The Manchester journal. [volume] (Manchester, Vt.) 1861-current, 1915-05-27
1873 1915

Rarely in human history have th
events Of one century more accuratel
reproduced those Of preceding tina
in recent weeks. In 1913 Nspoleoi
WAS fighting his last campaign u
| Germany. He had against him al
lallianee that included England. Russia
Prussia. Sweden and Spain. DESPITE
the odds he had opened his campaign
with his characteristic skill and aecus
toned success. Lutzen. Bautzen anC
Dresden had been fought and won
But the issue Of tie war was still
IN doubt
At this moment Austria served up.
on the great Emperor demand the
main detail in which was that she
should have the lllyrian Provinces.
And the lllyrian Provinces included
Istria, Dalmatia and Trieste. What
Italy asked yesterday Austria asked a
century before under conditions all
most identical. Like Austria, France
refused. Francis Joseph's answer now
is that Of Napoleon,
Looking backward now it is clear
that this refusal was the decisive in
cident in the Napoleonic disaster. 1t
brought Austria into the field with
100000 troops, some of whom shared
in the great triumph at Leipzig few
weeks later. Bavaria and Saxony,
Napoleon's allies at that moment,
changed sides when Austria joined his
enemies. When Austria declared war
Napoleon, like the Kaiser to-day, was
fighting on foreign soil. Wellington
had not yet reached the Pyrenees, in
the north French troops were along
the Elbe, and Danzig and Hamburg
were in French hands.
1t requires no argument to demon
strate how completely the situation
to-day reproduces that of 1918. Italy
now comes in as Austria did then, at
the moment when great coalition is
head against one great nation,
for Austria has become little more
than German province. Rumania,
Bulgaria, Greece are bound to follow
Italy ultimately, as the smaller Ger
man states followed Austria. For
them the profit is all in one direction,
and the entrance of Italy is final
evidence that in the world outside her
own frontiers Germany cannot win.
But there is something more than
,hance resemblance between the pres
mt and the Napoleonic are. The
German idea, which has plunged the
whole world into war, is but an adap-
ion of the Napoleonic idea of world
empire, 1t was not an accident that
CENTURY ago practically all of the ma
ions of Europe united to drive Napo-
con first out of Germany and Spain
nd then out of France.
The one great fact in the world ST.
ation of 1915 is the one central fact
f the situation of 1913. The battle
hat is being fought to-day in
Europe is just as clearly battle for
Iteration as that in 1913 in which ,
russia played so honorable a part.
or generation German scholars, Il.
oldiers, teachers, princes have been ,
,oking over their own frontiers to {
Their lands in which they hoped to
liant the German flag, the German }
lnguage, the German idea. They i,
ave looked upon the world as Alex
nder the Great did, they have sought ;
, adopt and adapt the ideas of Napo- !
on; for them Corsica has conquered
alice"
In German propaganda literature :,
lie nations of he earth have been Z
to death, decadent France !,
as to vanish, the corrupt British En- >
re was to fall apart, Russia was to |,
'el the weight OF German might roll =
g her back from the Vistua. Tur- =
~ was to become a German annex, r
ustria to join in the Teutonic world, i
hich was to pass the Dardanelles and !
e Bosporus, follow the Bagdad Rail y
'ad across Asia Minor to the Eu- !,
rates and approach India by the "
ad Of Alexander. Italy was to obey .
arman direction and accept French .,
'ovinces in return. South and Cen {
al Africa were to become German ),
nds, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, J;
"Germanic by race"
ere to disappear in the greater Ger
any. r
History will see far more clearly |
an we do now the extent, the gran ]