POLITICAL AUTOBIOGRAPHY 277

man of the world could be unaware that he was damaging his
own reputation far more than the objects of his attacks is a
mystery. The mot is attributed to v7iiliam n that Billow is
the only known example of a man committing suicide after his
death. *

Next in importance among German leaders is the testimony
of Tirpitz, who told his story twice over. His Memoirs,
published shortly after the war, were widely read, and a cheap
abridgement enjoyed an enormous sale. Several years later he
returned to the charge in two massive volumes entitled
Political Documents, stuffed with valuable material. The
Admiral was a big man, wTho knew what he wanted and strove
with iron will to reach his goal. A great people, he declares,
can only be made and kept safe by power, since Might has
always gone before Right. The object of his battleships was
not to make war but to win an independent position. The
downfall of Germany was due to bad statesmanship. Mainly
owing to the Kaiser's support a formidable navy was fashioned,
but the army lagged behind. With a stronger army and a
wiser attitude towards Russia, the position would have been
unassailable. Simultaneously to antagonize England and
Russia was a mistake. The gravedigger of Germany was
Bethtnann, who sacrificed the interests of national defence to
the beaux yeux of perfidious Albion, and who tried to conduct
war on the principle of limited liability. Tirpitz, like Blilow,
argues that his work was good, and that it was ruined by an
incompetent Chancellor. " England's love of peace and
consideration of our interests grew pan passu with our fleet."
Metternich, • the unceasing advocate of naval limitation,
receives almost as many lashes as Bethmann himself. The real
enemy before and during the war was England, not Russia.
The fleet should have played for high stakes at the outset,
and the submarine weapon should have been ruthlessly
applied. In these strong and bitter books, which paint a
devastating picture of disunion in high places, Tirpitz dismisses
the civilians as contemptuously as Sir William Robertson in his
Soldiers and Statesmen. It is an old quarrel Ludendorff has
written a book entitled folltik und Kriegfuhrmg to prove that
the best chance of winning a war is when"political and military
power are combined in a single hand, as in the case bf Napoleon
and Frederick the Great.

Very different in tone is Bethmann's ^flections on the World
War. The unsullied character and devotion to peace of the