* * * * *

Quite a host of moral reflections, none of them very original, flock to
one's mind in considering by what devious ways our Italian allies came
to range themselves on the side of that freedom which they have always
loved as well and bravely as any of the rest of us. For instance--a very
stale reflection--one sees Germany overdoing her own cleverness and
under-rating that of her neighbours--this more especially in her
arrogant dominance of Italy's commerce; further, one notices the Hun's
Belgian brutalities costing him dear in a quarter least expected; and
again one realises Italy's decision as a thing mainly dependent, in
spite of all Germany's taking little ways, on a righteous hatred of
Austria--a consideration which brings one surprisingly near to gratitude
towards the big-bully Government of Vienna. Our southern ally's loyalty
to her beautiful "unredeemed" provinces, and her claim, which all
right-minded Englishmen (I include myself) most heartily endorse, to
dominate the historically Italian waters of the Adriatic, happily proved
too strong for a machine-made sympathy for Berlin based on nothing
better than a superficial resemblance between the histories of Piedmont
and Prussia, and a record of nominal alliance with powers whose respect
for paper treaties was always fairly apparent. All the same, in reading
Mr. W. KAY WALLACE'S essay in recent history, _Greater Italy_
(CONSTABLE), a volume which I cannot too strongly commend for its
admirable way of telling these and similar things, I am struck most of
all by the super-incumbent mass of Germanism that had to be burst
asunder before the true Italy broke free. The story of that liberation
is romance of an amazing order, for in it one sees the very soul of a
great and ancient people struggling to renewal of life. It is more than
good to have such an ally, it is an inspiration.