nations to whom we owe so much in religion, literature, science, and art; and we contend that they, trusting to scraps of paper with our superscription, should not fear the power of mailed fists and shining armour, but continue in peace to serve their day and generation.

It is a war of principles and of ideals. We believe in political, no less than in religious, toleration. German politics stand for eternal intolerance. Hammer and anvil, anvil and hammer-such, it appears, must ever be the relation of State to State. It is an old German antithesis: "either he or I," said Luther of his fellow-Protestant, Zwingli, "must be the devil's minister". Either France or Germany, say his modern disciples, must go to the wall. Until one Church had learnt to put up with the existence of other Churches, there could be no religious peace; and until Germany has learnt or been taught to tolerate, not merely the existence but also the wealth and strength of its neighbours, there can be no peace upon earth and goodwill towards men. The gospel according to Germany involves a denial of every international principle and every idea save that of force; it opens a vista of ceaseless war, or of war that can only cease with the destruction of Prussian militarism or the subjection of every State to Prussian dictation.

Against this whole system of Prussian politics we have taken our stand. We have done so with deliberation, and it is we who declared war in defence of our honour and civilization against the invaders of Belgium. It is no service to England's reputation to dissemble that fact or deny that she did her duty by choice and not by compulsion. We did our duty, not because we had no option, but because it was our

duty; and we refused the German bribes to keep the peace. We are most of us lovers of but not at peace, Germany's price. That is the pacifism of the policeman who turns his back while Naboth is stoned to death and his vineyard robbed; and the supreme value of our action does not consist in the fact that this particular Naboth will be recompensed and restored. It consists in the fact that the peoples of the world will have the assurance of deeds, which speak louder than words, that we will do the like again whenever another Ahab covets his neighbour's vineyard.

on many a stricken But we also thought

"But have you counted the cost?" asked the German Imperial Chancellor; "has the British Government thought of that?" Yes, we have counted the cost, and we pay the price field, in many a desolate home. of the pangs of conscience involved in the great betrayal. While Reims was being ruined and Louvain levelled with the dust, and pitiful, penniless, fugitives flocked to our shores with their records of deeds of shame, the doers thereof would, if we had stood aloof, have overwhelmed us with felicitations upon our wisdom, our prudence, and our discretion; and we should have been racked with the doubt that, but for our inaction, these things might not have been. We have not, indeed, prevented the spoiler, but for every deed we shall help to exact the last farthing of retribution ; and our honour remains intact. Yes, we have counted the cost; and the heart of England goes out to those who suffer and those who sorrow. And yet our mother country looks upon the travail of her soul and is content. For in the fullness and depth of her compassion, she can say to each one of her afflicted children,

in the words of the old cavalier poet, which also express the profoundest of the truths upon which this empire is based, and for which this war is now fought :

I could not love thee, dear, so much
Loved I not honour more.

II.

RUMOUR AND HISTORICAL SCIENCE IN TIME OF WAR.1

Two years ago the Annual Address to the Historical Association was given by Professor Spenser Wilkinson, and he concluded with the following words :

66

Apparently the statesmen of Vienna were afraid that a well-governed and a prosperous Servia would exercise too great an attraction upon the Serbs of Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia. Two courses were open to them. One would be to counterbalance the outside attraction by specially good administration and specially liberal institutions for the Serbs of Austria. The other was to limit by every means the possibilities of the two Serb Kingdoms. Austrian statesmen had hitherto seemed to prefer the second alternative. But Russian national sentiment was deeply attached to the prosperity of Bulgaria and Servia, and an Austrian attack upon Servia, unless it were provoked by some improbable criminal folly on the part of the Serbs, would render it almost impossible for any Russian Government not to take action to assist Servia. In that case, according to the German Chancellor, Germany would feel called upon

1 The substance of the Annual Address delivered before the Historical Association on 8 January, 1915; reprinted from the "Contemporary Review," March, 1915.

to come to Austria's assistance, and it was evident that France could not decline to co-operate with her Russian Ally. The problem for British statesmen was whether, in the eventuality thus seen to be possible, Great Britain could remain neutral consistently with her own self-respect and with the position she had hitherto held as a European Power. That was the issue which made it desirable that Englishmen should make up their minds while there was time regarding the country's duty in Europe, and concerning the necessity of national organization for war." 1

1

It must

These words are a sufficiently striking illustration of the foresight which historical training may induce ; but my object is to illustrate another aspect of the advantages of historical education, and show how some acquaintance with historical technique should help us to deal with rumour in time of war. be admitted that the reading of text-books or histories is of little value for this purpose, except in so far as a general knowledge of history provides a background for present events, and thus makes possible a sense of perspective, which should act as a prophylactic against extravagant hopes or fears. But the historical science to which I refer consists of those methods of investigation and principles of evidence, by means of which we determine or seek to determine the truth about past events. For, if there is any substance in our claim by historical methods to establish historical truth, the application of those methods should enable us, to some extent at any rate, to sift the grain from the chaff in the masses of rumour with which we have been overwhelmed during the last few months.

1" Historical Association Leaflets," No. 31, pp. 6-7.