HOW GERMANY OBTAINED COLONIES
THIS latest volume in the excellent series of Studies in Modern History, edited by Professor Namier, is a model of the way in which diplomatic history should be written. Mr. Taylor goes to the right sources, examines them carefully, and explains the story told by them. He addi enough comment to enable the reader to put this story in its general setting, and also to under- stand the personal and contingent factors in the negotiations. His introduction is a brilliant little summary of the German attitude towards colonies in general, and British colonies in particular. He writes clearly, and is always master of his sub- ject. The subject itself is of great interest, and relevant to the present time. Mr. Taylor's conclusions bring out a pdint hitherto overlooked ; he shows th4.Vismarck used the colonial question as a means of making, or pretending to make, a quarrel with England, in order to impress the French with his offers of friendship. Gladstone's concentration upon domestic affairs, Derby's negative policy, and Granville's benevolent incompetence were of considerable help in giving Bismarck pretexts for complaint, but he would have found other pretexts if it had been necessary to do so.
To a certain extent, perhaps, Mr. Taylor overstates the case. It is true that Bismarck was not interested in colonies as such ; his prestige and the fact that the imperial government did not depend upon a parliamentary majority enabled him to ignore, at will, the vociferous demands of Germans who thought that colonies brought dignity and wealth to a State which was as yet more ntniveau than riche. At the same time this pressure was strolig, and Bismarck, who underrated the cohesion of the German Emkire, and had already made a bad mistake over the Kulturkampf, was never indifferent to popular demands. Parliamentary opposition exasperated him, but he took care to explain his policy to the Reichstag, and to conciliate interests even when he snubbed their representatives. Mr. Taylor might have given a little more space to an estimate of the strength of the • colonial movement in Germany ; this estimate would show Gladstone's practical sense in making concessions to German colonial ambitions blocked by Great Britain, even though in nearly every case our claims, according to the standards of the time, were better 'founded than the German claims. One might add that Gladstone, like most Englishmen of his generation, judged Germans by the qualities which, under Prussian influence, they were fast losing, and that Gladstone's " moral " welcome M Germany as a colonial Power might have been less hearty if he could have foreseen that for many years German methods of colonial administration would be extremely harsh, ruthless, and illiberal.
These points merely affect the emphasis, and not the main theme of Mr. Taylor's book. They do not weaken his argu- ment that Bismarck blew hot or cold about colonies according to his hope of bringing out a reconciliation with the goventritent, if not with the people of France. In any case, the description of Bismarck's methods is important in itself. This Junker of genius behaved like a shifty horse-toper at a local fair, while Herbert Bismarck grinned applause at his father's lies. Such tricks—the peasant mentality writ Mrge—had some immediate success, though greater success could probably have been obtained by telling the truth and using ordinary politeness. In the long run Bismarck's methods of chicane and bullying were fatal to Germany. A great people must reckon success in terms of generations, and not snatch at small profits. Bis- marck did not persuade the French. to forget the outrageous terms forced upon them in 1871; he left upon English states-
men, liberal and conservative, the impression that he was a blackmailer. The experience of later years reinforced this impression, because Bismarck also left behind him in the German foreign office a delusion that blackmail was really a good way of doing business.
There is a contemporary moral to this story of fifty years ago. Mr. Taylor sums up this moral in his concluding words : " Short of a run of Bismarcks, there is something to be said for government by gentlemen, even when they are such incompe- tent muddlers as Lord Granville and Lord Derby." There is indeed a good deal to be said for this type of government, if a nation wishes to survive ; the verdict of history shows that ultimate triumph rarely belongs to the cardsharpers and the
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