Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1891-11-06
PROF. FREEMAN ON THE STATE
OF EUROPE.
From the New York sun.

Except Lord Salisbury there is per-
haps no Englishman better qualified to
discuss the dangers that threaten the
peace of Europe than Prof Edward a.
| Freeman, who sets forth his views upon
the subject in the November number of
the Forum. Indeed, although the head
of the British foreign office has earlier
opportunities of discerning the near oc-
casions of war, the deeper causes prob
ably reveal themselves more clearly to
lodged to be the highest eastern author
ity on the past and present condition of
those southeastern countries which con-
stitute one of the chief storm centres of
European politics.
1t is a common mistake to look on war
as something depending wholly or main
ly on the caprces of princes and diplo-
matists. We need not say that this no.
ton is not shared by Prof. Freeman. He
admits, indeed, that there are several
persons in Europe, any one of whom
could kindle the flame of war in Il
moment, with reason or without reason.
But because Alexander III. or William H.
or even Francis Joseph might do this, it
by no means follows that any one of
them would. Consciously or uncon-
sciously, they are all Influenced by ma
tional interests and by powerful cur
rents of public opinion. 1t is, therefore,
these interests and these currents which
we should keep in view.
There are, in Prof. Frecman's iudg
mcnt. real causes at work which make
war possible at any moment. In western
Europe, for example, there is an abiding
source of danger so clear to the eyes of
all men that none can overlook or mis-
understand it. This is the temper of
France toward Germany, and the word
France is used in the largest and weight
lest SENSE, for the feeling of animosity is
shared by every man in the nation.
Every statesman and every voter longs
to WIN back the lands lost in 1871. and is
eager to 90 to war with Germany for
that end at the first favorable conjunc-
ture. 1t is certain, on the other hand,
that the German nation is as determined
to keep the coded parts of Asace and
Lorraine as the French nation is resolved
to recover them. Here, then, is a deadly
opposition of interests and wishes be-
tween two of the foremost peoples of
Europe. France-not merely the rulers
of France but the nation itself-may at
any hour seek for war; and Germany
not merely the ruler of the empire but
the nation tself-is certain not to
shrink from it.
In southeastern Europe, also, the out
look is dark. There all wise and patrio-
tic men have common object, the eject
ment of their age-long enemy, the ire
claimable Turk, from Europe. Unfor-
tunately, they find it difficult to unite
for this purpose, and their union is
thwarted rather than furthered by the
jealousy and self-seeking of their over
shadowing neighbors, Russia and the
AuStro-llungarian monarchy. y partial
combination between Grace, Servia, and
Montenegro might be practicable, but a
coalition between them and either Bull
garia or Roumania seems out of the ques-
ton. There is reason to fear that Bull
garia and Seryia are even more swayed
by hatred of each other than by the de
sire to iberate their countrymen still en-
shaved by the Ottoman. They may,
therefore, consent to be made catspaws,
the one of Ilapsburg greed and the other
of Muscovite ambition. At any hour the
late-won independence of the southeast
ern peoples may be shattered in the col
lision between the two great aspirants
for ascendency in the Balkan peninsula.
Prof. Freeman does not fail to point
out that Englishmen owe duty to both
the liberated and still ensaved lands of
southeastern Europe. They have bound
the Turk by promises which he has
failed to fulfill. He has pledged himself
to mend his ways in Armenia and Mace
dona, but he has not mended them.
Even if the other powers refuse co-opera-
ton, it would be specially becoming in
England to insist upon the Sultan's strict
fulfime of his treaty obligations.
Meanwhile, Prof. Freeman dwells with
emphasis on the difference of the parts
played of late years in southern Eu~
rope by the respective heads of the Con-
seryatiye and Liberal parties. There is,
we are reminded, one English statesman
who can boast that he found some thous-
ands of European and Christian people
) just set free from the barbarian yoke,
and that he helped to thrust them back
under it. On the banks of the Nardar
may be heard denounced with bitter
ness the name of Lord Salisbury, be-
trayer of Macedonia. There is another
, English statesman who can say that he
found some thousands Of European and
Christian people with the yoke of the