But the great disputes in the life of a nation cannot be settled so simply.

The man who wished to bring the question to a decisive issue may disappear, and the political crisis pass for the moment; the disputed points still exist, and lead once more to quarrels, and finally to war, if they are due to really great and irreconcilable interests.

With the death of King Edward VII.

of England the policy of isolation, which he introduced with much adroit statesmanship against Germany, has broken down.

The antagonism of Germany and England, based on the conflict of the interests and claims of the two nations, still persists, although the diplomacy which smoothes down, not always profitably, all causes of difference has succeeded in slackening the tension for the moment, not without sacrifices on the side of Germany.
It is clearly an untenable proposition that political action should depend on indefinite possibilities.