A General Sketch of the European War | Page 6

which we now know as the
Prussian. The cradle of this Prussian race was, then, all that flat
country of which Königsberg and Danzig are the capitals, but
especially Königsberg--"King's Town"--where the monarchs of this
remote people were crowned. By an historical accident, which we need
not consider, the same dynasty was, after it had lost all claim to
separate kingship, merged in the rulers of the Mark of Brandenburg, a
somewhat more German but still mixed district lying also in the Baltic
plain, but more towards the west, and the official title of the Prussian
ruler somewhat more than two hundred years ago was the Elector of
Brandenburg. These rulers of the Mark of Brandenburg were a family
bearing the title of Hohenzollern, a castle in South Germany, by which
name they are still distinguished. The palace of these Hohenzollerns
was henceforward at Berlin.
Now, much at the same time that the civil wars were being fought in
England--that is, not quite three hundred years ago--the Reformation
had produced in Germany also very violent quarrels. Vienna, which
was the seat of the Imperial House, stood for the Catholic or traditional
cause, and most Germans adhered to that cause. But certain of the
Northern German principalities and counties took up the side of the
Reformation. A terrible war, known as the Thirty Years' War, was
fought between the two factions. It enormously reduced the total
population of Germany. In the absence of exact figures we only have
wild guesses, such as a loss of half or three-quarters. At any rate, both
from losses from the adherence of many princes to the Protestant cause
and from the support lent to that cause for political reasons by Catholic
France, this great civil war in Germany left the Protestant part more
nearly equal in numbers to the Catholic part, and, among other things,
it began to make the Elector of Brandenburg with his Prussians

particularly prominent as the champion of the Protestant cause. For, of
all the warring towns, counties, principalities, and the rest, Prussia had
in particular shown military aptitude.
From that day to this the advance of Prussia as, first, the champion,
then the leader, and at last the master of Northern Germany as a whole
(including many Catholic parts in the centre and the south), has been
consistent and almost uninterrupted. The "Great Elector" (as he was
called) formed an admirable army some two hundred years ago. His
grandson Frederick formed a still better one, and by his great capacities
as a general, as well as by the excellence of his troops, gave Prussia a
military reputation in the middle of the eighteenth century which has
occasionally been eclipsed, but has never been extinguished.
Frederick the Great did more than this. He codified and gave
expression, as it were, to the Prussian spirit, and the manifestation of
that spirit in international affairs is generally called the "Frederician
Tradition."
This "Frederician Tradition" must be closely noted by the reader,
because it is the principal moral cause of the present war. It may be
briefly and honestly put in the following terms:--
"The King of Prussia shall do all that may seem to advantage the
kingdom of Prussia among the nations, notwithstanding any European
conventions or any traditions of Christendom, or even any of those
wider and more general conventions which govern the international
conduct of other Christian peoples."
For instance, if a convention of international morals has arisen--as it
did arise very strongly, and was kept until recent times--that hostilities
should not begin without a formal declaration of war, the "Frederician
Tradition" would go counter to this, and would say: "If ultimately it
would be to the advantage of Prussia to attack without declaration of
war, then this convention may be neglected."
Or, again, treaties solemnly ratified between two Governments are
generally regarded as binding. And certainly a nation that never kept

such a treaty for more than a week would find itself in a position where
it was impossible to make any treaties at all. Still, if upon a vague
calculation of men's memories, the acuteness of the circumstance, the
advantage ultimately to follow, and so on, it be to the advantage of
Prussia to break such solemn treaty, then such a treaty should be
broken.
It will be apparent that what is called the "Frederician Tradition,"
which is the soul of Prussia in her international relations, is not an
unprincipled thing. It has a principle, and that principle is a patriotic
desire to strengthen Prussia, which particular appetite overweighs all
general human morals and far outweighs all special Christian or
European morals.
This doctrine of the "Frederician Tradition" does not mean that the
Prussian statesmen wantonly do wrong, whether in acts of cruelty or in
acts of treason and bad faith.