Men _must_ use themselves:--for good or ill. Most
human ills were caused by the lack of scope for energy. Sitting on,
or screwing down, the safety valve invariably was fatal:--a doctrine
which He enforced on the attention and obedience of the clergy. These
principles involved a re-arrangement of various spheres of influence.
The Ruler of the World, Peter, the Supreme Arbitrator, decreed that the
only nations, in which the "facultas regendi" survived in undiminished
energy, were England, America, Japan, Germany, Italy. Some of the old
monarchies, however, had not yet reached that point of decay when
their extinction would become desirable: they were Norway, Sweden,
Denmark, the German kingdoms and principalities and duchies, Spain,
Portugal, Greece, Roumania, Albania, Montenegro, the republics of
Switzerland and San Marino. These were to be maintained as sovereign
states and to preserve their national characters. Some also of the
old monarchies, which had tolerated unmerited suppression, were to
be given an opportunity of proving themselves worthy of corporate
existence. These were Hungary, Bohemia, and Russian and German Poland.
They were revived as kingdoms; and required to provide themselves
with constitutions (after the manner of England), and to elect their
respective monarchical dynasties. Switzerland and San Marino were
confirmed as republics. The Sultan at the instigation of England, his
ally, would move his capital to Damascus, in order to concentrate the
main force of Islam in Asia. Servia was added to the Principality of
Montenegro. Turkey-in-Europe and Bulgaria would become merged in the
kingdom of Greece. So far for particulars.
Hadrian denounced, as bad and idle dreams, the plans of recent
political schemers who had adumbrated ideas of a federation of the
English-speaking and the Teutonic races. He dwelled upon the essential
differences which divided Germany from America, and both from
England. No blend was possible between the English and the Germans;
and Americans were not qualified for bonds. Each one of the three
was unique; and each would stand alone. Three such enormous powers
must have each its own separate and singular existence and sphere of
action. Three such spheres must be found, in which the three nations
independently might thrive. It was room for independent development
which must be sought out, and assigned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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