European action; fourthly, the Concert of Europe, and fifthly, international arbitration, are to be regularly supported and, if possible, established.
It will be patent at once that, though a step or two, more or less tentative, have been taken already in each of these directions, in no one of them is there even a prospect of finality for many decades to come.
Nevertheless, in order to gauge the future, it is desirable to inspect those several expedients summarily, and then to look beyond them still.
As regards the first, our choice of a side in the balance of Europe, that is a matter of particular difficulty. Lord Salisbury, as has been seen, towards the end of his career emphasised our special attachment to Germany. It was in accordance with this view that Mr. Chamberlain, in the early days of the Boer War, definitely proposed our alliance with the fatherland. He said that it is now "evident to everybody that the natural alliance is between ourselves and the great German empire." But against this policy there still is our old-rooted feeling that in Europe we must suspect a rising star. Besides, Germany, with her aspirations towards sea power, would not have it. The sea intervenes, the sea of which England must be victim or queen.
But if we were to incline towards France and Russia, we must also put into force our second expedient of a comprehensive settlement with each of them, and in due course with Germany herself.
