[10] Let me define more precisely what is new here. In the seventeenth century the citizen already had the notion of national honour; Racine’s Letters would be sufficient to prove it (see a significant page in the _Mémoires_ of de Pontis, Book XIV); but he left it to the King to decide what this honour demanded; indignation like Vauban’s against the peace of Ryswick ‘which dishonours the King and the whole nation’, is a very exceptional emotion under the old _régime_. The modern citizen claims to feel for himself what is demanded by the national honour, and he is ready to rise up against his leaders if they have a different conception of it. This new development is not peculiar to the nations living under democratic systems; in 1911 the citizens of the German monarchy thought that the concessions made to their country by France in exchange for German abstention in Morocco were insufficient, and they were extremely angry with their Sovereign who had accepted these conditions which, in their opinion, were an insult to German honour. It may be asserted that the same thing would be true of France if she ever became a monarchy again and if the King took it upon himself to feel the interest of national honour in a different manner to his subjects. Moreover, this actually happened throughout the reign of Louis-Philippe. [11] For example, the humiliation of Olmüts in 1805. It may be asserted that no democracy would have endured it, at least with the philosophy displayed by the King of Prussia and his government. On the other hand, is it necessary to stress the other dangers to peace which existed under the Kings? It is sufficient to quote Montesquieu’s remark: ‘The spirit of the Monarchy is war and aggrandisement.’ [12] In 1886, the Schnaebele affair; in 1890, the incident in Paris where the King of Spain in the uniform of a Colonel of Uhlans was hooted; in 1891, the incident of the Empress of Germany passing through Paris; in 1897, Fashoda; in 1904, the incident of the British trawlers sunk by the Russian Fleet, etc. Of course, I do not claim that the Kings only waged practical wars, although with them the allegation of ‘wounded honour’ was very often a mere pretext. Louis XIV obviously did not make war on Holland because the Dutch struck a medal insulting him. Moreover, I shall grant that from time to time the Kings indulged in military invasions, a type of elegance which appears to be less and less tempting to the democracies; one cannot now imagine the peace of the world disturbed by excursions like those of Charles VIII into Italy or Charles XII into the Ukraine.