Their audience, their triple audience, is
part of Greece, some of the public of Spain, and sections of that of the
United States. To the French and the British armies in the West, to the
Russians in the East, and to the Italians upon their frontiers, the
terms appear insufficient. Therein would seem to lie the gravity of
Prussia's case. These belligerent Powers will go so far as to demand
more than the mere restoration of stolen property, from cottage
furniture to freedom. And their anger has risen so high that they even
propose to make the acquirer of these goods suffer very bitterly indeed.
What plea he will then raise under discomforts more serious than those
he has caused to the peasants of Flanders and of Poland, and how those
pleas will affect his neutral audience, will have no effect whatever on
the result of the war, or on his own unpleasing fate. Those appeals will
have a certain interest, however, because we know from the past that the
German mind is unstable. Within fifteen short months it proposed the
annihilation of the French armies and the occupation of Paris. It
failed. It next offered terms upon suffering defeat. It withdrew them.
It next made certain at least of a conquest of Russia, failed again,
offered terms again, withdrew them again; was directed to the blockading
of England, failed; thought Egypt better, and then changed its mind. It
was but yesterday in the mood that this cartoon suggests; to-morrow its
mood will have utterly changed again, probably to a whine, perhaps to a
scream.
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