless provocation, they will receive none.  The sacking of Malines, Aerschot, Dinant—­these are not acts of honorable war.  The wreck of Louvain, historic Louvain, the venerable centre for 500 years of Catholic erudition, at the hands of blood-drunk soldiers was an act of dishonorable war.  It marks a stain on the record of Germany which the ages will not efface.

“A needed example,” say the apologists for this crime.  The Duke of Alva gave the same “needed example” to these same people in his day.  For centuries the words “Spanish blood” struck terror into peoples’ hearts throughout the Netherlands.  For centuries to come the word Prussian will take its hated place.

The good people of Germany do not burn universities.  Neither do they make war for war’s sake.  They are helpless in the hands of a monster of their own creation.  The affair at Zabern a year ago testifies to their complete subjugation.  All the virtues are left to them, save only the love of freedom.  This the mailed fist has taken away.

The Germany of today is an anachronism.  Her scientific ideals are of the twentieth century.  Her political ideals hark back to the sixteenth.  Her rulers have made her the most superb fighting machine in a world which is soul-weary of fighting.  For a nation in shining armor the civilized World has no place.  It will not worship them, it will not obey them.  It will not respect those who either worship or obey.  It finds no people good enough to rule other people against their will.

A great nation which its own people do not control is a nation without a Government.  It is a derelict on the international sea.  It is a danger to its neighbors, a greater danger to itself.  Of all the many issues, good or bad, which may come from this war, none is more important than this, that the German people should take possession of Germany.