The Danes expected protection from England; and if there had been any sincerity in the ideal side of our Teutonism they ought to have had it.

They ought to have had it even by the pedantries of the time, which already talked of Latin inferiority: and were never weary of explaining that the country of Richelieu could not rule and the country of Napoleon could not fight.

But if it was necessary for whosoever would be saved to be a Teuton, the Danes were more Teuton than the Prussians.

If it be a matter of vital importance to be descended from Vikings, the Danes really were descended from Vikings, while the Prussians were descended from mongrel Slavonic savages.

If Protestantism be progress, the Danes were Protestant; while they had attained quite peculiar success and wealth in that small ownership and intensive cultivation which is very commonly a boast of Catholic lands.