even so wrong-headed a man as Alexander I has left to the world.  The idea of arbitration between nations, the solution of difficulties by arguments rather than by swords, the power which democracies hold in their hands for guiding the future destinies of the world—­all these in their various forms remain with us as legacies of that splendid, though ineffective, idealism which lay at the root of the Holy Alliance.

SMALL NATIONALITIES

And now after this digression, which has been necessary to clear the ground, and also to suggest apt parallels, let us return to what Mr. Asquith said in Dublin on the ultimate objects of the present war.  He borrowed from Mr. Gladstone the phrase “the enthronement of the idea of public right as the governing idea of European politics,” and in developing it as applicable to the present situation he pointed out that for us three definite objects are involved.  The first, assented to by every publicist of the day, apart from those educated in Germany, is the wholesale obliteration of the notion that states exist simply for the sake of going to war.  This kind of militarism, in all its different aspects, will have to be abolished.  The next point brings us at once to the heart of some of the controversies raised in 1815 and onwards.  “Room,” said Mr. Asquith—­agreeing in this matter with Mr. Winston Churchill—­“room must be found, and kept, for the independent existence and the free development of the smaller nationalities, each with a corporate consciousness of its own.”  Now this is a plain issue which every one can understand.  Not only did we go to war in order to help a small nationality—­Belgium—­but the very principle of nationality is one of the familiar phrases which have characterised British policy through the greater part of the nineteenth century.  Our principle is to live and let live, to allow smaller states to exist and thrive by the side of their large neighbours without undue interference on the part of the latter.  Each distinct nationality is to have its voice, at all events, in the free direction of its own future.  And, above all, its present and future position must be determined not by the interests of the big Powers, but by a sort of plebiscite of the whole nationality.

SOME PLAIN ISSUES

Applying such principles to Europe as it exists to-day, and as it is likely to exist to-morrow, we arrive at certain very definite conclusions.  The independence of Belgium must be secured, so also must the independence of Holland and Denmark.  Alsace and Lorraine must, if the inhabitants so wish, be restored to France, and there can be little doubt that Alsace at all events will be only too glad to resume her old allegiance to the French nation.  The Duchies of Schleswig-Holstein must also decide whether they would like to be reunited to Denmark.  And we are already aware that the