216 



TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



but what are these things ? This he leaves to 

 the future. " Kommt Zcit, kommt Rath.' 1 '' The 

 signification of the plan is the following : " Let 

 the Russians do whatever they like. Our posi- 

 tion toward them is a friendly neutrality." Neu- 

 trality, and friendly: a steel hoop, made of 

 wood ! Contradictio in adjeclo. But, alas ! still 

 true. Friendly toward Russia ; hostile toward 

 Turkey ; but no neutrality. When a country is 

 affected in her vital interests by a war, as our 

 country is now, neutrality is an absolute impossi- 

 bility. Inaction is no neutrality. That this hith- 

 erto observed inaction has been of great service 

 to the Russians is a fact crying to heaven and 

 earth. But I will now continue the scheme. " If 

 the Turks shall be victorious, everything will re- 

 main as it has been ; and we shall mediate dur- 

 ing the final negotiations, in order that the Turk 

 may not press too hardly on the Russians, with 

 whom we shall keep on ' friendly terms.' If, on 

 the contrary, the Russians advance victoriously, 

 ' we shall take up a position ' in behalf of the 

 conquered Turks ; we shall strive to moderate 

 the Russian exactions at the final negotiations ; 

 but, in any case, if the Russians rob, we will rob 

 too, if possible down to Salonica ! And then we 

 will say to Hungary and to Austria : ' Well, we 

 have secured the interests of the monarchy in the 

 face of the Russian extension-policy. The Rus- 

 sians have annexed, but we have annexed also ; 

 the equilibrium which was upset by robbery has 

 been restored by robbery.'" 



Such is the " scheme " of the policy of "free- 

 dom of self -decision,' 1 ' 1 of which the prime-minister 

 has been boasting. I shall be very glad if the 

 patriotism of the national representatives should 

 give such a guarantee for the fulfillment of the 

 people's wishes as may refute my suspicion — I 

 had nearly written my " certainty." 



The second thing we learn from the quoted 

 declaration is this, that our Government has no 

 ally. I think that, under such circumstances, 

 there are two .things which are the chief duties 

 of a government. The one is that it shall see 

 its way clearly with reference to the tendency of 

 its policy — of this I have spoken already; the 

 other is that, in order to secure this policy, it 

 should think of getting allies. It is a bad case 

 that the Government has no allies. I could even 

 call this also neglect of duty, because they could 

 have had allies if they had had a good policy. 



But it is still worse that the untrammelcd at- 

 titude, of which the prime-minister has boasted, 

 favors the Russians. Since the beginning of the 

 complications we have heard of nothing so em- 



phatically as the confederacy of the three em- 

 perors, which was formerly styled " a friendly 

 understanding." One of these three confederates 

 is the czar. My dear fatherland ! thou art in- 

 deed in great danger from that untrammeled atti- 

 tude which operates in friendly relations with 

 Russia. Hitherto it has acted in that way. I 

 could cite many testimonies ; I will quote only a 

 single one. 



The Government says it has no obligations. 

 What ! Has it not entered into an engagement 

 to let Roumania be occupied by Russia who un- 

 furled the banners of " The Slavonic Cause," and 

 so to convert this province into a place for her 

 military operations, notwithstanding that the neu- 

 trality of that country has been guaranteed by 

 the European powers, under whose protectorate 

 it has been placed? Yes, they have engaged 

 themselves, and by a formal bargain, because 

 they have expressly stipulated, as a reward, that 

 the czar shall not force Servia into war. 



This fatal obligation is the source of all the 

 evils which have happened hitherto and which 

 will happen hereafter, and of all the dangers that 

 threaten our country. 



But the thing does not end here. The world 

 is filled with anxiety lest even this stipulation 

 should be omitted, and lest the Viennese cabinet 

 should not try to prevent the czar from taking 

 Servia into action. Lo ! because the Turkish 

 lion has struck the czar over the fingers, the 

 great czar is in want of the perjury of little 

 Servia, to whom Turkey the other day granted 

 forgiveness. Thus the untrammeled attitude 

 leans again toward Russia. 



The representatives of Huugary will, no doubt, 

 without party difference, feel the danger that 

 menaces them through this new aggravation of 

 circumstances. 



I must now advert to a third governmental 

 declaration, and I find it very weighty. 



When an interpellation was directed to the 

 Government with reference to its policy, instead 

 of confessing its leanings, it avoided the ques- 

 tion by declaring that the interests of the Austro- 

 Hungarian monarch]/ have led and will lead their 

 policy, and that the interests of the monarchy un- 

 der every circumstance will be considered. 



The Government, in fact, always serves up 

 the same dish, nobody knowing whether it is fish 

 or flesh, not even the butler who serves it. This 

 is the question, in what direction (not by tvhai 

 means, but in what direction) the minister seeks 

 his policy ? and whether he seeks it in a direction 

 conformable to the interests of the monarchy ? 



