leave without incurring further danger. Guarded by sailors, the family left and were put on board the Austrian guardship, from which they were transferred to the Italian stationnaire, on which Essad sailed for Europe after giving his word of honour not to return to Albania.

In view of these extraordinary happenings I considered it my duty to return at once to Valona. Just as I was going to take the train at Nice, the Italian Consul came to me with a telegram from the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, San Giuliano, in which he asked for my opinion on Albanian affairs and on the measures that ought now to be adopted, as the situation was becoming more and more alarming. He asked me to discuss the matter with him, and accordingly I went to Rome, where San Giuliano and I came to an understanding as to the measures to be adopted.

At Valona, where, as soon as I arrived, I learned the details of what had taken place, I also found out that Durazzo was surrounded on all sides and no communications were taking place between it and the rest of the country. The supreme authority and jurisdiction of our Mbret was thus confined to this small and insignificant town. A few days later I left for Durazzo with fifteen notables of the district, in order to submit our views on the situation, which were in agreement with those of San Giuliano, to the Prince. In a tête-à-tête interview which I had with him, I told him the conclusion we had come to and the measures we deemed necessary. The Prince impressed me as having no proper idea of the state of affairs, and as being oblivious of the exceptional gravity of the moment. He seemed incapable of making an observation or putting a question arising from his own personal thought. While I was explaining the different ways that might be adopted to get him out of his difficulties, he never once asked me how I thought of putting them into practice.

The next day the Prince received the fifteen notables from Valona. He did not let us leave, however, without giving some sign of his solicitude for the country. A meeting of all the Albanian chiefs then in Durazzo was called at the Palace. The Prince opened it himself with a few words in French, explaining why he had summoned

us, and inviting us to give our opinions personally on the situation of the country. We had had no preliminary discussion, as is usual when one is called upon to give opinions in such circumstances, but we did as he wished, I myself speaking first instead of concluding the series of speeches, as I ought to have done in view of my position. The Prince thanked us, and said that, when he had had our remarks translated and had studied them, he would inform us of his decision. We waited for several days, but, as no further communication reached us, we returned to Valona.

In view of the aggravation of the general situation of the country and the evident incapacity of the Government at Durazzo, a public meeting of the inhabitants of the town and district as well as of refugees from other parts of the country in the hands of the enemy was held in the Grande Place of Valona, with a view to taking measures to save the country. After a long discussion it was decided to form a Committee of Public Safety, under my Presidency. We informed the Powers and the Prince of this decision, in an address which stated that representatives of Valona and a dozen other places had met and voted the formation of a Committee of Public Safety with the object of asking the guarantor Powers and the Prince to transfer the Government provisionally to the International Commission of Control, as representing the Great Powers, and to take all measures that the circumstances demanded. The message, signed by thirty delegates, appealed to the justice of the Powers and begged them to entrust the Commission with this task without delay, adding that it was

'the only measure in our opinion that can keep the legitimate Sovereign on the throne, ensure national unity and territorial integrity, and save from destruction more than 100,000 human beings who, fleeing from fire and sword, had left their burnt and devastated homes and taken refuge in the only corner of Albania which remained free, the town of Valona and its neighbourhood.'

I have reached the last moments of this painful and futile reign. Shut up, as I have said, in his unlucky capital, the Prince had lost all authority, and his sovereignty was non-existent. There remained none of

the ten millions that had been advanced to him and which he had stupidly wasted on such things as the creation of a Cour de Cassation (High Court of Appeal) when there were not even Courts of Law; the appointment of inspectors of public education in a country where there were no schools; and the maintenance of Ministers appointed to foreign countries who calmly remained at home. Though he sent his Minister of Finance to Rome to obtain fresh subsidies, both Rome and Vienna turned a deaf ear. Like a speculator whose business has failed, William of Wied realised that there was nothing left for him to do but to depart. The great war had begun and was soon to cover the whole of Europe. The fleets of the Powers left Durazzo to the mercy of chance, and the Prince followed them on a small Italian yacht that had been left at his disposal. In spite of their experiences in these three months, my countrymen watched him depart with sadness, as if he were a hope that was perishing, a dream fading away. He had done nothing towards trying to understand them. He had not made a step to reach their hearts, which had been so confidingly opened to him.

It only remains for us now to await the day when the representatives of civilisation and humanity, and especially those great nations which are fighting for the rights and liberties of peoples, will unite and decide on recognising our rights, which have so far unhappily been disregarded on the sole plea of trying to avoid that which was inevitable. We are convinced that a measure of justice accorded to us will be of advantage not merely for ourselves, but also for those who sought for their own aggrandisement in our destruction. The reconstitution of the Balkanic bloc and the guarantee of its independence will be one of the most efficacious factors for the peace of the East and of the world. This Balkan edifice can only be consolidated with and by the consolidation of Albania, which forms its fourth supporting column.

ISMAIL KEMAL BEY.

Art. 9.-SPAIN AND GERMANY.

El socialismo y el conflicto europeo. By A. Fabra Ribas. Valencia: 'Prometeo,' 1916.

WHEN Admiral Cervera's expedition to Cuba proved to be but a forlorn hope, and Spain, in the summer of 1898, after scarcely two months of actual hostilities, saw her fleets destroyed and her armies routed, and was compelled to sue for peace, she was astounded at her own weakness, and fell into a state of languor, unexpected in a nation that had given, during several centuries, such proofs of indomitable energy. Two great mistakes caused this deplorable state of mind. Firstly, Spaniards did not ascribe the loss of the last Spanish colonies in America and Asia to Spain's iron-handed policy, to her maladministration, and her stubborn reluctance to grant those dominions a better government, though this was long since demanded, not only by the colonies themselves, but by enlightened Spanish statesmen like Maura, Labra, Pi y Margall, Salmeron, and a few others. They laid, on the contrary, all the blame of American intervention in Cuba on Europe's indifference to their cause, for, according to them, the European Powers ought to have declared war on the United States. Secondly, they ascribed their naval and military disasters not to their rulers' improvidence in failing to provide the country with better means of coping with a superior foe, but to their own national decay, and, instead of seeking its remedy, strangely pronounced it to be beyond redemption.

This second error was aggravated by an extraordinary political campaign which completed the decay of the daring spirit that had led Spain in the past to fill so many glorious pages in the history of Europe and America. From such a suicidal tendency, and notwithstanding her bitter experiences in 1870 and 1871, France was saved by a sound sense of truth, an ardent patriotism, and an unflinching decision to maintain her position among the world's Powers. With Spain, most unfortunately, the reverse happened. Misfortune steeled the French, and weakened the Spaniards. Spain, because she could not beat the United States, six or eight times stronger than herself, renounced, at once, all claim to future greatness.

The Treaty of Paris was hardly signed when Joaquin Costa, an honest, learned and eloquent man, but prone to exaggeration and extreme radical views, violently upbraided his countrymen for their lack of 'national virtues' and the loss of their 'racial manhood.' In speeches, pamphlets and books, he declared that the Spaniards were no longer capable of any great action; and this damning statement was repeated throughout Spain in public meetings and the daily press. Costa's meaning was good. An upright Aragonese, he only intended to awaken the dormant Spanish soul. But disappointed patriotism, spite, and shame, maddened him; and he went further than he probably desired. Some good things he said; he advised the Spaniards to reconstruct their finances, to start public works, to irrigate their lands, to increase the number of their schools, so as to put an end to the deplorable spectacle of Spanish illiteracy. But, at the same time, he persuaded them to abandon for ever all idea of becoming again by land or sea a strong power, to give up all dreams of political expansion, and, in order never to fight, never to have another quarrel, 'to shut with a double key the Cid Campeador's tomb,' lest the memory of his deeds might lure them some day into military adventures. On Feb. 8, 1911, Costa passed away at his modest country house in Aragon, mourned by all Spaniards, from the King to the humblest subject, but without realising either his great popularity, or the harm he had involuntarily inflicted on Spain. Byron said wrongly :

'Cervantes smiled Spain's chivalry away;

A single laugh demolished the right arm
Of his own country';

but of Costa it can be said justly; and, though his soul was no less noble and chivalrous than Cervantes', his indignation at his country's defeat demolished, not with a laugh but a curse, Spain's right arm.

Could he return to life, he would surely regret the present neutrality of Spain, for in one of his books he pointed out Germany as Spain's enemy, as the enemy of all Latin countries, as the greatest obstacle to Europe's political happiness. But undoubtedly his utterances, after 1898, combined with other causes, did much to