began to move, there was immediately a general panic among the plain men and women in all Europe and it was this general pauic among the plain men and women in Europe seizing and paralysing the brains of the rulers and diplomats of the countries now at war and making them helpless, which, as I have already shown, brought on this terrible war.
Thus the real origin of this war, if you go deep into the very root of the matter, was the Treaty of Portsmouth. I say the Treaty of Portsmouth was origin of this war, because after that Treaty, the Knout,-the power of the Knout,-in Russia broke and there was nothing to protect the Emperor of Russia from the plain men and women,-from the panic of the crowd of plain men and women,-in fact, from the panic of the mob in Russia,—the panic of the mob for the integrity and security of the Russian Empire and the Slavonic race! The German poet Heine with wonderful insight considering that he was the most liberal of all Liberals, in fact the Champion of the Liberalism of his time, says: "The Absolutism in Russia is really a Dictatorship rather than anything else with which to bring into life and make possible the carrying out of the liberal ideas of our modern times (der Absolutismus in Russland ist vielmehr eine Dictatur um die liberalen Ideen unserer neuesten Zeit in's Leben treten zu lassen)". In fact, I say again, after the Treaty of Portsmouth the Dictatorship,-the Knout, the power of the Knout in Russia broke and there was nothing to protect the ruler, soldier and diplomat
