A European balance of power can no longer be termed a condition which corresponds to the existing state of things; it can only have the disastrous consequences of rendering the forces of the continental European States mutually ineffective, and of thus favouring the plans of the political powers which stand outside that charmed circle.

It has always been England's policy to stir up enmity between the respective continental States, and to keep them at approximately the same standard of power, in order herself undisturbed to conquer at once the sovereignty of the seas and the sovereignty of the world.
[Footnote D: Treitschke.] We must put aside all such notions of equilibrium.

In its present distorted form it is opposed to our weightiest interests.

The idea of a State system which has common interests in civilization must not, of course, be abandoned; but it must be expanded on a new and more just basis.

It is now not a question of a European State system, but of one embracing all the States in the world, in which the equilibrium is established on real factors of power.