The name is absent

6θ Nineteenth Century Peace Congresses
land, known even then, and with the unguessed industrial
possibilities of Belgium, safe in its own proud strength, safe
by the solemn promises of the nations, safe with its dykes,
safe because the aggressor must inevitably see its rich island
empire pass into the hands of a rival, would stand like a
bulwark against fiercer and more relentless aggression than
even Napoleon ever dreamed. Certainly they saw at least
this, that Belgium and Holland together might withstand the
shock of any blow which might fall on them from either east
or west, and that with their great ports they would forever
be the natural commercial highway to the heart of Europe.

The fact that this experiment failed so dismally within fif-
teen years should not make us blind to the essential nobility
of the plan. It is true that the people of Belgium and Hol-
land were divided by very substantial differences of religion,
of culture, and of language. I suppose that the so-called prin-
ciple of nationality can be violated either by separating
people who want to be together or by uniting those who
desire to be separate. But the diplomats of Vienna did not
lay much store by this new motto, which seemed to rise like
an unholy exhalation from the smoke and bloodshed of the
Revolution. And one must confess that, however valuable
the idea of nationality may be as a general principle, it
has not always been synonymous with liberty, and has
sometimes been actually violated with enduring success.
Other considerations, historical and practical, have deter-
mined the frontiers of nations and the composition of their
citizenship. At least in the cases of the two republics of
Switzerland and of the United States, one is strong in spite
of very great differences in language, religion, and race,
while the other is proud of the wonderful assimilative power
of its institutions. One only needs to go back to the jeal-

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