PRUSSIAN MILITARISM.
[To TER EDITOR OP THE "SPECTATOR:1 SIR,—Those who read history do not require any evidence as to the ruthless militarism of Prussia for the last hundred years or more. The following excerpt from a letter written by Southey from Liege on October 6th, 1815, after a visit to the field of Waterloo, may be of interest:— "You will rejoice to hear that the English are as well spoken of for their deportment in peace as in war. It is far otherwise with the Prussians. Concerning them there is but one opinion ; their brutality is said to exceed that of the French, and of their intoler- able insolence I have heard but too many proofs. That abominable old Frederic made them a military nation, and this is the inevit- able consequence. This very day we passed a party on their way to France—some hundred or two. Two gentlemen and two ladies of the country, in a carriage, had come up with them; and these ruffians would not allow them to pass, but compelled them to wait and follow the slow pace of foot soldiers ! This we ourselves saw. Next to the English the Belgians have the best character for discipline."
The letter is to be found on p. 346 of Selected English Letters (fifteenth-nineteenth centuries), published by the Oxford
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