GEEMANY. 



CHAPTER 1. 



General Aspects. 



ERMANY {Deutschland) occupies the very centre of Europe. 

 Diagonals connecting the extremities of the continent, whether 

 drawn from the nebrides to Constantinople, from the Ural to 

 Gibraltar, or from the North Cape to Sicily, run through its centre. 

 Germany consequently appears to be called upon to act that part 

 of intermediary for the whole of Europe which for ten centuries has fallen to the 

 lot of France in Western Europe, and which England fills with reference to the 

 old world and the new. 



Germany, as long as there existed no artificial high-roads, possessed fewer 

 facilities than her neighbour France to enter into direct relations with the countries 

 of Southern Europe. Shut off from the Mediterranean by the Alps, Germany was 

 less favourably situated for acting as the intermediary between the south and 

 the north of Europe. France lies partly within the basin of the Mediterranean, 

 partly within that of the open Atlantic, whilst the whole of Germany slopes 

 down towards the north ; and the seas which wash its shores are almost devoid 

 of good harbours, such as abound in France and England. 



The Baltic is an inland sea, communicating with the open ocean only through 

 the straits separated by the Danish archipelago. Though small in extent, it is 

 dreaded on account of its sand-banks, short waves, fogs, gusts, and changeable 

 winds. In winter its ports are closed by ice. The North Sea, though freely 

 communicating with the open Atlantic, is likewise full of perils on account of its 

 low, undefined shores, fringed with islands and sand-banks, and its principal 

 gateway, the Strait of Dover, is at the mercy of France and England. If the 

 German mercantile marine holds a respectable position amongst the merchant 

 fleets of the world, this is not because of the maritime advantages enjoyed by 

 Germany. 



Germany, therefore, though its seaboard extends from the frontier of Holland 

 to that of Russia, can scarcely be called a maritime country. Apart from the 



