THE PROSPECTS OF EUROPEAN PEACE.
MTALLICHET, the able editor of the Ribliollaque . Uttiverselle, is one of those European publicists whose examinations of a political situation are invariably worth reading. Although not a Frenchman, but a Swiss, he has the gift, more common in those who use the French language than in others, of writing a luminous narrative of events which conceals important principles, and instructs the dullest reader without letting him suspect that he is being more than entertained. If M. Tallichet does not employ the gossamer graces of a Frenchman, he perhaps has all the more the appearance of being judicial and level-headed. Two of his articles on the European situation have been reprinted in a pamphlet under the title of " La Question de in Paix et sa Solution," and have lately reached us. Englishmen, we believe, will read with much respect these sane articles by one who courageously declared himself a friend of Great Britain and a believer in her sincerity when she had few other friends in Europe. The book contains an extremely interesting recital of the swift events of recent times which have menaced the equilibrium of Europe ; an investigation, incorporated, as we have said, in the narrative, of the dangers before us ; and, finally, a forecast of the new influence to be exerted by religion when it is separated everywhere from State control. In religion, then, M. Tallichet finds the solution of all difficulties. He looks to its humanising and mellowing influence, which will be as potent as ever when every kind of secular policy has been found wanting, to bring the hearts of all nations into trust and toleration of one another. With all that he says about the substantial justice of the French Government's action in the quarrel with the Vatican we agree. We have said it ourselves several times. But when he includes England among the countries that are to profit by the new era of unfettered religion we are compelled to dissent. How far the un- witting influence of the French Republic may have caused the perverse failure of the Roman Catholic Church to keep the conscience of the nation right in the critical moral period of the Dreyfus controversy it is not for us to say; but we do repudiate the argument offered on so many sides to-day that the influence of the State on the Church of England is necessarily a vile influence. However, it is none the less refreshing to find a publicist of M. Tallichet's
• experience and powers of analysis offering as a solvent what is too often regarded as merely a nebulous influence. It is a proper culmination to what is in the main a psychological argument.
It may be said at once that M. Tallichet takes Germany • as the source of danger, as the ingredient which assorts least well with all the other constituents of Europe. He is careful to disown all the mischievous assertions of mere alarmists. Ho believes that the German people earnestly desire peace ; but the serious fact to be faced is that the German people do not control German policy. This seems to put the responsibility for European uneasiness wholly on the Kaiser, and M. Tallichet does not do this without important explanations and reservations. The Kaiser began his reign with a de'bounaire tolerance of the whole world ; he dropped his pilot, Bismarck, because he himself was more sensitive and more scrupulous ; he even—to take a trifling but suggestive incident—asked the Swiss authorities to allow a Labour Conference to meet in Berlin instead of in Switzerland, and this in the face of Bismarck's opposition. But all that phase has passed. The 'second manner," as art critics say, of the Emperor has ended in his isolation in Europe. The Kaiser would undoubtedly like to break down the ring-fence of opposition which his own policy has built round him. But how ? Suppose that all the countries which have already dis- tributed their affections in various " understandings" have none left for Germany ? It is the growing difficulty in which the Emperor finds himself that is paradoxically the danger. Here is an ambitious ruler who, obeying a perfectly natural instinct, would like to move about the world uninterruptedly and find interests abroad for his enterprising industrial population, and he is conscious of the antipathy which encompasses him. A misguided impulse from a man of impulses at a moment when he finds that his own wishes clash snore vehemently than usual with the rights of others might conceivably end in the catastrophe M. Tallichet fears. The only thing that could correct the impulse would be the will of the German people. Feeling that very strongly, ]tI. Tallichet looked forward to the late German elections with a peculiar sense of their importance. Would the people set their seal or not on the tendencies of the Emperor's Weltpolitik ? M. Tallichet' s pamphlet was published before the elections
began. But it is easy to guess from what he says how little he can be reassured by the results. The Clerical Centre have returned slightly stronger in numbers than before ; it is not to be supposed that their quarrel with the Emperor will be permanent, and by political and religious temperament they are certainly not the friends of the secularising French Republic. M. Tallichet thinks that the publication of the Hohenlohe Memoirs was a patriotic act deliberately designed by one who saw no other way of drawing the attention of Germans to the dangerous manner in whieh all the vital affairs of the State are withheld from their cognisance. The Emperor slightly disparaged the Triple Alliance till a growing isolation made it precious in his eyes, and now it is late, if not too late, to rehabilitate it. The natural Latin sympathies of Italy make her lean towards France, and Austria devotes what attention she can spare from internal conflicts to speculating on the real significance of Pan-Germanism. Desperately the Kaiser turns to Scandinavia and the Netherlands and Belgium for that kind of friendship which falls to those who hold controlling interest in commerce. He finds that Sweden and Norway have associated themselves with Great Britain by marriage. He would naturally like to secure the safety of the Kid Canal, which in the event of war would retain a large force for its protection, and he knows that its automatic security is impossible without first achieving an impossibility in the closing of the Baltic.
M. Tallichet passes to the discussion of disarmament, and concludes reluctantly that it would be in itself a provocation. Let us suppose the beat that we can hope for from the Hague Confereuce,—a proportional all-round reduction which will lessen expenditure, but will maintain the status quo. What would happen next ? M. Tallichet cites the case of Prussia after 36na. Napoleon the Great imposed on her the obligation to reduce her Army to a negligible quantity. King William remained faithful to the letter of his pledges, but by introducing a short- service system he actually created a great Reserve. Six years later that powerful Reserve showed its mettle at Leipzig, and again later still at Waterloo. Then how could one prevent the improvement of arms and explosives which would secretly upset the whole balance of power which was the basis of agreement ? No protocol could well control these things, and mistrust would be provoca- tive. It would mean espionage, and hence the very inflammable conditions which we wish to avoid. In his discussion of the strength of the French and German Armies, NE Tallichet, taking into account the support of Great Britain, sums up rather confidently in favour of the - French. We doubt whether the German soldier has become quite such a mechanical creature as he supposes ; but at all events we heartily join him in his commendation of the new spirit in France which identifies the Army and the nation. Courts-Martial are abolished because the soldier offends, not against a private body, but against the nation, and—General Piequart, the humane and courageous, is Minister for War. Volta tout ! If the worst remains the worst, and the great burdens of our modern armies have still to be borne, we must try to snatch what consolation we may from M. Tallichet's reflection that a humanised army is capable of being an excellent school of physical improvement and moral practice. In that sense it would never mean a purely unproductive expenditure. We are interested to note that on this point M. Tallichet refers to the improvement in health, strength, bearing, and self-confidence of the men in the Spectator Company.
In conclusion, M. Tallichet appears to think that before the religious feeling of Europe is set free and purified to do its great work—to make the nations place that trust in one another which is the only conceivable condition of disarmament—there will be a hard struggle over the dis- integration of the prevailing system in some countries. The Kaiser's noticeable contact with the Vatican only complicates the issue. The Kaiser will probably encourage Pius X. in his present policy. The Dltramontanes all over Europe will be stirred to delay the coming era of secularisation. Spain will be involved, and so will AUstria. But the end is clear, because the religious spirit is permanent. States may shatter the arks which long housed it, and be justified in the act; but they cannot, as M. Viviani boasted, quench the lights of heaven.
Previous page
