During more than nine centuries the government of Monaco has been an autocracy like that of its clandestine enemy, Russia. Its sovereigns have been absolute, they have exercised an iron despotism, they have made their own laws and changed them at will, they have been hampered by no form of responsibility. From the beginning they have intermarried with royal houses only; during these many ages the cradles in their palace at Monte Carlo have never ceased to rock, nor have ever rocked any but future consorts of kings and queens; their blood flows in the veins of every Roman Catholic sovereign in Europe.

The Empire of Monaco contains eight square miles. Part of it is under cultivation, and produces olives, oranges and fish. It takes a freight train nine and a half minutes to cross it from frontier to frontier, and the fastest express has not been able to do it in less than three minutes and an eighth. It is bounded on the north by the Corniche turnpike, on the east by the railroad, on the south by the Mediterranean Sea, and on the west by the Cold Deck Factory. I mean the back fence of it. The factory is very large, and reaches from the cigar shop to within four inches of France. The industry is an imperial monopoly. The factory is the largest building in the Empire except the Palace, which laps over and extends a little into France at both ends -- a liberty which was ventured at one of those times when France was torn by internal commotions, and which will have to be answered for when France ceases to be torn by internal commotions.
- "The New War-Scare"