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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68bad6f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #64633 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/64633) diff --git a/old/64633-0.txt b/old/64633-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index d76873f..0000000 --- a/old/64633-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6219 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Ways of War, by Tom Kettle - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Ways of War - -Author: Tom Kettle - Mary Sheehy Kettle - -Release Date: March 04, 2021 [eBook #64633] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Charlie Howard and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team - at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - generously made available by The Internet Archive/American - Libraries.) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAYS OF WAR *** - - - - -THE WAYS OF WAR - - -[Illustration: - - _Lafayette, Dublin, photographers._ _Emery Walker phot._ - -_Thos M. Kettle_] - - - - - THE WAYS OF WAR - - - BY - PROFESSOR T. M. KETTLE - - LIEUT. 9TH DUBLIN FUSILIERS - - - WITH A MEMOIR BY HIS WIFE - MARY S. KETTLE - - - NEW YORK - CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS - 1917 - - - - - TO - MY DEAR WIFE AND COMRADE - - _EX UMBRIS ET IMAGINIBUS IN VERITATEM_ - - - - -PREFATORY NOTE - - -Perhaps the order of the chapters in the present book requires a word -of explanation. They have a natural sequence as the confessions of an -Irish man of letters as to why he felt called upon to offer up his -life in the war for the freedom of the world. Kettle was one of the -most brilliant figures both in the Young Ireland and Young Europe of -his time. The opening chapters reveal him as a Nationalist concerned -about the liberty not only of Ireland--though he never for a moment -forgot that--but of every nation, small and great. He hoped to make -these chapters part of a separate book, expounding the Irish attitude -to the war; but unfortunately, as one must think, the War Office would -not permit an Irish Officer to put his name to a work of the kind. -After the chapters describing the inevitable sympathy of an Irishman -with Serbia and Belgium--little nations attacked by two Imperial -bullies--comes an account of the tragic scenes Kettle himself witnessed -in Belgium, where he served as a war-correspondent in the early days of -the war. “Silhouettes from the Front,” which follow, describe what he -saw and felt later on, when, having taken a commission in the Dublin -Fusiliers, he accompanied his regiment to France in time to take part -in the Battle of the Somme. Then some chapters containing hints of -that passion for France which was one of the great passions of his -life. One of these, entitled “The New France,” was written before the -war had made the world realise that France is still the triumphant -flag-bearer of European civilisation. Then, in “The Gospel of the -Devil,” we have an examination of the armed philosophies that have laid -so much of France and the rest of Europe desolate. The book closes -with “Trade or Honour?”--an appeal to the Allies to preserve high and -disinterested motives in ending the war as in beginning it, and to turn -a deaf ear to those political hucksters to whom gain means more than -freedom. Thus “The Ways of War” is a book, not only of patriotism, -but of international idealism. Above all, it is a passionate human -document--the “apologia pro vita sua” of a soldier who died for freedom. - - L. - - - Many of the chapters in this book have already appeared in - various newspapers and magazines, to the editors and proprietors - of which thanks are due for permission to reprint them here. The - sources of the chapters referred to are as follows-- - - “Under the Heel of the Hun” } - “Zur Erinnerung” } - “The Way to the Trenches” } _Daily News._ - “G.H.Q.” } - “Belgium in Time of Peace“: _Freeman’s Journal._ - “The New France”: _Irish Ecclesiastical Record._ - “The Soldier-Priests of France“: _The Hibernian Journal._ - “The Gospel of the Devil”: _T. P.’s War Journal._ - - - - -CONTENTS - - - PAGE - MEMOIR 1 - - - WHY IRELAND FOUGHT-- - - I. PRELUDE 58 - - II. THE BULLYING OF SERBIA 75 - - III. THE CRIME AGAINST BELGIUM 91 - - - UNDER THE HEEL OF THE HUN-- - - I. A WORLD ADRIFT 105 - - II. “EUROPE AGAINST THE BARBARIANS” 109 - SOME THINGS AT STAKE. - - III. TERMONDE 115 - - IV. MALINES 125 - - V. IN OSTEND 134 - - - TREATING BELGIUM DECENTLY 139 - - - BELGIUM IN PEACE 144 - - - “G.H.Q.” 160 - - - “ZUR ERINNERUNG.” A LETTER TO AN AUSTRIAN FELLOW-STUDENT 165 - - - SILHOUETTES FROM THE FRONT-- - - I. THE WAY TO THE TRENCHES 170 - - II. THE LONG ENDURANCE 175 - - III. RHAPSODY ON RATS 180 - - - THE NEW FRANCE 184 - - - THE SOLDIER-PRIESTS OF FRANCE 194 - - - THE GOSPEL OF THE DEVIL-- - - I. BISMARCK 212 - - II. NIETZSCHE 220 - - III. TREITSCHKE AND THE PROFESSORS 230 - - - TRADE OR HONOUR? 235 - - - - -THE WAYS OF WAR - - - - -MEMOIR - - -My husband in his last letter to his brother, written on the 8th of -September, 1916, on the battlefield, expressed the wish that I should -write a memoir of him as a preface to his war book. It is only at his -express instance that I would have undertaken the writing of such -a memoir, as there are many obvious reasons--notably two--why I am -unfitted for that high duty. I have not the literary gifts of many of -his distinguished friends, who in writing of him would have exercised -their powers of sympathetic understanding and appreciation to the -uttermost. But the personal relationship is an even greater handicap. -If the reader will accept me as his comrade--since he has honoured -me with the proud distinction--I shall do my best to interpret the -“soul-side” with which he “faced the world.” For my shortcomings, I -must crave indulgence. I only bring to this task the vision of love. - -I shall give hereafter a biographical sketch, but first I wish to deal -with his attitude to the war and a few points which he desired to be -emphasised. - -What urged him--the scholar, the metaphysician, the poet, above all -the Irishman, irrevocably and immutably Irish, the man of peace, -who had nothing of the soldier except courage--to take a commission -in the British Army and engage in the cruel and bloody business of -war? His motives for taking this step, he wished to be made clear -beyond misrepresentation. It should be unnecessary to do this, as he -proclaimed them on many platforms and in many papers. His attitude and -action are the natural sequence and logic of his character and ideals. -Since I first knew him, he loved to call himself a “capitaine routier” -of freedom, and that is the alpha and omega of his whole personality. -As Mr. Lynd has said, he was not a Nationalist through love of a flag, -but through love of freedom. It was this love of freedom that made him -in his student days in the Royal University lead the protest against -the playing of “God Save the King” at the conferring of Degrees. The -words of the Students’ manifesto went, “We desire to protest against -the unjust, wasteful and inefficient Government of which that air is a -symbol.” It was the same love of freedom that made him during the Boer -War distribute in the streets of Dublin anti-recruiting leaflets. The -Tom Kettle who did these things, who said in an election speech in 1910 -that “for his part he preferred German Invasion to British Finance,” -was the same Tom Kettle who believed it Ireland’s duty in 1914 to take -the sword against Germany as the Ally of England. - -“This war is without parallel,” he wrote in August, 1914; “Britain, -France, Russia, enter it, purged from their past sins of domination. -France is right now as she was wrong in 1870, England is right now as -she was wrong in the Boer War, Russia is right now as she was wrong on -Bloody Sunday.” - -In August and September, he acted as war correspondent for the _Daily -News_, and in this capacity was a witness of the agony of Belgium. -He returned to Ireland burning with indignation against Prussia. He -referred to Germany as “the outlaw of Europe.” “It is impossible not -to be with Belgium in this struggle,” he wrote to the _Daily News_; -“it is impossible any longer to be passive. Germany has thrown down a -well-considered challenge to all the forces of our civilisation. War is -hell, but it is only a hell of suffering, not of dishonour, and through -it, over its flaming coals, Justice must walk, were it on bare feet.” - -It was as an Irish soldier in the army of Europe and civilisation -that he entered the war. “He was horrified,” said Mr. Lynd very -truly, “by the spectacle of a bully let loose on a little nation. He -was horrified, too, at the philosophic lie at the back of all this -greed of territory and power. He was horrified at seeing the Europe -he loved going down into brawling and bloody ruin. Not least--and no -one can understand contemporary Ireland who does not realise this--he -was horrified by the thought that if Germany won, Belgium would be -what he had mourned in Ireland--a nation in chains. An international -Nationalist--that was the mood in which he offered his services to the -War Office.” - -I think the chief reason his motives have been misunderstood is that -few have gone to the trouble of understanding his wide outlook. He -was a European. He was deeply steeped in European culture. He was _au -courant_ with European politics. He knew his France, his Germany, his -Russia as well as we know our Limerick, Cork and Belfast. Mr. Healy -once said his idea of a nation ended with the Kish lightship. Tom -Kettle’s ideal was an Ireland identified with the life of Europe. -“Ireland,” he wrote, “awaits her Goethe who will one day arise to teach -her that, while a strong nation has herself for centre, she has the -universe for circumference.... My only programme for Ireland consists -in equal parts of Home Rule and the Ten Commandments. My only counsel -to Ireland is, that to become deeply Irish, she must become European.” - -That counsel was given six years before the war. It was acting on that -counsel that he deemed it right to make the final sacrifice, and in a -European struggle sign his ideal with the seal of his blood. England -and English thought had nothing to do with his attitude to the war. -England happened to be on the side of Justice. He acknowledges that, -but says rather bitterly, “England goes to fight for liberty in Europe -but junkerdom in Ireland.” Mr. Shane Leslie is absolutely right when he -says, “He died for no Imperialistic concept, no fatuous Jingoism.” - -“Let this war go forward,” he wrote to the _Daily News_ in 1914, -“on its own merits and its own strong justice. After the war of the -peoples, let us have the peoples’ peace. Let us drop statecraft and -return to the Ten Commandments--now that we have got such a good bit of -the way back.” - -Mr. Padraic Colum, in a memoir of my husband in the Irish-American -paper, _Ireland_, says: “When the Germans broke into Belgium, he -advised the Irish to join the British Army and to fight for the -rights of small nationalities. Had death found him in those early -days he would at least have died for a cause he believed in.” I think -Mr. Colum, if only for the sake of an old friendship, might have -troubled to understand the idea for which Tom Kettle died, and in -which he believed to the end. Does Mr. Colum mean to suggest that my -husband no longer believed in the maintenance of the rights of small -nationalities? Was his enthusiasm for Belgium quenched--Belgium the -heroic who preferred to lose all that she might gain her own soul? Is -not Belgium still an invaded country? And even if England juggles with -Ireland’s liberty, is not the fight for truth and justice to go on? As -my husband says in this volume, “Ireland had a duty not only to herself -but to the world... and whatever befell, the path taken by her must be -the path of honour and justice.” - -In one of my last letters from him, he speaks his faith, even if it -is the faith of a sad and burdened soul: “It is a grim and awful job, -and no man can feel up to it. The waste--the science of waste and -bloodshed! How my heart loathes it and yet it is God’s only way to -Justice.” - -Mr. Colum proceeds: “He knew by the dreams he remembered that his -place should have been with those who died for the cause of Irish -Nationality.” I postulate that Tom Kettle died most nobly for the cause -of Irish Nationality, in dying for the cause of European honour. - -Mr. Colum continues: “He knew she (Ireland) would not now take her -eyes from the scroll that bears the names of Pearse and Plunkett and -O’Rahilly and so many others, and yet, Thomas Kettle at the last would -not have grudged these men Ireland’s proud remembrance.” I think, too, -I may confidently assert that Tom Kettle’s name will be entered on -the scroll of Irish patriots, and that he has earned, and will have, -Ireland’s “proud remembrance” quite as much as the rebel leaders whose -valour and noble disinterestedness he honoured, but whose ideals he -most emphatically did not share. - -Mr. Leslie is in shining contrast to Mr. Colum in sympathetic -understanding: “Irishmen will think of him with his gentle -brother-in-law, Sheehy-Skeffington, as two intellectuals who, after -their manner and their light, wrought and thought and died for Ireland. -What boots it if one was murdered by a British officer and the other -was slain in honourable war by Germans? To Ireland, they are both -lovable, and in the Irish mind, their memory shall not fail.... Ireland -knows that they were both men of peace and that they both offered their -lives for her. England can claim neither. In death, they are divided, -but in the heart of Ireland they are one.” - -In _The Day’s Burden_, my husband referred to Ireland as “the spectre -at the Banquet of the Empire.” He died that Ireland might not be the -spectre at the Peace Conference of Nations. - -His last thoughts were with Ireland, and in each letter of farewell -written to friends from the battlefield, he protests that he died in -her holy cause. His soldier servant, writing home to me, says that on -the eve of the battle the officers were served with pieces of green -cloth to be stitched on the back of their uniforms, indicating that -they belonged to the Irish Brigade. Tom touched his lovingly, saying: -“Boy, I am proud to die for it!” Ireland, Christianity, Europe--that -was what he died for. “He carried his pack for Ireland and Europe. Now -pack-carrying is over. He has held the line.” Or, as he says in his -last poem to his little daughter, he died-- - - “Not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor, - But for a dream born in a herdsman’s shed, - And for the secret scripture of the poor.” - -That was the dream that haunted his soul, that impelled him to the last -sacrifice, and what a sacrifice! What he gave, he gave well--all his -gifts, his passionate freedom-loving heart, his “winged and ravening -intellect,” intimate ties of home and friendship and motherland, his -career, and better than career--the chance of fulfilling his hopes -for Ireland--he sacrificed all that “makes life a great and beautiful -adventure.” And now that he has died... “in the waste and the wreckage -paying the price of the dreams that cannot sleep,” let not anyone -commit that last treachery of travestying his ideals and aspirations. - -In his final letter to his brother, written the day before he was -killed, he outlined the things for which, had he lived, he would have -worked-- - -“If I live I mean to spend the rest of my life working for perpetual -peace. I have seen war, and faced modern artillery, and I know what an -outrage it is against simple men.” - -And in another letter, written to me some weeks before he entered the -battle of the Somme, he speaks of this mission even more poignantly-- - -“I want to live, too, to use all my powers of thinking, writing and -working, to drive out of civilisation this foul thing called War and -to put in its place understanding and comradeship.” This note, indeed, -rings through all his letters like a pleading. “If God spares me, I -shall accept it as a special mission to preach love and peace for the -rest of my life.” - -It is this that makes his sacrifice doubly great, that he, realising -with all the wealth of his abundant imagination the horror and cruelty -and outrage of war, should step deliberately from the sheltered ways -of peace and security and take his share “in the grim and awful job” -because “it was only a hell of suffering but not of dishonour, and -through it, over its flaming coals, Justice must walk, were it on bare -feet.” - -Prussia was to him the enemy of peace and civilisation. In almost his -last letter, he again emphasises this. - -“Unless you hate war, as such, you cannot really hate Prussia. If you -admit war as an essential part of civilisation, then what you are -hating is merely Prussian efficiency.” - -And with this mission of universal peace mingled his dream of a -reconciled Ulster. He knew that there was no abiding cause of disunion -between North and South, and hoped that out of common dangers shared -and suffering endured on a European battleground, there would issue a -United Ireland. For this he counted much on “the brotherhood that binds -the brave of all the earth.” “There is a vision of Ireland,” he wrote -in 1915, “better than that which sees in it only a cockpit, or eternal -skull-cracking Donnybrook Fair--a vision that sees the real enemies of -the nation to be ignorance, poverty, disease; and turning away from -the ashes of dead hatreds, sets out to accomplish the defeat of these -real enemies. Out of this disastrous war, we may pluck, as France and -Belgium have plucked, the precious gift of national unity.” - -In one of my letters he writes-- - -“One duty does indeed lie before me, that of devoting myself to the -working out of a reconciliation between Ulster and Ireland. I feel God -speaking to our hearts in that sense out of this terrible war.” - -In his Political Testament he makes a dying plea for the realisation of -his dream. - -“Had I lived I had meant to call my next book on the relations of -Ireland and England: _The Two Fools: A Tragedy of Errors_. It has -needed all the folly of England and all the folly of Ireland to produce -the situation in which our unhappy country is now involved. - -“I have mixed much with Englishmen and with Protestant Ulstermen, and -I know that there is no real or abiding reason for the gulfs, salter -than the sea, that now dismember the natural alliance of both of them -with us Irish Nationalists. It needs only a Fiat Lux, of a kind very -easily compassed, to replace the unnatural by the natural. - -“In the name, and by the seal of the blood given in the last two years, -I ask for Colonial Home Rule for Ireland--a thing essential in itself -and essential as a prologue to the reconstruction of the Empire. Ulster -will agree. - -“And I ask for the immediate withdrawal of martial law in Ireland, -and an amnesty for all Sinn Fein prisoners. If this war has taught us -anything it is that great things can be done only in a great way.” - -As a writer in the _Freeman_ very truly says-- - -“If Tom Kettle could have asked for a gift in return for his great -sacrifice, it would have been that a great peace unite the hearts and -strivings of all those of his fellow-countrymen who worked for the only -land he loved.” - -Mr. Leslie interpreted his vision exquisitely-- - -“He did not resent the littleness that had dogged his life and left -him lonely at the end--but he looked back and hated the pettiness and -meanness which had injured Ireland--which had taken every advantage of -Ireland, which had fooled her leaders and shuffled off her children on -feeble promises. He asked for that touch of greatness by which alone -great things are achieved. Like a thousand ardent spirits in Ireland -at the time, he was ready to leap to a new era by the bridge of great -things greatly done, even if the bridge was to be the bridge of death. -English statesmen offered them a bridge of paper and an insecure -footing at that, but many rushed forward, hopeful of the future. Others -turned bitterly back. All who died, whether they died in Ireland or -France, died bitterly. - -“Disappointed but undismayed Kettle stood with nought but a mystic’s -dream between himself and the Great Horror. He felt afraid for Ireland, -but not for himself. Then the irony of his life and the bitterness of -his death must have come home to him... stripped of all, his career, -his ambitions, his friends and lovers, with his back turned to Ireland -and his heart turned against England he threw himself over the mighty -Gulf, where at least he could be sure that all things good or evil -were on the great scale his soul had always required. With earth’s -littleness he was done.” - -He wished, too, to live to chronicle the deeds of his beloved Dublin -Fusiliers. There is no more generous praise ever given to men than that -he gave his Dubliners--unless, perhaps, their praise of him. In his -last letter to his brother, on the eve of death, he says-- - -“I have never seen anything in my life so beautiful as the clean and -so to say radiant valour of my Dublin Fusiliers. There is something -divine in men like that.” - -Again in a letter to a friend-- - -“We are moving up to-night into the battle of the Somme. The -bombardment, destruction and bloodshed are beyond all imagination, nor -did I ever think the valour of simple men could be quite as beautiful -as that of my Dublin Fusiliers. I have had two chances of leaving -them--one on sick leave and one to take a staff job. I have chosen to -stay with my comrades.” - -In a letter written to me shortly after going out, he writes out of his -great, generous heart: “What impresses and moves me above all, is the -amazing faith, patience and courage of the men. To me it is not a sort -of looking-down-on but rather a looking-up-to appreciation of them. I -pray and pray and am afraid, but they go quietly and heroically on. God -make me less inferior to them.” - -That is the essence of Tom Kettle, his noble and humble appraisement -of a gift which he possessed _par excellence_ himself. And I think -he found happiness and peace of heart with those loyal, valorous men -whose comrade he was and whose risks he shared. They too, I think, knew -and loved the greatness of him, and found in his genius, his radiant -simplicity and high courage, their example and inspiration. - - * * * * * - -Thomas M. Kettle was the third son of Andrew J. Kettle, and of -Margaret MacCourt. He was born at Artane, Co. Dublin, in 1880. From -his father, the great land reformer who did more than any other to -emancipate Irish farmers from the crushing yoke of landlordism, Tom -Kettle inherited his political principles. He might be said to have -“lisped” in politics. From his father, too, he inherited that courage, -moral as well as physical, that fearless outspoken way he had of -enunciating his beliefs and ideas. He was intensely proud of his -father and always loved, in later years, when the old man was confined -indoors, to drive out to his country home to thresh out current -politics with him. Though apparently they seldom came to agreement, -still it was obvious that each radiated pride in the other. - -Tom Kettle lived in the country till he was twelve, and the quiet -charm and peace of the land cast a spell on him that held him always. -He hungered to go back, to quit politics and platforms, and in a -picturesque cottage cultivate literature and crops. It was a dream -he would never have realised--he was born to be in the thick of -things--but it was constantly before him like a mirage. - -In one of his last letters he recurs to it-- - -“We are going to live in the country, and I am going to grow early -potatoes. I am also going to work very hard and make very few speeches.” - -He was educated first at the Christian Brothers’ school in Richmond -Street, Dublin. In 1894 he went to Clongowes Wood College. He had a -brilliant Intermediate career, obtaining First Place in the Senior -Grade with many medals and distinctions. There is a story told that -this year when his great success was a matter of public comment, his -father’s only remark was, “I see you failed in Book-keeping.” It -might strike as harsh those who did not know Mr. Kettle, but it was -not really intended as such, it was meant rather to check vanity and -a possible swelled head. To Tom, it was exquisitely humorous, and he -loved the upright, somewhat stern old man none the less for his seeming -lack of appreciation. - -In 1897 he went to University College. In a year or so, he became -Auditor of the Literary and Historical Society and obtained the -Gold Medal for Oratory. His great gifts were already conspicuous. A -fellow-student wrote of him: “Amongst them all, Kettle stood supreme. -Already that facility for grasping a complicated subject and condensing -it in a happy phrase, that bright, eager mind so ready to take issue -on behalf of a good cause, that intellectual supremacy which was so -pre-eminently his, had marked him out for far-reaching influence and a -distinguished career.” - -His University course was interrupted by a breakdown in health which -necessitated his withdrawal from collegiate life for nearly a year. -Over-study had strained his nervous system, and he never quite regained -normal health. In 1904 a brother, a veritable twin-soul, to whom he -was deeply attached, and of whom he had high hopes, died. This was an -everlasting grief to him. This sorrow, together with his shattered -nerves, was responsible for his somewhat tragic and melancholy -temperament. In 1904 he went to the Tyrol to recuperate, and in that -wander-year, Europe laid her spell on him. He was a fine linguist and, -being an omnivorous reader, was soon intimately acquainted with the -best European literature. - -His journalistic talent was displayed as Editor of _St. Stephen’s_, -1903–4, a spasmodically produced college magazine which he described in -a long-remembered phrase as “unprejudiced as to date of issue.” - -In 1902 he had entered the King’s Inns as a Law student. Of this -period, a friend writes: “At the students’ dinners Kettle was cordially -welcomed, and though very young in those days, still at no time and in -no place did rich humour and rare conversational power show to more -advantage. The company one meets at Law students’ dinners is varied -to a degree, boys in their ’teens sitting at table with men of middle -age and over on even terms. Struggling poverty sits check by jowl -with good salary and wealth. On one occasion when Kettle was dining, -one of the men present was a very well-to-do business man of about -fifty. This gentleman was holding forth very earnestly on the rights -of property and the amount of violence a householder is entitled to -display towards a burglar. Kettle suddenly startled him with the query: -‘Have you ever considered this question from the point of view of the -burglar?’ The magnate was horrified and hastily withdrew.” - -That story is typical of him. His term at King’s Inns concluded -with his securing a Victoria Prize, and he was called to the Bar in -1905. With his oratorical gifts and passionate delivery, a brilliant -career was foretold. A writer in the _Irish Law Times_ says: “He did -everything that came his way with distinction.... There was a freshness -and vigour about his style and a rare eloquence in his language which -satisfied everyone that he would be an instant success if he was going -to make law his profession.” Personally, I think he would never have -been happy as a lawyer. He was too sensitive. I remember his defending -a criminal who was convicted and sentenced to penal servitude. The -conviction worried him greatly. He used to say that it was a fearful -responsibility to plead for a man and think that perhaps had another -lawyer been chosen there would be no conviction. That the man was -guilty mattered nothing to him. He went on the principle that the -innocent are those who are not found out. - - “Everywhere the word is man and woman; - Everywhere the old sad sins find room.” - -He looked at the Law Courts and their victims, not with the eyes of -a modern lawyer who seems as if a spiritual blotting-pad had been -applied, draining him of all emotion--he looked rather with the eyes -of a metaphysician. In _The Day’s Burden_, he wrote: “One does feel -intensely that these legal forms and moulds are too narrow and too -nicely definite, too blank to psychology to contain the passionate -chaos of life that is poured into them.” He was at once judge and jury, -prisoner and counsel. He had that uncanny gift of seeing everybody’s -point of view with equal intensity of vision. Such a gift makes for a -very lovable personality, but a lawyer should only see the point of -view for which he is briefed. - -When the opportunity offered he forsook the Law. In 1904 he was first -President of the “Young Ireland Branch” of the United Irish League. In -1905 came his brief editorship of the _Nationist_. These two events -were the stepping-stones to his political career, and it was upon them -that he came to the notice of the public. The _Nationist_--a name -he coined--was a weekly journal. He was editor for three months of -its six months’ life. If its career was brief, it was brilliant. It -was, perhaps, the most courageous of Irish papers--and what is more, -courageous in consummate prose. He thoroughly enjoyed this period -of journalistic activity. He was allowed rather a free hand by the -proprietors, and it was a keen joy to him to exercise his powers in the -endeavour to educate the young Nationalist mind. Finally, however, he -was deemed too outspoken, and he left the editor’s chair with regret. - -“If one had taken the precaution to have a father who had accumulated -sufficient wealth,” he wrote once, “to allow his sons the caviare of -candour, nothing would be more entertaining than starting a paper.” - -In 1906 an opportunity was offered to him of entering Parliament. It -was his chance, but it was a fighting chance. After the most strenuous -of fights, he was returned as Parliamentary representative for East -Tyrone. His majority was only sixteen, and it may be fairly said that -only he could have won and held that seat in the Nationalist interest. - -In the autumn of 1906 he went with Mr. Hazleton to America on a Home -Rule Mission. His oratorical gifts were much appreciated there, and his -six months’ tour of the States was a fine experience, if a physically -trying one. He liked America, with her love of freedom and her genial, -hospitable ways, and always hoped again to “cross the pond.” - -I remember a few sayings which he brought back from America which he -regarded as typical of American humour--such as “I don’t know where I -am going, but I am on my way,” and “We trust in God; all others pay -cash.” - -In 1908 he translated M. Dubois’ _Contemporary Ireland_, and wrote an -introduction, which established his literary reputation. - -At the general election in 1910 my husband increased his majority of -sixteen to one of one hundred and eighteen. Mr. Shane Leslie, who gave -him valuable help in this election, wrote thus-- - -“Kettle was the most delightful of platform speakers, and his -witticisms and lyrical turns of speech made the election one long -intellectual treat. He could turn over weighty questions of economics -or of international policy with an ease that struck home to the peasant -mind.... At one spot, I remember, he was greeted by a poverty-stricken -populace, who had improvised a mountain band and crude home-made -torches of turf and paraffin. Kettle immediately said: ‘Friends, you -have met us with God’s two best gifts to man--fire and music.’ It was -as instantaneous as graceful.” Having had such a hard fight, he loved -his constituency as if it were a human thing. The issues fought in -East Tyrone, as in all northern constituencies, were not the issues -raised in ordinary Nationalist politics. In the North, religion is the -predominant colour; it is the Catholic Green against the Protestant -Orange. I say guardedly, predominant; of course there is the great -issue--Home Rule _v._ Unionism. But the conspicuous place religion -took struck a Dubliner as something quite extraordinary. I remember -one amusing incident of the election, which my husband often cited as -typical. Our motor-car broke down, and while repairs were in progress -a small boy was an interested spectator. When all was in order again -and we were about to start, the boy looked wistfully at us--at least as -wistfully as a northern boy can: they are not demonstrative except on -the Twelfth of July. My husband interpreting the look, invited him for -a drive. He accepted, and as my husband set him down after his spin the -boy lifted his cap and said: “Thank you, Mr. Kettle, I am much obliged. -To hell With the Pope!” and walked sedately away. It was surely a -spirited and quaint declaration of independence and incorruptibility. - -Another incident, too, stands out. The night the poll was declared -there was wild enthusiasm in Tyrone. As Mr. Leslie says, “there was a -green rash.” My husband had promised that if he won, he would address -a meeting at Cookstown. To get there it was necessary to pass through -an Orange hamlet; as feeling was high and the hour late, it was deemed -imprudent for us to go, but my husband insisted. We were about to start -in a motor when one supporter, who had done his best to detain us, -said very lugubriously: “Well, you have a terrible road before you.” -“What’s the matter with it?” questioned the chauffeur anxiously. He -was a Dublin man and quite ignorant of local politics. “Is it full of -hills?” “No,” replied the other in a tone of grave warning; “full of -Protestants.” - -My husband’s opponent in this last election was Mr. Saunderson, who -based his claims chiefly on the fact that he was the son of the late -Colonel Saunderson. “Mr. Saunderson,” said my husband, “has protested -so often that he is the son of Colonel Saunderson, that I, for my part, -am inclined to believe him”--a touch of ridicule that went home with an -Irish audience. - -He was impatient of bigotry and narrowness and any attempt to stir up -in Ulster the ashes of old hatreds and animosities. Once appealing to -Ulstermen to forego their enthusiasm for William of Orange, he said -with effect: “Why let us quarrel over a dead Dutchman?” His famous -reply to Kipling, who by his doggerel tried to fan the flames of civil -war, is worth quoting-- - - “The poet, for a coin, - Hands to the gabbling rout - A bucketful of Boyne - To put the sunrise out.” - -In Parliament, he was an instant success. He was a born orator and -spoke with all the intensity that passionate conviction lends. In his -book on _Irish Orators_, he wrote: “Without knowledge, sincerity, and -a hearty spiritual commitment to public causes, the crown of oratory, -such as it is, is not to be won.” He had those requisites abundantly. -In this book he gives a definition of an orator than which nothing -could be finer: “The sound and rumour of great multitudes, passions -hot as ginger in the mouth, torches, tumultuous comings and goings, -and, riding through the whirlwind of it all, a personality, with -something about him of the prophet, something of the actor, a touch of -the charlatan, crying out not so much with his own voice as with that -of the multitude, establishing with a gesture, refuting with a glance, -stirring ecstasies of hatred and affection--is not that a common, and -far from fantastic, conception of the orator?” - -An appreciation of him containing reminiscences of two speeches in -the House may not be deemed amiss here: “Wit and humour, denunciation -and appeal came from him not merely fluently but always with effect. -Tall and slight, with his soft boyish face and luminous eyes, he soon -startled and then compelled the attention of the House by his peculiar -irresistible sparkle and his luminous argument. Two pictures of him -in that period survive. The first was on the occasion of the second -reading of one of the numerous Women’s Suffrage Bills. ‘Mr. Speaker,’ -he said in his rich Dublin accent and almost drawling intonation, -‘they say that if we admit women here as members, the House will lose -in mental power.’ He flung a finger round the packed benches: ‘Mr. -Speaker,’ he continued, ‘it is impossible.’ The House roared with -laughter. ‘They tell me also that the House will suffer in morals. Mr. -Speaker, I don’t believe that is possible either.’ The applause rang -out again at this double hit.... I remember him again in the House on -a hot night in June. A dull debate on Foreign Affairs was in progress. -The recent travels of Mr. Roosevelt through Egypt and his lecture to -England at the Guildhall reception were under discussion. Kettle let -loose upon the famous Teddy the barbed irony of his wit. I recall only -one of his biting phrases: ‘This new Tartarin of Tarascon who has come -from America to shoot lions and lecture Empires.” - -Another distinguished critic writing of him says: “His darting phrases -made straight for the heart of unintelligence--sometimes also, no -doubt, for the heart of intelligence. When he sat in Parliament -he summed up the frailty of Mr. Balfour in yielding to the Tariff -Reformers in the phrase: ‘They have nailed their leader to the mast.’” - -He could be caustic to a degree. “I don’t mind loquacity,” he once -remarked, “so long as it is not Belloc-quacity.” - -“Mr. Long,” he said another time, “knows a sentence should have a -beginning, but he quite forgets it should also have an end.” - -In a flashing epigram he once summed up the difference between the -two great English Parties: “When in office, the Liberals forget their -principles and the Tories remember their friends.” Asked once to define -a Jingo, he replied: “A Jingo is a man who pays for one seat in a -tram-car and occupies two.” - -This was, I think, the happiest period of his public life. Some have -maintained that he should never have entered Parliament--that in doing -so “he to Party gave up what was meant for mankind.” To me, looking -back, it seems not his going in, but his coming out of Parliament, that -was wrong. He was pre-eminently suited to the life. His gifts ensured -him success in the House, and his avid intellect made every debate -a subject of interest to him. In London political and journalistic -life he found his level. He was in touch with the current of European -life. Dublin he felt, after London, a backwater, for, owing to the -destruction of the national life, there is no intellectual centre. Not -that he would have endured living in London. He loved too much for that -his Dublin, “the grey and laughing capital.” A quotation from _The -Day’s Burden_ explains at once his liking for the tonic experience -and stimulus of a foreign city and his _nostalgia_ for home. “A dead -Frenchman, a cynic as they say, one Brizeux, murmurs to himself in one -of his comedies as I murmur to myself every time I leave Ireland: ‘Do -not cry out against _la patrie_. Your native land, after all, will give -you the two most exquisite pleasures of your life, that of leaving her -and that of coming back.’” - -In 1909, the year of our marriage, he was appointed Professor of -National Economics in the National University. In 1910 he resigned his -seat in Parliament, as he found it impossible to combine the duties of -Professor and Member. It was a whole-time professorship and, further, -the subject was almost a unique one, and had practically no text-books. -It was therefore necessary for him to devote all his energies, for -some years at any rate, to his work in the University. This he did -whole-heartedly, as Economics had always attracted him; he regarded -it as one of the most important branches of study in the University. -He thought that Ireland was in special need of trained economists. In -his own words, he set himself to “formulate an economic idea fitted to -express the self-realisation of a nation which is resolute to realise -itself.” He did not wish either that Economics should be regarded -as a dismal science. Writing of Geography, he says, “Geography is a -prudent science, but one day she will take risks--even the risk of -being interesting.” That risk Economics, in his keeping, certainly -adventured. “The Science of Economics is commonly held to be lamentably -arid and dismal. If that is your experience blame the Economists, for -the slice of life with which Economics has to deal vibrates and, so to -say, bleeds with actuality. All science, all exploration, all history -in its material factors, the whole epic of man’s effort to subdue the -earth and establish himself on it, fall within the domain of the -Economist.” - -As in every sphere of activity which he entered, he assumed his duties -in the College with eager enthusiasm, and was very proud of being -identified from the first with the National University. - -But if my husband ceased to be a Member of Parliament, it does not mean -that he became merely a Professor. He was a leading spirit in every -live movement, and by speech and article kept in the political current. -When the great labour strike occurred in Dublin in 1913, he was -chairman of the Peace Committee which endeavoured to establish better -feeling between the employers and employees. He was also a member of -the Education Commission appointed by Mr. Birrell to enquire into the -grievances of Irish teachers. - -As for his work in literature in 1910, he published a volume of essays -entitled _The Day’s Burden_, the best known and most characteristic of -his writings. - -In 1911 he wrote a pamphlet on _Home Rule Finance_, and in the same -year he translated and edited Luther Kneller’s _Christianity and the -Leaders of Modern Science_. - -In 1911 he also edited and wrote a brilliant introduction to M. -Halévy’s _Life of Nietzsche_, translated by Mr. Hone. - -In 1912 he wrote _The Open Secret of Ireland_, putting the case of -Ireland in his own inimitable way. - -In 1912 he was one of the first prominent men identified with the -foundation of the National Volunteers. A passage taken from an article -written for the _Daily News_ on the Volunteers has now a poignant -interest-- - -“The impulse behind the new departure is not that of the swashbuckler -or the fire-eater. Ancient Pistol has no share in it. In no country -is the red barbarism of war as a solvent of differences more fully -recognised than in Ireland. In no other is the wastage of the public -substance on vast armaments more strongly condemned on grounds alike of -conscience and intelligence. If Ireland has a distinguished military -tradition, she has another tradition to which she holds more proudly, -that of peace and culture. In her golden age she, unique in Europe, -wrought out the ideal of the civilisation-state as contrasted with the -brute-force state. She never oppressed or sought to destroy another -nation. What she proposes to herself now is not to browbeat or dragoon -or diminish by violence the civil or religious liberty of any man--but -simply to safeguard her own.” - -It is this man who speaks thus proudly of Ireland’s noble tradition of -peace and culture, this man to whom war was “red barbarism,” who found -it necessary to quit his own assured path “of peace and culture” and, -with only the qualification of courage, assume the profession of a -soldier. - -In 1914 he edited a book on _Irish Orators and Irish Oratory_. Many -have held his introduction to this his finest piece of writing. - -When the war broke out he was engaged in Belgium buying rifles for the -Volunteers. In August and September, 1914, he was war correspondent -for the _Daily News_ in Belgium. I shall quote just one passage -which briefly sums up his attitude--an attitude which I have already -endeavoured to explain, as far as explanation is necessary. “When this -great war fell on Europe, those who knew even a little of current -ethical and political ideas felt that the hour of Destiny had sounded. -Europe had once more been threatened by Barbarism, Odin had thrown down -his last challenge to Christ. To you, these may or may not seem mere -phrases: to anyone whose duty has imposed on him some knowledge of -Prussia, they are realities as true as the foul of Hell. When the most -fully guaranteed and most sacred treaty in Europe--that which protected -Belgium--was violated by Germany, when the frontier was crossed and -the guns opened on Liége, without hesitation we declared that the lot -of Ireland was on the side of the Allies. As the wave of infamy swept -further and further over the plains of Belgium and France, we felt it -was the duty of those who could do so to pass from words to deeds.” - - “To Odin’s challenge, we cried Amen! - We stayed the plough and laid by the pen, - And we shouldered our guns like gentlemen - That the wiser weak might hold.” - -In November, 1914, he joined, as he called it, the “Army of Freedom.” -His oratorical gifts and prestige as a Nationalist made him a great -asset to the recruiting committee. It is said he made over two hundred -speeches throughout Ireland. “He spent himself tirelessly on the task,” -writes a contributor to a Unionist paper. “His brilliant speeches were -the admiration of all who heard them. To him, they were a heavy duty. -‘The absentee Irishman to-day,’ he said in a fine epigram, ‘is the -man who stays at home.’ All the time he was on these spell-binding -missions, he was chafing to be at the front. His happy and fighting -nature delighted in the rough-and-tumble of platform work, and in the -interruption of the ‘voice’ and hot thrust of retort. I remember him -telling me of an Australian minor poet who was too proud to fight. The -poet was arguing that men of letters should stay at home and cultivate -the muses and hand on the torch of culture to the future. ‘I would -rather be a tenth-rate minor poet,’ he said, ‘than a great soldier.’ -Kettle’s retort on this occasion was deadly. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘aren’t -you?’” - -He went to the front with a burdened heart. The murder of his -brother-in-law, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, cast a deep gloom on his -spirit. As he wrote to his friend Mr. Lynd shortly before his death, -it “oppressed him with horror.” I do not think it out of place to -recall here a brief obituary notice he wrote of Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington, -whom he loved, as Mr. Lynd so truly says, for the “uncompromising and -radically gentle idealist he was”-- - -“It would be difficult at any time to convey in the deadness of -language an adequate sense of the courage, vitality, superabundant -faith, and self-ignoring manliness which were the characteristic things -we associated with Francis Sheehy-Skeffington. To me, writing amidst -the rumour of camps, the task is impossible. There are clouds that will -never lift. - -“He was to me the good comrade of many hopes, and though the ways of -this scurvy and disastrous world led us apart, he remained to me an -inextinguishable flame. This ‘agitator,’ this ‘public menace,’ this -‘disturber’ was wholly emancipated from egotism, and incapable of -personal hatred. He was a man who had ranged the whole world of ideas, -and rather than my own words I would use those of the great whom we -agreed in admiring. I could style him with Guyau-- - - ‘Droit comme un rayon de lumière, - Et, comme lui, vibrant et chaud;--’ - -“or put in his mouth the proud and humble faith of Robert Buchanan-- - - ‘Never to bow or kneel - To any brazen lie; - To love the worst, to feel - The worst is even as I. - To count all triumph vain - That helps no burdened man; - I think so still and so - I end as I began.’ - -“But in truth there is no phrase of any of his torchbearers that does -not win new life from association with him. Strangest of all, he, -who turned away from soldiers, left to all soldiers an example of -courage in death to which there are not many parallels. This brave -and honourable man died to the rattle of musketry; his name will be -recalled to the ruffle of drums.” - -Easter week, too, had been for him a harrowing and terrible experience. -MacDonagh, who was shot, was a fellow-professor at the College, as was -also MacNeill, in whose favour he gave evidence at the court-martial. -Pearse, the leader, was a friend of many years. With the rebellion he -had no sympathy--indeed it made him furious. He used to say bitterly -that they had spoiled it all--spoiled his dream of a free united -Ireland in a free Europe. But what really seared his heart was the -fearful retribution that fell on the leaders of the rebellion. When -Beaumarchais’s play, _The Marriage of Figaro_, was produced, it created -a furore. The author’s cynical comment was that the only thing madder -than the play was its success. So it might be said that the only -thing madder than the insurrection was the manner of its suppression. -Two wrongs do not make a right, nor do two follies make common sense. -We in Ireland had the right, if not the precedent, to expect as -fair treatment as was meted out by Botha to rebels in South Africa. -My husband felt after the disasters of Easter week more than ever -committed to the attitude he had taken up. He brought pressure to bear -that he might be sent immediately to the front. On the 14th of July, -1916, he sailed for France. - -His comrades speak of his wonderful courage, endurance and buoyant -spirits at the front. He was never out of cheer, though he had a -curious prophetic feeling all through that he would die on the -battlefield in France. - -“Do not think of us as glum,” he wrote to me in August. “Gaiety is a -sort of courage, and my Company is the gayest of the Battalion.” In a -letter to a friend he again speaks of his happy mood and his deep love -of France: “I myself am quite extraordinarily happy. If it should come -my way to die, I shall sleep well in the France I always loved, and -shall know that I have done something towards bringing to birth the -Ireland one has dreamed of.” - -France he loved in truth. In this volume he refers to her “as the most -interesting and logical of nations,” and in _The Day’s Burden_ he -says: “The Irish mind is moreover like the French--‘lucid, vigorous -and positive,’ though less methodical since it never had the happiness -to undergo the Latin discipline. France and Ireland have been made to -understand each other.” France, too, knew and loved him. In a beautiful -tribute to him in a French journal, _L’Opinion_, the writer says: “All -parties bowed in sorrow over his grave, for in last analysis they were -all Irish, and they knew that in losing him, whether he was friend or -enemy, they had lost a true son of Ireland. A son of Ireland? He was -more. He was Ireland! He had fought for all the aspirations of his -race, for Independence, for Home Rule, for the Celtic Renaissance, for -a United Ireland, for the eternal Cause of Humanity.... He died, a hero -in the uniform of a British soldier, because he knew that the faults of -a period or of a man should not prevail against the cause of right or -liberty.” - -In a farewell letter to his close and honoured friend, Mr. Devlin, he -shows that he had envisaged death and was ready: “As you know, the -character of the fighting has changed; it is no longer a question of -serving one’s apprenticeship in a trench with intermittent bursts of -leaving cover and pushing right on. It is Mons backwards with endless -new obstacles to cross. Consequently our offensive must go on without -break. This means, of course, the usual exaction in blood. You will -have noticed by the papers how high the price is, and all Irish -Regiments will continue to have front places at the performances. So -you see, even I have no particular certainty of coming back. I passed -through, as everybody of sense does, a sharp agony of separation. If -I were an English poet like that over-praised Rupert Brooke, I should -call it, no doubt, the Gethsemane before the climb up the Windy Hill, -but phrase-making seems now a very dead thing to me--but now it is -almost over and I feel calm.... I hope to come back. If not, I believe -that to sleep here in the France I have loved is no harsh fate, and -that so passing out into the silence, I shall help towards the Irish -settlement. Give my love to my colleagues--the Irish people have no -need of it.” - -But the moral and physical strain on a man, bred as he was, was -terrible, and in spite of his fine efforts at insouciance there is -a note of _nostalgia_. “Physically I am having a heavy time. I am -doing my best, but I see better men than me dropping out day by day -and wonder if I shall ever have the luck or grace to come home.” And -again: “The heat is bad, as are the insects and rats, but the moral -strain is positively terrible. It is not that I am not happy in a -way--a poor way--but my heart does long for a chance to come home.” -And in another letter of farewell to a friend he says: “I am not happy -to die, the sacrifice is over-great, but I am, content.” Some critics -have hinted that he died in France because he had not the heart to -live in Ireland. Some even went so far as to suggest that he died in -France because he knew he ought to have died in the G.P.O. in Dublin. -I quote these letters--almost too intimate to quote--to show that he -made the sacrifice, knowing and feeling that it was a sacrifice--he -made it for his Ireland and his Europe. He came unscathed through the -engagement before Guillemont. An officer, telling me of that, said -he behaved splendidly, taking every risk and seemed withal to have a -charmed life. They had a day to reorganise before attacking Ginchy. In -his last letter to his brother, written on the 8th, he described the -battle-scene and his mood. “I am calm and happy but desperately anxious -to live.... The big guns are coughing and smacking their shells, which -sound for all the world like overhead express trains, at anything from -10 to 100 per minute on this sector; the men are grubbing and an odd -one is writing home. Somewhere the Choosers of the Slain are touching, -as in our Norse story they used to touch, with invisible wands those -who are to die.” - -On the midnight of the 8th they advanced to their position before -Ginchy. A fellow-officer gave me a gruesome description of the march, -saying: “The stench of the dead that covered the road was so awful that -we both used foot-powder on our faces.” On the 9th, within thirty yards -of Ginchy, he met his death from a bullet from the Prussian Guards. - -I quote here an account which a staff-officer from the front gave to -the Press Association of his last days-- - -“Kettle was one of the finest officers we had with us. The men -worshipped him, and would have followed him to the ends of the earth. -He was an exceptionally brave and capable officer, who had always the -interests of his men at heart. He was in the thick of the hard fighting -in the Guillemont-Ginchy region. I saw him at various stages of the -fighting. He was enjoying it like any veteran, though it cannot be -denied that the trade of war, and the horrible business of killing -one’s fellows was distasteful to a man with his sensitive mind and -kindly disposition. I know it was with the greatest reluctance that he -discarded the Professor’s gown for the soldier’s uniform, but once the -choice was made he threw himself into his new profession, because he -believed he was serving Ireland and humanity by so doing. - -“In the Guillemont fighting I caught a glimpse of him for a brief -spell. He was in the thick of a hard struggle, which had for its -object the dislodgment of the enemy from a redoubt they held close to -the village. He was temporarily in command of the company, and he was -directing operations with a coolness and daring that marked him out -as a born leader of men. He seemed always to know what was the right -thing to do, and he was always on the right spot to order the doing -of the right thing at the right moment. The men under his command -on that occasion fought with a heroism worthy of their leader. They -were assailed furiously on both flanks by the foe. They resisted all -attempts to force them back, and at the right moment they pressed home -a vigorous counter-attack that swept the enemy off the field. - -“The next time I saw him his men were again in a tight corner. They -were advancing against the strongest part of the enemy’s position in -that region. Kettle kept them together wonderfully in spite of the -terrible ordeal they had to go through, and they carried the enemy’s -position in record time. It was in the hottest corner of the Ginchy -fighting that he went down. He was leading his men with a gallantry and -judgment that would almost certainly have won him official recognition -had he lived, and may do so yet. His beloved Fusiliers were facing -a deadly fire and were dashing forward irresistibly to grapple with -the foe. Their ranks were smitten by a tempest of fire. Men went -down right and left--some never to rise again. Kettle was among the -latter. He dropped to earth and made an effort to get up. I think he -must have been hit again. Anyhow, he collapsed completely. A wail of -anguish went up from his men as soon as they saw that their officer was -down. He turned to them and urged them forward to where the Huns were -entrenched. They did not need his injunction. They swept forward with -a rush. With levelled bayonets they crashed into the foe. There was -deadly work, indeed, and the Huns paid dearly for the loss of Kettle. - -“When the battle was over his men came back to camp with sore hearts. -They seemed to feel his loss more than that of any of the others. The -men would talk of nothing else but the loss of their ‘own Captain Tom,’ -and his brother officers were quite as sincere, if less effusive, in -the display of their grief. His loss will be mourned by all ranks of -the Brigade, for he was known outside his own particular battalion, and -his place will be hard to fill either in the ranks of his battalion or -in the hearts of his men.” - -Had he survived Ginchy, he would have been appointed Base Censor and -been out of the danger zone. He had refused to take up his appointment -till he had seen his comrades through; he wished also to give the lie -to his enemies who had delighted to call him a “platform soldier.” Had -he survived Ginchy, even though he were covered with wounds and glory, -would not the tongues of his revilers, who, he said, always spoke of -him “with inverted commas in their voice,” have waged their war of -calumny again? But death is very convincing. As the _Freeman_ said, -“His victor’s grave at Ginchy is their answer.” He could have no more -splendid epitaph than the official War Office announcement that he fell -“at the post of honour, leading his men in a victorious charge.” - -“It is not the death of the Professor nor of the soldier, nor of the -politician, nor even of the poet and the essayist, that causes the -heartache we feel,” writes a comrade. “It is the loss of that rare, -charming, wondrous personality summed up in those two simple words--Tom -Kettle.” - -A friend once said of him that he was “infinitely lovable.” His great -gifts accompanied by a rare simplicity and charm of manner that broke -down all social barriers, compelled affection. He was known to all as -“Tom Kettle.” To his men, he was “their own Captain Tom.” Perhaps the -greatest proof of his magnetic personality lies in the fact that all -classes, the Unionist and Nationalist, the soldier, the Sinn Feiner, -and, as the _Freeman_ says, “those wearing the convict garb” of -England, united in mourning his death and paying tribute to his memory. - -The _Irish Times_, the opponent of all his political ideals, said: -“As Irish Unionists we lay our wreath on the grave of a generous -Nationalist, a brilliant Irishman, and a loyal soldier of the King.” - -“There was in his rich and versatile temperament,” said the _Church of -Ireland Gazette_, “nothing of that narrow, obscurantist spirit which is -the curse of much of Irish Nationalism.” - -Ireland was his one splendid prejudice. In _The Open Secret of -Ireland_ he wrote: “We came, we, the invaders,”--an allusion to his -Norse ancestry--“to dominate and remained to serve. For Ireland has -signed us with the oil and chrism of her human sacrament, and even -though we should deny the faith with our lips, she would hold our -hearts to the end.” He had a radiant pride in the indomitable spirit -of his country that, many times conquered, was always unconquered. -“A people such as this is not to be exterminated. An ideal (that of -National Autonomy) is not to be destroyed. Imitate in Ireland” (he -counsels England) “your own wisdom in dealing with the Colonies, and -the same policy will bear the same harvest. For justice given the -Colonies gave you friendship, as for injustice stubbornly upheld, they -had given you hatred. The analogy with Ireland is complete so far as -the cards have been played. The same human elements are there, the -same pride, the same anger, the same willingness to forget. Why then -should the augury fail?” In his pamphlet on _Home Rule Finance_ he -says: “The Irish problem that is now knocking so peremptorily at the -door of Westminster is a problem with a past, history is of its very -essence and substance; the wave that breaks in suave music on the -beach of to-day, has behind it the unspent impulse of fierce storms -and vast upheavals. It is not wise, it is not even safe to handle -the reorganisation of the political fabric of Ireland in the same -‘practical’ fashion that you would handle the reconstruction of an -Oil Company. There is in liberty a certain tonic inspiration, there -is in the national idea a deep fountain of courage and energy not to -be figured out in dots and decimals; and unless you can call these -psychological forces into action your Home Rule Bill will be only ink, -paper and disappointment. In one word Home Rule must be a moral as well -as a material liquidation of the past.” His pride in Ireland forbade -the insult of futile sympathy. “Tears, as we read in Wordsworth, to -human suffering are due. If there be anyone with tears at command, -he may shed them, with great fitness and no profit at all, over the -long martyrdom of Ireland. But let him, at least if he values facts, -think twice before he goes on to apply to her that other line which -speaks of human hopes defeated and overthrown. No other people in the -world has held so staunchly to its inner vision; none other has, with -such fiery patience, repelled the hostility of circumstances, and -in the end reshaped them after the desire of her heart. Hats off to -success, gentlemen! Your modern god may well be troubled at the sight -of this enigmatic Ireland which at once despises him and tumbles his -faithfullest worshippers in the sand of their own amphitheatre. Yet, so -it is. The confederate general, seeing victory suddenly snatched from -his hands and not for the first time, by Meagher’s Brigade, exclaimed -in immortal profanity, ‘There comes that damned green flag again!’ I -have often commended that phrase to Englishmen as admirably expressive -of the historical rôle and record of Ireland in British politics. The -damned green flag flutters again in their eyes, and if they will but -listen to the music that marches with it, they will find that the -lamenting fifes are dominated wholly by the drums of victory.” Ireland -always moved him to lyric patriotism. His appeal not to rend “the -seamless garment of Irish Nationality” is immortal. Mr. Lynd, whom I -have quoted so frequently because he has understood my husband as it is -given to few to understand another, calls the last lines of his “Reason -in Rhyme” his testament to England as his call to Europeanism is his -testament to Ireland. - - “Bond from the toil of hate we may not cease: - Free, we are free to be your friend. - And when you make your banquet, and we come, - Soldier with equal soldier must we sit - Closing a battle, not forgetting it. - With not a name to hide - This mate and mother of valiant ‘rebels’ dead - Must come with all her history on her head. - We keep the past for pride: - No deepest peace shall strike our poets dumb: - No rawest squad of all Death’s volunteers, - No rudest man who died - To tear your flag down in the bitter years - But shall have praise and three times thrice again - When at that table men shall drink with men.” - -“It was to the standard of the intellect in a gloomy world that he -always gaily rallied,” Mr. Lynd observes with truth. He saw the -unbridgeable gulf which exists between aspiration and achievement. -Heine once said bitterly: “You want to give the woman you love the sun, -moon and stars, and all you can give her is a house on a terrace.” -He, like Heine, knew this sense of defeat, and it is this which made -him regard “optimism as an attractive form of mental disease.” As he -says of Hamlet, “he passed through life annotating it with a gloss of -melancholy speculation.” - -He felt the “weary weight of all this unintelligible world.” “The -twentieth century,” he wrote in an article, “which cuts such a fine -figure in encyclopædias is most familiarly known to the majority of its -children as a new sort of headache.” But he was a fighting pessimist -that called for the best. “Impossibilism is a poor word and an unmanly -doctrine. We have got to keep moving on and, since that is so, we had -better put as good thought as we can into our itinerary. The task of -civilisation was never easy. Freedom--the phrase belongs to Fichte or -someone of his circle--has always been a battle and a march: it is of -the nature of both that they should appear to the participants, during -the heat of movement, as planless and chaotic.” - -Perhaps the finest definition of his philosophy of life may be found in -an essay in _The Day’s Burden_. “A wise man soon grows disillusioned -of disillusionment. The first lilac freshness of life will indeed never -return. The graves are sealed, and no hand will open them to give us -back dead comrades or dead dreams. As we look out on the burdened march -of humanity, as we look in on the leashed but straining passions of our -unpurified hearts, we can but bow our heads and accept the discipline -of pessimism. Bricriu must have his hour as well as Cuchullin. But the -cynical mood is one that can be resisted. Cynicism, however exercisable -in literature, is in life the last treachery, the irredeemable -defeat.... But we must continue loyal to the instinct which makes us -hope much, we must believe in all the Utopias.” - -Pessimism is indeed written on his banner, but it is a pessimism which -achieves. “Is not the whole Christian conception of life rooted in -pessimism,” he argues, “as becomes a philosophy expressive of a world -in which the ideal can never quite overcome the crumbling incoherence -of matter? May we not say of all good causes what Arnold said only of -the proud and defeated Celts: ‘They always went down to battle, but -they always fell’!” - -There is no need to comment on him as a man of letters. A master of -exquisite prose, he had in perfection what he himself calls “the -incommunicable gift of phrase” and “the avid intellect which must needs -think out of things everything to be found in them.” What he wrote of -Anatole France, might fittingly be applied to himself. “A pessimism, -stabbed and gashed with the radiance of epigrams as a thunder-cloud is -stabbed by lightning is a type of spiritual life far from contemptible. -A reasonable sadness, chastened by the music of consummate prose is an -attitude and an achievement, that will help many men to bear with more -resignation the burden of our century.” His defence of the use of the -epigram and its purpose is vigorous and arresting: “The epigrammatist, -too, and the whole tribe of image-makers dwell under a disfavour far -too austere. We must distinguish. There is in such images an earned -and an unearned increment of applause. The sudden, vast, dazzling, and -deep-shadowed view of traversed altitudes that breaks on the vision of -a climber, who, after long effort, has reached the mountain-top, is not -to be grudged him. And the image that closes up in a little room the -infinite riches of an argument carefully pursued is not only legitimate -but admirable.” - -His writings abound in fine images and epigrams which seem to come -naturally to his pen. Galway is to him the “Bruges-la-Morte” of western -Ireland; again “the opulent loneliness of the Golden Vale,” is a -picture in words. He referred to Irish emigrants as “landless men from -a manless land”; England, he said, found Ireland a nation and left her -a question. Loyalty he described as the bloom on the face of freedom. -Mr. Healy, whose wit he admired and whose politics he deplored, he -called “a brilliant calamity.” “It is with ideas,” he wrote, “as with -umbrellas, if left lying about they are peculiarly liable to change -of ownership.” Describing a man of poor parents who had achieved -greatness, he said: “He was of humble origin like the violin string.” -A very stupid book, published one winter, he referred to “as very -suitable for the Christmas fire.” Of the Royal Irish Constabulary he -said: “It was formerly an army of occupation. Now, owing to the all -but complete disappearance of crime, it is an army of no occupation.” -Cleverness he defined as a sort of perfumed malice, the perfume -predominating in literature, the malice in life. The inevitableness of -Home Rule, he declared, resided in the fact that it is a biped among -ideas. “It marches to triumph on two feet, an Irish and Imperial foot.” -And surely this is one of his finest epigrams: “Life is a cheap table -d’hôte in a rather dirty restaurant, with time changing the plates -before you have had enough of anything.” Sufferers from the influenza -will appreciate his description of that malady. “Other illnesses -are positive, influenza is negative. It makes one an absentee from -oneself.” Talking of Mr. George Moore, he described him as “suffering -from the sick imagination of the growing boy.” The grazing system he -declared must be exterminated root and branch, _brute and ranch_. In -his _Home Rule Finance_, he says: “Home Rule may be a divorce between -two administrations, it will be a marriage between two nations. You are -in any case free to choose for your inspiration between alimony and -matrimony, the emphasis in either case is on the last syllable.” - -Few think of him as a poet, and yet his poetry has as unique and -distinguished a _cachet_ as his prose. In political poetry and battle -song he equalled the best. His “Epitaph on the House of Lords” ranks -beside Chesterton’s memorable poem on the same subject. His battle song -entitled “The Last Crusade” embodies in perfect lyric form his vision -of the war-- - - “Then lift the flag of the last Crusade! - And fill the ranks of the Last Brigade! - March on to the fields where the world’s re-made, - And the ancient Dreams come true!” - -A sonnet written to his little daughter on the battlefield has been -declared by a literary critic as sufficient to found the reputation of -a poet. - - -“TO MY DAUGHTER BETTY, THE GIFT OF GOD. - - “In wiser days, my darling rosebud, blown - To beauty proud as was your mother’s prime, - In that desired, delayed, incredible time, - “You’ll ask why I abandoned you, my own, - And the dear heart that was your baby throne, - To dice with death. And, oh! they’ll give you rhyme - And reason: some will call the thing sublime, - And some decry it in a knowing tone. - So here, while the mad guns curse overhead, - And tired men sigh, with mud for couch and floor, - Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead, - Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor, - But for a dream, born in a herdsman’s shed, - And for the secret Scripture of the poor. - - “_In the field, before Guillemont, Somme, - September 4, 1916._” - -“Ballade Autumnal” is in Villon’s perfect manner, and his replies to -Kipling and Watson will be remembered in Ireland for all time. In a -volume entitled _Poems and Parodies_, his verses have been collected -and published. - -Style in writing was a thing he regarded as of paramount importance. -Though a prolific writer for newspapers, he was no believer in the -theory of dashing off an article. On the contrary, he maintained that -one of the drawbacks incidental to anything hastily written is that it -is bound to be too serious. To write well, you must labour infinitely, -otherwise one’s work is sure to bear traces of what he called the -“heavy paw.” In the _Nationist_, when the slipshod work of some popular -writer was being reviewed he observed, “At least _we_ are stylists.” - -In the same degree as he loved the expert, he abhorred the quack, the -charlatan, the pseudo-writer of prose or poetry. I remember one night -a popular novelist and writer of magazine stories, who had achieved -fame and money without achieving literature, was telling with great -unction of his success. He told how his recent book had been translated -not only into French, Italian, Spanish, but even into a Dutch dialect. -My husband, flicking the ash from a cigarette, said in a very urbane -voice: “That is very interesting. I dare say then it will soon be -translated into English.” - -In speaking, too, while his notes were scanty, in fact mere headings, -he always thought out beforehand both the matter and form. As he put -it, he favoured “carefully prepared impromptus.” - -Friends will remember him at his best as a conversationalist. As a -raconteur he was inimitable, and, as a critic says, “It was not so -much the point of his tale that counted. The divagations from the -text in which he loved to indulge were the delight of his auditors.” -“What Doctor Johnson said of Burke,” observes another critic, “was -essentially true of Kettle, ‘that you could not have stood under an -archway in his company to escape a passing shower without realising -that he was a great man.’” - -He had the literary man’s constitutional distaste for writing or -answering letters. A friend once said chaffingly to him that he might -write “The Life and Letters of T. M. Kettle.” “Well,” retorted Tom, -“you may write my life, but there won’t be any letters, for I never -write any.” He was also unpunctual in keeping appointments, and -finding the telephone very useful, he said it should be called not -“telephone,” but “tell-a-fib,” as that was its chief function. - -He was intensely Catholic and always flaunted the banner of his -religion. “Religion,” he writes in this volume, “is one of the ideal -forces that make men good citizens and gallant soldiers.” And again, -“If soldiers will not fight on an empty stomach, still less will -they fight on an empty soul.” Perhaps because he loved his faith, so -he could afford to take it humorously at times. I remember once his -throwing off in an epigram the difference between the Catholic and -Protestant religions. “The Catholics take their beliefs table d’hôte,” -he said, “and the Protestants theirs à la carte.” What chiefly appealed -to him in Catholicity was its mystery and its gospel of mercy. If he -often quoted Heine’s well-known semi-cynical “Dieu me pardonnera, -c’est son métier,” it was because he felt an amazed gratitude that a -God should choose such an original profession. He greatly liked the -society of Irish priests. He used to say they were gentlemen first, -and priests after. They, too, loved him, and took his gentle chaff as -it was meant. I remember how a priest friend of his enjoyed a sermon -for golfers which Tom composed for him. Needless to say it was never -preached. In it golfers were enjoined to “get out of the bunker of -mortal sin with the niblick of Confession.” During the Dublin strike -an anti-cleric was railing against the priests, who had intervened to -prevent the deportation of the children. Tom completely won him over -with the original argument “that the priests were acting as members of -a spiritual trade union.” Writing of the great Catholic poet, Francis -Thompson, he puts in a lyric plea for his religion: “The superiority -of the Catholic poet is that he reinforces the natural will by waters -falling an infinite height from the infinite ocean of spirit. He has -two worlds against one. If we place our Fortunate Islands solely -within the walls of space and time, they will dissolve into a mocking -dream; for there will always be pain that no wisdom can assuage. They -must lie on the edge of the horizon with the glimmer of a strange sea -about their shores and their mountain peaks hidden among the clouds.” -He had a wonderful spiritual humility. What he found admirable in -Russian literature was “an immense and desolating sob of humility and -self-reproach.” He abjured the self-righteous who, he used to say, -went round as if they were “live monuments erected by God in honour -of the Ten Commandments.” He was, indeed, over generous in the praise -of qualities in others which he had superlatively himself. Anyone -with a gift, a “plus” man at golf, a Feis Gold Medallist, an expert -gardener--just the distinguishing _cachet_ of excellence won his -admiration. Witness how he lauds the valour of his Dublin Fusiliers, -and yet his courage was no newly acquired virtue. I remember several -years ago he went to a political meeting at Newcastle West. A faction -party took possession of the platform. The intending speakers were for -abandoning the meeting, but Tom declined to give in without at least -a fight, and led the attack on the platform. After a nasty struggle -they captured their objective. Mr. Gwynn, who was one of the speakers, -was so impressed with my husband’s daring that he wrote me his -admiration, saying that he led the attack “with nothing but an umbrella -and a University degree.” His moral courage, too, never failed. When -occasion demanded it, he could always be counted on to say “the dire -full-throated thing.” - -For the memory of Parnell he had a deep reverence. This is his vision -of him-- - - “A flaming coal - Lit at the stars and sent - To burn the sin of patience from her soul, - The Scandal of Content.” - -A life, or rather an impressionist study, of “the Chief’s” career was -a work he frequently projected but unfortunately never accomplished. -The plinth at the back of Parnell’s Statue in O’Connell Street should, -he maintained, have been broken to symbolise the wrecking of Parnell’s -career. “Parnell,” he wrote, “died with half his music in him.” Once in -a discussion on the eighties he remarked: “What is the history of the -eighties? It is the history of two Irishmen--Oscar Wilde and Parnell.” -For G. K. Chesterton my husband had a great admiration. In _The Open -Secret of Ireland_, he refers to him as wielding “the wisest pen in -contemporary English letters. There is in his mere sanity a touch of -magic so potent that although incapable of dullness he has achieved -authority, and although convinced that faith is more romantic than -doubt or even sin, he has got himself published and read.” The only -flaw he found in Mr. Chesterton was that he was not a suffragist. My -husband was, of course, an ardent supporter of the Women’s Movement, -and wrote a brilliant pamphlet entitled _Why Bully Women?_ Mr. -Chesterton paid him a noble tribute in the course of an article in the -_Observer_: “The former case, that of the man of letters who becomes -by strength of will a man of war, is better exemplified in a man like -Professor Kettle, whose fall in battle ought to crush the slanderers of -Ireland as the fall of a tower could crush nettles.” - -Another book projected but unachieved was on Dublin. His idea was -to, follow the method of E. V. Lucas in his _Wanderer in London_. -For Dublin city he had a great love and pride: “Of no mean city am -I,” he often quoted proudly of his native city. For its poor he had -a tremendous pity. The city beggars always found him an easy victim. -I remember one night on coming out of a theatre, an urchin of about -five years came clamouring after him. I began the usual stunt on -the parental iniquity that allowed youngsters to go out begging at -eleven at night; but Tom, unheeding, was already chatting with the -boy. “What’s your name?” he asked. “Patsy Murphy, sir.” “Well, Patsy, -which would you rather, a shilling or a halfpenny?” “A halfpenny, -sir,” was the amazing reply. “Now tell me why?” questioned my husband, -interested. “Well,” said the kid, “I might get the halfpenny but I’d -never get the shilling.” His naïve philosophy got him both on this -occasion. - -In a speech on Dublin he said: “We cannot ignore the slums, for the -slums are Dublin and Dublin is the slums.” On the same occasion he -remarked: “Dublin is in one respect like every other city. It is -convinced that it possesses the most beautiful women and the worst -corporation.” - -In a letter written from the boat on his way to France, with already a -prophetic sense of death waiting for him on the battlefield, he wrote: -“I have never felt my own essay ‘On Saying Good-bye’ more profoundly -aux tréfonds de mon cœur.” - -I shall quote the conclusion of the essay-- - -“There is only one journey, as it seems to me ... in which we attain -our ideal of going away and going home at the same time. Death, -normally encountered, has all the attractions of suicide without any -of its horrors. The old woman” (an old woman previously mentioned who -complained that “the only bothersome thing about walking was that -the miles began at the wrong end“)--”the old woman when she comes to -that road will find the miles beginning at the right end. We shall all -bid our first real adieu to those brother-jesters of ours. Time and -Space: and though the handkerchiefs flutter, no lack of courage will -have power to cheat or defeat us. ‘However amusing the comedy may have -been,’ wrote Pascal, ‘there is always blood in the fifth act. They -scatter a little dust in your face; and then all is over, for ever.’ -Blood there may be, but blood does not necessarily mean tragedy. The -wisdom of humility bids us pray that in that fifth act we may have -good lines and a timely exit; but, fine or feeble, there is comfort -in breaking the parting word into its two significant halves, à Dieu. -Since life has been a constant slipping from one good-bye to another, -why should we fear that sole good-bye which promises to cancel all its -forerunners?” - -Could one meet death in a nobler way? He had his last lines at Ginchy, -and “his fine word and incomparable gesture.” And now Picardy of the -waving poplars--Picardy that my student days had garlanded with many -memories, that shone in recollection with many friendships, now by the -strange way of destiny holds my husband’s grave. But he sleeps well in -his beloved France, wearing the green emblem of his Motherland with -his fallen comrades of the “Irish Brigade.” As his distant wind-swept -grave in the Valley of the Somme rises to vision, some noble words of -René Bazin recur to me making a picture: “The loyal land, the honest -land, the land of love, now moist, now parched, where one sleeps the -last sleep with the lullaby wind in the shade of the Cross.” The many -who loved him and now grieve for him will find in his own proud lines -on Parnell a fitting message-- - - “Tears will betray all pride, but when ye mourn him, - Be it in soldier wise, - As for a captain who hath gently borne him, - And in the midnight dies.... - - So let him keep, where all world-wounds are healed, - The silences of God.” - - MARY S. KETTLE. - - - - -WHY IRELAND FOUGHT - - -I.--PRELUDE - -We have lived to see Europe--that Europe which carried the fortunes -and the hopes of all mankind--degraded to a foul something which no -image can so much as shadow forth. To a detached intelligence it must -resemble nothing so much as a sort of malign middle term between a -lunatic asylum and a butcher’s stall. - -We have seen committed, under our own amazed eyes, the greatest crime -against civilisation of which civilisation itself keeps any record. -The Blood-and-Ironmongers have entered into possession of the soul of -humanity. No one who remembers our social miseries will say that that -was a house swept and garnished, but it did seem secure against such an -invasion of diabolism: that was an illusion, and it has perished. The -face of things is changed, and all the streams are flowing up the hills -and not down them. If in the old world it was the task of men to build, -develop, redeem, integrate, carnage and destruction are now imposed -upon us as the first conditions of human society. We are gripped in the -ancient bloodiness of that paradox which bids us kill life in order to -save life. - -Nations are at war on land and sea, and under and above both _usque ad -cœlum et infernum_. Millions of men have been marched to this Assize -of Blood to be torn with shells and bullets, gutted with bayonets, -tortured with vermin, to dig themselves into holes and grovel there in -mud and fragments of the flesh of their comrades, to rot with disease, -to go mad, and in the most merciful case to die. - -Worse, if possible, is the malign transformation of the mind of -mankind. Dr. Jekyll has been wholly submerged in Mr. Hyde. Killing has -become an hourly commonplace--for the aggressor as the mere practice -of his trade, for the assailed as a necessity of defence and victory. -The material apparatus of butchery and destruction has proven to be far -more tremendous in its effects than even its planners had imagined. -The fabric of settled life has disappeared not by single houses, but -by whole towns. Cathedrals are mere dust and shards of stained glass. -Strong forts have all but vanished under the Thor’s hammer of a single -bombardment. The very earth, that a few months ago gave us food and -iron and coal, is wealed, pitted, scarred, mounded, entrenched into the -semblance of some devil’s nightmare. - -All this came upon a world which was more favourable to the hopes of -honest, Christian men than any save the Golden Ages of fable. Being -myself a plain, Christian man, I am not going to suggest that in 1914 -the Earthly Paradise had arrived or was in sight. Coventry Patmore -is entirely right when he says that belief in the perfectibility of -man on earth is the last proof of weakmindedness. If we fall to rise, -it is also true that we rise to fall. It is, perhaps, the chief gain -of the agony of war that men have come once more to recognise that -in their proudest exaltations sin stands chuckling at their elbows; -that moral evil is a reality, and that the opposite notion was a -spider-web spun by German metaphysics out of its own entrails. But -with these limitations the world before the war promised well for all -reasonable human hopes. The old materialism was all but dead. It is -true that a few antiquated German heresiarchs like Professor Haeckel -still expounded a thing called Monism in sixpenny editions. It is true -that a tribe of German professors were still engaged (with much aid -and abetment from English savants and publishers) in an attempt to -shred into myth those plain historical documents, the Gospels. But on -the whole the reigning philosophy was that of Bergson, a philosophy -of life, Latin and lucid, which was a distinct return to St. Thomas -Aquinas, to Aristotle, and to the common daylight. And in the region of -Higher Criticism people were asking themselves very earnestly whether -savants like Harnack and the rest, having regard to their general -flat-footedness of apprehension, were likely to be good judges of any -evidence of anything whatever, human or divine. - -In the field of social problems the outlook was of the hopefullest. The -conscience of men had been aroused more sharply than ever before to -the mass of evil in our society which was inevitable only as a fruit -of selfish apathy, and could be exterminated by sound knowledge and -strong action. The very loud clamour of the indecently rich was in -itself the best proof that the main cause had been bull’s-eyed, and the -best guarantee of approaching change. On the other hand the emptiness -of the old Socialism, its inadequacy not only to the spiritual but to -the bodily business of life, had emerged into clear vision. Property -for every man, and not too much property for any man, had become the -watchword of sensible men. Trusts, combines, and private conspiracies -of every kind, economic and political, were growing more nervous and -by consequence more honest under a growing acuteness of scrutiny. -Conservatism, which, for all its faults, had kept the roots of life -from being torn up, and Democracy, which, for all its, had been like -the sap in the tree forcing itself out into new forms of life, were -coming to understand that they were not enemies but allies. If you -refused all change it was death; if you changed everything at once it -was equally death. - -There were, indeed, obvious blots. Men, and not irresponsible men, -were playing with fire in these countries. The King’s conference at -Buckingham Palace was known to have failed just twelve days before -Armageddon. We were committed to the monstrous doctrine that only -through the criminal madness of civil war could the political future -of Ireland be settled. Women, or some women, were already at guerilla -war with men, or with some men, and the failure to find a way out was -a grave reproach to statesmanship. Perhaps our most damning defect of -that vanished time before the war was our entire lack of the sense of -proportion. All the little fishes of controversy talked like whales. -The galled jade did not _wince_, it trumpeted and charged like a -wounded bull-elephant. If you put another penny on the income tax the -rich howled out in chorus that Dick Turpin had got himself into the -Exchequer, that all industry would come to an end, that the stately -homes of England would fall into decay, and that all capital would -emigrate to Kamchatka. If a bilious works manager spoke crossly to a -similarly indisposed Trade Union workman, there was grave danger that -in a week we should have a national crisis and a national strike. - -The scene has changed. There must be many a man who, looking out on the -spectacle of blood and disaster which now passes for Europe, exclaims: -“If I had only known!” There is many a home, deep in the mourning of -this titanic tragedy, in which they sigh: “If we could only bring back -that 1914 in which we were not wise!” - -These are not vain regrets; they have the germ of future wisdom. But -they are not our immediate business. Enough for the present to remember -that we were playing with unrealities while this crime of all history -was being prepared. - -All our civilisation of that time, however disturbed, had in it a -principle of growth and reconciliation. The temper of these countries -might have permitted inflammatory verbiage, and even scattered -anarchical outbursts, but it would have revolted to sanity at the first -actual shedding of blood. - -And now every landmark has been submerged in an Atlantic of blood. -There has been forced upon us a dispensation in which our very souls -are steeped in blood. The horizon of the future, such horizon as is -discernible, is visible only through a mist of blood. Now this was -not a war demanded by the peoples of the world. It was not, like the -Great Revolution, created by the universal uprising of oppressed men, -to be marred and to pass over into murder, lust and tyranny. It was -not like the old wars of religion. The sort of religion that tortures -its enemies and puts them to death no longer flourishes under the -standard of the Cross. It does flourish under that of the Crescent, -as the corpses of eight hundred thousand slain Armenians terribly -testify. There was indeed before the war one people in Europe, but only -one, whose leaders preached war as a national duty and function. How -far the militarism of his rulers had penetrated to the common man in -Germany must remain something of a question. Personally, I do not think -that the peasant who knelt by the wayside crucifix in the Tyrol, or -the comfortable, stout farmer in Bavaria or Würtemberg, or the miner -in Westphalia, or any typical Rhinelander wanted to dip his hands in -blood. He bore with rulers who did so want. In the rest of Europe the -atmosphere was one of profound peace. That it was so in France even -German witnesses testify. - -It will be said that all such considerations are now empty, that we -have experienced war and realise all that it means, and that it is the -part of wisdom to banish such memories from the human imagination. This -sort of plea is, indeed, likely to be popular; it has all the qualities -of popularity--that is to say, it is feeble, edifying, and free from -all the roughness of truth. But it is precisely the truth in all its -roughness of which we stand in need. Our duty is not to banish the -memories of war as we have experienced it, but to burn them in beyond -effacement, every line and trait, every dot and detail. Civilised men, -in the mass, have not yet begun to understand the baseness and the -magnitude of this adventure in de-civilisation. There is no calculus -of suffering that can sum up the agonies endured since the sentence of -blood was daubed on the lintel of every cottage in Europe. The story of -war is not yet realised because it has not yet been told; there has not -been time for the telling even to begin. It is the part of wisdom to -see that it is not slurred over, but written and remembered. - -We shall have the usual fluttered imputations of “rhetoric” and -“extravagance,” the usual “scientific historians” with their -deprecating gesture, against “the introduction of feeling” into any -narrative. Such people, I suppose, have their place in the world. This -is a scientific age, and the function of science may be exhausted when -it has counted the corpses on a battlefield, unless indeed it goes on -to append an estimate of their manurial value. It can render both these -accounts without admitting a hint of emotion into its voice. But to the -conscience the killing of men remains the most terrible of all acts. A -mutilated corpse not only overwhelms it with horror, but also suggests -at once that there is a murderer somewhere on the earth who must be -sought out and punished. Passion will break into the voice, and anger -into the veins at such a confrontation, for to be above passion is to -be below humanity. I have no apology, then, to make for any “emotional” -phrase or sentence in this book. It is in the main a narrative of -facts--verified by evidence which stands unshaken by criticism--but I -confess that, being no more than human, I have slipped into the luxury -of occasional indignation. - -When I call this war a crime I use the word in its fullest and simplest -sense, an evil act issuing from the deliberate choice of certain human -wills. There is a sort of pietism, hardly distinguishable from atheism, -to which war appears as a sort of natural calamity, produced by -overmastering external conditions. You will hear people of this school -of thoughtlessness chattering away as if the earthquake of Lisbon, -the cholera outbreak of 1839, and the war of 1914 all belonged to the -same category of evil. But the first was plainly beyond the reach of -human power; the second was an evil imposed from without which might -have been nullified by a wise organization of medical knowledge; and -the third was, on the part of its authors, just as plainly a thing of -deliberate human choice. Another type of mind, numerously represented, -considers that it has settled everything philosophically when to war -it has added the label “inevitable.” Everything is apparently involved -in a sort of gelatinous determinism; everybody is somewhat to blame -for everything, and nobody is very definitely to blame for anything. -According to this notion because Germany is rather big, and the British -Empire, France, Russia, Italy, and Austria-Hungary are also rather -big, and because they all manufacture goods and sell them, the fabric -of civilisation is to blow up in minute fragments from time to time -under the explosion of an “inevitable war.” No casual connection is -indicated. Before thought begins these two doctrines must be dismissed. -War is not a calamity of nature, and there are no “inevitable wars.” -Or rather the only war inevitable is a war against aggression, and -aggression itself is never inevitable. - -If any fault has ever been urged against Belgium it was that of a -too great and apathetic complacency. The average Englishman--bating -the unreal fever-frenzy regarding Ireland--so little planned attack -on anyone that events have proved his complete unpreparedness, an -unpreparedness common and creditable to all the Allies. Russia wanted -no war, Italy wanted none, Serbia, ravaged with disease, wanted none. -Yet suddenly there was launched upon us this abomination of desolation. - -Who launched it? Who was guilty of this crime above all crimes? The -author of it, whether a ruler, a junta, or a whole nation, comes -before history stained with an infamy to which no language can reach. -If his assassin’s stroke is not beaten down into the dust it is all -over with Europe and civilisation. Who, then, was the criminal? There -is an invertebrate view according to which everybody is equally -blameable and blameless for everything. The holders of this view have -never gone quite so far as to take up the New Testament story, and -argue that Judas Iscariot was a misunderstood man; but, were they -logical, they would do so. Since they are not logical they must not -be allowed to apply their mechanical and deterministic formula to the -tragedy of world-history. No nation in this war is without a blot, -and many blots on its past, not even Ireland. Any people that claims -complete worthiness to bear the sword and shield of justice is a people -intoxicated with vanity. The participants in this struggle are, like -the participants and witnesses in a murder-trial, human. That does not -prevent a jury adjudging the supreme guilt of blood to that one of the -many imperfect individuals on whom it lies. - -The Great War was in its origin a Great Crime, and the documents are -there to prove it. That is one advantage we possess formerly forbidden -to public opinion. The Press and popular education have done much -harm, but this solid good stands to their credit: they have made it -impossible, as in old times, to order war in secret councils for -motives undisclosed, or not disclosed till long after the events. Every -belligerent Government has found itself under the necessity of issuing -to the world diplomatic correspondence relating to the outbreak of the -war. All the publications of the Powers engaged will be found in a -single volume, _Collected Diplomatic Documents relating to the Outbreak -of the European War_ (E. Ponsonby, 1_s._ net). To that volume frequent -reference will be made in these pages. One omission must be noted, a -hiatus more significant and sinister than any printed evidence. The -influence exercised by Berlin on Vienna must be, for the historian, the -central pivot of all _ante-bellum_ negotiations. But in neither of the -books published by the Germanic Powers is there any real disclosure -of what passed between Berlin and Vienna during that fateful period. -Allegations of atrocities, too, no longer rest merely on the evidence -of private persons. Formal Commissions, composed of lawyers and -statesmen of international reputation, have sifted the whole mass of -charges, eliminated hearsay, and committed themselves to a verdict that -nothing can shake. That great prince of the Church, Cardinal Mercier, -and his Bishops, have issued documents with every solemnity of form and -occasion which in the early days of the struggle were not available. -A whole library of comment, in which the ablest minds not only of the -United Kingdom and France but also of the United States and Germany -itself have collaborated in a reasoned examination of the issues at -stake, is at our disposal. - -The evidence in the whole case is indeed at once so clear and so -voluminous that one might well have supposed any further survey of it -to be superfluous. That is not so. It is a far from frequent experience -to find a man in Ireland, even among those who assume to themselves a -new leadership of opinion, who has made an honest study of documents -within reach of all the world. You will still hear “intellectuals” -explaining at length that they “don’t believe the Germans committed -any atrocities in Belgium.” You will hear facile sneers at the notion -that attacks of Great Powers on small nationalities had anything to do -with the war. The sooner the unworthiness of this familiar attitude is -recognised by everybody in Ireland the better. - -No man has the right to offer an opinion on any subject that is a -matter of evidence until he has read the evidence. Upon anyone who has -read it in this instance the twin _niaiseries_ just cited make the -impression merely of blank unreason. What would one make of a man, and -a writer to boot, who began modern French history by dismissing the -alleged existence of Napoleon with a shrug and a gibe? Or who “didn’t -believe” that there ever were evictions in Ireland? The parallel is -exact. The evidence in proof of the first pair of propositions differs -from that in proof of the second pair only in being fresher and more -abundant. Going upon that evidence, any branch of which can be pursued -in detail by any enquirer, I propose to establish this following -argument. - -This war originated in an attempt by Austria-Hungary, a large Empire, -to destroy the independence of Serbia, a small nation. - -It grew to its present dimensions because Germany, and under German -pressure Austria-Hungary, rejected every proposal making for peace -suggested by the present Allied Powers but especially by the United -Kingdom through Sir Edward Grey. - -Germany offered bribes to the United Kingdom, and to Belgium herself, -to induce them to consent to a violation of the European treaty which -protected Belgian independence and enforced Belgian neutrality. - -Having broken like an armed burglar into Belgium, Germany was there -guilty of a systematic campaign of murder, pillage, outrage, and -destruction, justified, planned and ordered by her military and -intellectual leaders. Such a campaign was inherent in her philosophy -of politics, and of war. She stood for the gospel of force; and the -sacrament of cruelty. To link with her in any wise a nation like -Ireland that has always stood for spiritual freedom is an act of -treason and blasphemy against our whole past. - -The Allied Powers did not come into the war, and will not come before -history, sinless. The past of both Great Britain and France was deeply -stained with domination, that is to say, with Prussianism. Much of it -was still apparent in some of their politics. But they had begun to -cleanse themselves. The working out of the democratic formula would -have in due course completed that process, and will complete it. -Prussia, on the contrary, had adopted her vice as the highest virtue. -Her philosophy did not correct her appetites, it canonised them. -Therefore, speaking of main ideas, the triumph of Prussia must mean the -triumph of force: the triumph of the Allies must mean the triumph of -law. - -In such a conflict to counsel Ireland to stand neutral in judgment, is -as if one were to counsel a Christian to stand neutral in judgment -between Nero and St. Peter. To counsel her to stand neutral in action -would have been to abandon all her old valour and decision, and to -establish in their places the new cardinal virtues of comfort and -cowardice. In such matters you cannot compromise. Neutrality is already -a decision, a decision of adherence to the evil side. To trim is to -betray. It will be an ill end of all our “idealistic” movements when -their success so transforms the young men of this nation that in this -world they shall be content to be neutral, and that nothing will offer -them in the next save to be blown about by the winds. - -Used with the wisdom which is sown in tears and blood, this tragedy -of Europe may be and must be the prologue to the two reconciliations -of which all statesmen have dreamed, the reconciliation of Protestant -Ulster with Ireland, and the reconciliation of Ireland with Great -Britain. - -In this book--pieced together amid preoccupations of a very different -kind--I have reprinted certain articles on various aspects of the war -published in its earlier stages. I have done so not out of vanity, -the reader may rest assured, but to repel an imputation. It has been -charged against us who have taken our stand with the Allies that we -were merely dancing to the tune of Imperialism, that our ideas came to -us from London, that we hated Prussia and Prussianism not honestly but -simply to order. Our recruiting appeals have been twisted from their -plain utterance and obvious meaning. Wordy young men, with no very -notable public services to their record, have “stigmatised” (a word in -which they delight) us all from Mr. Redmond down as renegades to Irish -Nationalism. What we have said and done is to be remembered and is to -rise up in judgment against us in the new Ireland that is coming. I -do not know whether anybody else is pained or alarmed, but my withers -are unwrung. Since I knew Prussian “culture” at close quarters I have -loathed it, and written my loathing. The outbreak of war caught me in -Belgium, where I was running arms for the National Volunteers, and on -the 6th of August, 1914, I wrote from Brussels in the _Daily News_ -that it was a war of “civilisation against barbarians.” I assisted for -many overwhelming weeks at the agony of the valiant Belgian nation. I -have written no word and spoken none that was not the word of an Irish -Nationalist, who had been at the trouble of thinking for himself. -Ireland was my centre of reference as it was that of Mr. Redmond, Mr. -T. P. O’Connor, Mr. Dillon, and Mr. Devlin in their speeches, and of -Mr. Hugh A. Law in his clear and noble pamphlet, _Why is Ireland at -War?_ - -It is true that we have all made two assumptions. We assumed that -Ireland had a duty not only to herself but to the world; we assumed -further that, whatever befell, the path taken by her must be the path -of honour and justice. If these postulates are rejected there is no -more to be said: the future must in that case undoubtedly belong to the -friends of the burners of Louvain. - - -II.--THE BULLYING OF SERBIA - -The first declaration of war in this world-conflict was that of -Austria-Hungary against Serbia on the 27th of July, 1914. The first -shots fired in the war were those fired by Austrian monitors on the -Danube into Belgrade on the 29th of July, 1914. Austria-Hungary is or -was then a great Empire with a population of 50,000,000 and an army of -2,500,000; Serbia is or was then a peasant State with a population of -5,000,000 and an army of 230,000. - -How these shots--heard alas! farther and more disastrously than that -of Emerson’s embattled farmers!--came to be fired is a plain story -often told, and never disputed or disputable. It will be sufficient -to recall the main features of it. On the 28th of June the Archduke -Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Emperor Francis Joseph, and his wife -were assassinated in Sarajevo, the capital of the province of Bosnia, -annexed to Austria-Hungary in 1909. Any reader of the English or French -papers of that time will remember the sincere and universal sympathy -expressed for the old unhappy Emperor, and his ill-starred realm -and family. It was a crime that awakened horror throughout Europe. -The annexation had been cynical, but crime is no cure for crime. In -general character and consequences there is an historic act which -presents remarkable resemblances to the Sarajevo outrage, I mean the -Phœnix Park murders. In each case irresponsible men stained a good -cause, and in each case an attempt was made to indict a nation. The -assassins were arrested, Prinzip who had fired the fatal pistol-shots, -and Cabinovitch who had thrown bombs. They were in the hands of the -law, and exemplary justice might reasonably be expected. The seething -pot of Balkan politics, said the average man in these countries, had -boiled up once more in noxious scum. It was another tragic episode. And -so people in the Entente countries turned back to their own troubles. -How acute these troubles were we are now in danger of forgetting, but -we have learned enough since then of the German political psychologist -and his ways to conclude that they were a prime factor in subsequent -decisions. The threat of civil war in “Ulster,” an unprecedented crisis -in the Army, gun-running, arming and drilling public and secret, a -woman suffrage and a labour movement, both so far gone in violence as -to be on the immediate edge of anarchy, left the Government of these -countries little leisure for the politics of the Near East. France -was in serious difficulties as regards her public finance, violent -fiscal controversies were impending, the Caillaux trial threatened -to rival that of Dreyfus in releasing savage passions, the military -unpreparedness of the country was notorious. Russia naturally stood -far closer to Serbia, but labour riots in Petrograd, a revival of -revolutionary activity, and widespread menace of internal disturbance -seemed hopelessly to cripple her. Nothing could have been more remote -from the desire of any of the Entente nations than a European war -springing out of Sarajevo. - -But there were other forces at work in the sinister drama. On the very -morrow of the assassinations the Austro-Hungarian Press opened what -Professor Denis well calls a systematic “expectoration of hatred” -against Serbia--Prinzip and Cabinovitch were both Austrian, not Serbian -subjects. The Serbian Government pressed the formal courtesy of grief -so far as to postpone the national fêtes arranged in celebration of the -battle of Kosovo. They had already warned the Austrian police of the -Anarchist Associations of Cabinovitch, and now offered their help in -bringing to justice any accomplices who might be traced within their -jurisdiction. All this was of no avail. The Austro-Hungarian Red Book -is not always discreet in its selections. Thus an incriminating passage -from the _Pravda_ runs (3rd July, 1914)-- - -“The Policy of Vienna is a cynical one. It exploits the death of the -unfortunate couple for its abominable aims against the Serbian people.” - -The _Militärische Rundschau_ demanded war (15th July)-- - -“At this moment the initiative rests with us: Russia is not ready, -moral factors and right are on our side as well as might.” - -The _Neue Freie Presse_ demands “war to the knife, and in the name of -humanity the extermination of the cursed Serbian race.” - -The furious indictment of the whole Serbian nation continued in the -Press of Vienna and Budapest, and found echoes even in that of these -countries. The task was easy, for the ill repute, clinging to Serbian -politicians since the murder of King Alexander and Queen Draga, had not -been wholly banished by her later heroic deeds. - -These journalistic outbursts and the protests of the Serbian Press, -although unnoticed by the outside world, attracted, as was natural, -the attention of diplomatists. But an interchange of barbed epithets -across the Danube was no new thing, and the Austrian Foreign Office -assumed an attitude of reassurance which deceived even Russia, and -lulled the other Entente Powers into complete security (Serbian Book, -No. 6, No. 12, No. 17). We now know that there were other observers -less misled, such as M. D’Apchier le Mangin, who noted the massing of -guns and munitions on the Serbian frontier as early as the 11th of -July, and M. Jules Cambon, who had convinced himself by the 21st of -July that Germany had set in train the preliminaries to mobilisation. -But nothing open or public (for the police proceedings against the -assassins had been held _in camera_) had prepared the way for the -Austrian _coup_. It was an amazed Europe that learned the terms of the -Note presented at Belgrade by the Austrian Ambassador on the 23rd of -July. There were no illusions as to its meaning and implications, for -none were possible. Newspapers so little akin as the _Morning Post_ and -M. Clemenceau’s _L’Homme Libre_ characterised it in the same phrase: it -was a summons to Serbia to abdicate her sovereignty and independence, -and to exist henceforth as a vassal-state of the Dual Empire. This -document is the Devil’s Cauldron from which have sprung all the horrors -of the present war. As to its extravagant character and probable -consequences, opinion is unanimous, even unofficial German opinion. The -Berlin _Vorwärts_ writes (25th July)-- - -“From whatever point of view one considers the situation, a European -War is at our gates. And why? Because the Austrian Government and the -Austrian War Party are determined to clear, by a _coup de main_, a -place in which they can fill their lungs.” - -In the Foreign Offices the same language was used. Sir Edward Grey -said to the Austrian Ambassador that he “had never before seen one -State address to another independent State a document of so formidable -a character.” The reader can very easily verify for himself this -impression by reference to the _Diplomatic Correspondence_. To such -a document Serbia was given forty-eight hours to reply. As M. Denis -points out, Prinzip, the assassin, taken in the act, was allowed three -months to prepare his defence, for he was not brought to trial until -October: the Serbian nation, exhausted by two wars, was allowed two -days in which to decide between a surrender of its independence and -an immediate invasion. Almost “to the scandal of Europe,” a reply was -delivered within the time. The Austrian representative received it -at Belgrade, and in half-an-hour had demanded his passports; fifteen -minutes later he was on board the train. The _will to war_ of the -Germanic Powers find many cynical and dramatic expressions in the -interchanges between the Chancelleries, but none so nude of all decency -as this. - -In these two days M. Pashich, in his passionate anxiety for peace, had -agreed to terms more humiliating than have often been dictated after -a victorious war. The Austrian Note had opened with a long indictment -of the Serbian nation. Complicity in the crime of Sarajevo was assumed -without any tittle of evidence, however vague or feeble, then or since -produced. Nevertheless the Serbian Prime Minister bowed to the storm. -His surrender was so complete that it deserves to be read textually. -These are, in skeleton, the main features (British Blue Book, No. 39). - -The Serbian Government, having protested their entire loyalty past and -present to their engagements, both of treaty and of neighbourliness -towards Austria-Hungary, nevertheless “undertake to cause to be -published on the first page of the _Journal Officiel_, on the date of -the 13th (26th) of July, the following declaration-- - -‘The Royal Government of Serbia condemn all propaganda which may be -directed against Austria-Hungary, that is to say, all such tendencies -as aim at ultimately detaching from the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy -territories which form part thereof, and they sincerely deplore the -baneful consequences of these criminal movements. The Royal Government -regret that, according to the communication from the Imperial and -Royal Government, certain Serbian officers and officials should have -taken part in the above-mentioned propaganda, and thus compromised -the good neighbourly relations to which the Royal Serbian Government -was solemnly engaged by the declaration of the 31st of March, 1909, -which declaration disapproves and repudiates all idea or attempt at -interference with the destiny of the inhabitants of any part whatsoever -of Austria-Hungary, and they consider it their duty formally to warn -the officers, officials and entire population of the kingdom that -henceforth they will take the most rigorous steps against all such -persons as are guilty of such acts, to prevent and to repress Which -they Will use their utmost endeavour.’ - -“This declaration will be brought to the knowledge of the Royal Army in -an order of the day, in the name of His Majesty the King, by His Royal -Highness the Crown Prince Alexander, and will be published in the next -official army bulletin.” - -The Serbian Government further undertakes-- - -1. To introduce severe Press laws against any anti-Austrian propaganda, -and to amend the constitution so as to give more vigorous effect to -these laws. - -2. To dissolve the “Narodna Odbrana,” although none of its members have -been proved to have committed criminal acts, and “every other society -which may be directing its efforts against Austria-Hungary.” - -3. To _remove without delay from their public educational -establishments in Serbia all that serves or could serve to foment -propaganda against Austria-Hungary_. (I print this in italics that -the shades of the sins of the National Board may find comfort and be -appeased.) - -4. To remove from the Army all persons proved guilty of acts directed -against Austria-Hungary. - -5. “The Royal Government must confess that they do not clearly grasp -the meaning or the scope of the demand made by the Imperial and Royal -Government that Serbia shall undertake to accept the collaboration of -the organs of the Imperial and Royal Government upon their territory, -but they declare that they will admit such collaboration as agrees with -the principle of international law, With criminal procedure, and with -good neighbourly relations. - -6. “It goes without saying that the Royal Government consider it their -duty to open an enquiry against all such persons as are, or eventually -may be, implicated in the plot of the 15th of June, and who happen to -be within the territory of the kingdom. As regards the participation in -this enquiry of Austro-Hungarian agents or authorities appointed for -this purpose by the Imperial and Royal Government, the Royal Government -cannot accept such an arrangement, as it would be a violation of the -Constitution and of the law of criminal procedure; nevertheless, in -concrete cases communications as to the results of the investigation in -question might be given to the Austro-Hungarian agents.” - -7. To arrest any incriminated persons. - -8. To reinforce and extend the measures against illicit traffic of arms -and explosives across the frontier, and to punish severely any official -who has failed in his duty. - -9. To deal with any anti-Austrian utterances of Serbian officials. - -10. To keep the Austro-Hungarian Government informed of the carrying -out of these engagements. - -Then follows the offer which confirms the good faith of Serbia, and -which damns the Central Empires before the Judgment of History. - -“If the Imperial and Royal Government are not satisfied with this -reply, the Serbian Government, considering that it is not to the common -interest to precipitate the solution of this question, are ready, as -always to accept a pacific understanding, either by referring this -question to the decision of the International Tribunal of The Hague, -or to the Great Powers which took part in the drawing up of the -declaration made by the Serbian Government on the 18th (31st) of March, -1909.” - -Of the ten points of the Austrian Note eight are conceded under -conditions of unparalleled humiliation. No diplomatic triumph could -be more complete. Serbia yields, well knowing that her immediate -past is a good deal fly-blown and that nobody in Western Europe has -the least intention of dying for her _beaux yeux_. But paragraphs 5 -and 6, demanding the association of Austrian officials in judicial -enquiries to be held within the territory and under the jurisdiction -of the Serbian Government, aim at more than humiliation; they demand -that Serbia shall abdicate her own independent sovereignty. M. Pashich -rejects them, but in a mode that will remain as the final condemnation -before history of the Germanic Powers. - -M. Sazonof went to the root of the matter at once in a conversation -with the Austrian representative in Petrograd. This is the Austrian -version (24th July)-- - -“The participation of Imperial and Royal (Austrian) officials in the -suppression of the revolutionary movements elicited further protest on -the part of the minister. Serbia then will no longer be master in her -own house. You will always be wanting to interfere again, and what a -life you will lead Europe.” - -“_Serbia would no longer be master in her own house._” There was -the key to Austrian ambitions. The independence of Serbia was to be -violated, her territory was to admit foreign officials, and gradually a -small nation was to disappear into the patchwork-quilt possessions of -the _Dual Monarchy_. There you have the sinister House of the Hapsburgs -exposed in the very act of pressing the button, and releasing the -current which has shattered the fabric of Europe. - -Swaddle and disguise it as you will in words, there is the seed of -origin of the European War. There is no plainer transaction in history: -the clock has a crystal face that allow us to see all the works. You -may, if you will, call up a mist of eloquence and people it with -ghosts, the ghosts of wicked things done by English in Ireland and -India, Russians in Finland, French in Morocco, Italians in Tripoli, -Belgians in the Congo, and Serbians all the way back to Kosovo. You may -write at length of the inherent perils of the “European system,” the -expansion of races, the discharge of long accumulating thunder-clouds, -of _Hauptströmungen_, of iron laws of destiny, and all the rest of -the lurid, deterministic farrago of sham omniscience which forms the -stock-in-trade of the German savant. You may point out that there is a -sense in which all previous history is behind even the least important -event in history, and that the Austrian ultimatum did but set a match -to a long-laid train. Much of what you say will be true, and much -will also be horrible. But nothing can alter the fact that this war -originated in the attempt of a great Empire to exploit legitimate -anger against crime in order to destroy the independence of a small -State; that the small State, having accepted every other humiliation, -offered to submit in this to the judgment of either of the recognised -international tribunals, and that the great Empire refused. - -The one theory, the only one, that explains the Austrian attitude, -namely, that the Germanic Powers willed war, explains also the -remainder of the _ante-bellum_ interchanges. From the first no illusion -was possible as to what was at stake. M. Sazonof on behalf of Russia -allowed none to arise. He pointed out with that brevity and frankness -which will be found in this affair to characterise the whole course of -Russian diplomacy that any invasion of the sovereign rights of Serbia -must disturb the equilibrium of the Balkans and with it the equilibrium -of all Europe, and that if it came to war it would be impossible to -localise it. M. Sazonof, indeed, never fails in these transactions to -hit on the right idea, and the right phrase. Serbia, he said to Count -Szapary in words that can scarce miss moving an Irish Nationalist, -would, if the Austrian demands were conceded, “no longer be master in -her own house. ‘You will always be wanting to intervene again, and what -a life you will lead Europe’” (Austrian Red Book, No. 14). He “had -been disagreeably affected by the circumstance that Austria-Hungary -had offered a dossier for investigation when an ultimatum had already -been presented.” What Russia could not accept with indifference was -the eventual intention of the Dual Monarchy “_de dévorer la Serbie_” -(_Ibid._, No. 16). In all her reasonable demands he promised to support -Austria-Hungary. So did France; so did Great Britain. All three of them -counselled, that is to say as things stood, directed, Serbia, if she -desired their countenance, to give every satisfaction consistent with -her sovereign rights. It is precisely on this unallowable violation -that Austria-Hungary insists. As for Germany, there is not one hint -in all the diplomatic documents of any mediation at Vienna in the -direction of a peaceful solution. “The bolt once fired,” said Baron -Schoen at Paris, Germany had nothing to do except support her Ally, and -support her in demands however impossible. - -The will to war of the Germanies thus made manifest explains, and -alone explains the rest of the sorry business. The earnest, constant, -and even passionate efforts of the British and French Governments to -find a formula for the assembling of a conference of the Powers were -rebuffed at every turn. Sir Edward Grey persisted in his conciliatory -course till the last moment. He refused to proclaim the solidarity of -the United Kingdom in any and all circumstances with France and Russia, -although earnestly urged by both to do so. - -He risked the very existence of the Entente by showing himself ready -in the interests of peace to consent to what Russia must have regarded -as an almost intolerable humiliation. So late as the 29th of July he -writes of a conversation with the German Ambassador: “In a short time, -I supposed, the Austrian forces would be in Belgrade and in occupation -of some Serbian territory. But even then it might be possible to bring -some mediation into existence, if Austria, while saying that she must -hold the occupied territory until she had complete satisfaction from -Serbia, stated that she would not advance further, pending an effort -of the Powers to mediate between her and Russia” (Blue Book, No. 88). -At the same time, six days before the Anglo-German breach, he gave the -Ambassador a very definite warning which is in itself sufficient to -repel the charge, since made in some quarters in Ireland and America, -that he designed by his ambiguous attitude to “lure” Germany on and -then “crush” her. That such a charge, whether made honestly or not, is -in formal contradiction with the facts is evident-- - -“The situation was very grave. While it was restricted to the issues at -present actually involved, we had no thought of interfering in it. But -if Germany became involved in it, and then France, the issue might be -so great that it would involve all European interests; and I did not -wish him to be misled by the friendly tone of our conversation--which I -hoped would continue--into thinking that we should stand aside. - -“I hoped that the friendly tone of our conversations would continue as -at present, and that I should be able to keep as closely in touch with -the German Government in working for peace. But if we failed in our -efforts to keep the peace, and if the issue spread so that it involved -practically every European interest, I did not wish to be open to any -reproach from him that the friendly tone of all our conversations had -misled him or his Government into supposing that we should not take -action, and to the reproach that, if they had not been so misled, the -course of things might have been different. - -“The German Ambassador took no exception to what I had said; indeed, he -told me that it accorded with what he had already given in Berlin as -his view of the situation.” - -The appeal from force to law, from killing to reason--that substitution -of the better new way for the bad old way which had for so long been -the goal of democracy in international affairs--was rejected by the -Germanies. Neither to the International Tribunal of the Hague, so -proposed by Serbia, nor to a conference of the Great Powers, but to the -sinister logic of Krupp and Zeppelin did the Central Empires resort for -a settlement. - -All the accumulated hatred of European history were let loose to fill -the world with tumult and rapine. It is true that if you trace these -hatreds back to their sources you will find no immaculate nations. -True also that they were perilous stuff of which the European system -had not purged itself. But the unchallengeable fact remains that -while democracy was seeking a solution in terms of peace, “the old -German God” forced it in terms of war. Nothing can ever displace or -disguise the plain historical record which exhibits as the origin of -our Armageddon the intransigent determination of the great Empire of -Austria-Hungary to violate the sovereign rights of the small nation of -Serbia. - - -III.--THE CRIME AGAINST BELGIUM - -The case of Belgium is marked by the tremendous simplicity which -characterises almost everything in human affairs that can be called -really great. The choice put to her was a choice between right and -wrong, so naked and clear, so stripped of all ambiguities, all -subintents and saving-clauses as to resemble rather a battle between -spiritual principles than a concrete situation in contemporary -politics. And, further, Belgium was and till the end of time remains -the touchstone of German _Kultur_. For generations the masters of -Prussia had been elaborating a coherent doctrine of domination to -be attained through scientific brutality. It is one of the sins of -democracy to have thrust that doctrine out of its thoughts, whenever it -so much as heard of it, as being too bad to be true, for the foul thing -was meant down to its worst word. All the world knows now that although -Prussia is not to be believed when she promises fidelity, she is most -thoroughly to be believed when she threatens murder; it was assigned to -Belgium that in her blood this discovery should be proclaimed, not to -be forgotten while men live. - -Belgium is the test by which every issue in this war stands or -falls. The late Judge Adams used to relate how he once set up for -a horse-stealer a complicated and eloquent defence ranging from -the French Revolution to the Irish Land System. The Judge listened -patiently to the last word of the ringing peroration, and then -observed: “Very good, Mr. Adams, very good! But tell me now: Why did -your client steal the horse?” In the same way you will hear your -Prussian or pro-Prussian rambling on about the Slav menace to German -“culture,” about the secret designs of France, and the robber Empire of -Great Britain. To get to the heart of this question you have only to -say: “Very fine, no doubt. Something in it, perhaps! But tell us now, -why did your German friend break his solemn guarantee, and violate the -frontier of neutral independent Belgium?” That trivial arrow is enough -to bring to earth the Zeppelin of his _Welt-Politik_, with its whole -cargo of metaphysics. - -There was no illusion to cloud the minds of King Albert or his -Government. The King knew his Kaiser; he had already been menaced by -him, and his Chief of Staff von Moltke, in an interview reported by -M. Jules Cambon nine months before the war (French Yellow Book, No. -6). He had had every opportunity afforded him of studying the gospel -according to Krupp. He knew that, when the ultimatum was delivered at -Brussels, the German Army of the Lower Rhine was already massed and -was marching on Liége, and that no help could possibly reach him from -France or England before the 42 cm.’s had ample time to batter his -eastern defences to pieces. He knew also how inadequate were his own -military resources; a scheme of reorganisation that would have enabled -Belgium to put in the field an army of defence of a million men had -indeed been formulated, but was not yet in operation. Every German and -pro-German influence in the country was invoked to induce him to break -his treaty obligations, and stand aside. The Social Democrats publicly -and shamelessly appealed to their Belgian “comrades” to rise superior -to “that bourgeois idea, honour.” But the King and his Government held -fast. - -The position of Belgium was as clear as it was terrible. One sometimes -hears ill-informed people speak as if the neutrality of that country -had been a matter of its own choice, from which it could depart by a -new act of choice. This, of course, was not the case. Neutrality was -imposed on Belgium, as the price and the correlative of guaranteed -independence, by the five Powers whose signatures will be found -appended to the treaties of 1831 and 1839. Situated at the cross-roads -of Europe, Belgium had by the deliberate policy of Europe been -established as a buffer-state, a buffer by land between France and -Germany, and by sea between England and the heart of the Continent. -Her neutrality was not a commodity to bargain with, but a fundamental -condition of her independence; it was her formal duty to preserve -it, or at least attempt to preserve it, by force of arms against any -invasion. Should any of the guarantors assail it the others were -bound to come to its defence. It has been suggested that both France -and Great Britain were very ill-prepared to fulfil this obligation; -German writers have, indeed, tauntingly gloated over the fact, for -it is a fact. The bad faith of Germany was so long evident--her very -army manœuvres having been, in fact, based on the hypothesis of a -rapid invasion of Belgium--that defensive measures were plainly called -for. But two points must be remembered. For one thing, the moral -question remains unaltered. You do not justify a murderer by saying -that the police ought to have been there to prevent him committing -the crime. For another, any new defensive organisation adopted would -certainly have been represented by Germany as a clear proof of intended -aggression, and would in all likelihood have precipitated the outbreak. - -It is necessary to bear all these circumstances in mind in order -to appreciate at its full worth the heroic decision of Belgium. -Deliberately, with the courage not of hot blood but of conscience -and honour, she lost the world in order to gain her own soul. In -the treachery of Germany there was lacking not even one episodical -baseness. Her representatives lied up to the last moment. Two hours -before he presented his ultimatum the German Minister at Brussels -issued a message of reassurance through the columns of _Le Soir_; well -do I remember how avidly the citizens of Brussels not so much bought as -tore out of the hands of the newsboys that issue of the 2nd of August -with Herr von Below Saleske’s message, and the sigh of relief that -followed the reading of it. He employed an image the sinister fitness -of which we did not then suspect. - -“I have not done so, and personally I do not see any reason why I -should have done so, seeing that it was superfluous. The view has -always been accepted by us that the neutrality of Belgium will not be -violated. If the French Minister had made a formal declaration to that -effect it is doubtless because he wished to reinforce obvious fact -by some words of reassurance. _The German troops will not march over -Belgian territory. We are on the eve of grave events. Perhaps you will -see your neighbor’s house on fire, but the flames will spare yours._” - -The vision of burning towns has come to have a sinister fitness. - -We know now that already, on the 31st of July, Germany had declined to -give any undertaking to respect Belgian neutrality because any reply to -the British demand made in that sense “could not but disclose a certain -amount of their plan of campaign in the event of war ensuing.” There -is no more illuminating phrase in the whole body of correspondence. -The violation, it thus plainly appears, was no improvisation under -stress of circumstances; on the contrary, it had long since been -assumed as a postulate by the German General Staff in the drafting of -their war-plan. The declaration of war by a guaranteering Great Power -on a guaranteed small nation is a thing so infrequent, it is such a -salient in the long line of iniquity, that it must once again be quoted -in full. Any guardian in private life who finds himself reluctantly -compelled in the interests of a higher morality to murder his ward, -any trustee obliged by _Notwehr_ to steal the trust-property, may well -enrol it among his forms and precedents. It was delivered at Brussels -at seven o’clock on the evening of the 2nd of August. It is worth -noting that it was drawn up in German, by way of compliment, no doubt, -to the “Teutonic kinship” of Belgium-- - -“(Very confidential.) - -“Reliable information has been received by the German Government to the -effect that French forces intend to march on the line of the Meuse by -Givet and Namur. This information leaves no doubt as to the intention -of France to march through Belgian territory against Germany. - -“The German Government cannot but fear that Belgium, in spite of -the utmost goodwill, will be unable without assistance to repel so -considerable a French invasion with sufficient prospect of success to -afford an adequate guarantee against danger to Germany. It is essential -for the self-defence of Germany that she should anticipate any such -hostile attack. The German Government would, however, feel the deepest -regret if Belgium regarded as an act of hostility against herself the -fact that the measures of Germany’s opponents force Germany, for her -own protection, to enter Belgian territory. - -“In order to exclude any possibility of misunderstanding, the German -Government make the following declaration-- - -“1. Germany has in view no act of hostility against Belgium. In the -event of Belgium being prepared in the coming war to maintain an -attitude of friendly neutrality towards Germany, the German Government -bind themselves, at the conclusion of peace, to guarantee the -possessions and independence of the Belgian Kingdom in full. - -“2. Germany undertakes, under the above-mentioned condition, to -evacuate Belgian territory on the conclusion of peace. - -“3. If Belgium adopts a friendly attitude, Germany is prepared, in -co-operation with the Belgian authorities, to purchase all necessaries -for her troops against a cash payment, and to pay an indemnity for any -damage that may have been caused by German troops. - -“4. Should Belgium oppose the German troops, and in particular should -she throw difficulties in the way of their march by a resistance of -the fortresses on the Meuse, or by destroying railways, roads, tunnels, -or other similar works, Germany will, to her regret, be compelled to -consider Belgium as an enemy. - -“In this event, Germany can undertake no obligations towards Belgium, -but the eventual adjustment of the relations between the two States -must be left to the decision of arms. - -“The German Government, however, entertain the distinct hope that -this eventuality will not occur, and that the Belgian Government will -know how to take the necessary measures to prevent the occurrence of -incidents such as those mentioned. In this case the friendly ties which -bind the two neighbouring States will grow stronger and more enduring.” - -I beg the reader to notice carefully the nature of the “evidence” -against France set forth in the first paragraph. The Belgian Army is -weaker than that of France, _therefore_ France is going to invade -Belgium. Since the time of the grave-digger in _Hamlet_ there was never -such logic as this. All Prussian “culture” is in the document: the -coarse offer of ready cash, the clumsy lie, the empty promise, and the -mailed fist. - -King Albert called his Ministers together, and at seven o’clock the -following morning great “little Belgium” handed this proud reply to the -unmoral Goliath. [I omit the formal first paragraph.]-- - -“This notification has profoundly and painfully astonished the King’s -Government. - -“The intentions which she attributes to France are in contradiction to -the formal declarations made to us under date of the 1st of August in -the name of the Government of the Republic. - -“_Moreover, if, contrary to our expectation, the country’s neutrality -should be violated by France, Belgium would fulfil its international -duties and her army would oppose a most vigorous resistance to the -invader._ - -“The treaties of 1839, confirmed by the treaties of 1870, perpetuate -Belgium’s independence and neutrality under the guarantee of the -Powers, and especially under the guarantee of the Government of His -Majesty the King of Prussia. - -“Belgium has always faithfully observed her international obligations; -she has fulfilled her duties in a spirit of loyal impartiality; she has -neglected no opportunity to maintain her neutrality and to cause it to -be respected by others. - -“The attack upon her independence with which Germany menaces her is a -flagrant violation of the law of Nations. - -“No strategic interest can justify the violation of that right. - -“The Belgian Government, by accepting the propositions mentioned, would -sacrifice its national honour and betray at the same time its duty -towards Europe. - -“Conscious of the rôle which Belgium has played for more than -eighty years in the civilised world, it refuses to believe that its -independence can only be preserved at the price of a violation of its -neutrality. - -“If the Belgian Government be disappointed in its expectations, it is -resolved to repulse by every means in its power any attack upon its -rights.” - -Of these documents we in Brussels were at the time, of course, wholly -ignorant. But on Tuesday, August 4th, we became aware that some -terrible darkness had come upon the sun. There was galloping and the -glitter of swords and lances in the streets; the King was on his way to -take counsel with a specially summoned session of his Parliament. In -a little while the newsboys were crying the papers madly through the -streets; we tore them from their hands, and the smudged print blazed -into our souls that speech with which Albert rose to take his place -among the heroes of European freedom. I make no apology for printing -here every word of it. It is the case of Belgium, the case of the -Allies, and the case of civilisation. - -“Never, since 1830, has a more serious hour struck for Belgium: the -integrity of our territory is threatened! - -“The very strength of our right, the sympathy which Belgium, proud of -her free institutions and of her moral conquests, has uninterruptedly -enjoyed at the hands of other nations, the necessity of her autonomous -existence for the equilibrium of Europe, still make us hope that the -threatening events will not take place. - -“However, if our expectations be deceived, if we are obliged to -resist the invaders of our soil and to defend our menaced homes, this -duty, however hard, will find us armed and prepared for the greatest -sacrifices. - -“Already our gallant youth, in anticipation of every eventuality, is -ready, firmly resolved, with the traditional tenacity and coolness of -the Belgians, to defend the endangered country. - -“In the name of the nation, I fraternally salute the army. Everywhere, -Flemings and Walloons, in the cities and in the country, one sole -sentiment binds our hearts: Patriotism; one sole vision fills our -spirits: our endangered independence; one sole duty imposes itself upon -us: a stubborn resistance. - -“Under these circumstances two virtues are indispensable: a cool -courage, but a strong courage, and a close union of all the Belgian -people. - -“Both of these virtues have already been demonstrated brilliantly under -the eyes of the nation, filled with enthusiasm. - -“The perfect mobilisation of our army, the number of voluntary -enlistments, the devotion of the civil population, the self-denial of -families, have shown, beyond dispute, the consoling bravery which -animates the whole Belgian people. - -“The time for action has come. - -“I have assembled you, Gentlemen, in order to allow the Legislative -Chambers to unite with the people in the same spirit of sacrifice. - -“You will therefore immediately take measures necessary for war as well -as for preservation of public order, under the present circumstances. - -“When I look upon this enthusiastic assembly, an assembly in which -there is but one party, the side of the Fatherland, where every heart -beats in unison, my mind goes back to the Congress of 1830, and I -ask you, Gentlemen, are you firmly resolved to maintain the sacred -patrimony of your forefathers? - -“None in this country but will do his duty. - -“The army, strong and disciplined as it is, is equal to its task. My -Government and myself have the utmost confidence in its leaders and its -soldiers. - -“Closely allied with the population, and supported by it, the -Government is conscious of its responsibilities and will assume them to -the very end with the deliberate conviction that the efforts of each -and every one, if united in a spirit of most fervent patriotism, will -safeguard the supreme welfare of the country. - -“If the foreigner, trampling upon our neutrality, the duties of which -we have always scrupulously observed, violates, the territory, he -will find every Belgian around his Sovereign, who will never betray -his Constitutional Oath, and around the Government invested with the -supreme confidence of the entire nation. - -“I have faith in our destiny: a country which defends itself cannot but -gain the respect of everyone: that country cannot perish. - -“German troops have occupied Luxemburg, and are perhaps even now -trampling upon Belgian soil. This act is contrary to the law of -Nations.” - -The rumour ran through Brussels from end to end as with the swift -vibrations that at such times shake the sensitive organism of all -Latin cities. Nobody who was there will ever forget the torrential and -swirling crowds before the Gare du Nord, the fierce cheers and the -foreboding silence. The peace of eighty years was broken. Honour and -the law of Europe had summoned Belgium into the red ways of war; she -went singing and unafraid, but the vision of blood was not hidden from -her or from us. As we stood on the café tables roaring “La Brabançonne” -we knew that there was a midnight to traverse before the dawn. But we -did not know that the upbuilding of three generations of human labour -was to be broken by three months of scientific brutality. We did not -know that Belgium was passing into her Gethsemane. - -On the same day von Emmich had marched his columns across the Rubicon -that divides honour from infamy. On the same day some hours later Sir -Edward Grey had drawn the sword, and flung away the scabbard. - - - - -UNDER THE HEEL OF THE HUN - - -I.--A WORLD ADRIFT - - _Brussels, August 5, 1914._ - -All Europe is a study in strain. The unexpected swing of events has -brought Belgium--Belgium which for eighty years has lived only for a -neutral independence--to the centre of the arena. The Waterloo of 1914, -as that of 1815, may very well be fought on Belgian soil. - -It is impossible to exaggerate the sincere amazement of the man in the -street, the man in the café. “We have gorged the Albuches with money. -They have blacklegged us in business. We are stuffed with them--bah! -our national life is choked with these German sausages. And now! -Traitors, cowards, violators of honour and the free Belgian frontier!” - -The anti-German feeling is heating rapidly to a frenzy. No more -demi-Munichs in the restaurants. Even if the beer be of German -nativity, which is sometimes a little in doubt, it must be sold as -Belgian. The more discreet patrons had already painted out, or draped -in patriotic bunting, all advertisements for German products. But the -ruse was not general nor always successful. The window-breakers had -already appeared, waving the tricolour, chanting “La Brabançonne.” -Every street, and, indeed, every buttonhole, has blossomed as suddenly -as the staff of Tannhäuser. Cockades, rosettes, bows, the tricolours -of France and Belgium, the red, white and blue of England, flower -inexplicably into being. At ten centimes a time we manifest our -sympathies, and make dazzling fortunes for the street-sellers. - -At the house of a public official one finds a sort of synopsis of -the general desolation. The family has just scrambled back from -Switzerland. The eldest son, a captain of engineers, had already left -for the front, ordered to action too urgently to wait even for a last -handshake, a last kiss. His children cannot go out to breathe the air -because the governess is German, and therefore liable to patriotic -assault. The household is keyed up to any disaster. - -At the Post Office there is a tumult that soon settles down into a -patient queue outside the savings bank and money-order offices. The -cashiers pay out the new five-franc notes; fresh and crisp, obviously -and attractively new, they are fingered with distrustful fingers. Then -the fingers grow suddenly ashamed of their distrust in the star of -Belgium, stuff their notes into their wallets, and step briskly out to -the music of the drums that beat in all hearts. - -The English declaration of war has evoked extraordinary enthusiasm, -and at the same time brought so near the sombre and terrible crisis as -to still the expression of that enthusiasm. It was no light-hearted -crowd that stood to watch the Red Cross go to the front this morning. -They streamed by in commandeered or volunteered motor-cars. Soldiers, -unshaven and unslept, lounged with their boots upon cushions that a few -days ago ministered to the very dainty masters of luxury. Limousines, -taxis, trade-cars all went by laden with stretchers and medicine-cases. -Everywhere the smell of rubber and antiseptics. And everywhere the -desolating thought that before midnight these snowy bandages will be -bloodied, and these stretchers laden with human debris. À la guerre -comme à la guerre! - -Everywhere girls are hurrying through the streets with tin -collecting-boxes. We subscribe to the Red Cross, to funds to support -those about to become widows of the sword, to buy milk for the infants. -Many of the great hotels have already been offered as hospitals. The -gleaming symbol of Geneva--that inexplicable lapse of the soldiers -of Europe into plain Christian mercy--is already displayed on them. -Shops, big and small, are being prepared to serve as depots for the -distribution of food in case of need. - -It is impossible not to be with Belgium in the struggle. It is -impossible any longer to be passive. Germany has thrown down -a well-considered challenge to all the deepest forces of our -civilisation. War is hell, but it is only a hell of suffering, not a -hell of dishonour. And through it, over its flaming coals, Justice must -walk, were it on bare feet. - - -II.--“EUROPE AGAINST THE BARBARIANS” - - _Brussels, August 8._ - -We may well doubt whether any imagination is large enough to contain -the issues of the war. It overwhelms us and freezes our blood fast -like a vision of terror from the Apocalypse. What is, perhaps, most -terrible of all is the complete and necessary banishment of peace from -the scene of Europe. Hereafter there may be a time for such a word, but -not now. The arbitration movement to which we had committed so many -hopes has gone up in flames like a cardboard Elysium. Europe, we said, -was a monstrous contradiction in terms--an armed peace. There is no -contradiction now, it is a manual of pure logic after Krupp. The Norman -Angell evangel to the money-masters has failed; there is even something -noble in the sudden appeal of the financiers of every country to a -higher plane of values. You may suspend your International Bureau of -Labour which used to function at Brussels. Jaurès is dead; Vandervelde, -cherishing _la patrie_ beyond everything else, has joined the Ministry; -in Germany, as in France, Belgium, and Great Britain, the comrades are -with the colours. When next the committee-room of the Maison du Peuple -receives the European chiefs of labour what a change will be there! - -As for Serbia, it seems probable that nobody will have time to go to -war with her. Her function has been that of the electric button which -discharges the great gun of a fortress. And now that the lightnings -have been released, what is the stake for which we are playing? It is -as simple as it is colossal. It is Europe against the barbarians. The -authentic Teuton touch betrayed itself in the gross proposition of -bribes, followed by the instant violation of the Belgian frontier. The -“big blonde brute” stepped from the pages of Nietzsche out on to the -plains about Liége. Brought suddenly to think of it, one realises the -corruption of moral standards for which Germany has in our time been -responsible. Since Schopenhauer died nothing has come from her in the -region of philosophy except that gospel of domination. - -And now we suddenly understand that the Immoralists meant what they -said. We were reading, not as we thought a string of drawing-room -paradoxes, but the advance proof-sheets of a veritable Bullies’ Bible. -The General Bernhardis who have been teaching Germany to desire war, -to provoke it, to regard it as a creative and not a destructive act, -to accept it as merely the inevitable prologue to German domination, -have proved to be not only brutal, but formidable. Since Belgium, and -its protecting treaty, barred the way, both simply had to go. “Nothing -is true, everything is permitted to the strong.” Afterwards it will be -the turn of the others. And at the end of the process a monster, gorged -with blood and with the torn limbs of civilisation, is to lie sprawled -over all Central Europe, while some new metaphysician from Berlin booms -heavily into his self-intoxicated brain some new fable of preordination. - -I do not wish in any way to exaggerate. France has her corruptions. -But the whole set of her thought, even when it abjured Christian -“illusions,” was towards solidarity, towards reasonableness, and -co-operation. Russia has her vile tyrannies. But from all Russian -literature there comes an immense and desolating sob of humility and -self-reproach. Great Britain has not yet liquidated her account with -Ireland, nor altogether purified her relations with India and Egypt. -But Great Britain does not, at any rate, throw aside all plain, -pedestrian Christian standards as rubbish. In the Rhineland, too, and -in the south there are millions of hearty men and women who are not -yet Prussified, and who still think it possible that there may exist a -Being greater in some respects than the Imperial Kaiser. But all the -central thought of Germany has been for a generation corrupt. It has -been foul with the odour of desired shambles. - -The issue, then, is Europe against the barbarians. It is not easy, -perhaps, for anyone living at home in our islands to develop fully -What may be called the European sense. You acquire it as you get your -sea legs, quickly, but not without actual experience. There underlies -the whole Continent a minutely reticulated system of nerves which -convey, and multiply, every shock of feeling from one end of it to the -other. Here in Brussels we are, for the time at least, at the central -_sensorium_. The élan of Belgium takes possession of you. The courage -and anguish of this glorious little nation, fighting now for its very -life, stir one to something like the clear mood of its own heroism. In -every direction there opens a vista of waste and suffering. Already the -long trail of wounded has begun to wind its sorrowful way back to the -capital. Prisoners arrive, too simple of aspect, one would think, to -be the instruments by which Europe is to be tortured to the pattern of -a new devilry. You say to yourself, as you hear all the world saying: -C’est incroyable! It is not to be believed. It is a nightmare! And then -the conviction shapes itself clearly, settles upon and masters your -mind, that this German assault on civilisation has got to be repelled -and utterly shattered once and for all. - -Had Belgium consented to a free passage across her territory so that -the French forts might be evaded, the problem was simply to profit by -the slow mobilisation of France, and to strike straight and hard at -Paris. On her refusal the problem was to hamstring Belgium. Liége was -to be carried by a _coup de main_, and the advance pushed right on to -Antwerp. This would have cut the country in two, made anything like an -effective Belgian mobilisation impossible, detached outlying places -from their supply depots, and left Belgium helpless under the heel -of a comparatively small section of the German forces. Both gambits -have been countered. There has been no free passage and no surprise -victory. The Belgian mobilisation has not been even hampered. The -whole German plan was founded on a swift and invincible dash; in the -actual event both characteristics are lacking. General Leman and Liége -have given the Allies day on invaluable day to come up. The prestige -which since 1871 has enveloped the Prussians and their war methods has -disappeared at a blow. “Ah!”, says the Belgian pioupiou to you, “those -great Prussian teeth that chewed up France in the ’70, they have bitten -themselves to fragments against the forts of Liége. Nous sommes un peu -là! Eh?” - -The great outstanding pinnacle of a fact is, perhaps, the definitive -entrance of England into the comity of Europe. Regret it or not, there -can be no more isolation. And the other fact, noted here also as of -main importance, is the attitude of Ireland. Mr. Redmond’s proffer of -friendship, in return for justice, had been made often before, but -never in such dramatic circumstances. I am appalled to hear rumours -to the effect that Sir Edward Carson proposes at this moment to force -Mr. Bonar Law to bedevil the whole situation by a political trick. -He actually proposes, one hears, that a course should be followed -depriving Ireland of the Home Rule Bill, which is coming to her -automatically by the mere efflux of a few weeks. Can such madness still -be possible? Is there any imagination left in England? - -Here, at the opening of this vast and bloody epic, Great Britain -is right with the conscience of Europe. It is assumed that she has -reconciled Ireland. A reconciled Ireland is ready to march side by -side with her to any desperate trial. And suddenly the lawyer, with -the Dublin accent, who had been the chief architect of destruction in -the whole Empire, and who was thought to have come to reason, proposes -for Ireland what I can only call a Prussian programme. England goes -to fight for liberty in Europe and for Junkerdom in Ireland. It is -incredible. Were it to come true it would become utterly impossible to -act on Mr. Redmond’s speech. Another dream would have gone down into -the abyss. Ireland, wounded anew, would turn sullenly away from you. Is -that what a sound Tory ought to desire? Will Tory England, enlightened -at last as to the real attitude of Ireland, allow such a fatal crime to -be committed? - - -III.--TERMONDE - -The fate of Termonde is already known. But I do not apologise for -adding to the literature of its devastation an account of a visit -which I paid to-day. Imagination lacks the stringency of the scandal -actually seen, and we have got, by repeated strokes, to hammer into the -imagination of the world the things that Prussia has done in Belgium. - -I went from Ghent to Zele by train this morning, and from Zele to -Termonde by carriage. They call Ghent the flower-town, and not without -some reason. It lies in that part of Flanders in which cultivation -is at its most intensive. That is to say, it is the centre of one -of the greatest agricultural areas in the world. Near Ghent it was -nursery-gardens all the way, a checker-board of colour. The geraniums, -we thought, will never again look like fire; they will look like blood. -Further into the country fewer flowers and more crops and cattle. -Not a square millimetre wasted. All the familiar Flemish picture; -the windmill that looks like two combs crossed, and revolving on a -pepper-box; the old churches, the old castles, reminiscent of the -Spanish persecution; the strong peasant-faces--like those of my own -“Ulster,” but Catholic--lined with labour; the wayside statues; the -villages, with little beauty save that of fruitful effort. - -It is a flat country all the way to Termonde, and especially as one -nears the Scheldt. It is well timbered. I noticed again a contrast I -have often noticed before. In England the trees look like gentlemen of -leisure. If they do any good it is by a sort of graceful accident. In -Belgium they look like soldiers. They stand there in planned ranks, -repelling the infantry of the winds, drawing the artillery of the rain, -sheltering, protecting. Add to them the waving patches of hemp, the -corn-stacks, the rich herbage, and you get a closely-tufted and almost -impenetrable country. It is striped everywhere also with little canals -and ditches, so that any sort of military movement, except over the -cobbled roads, must be almost impossible. If one remembers that the -environs of the towns are almost the only places open enough for a -conflict between any substantial forces, a good many events become more -intelligible. - - -WHAT TERMONDE WAS - -But, for the moment, I am concerned with the impression of remoteness -and quiet labour which such a country gives. The peasants yield to it. -At Zele, at Lokeren, they feel the war as some great demon that has -mysteriously passed them by. And then, eight kilometres away, you turn -the bend of a country road at the Bridge of Termonde and drive, let us -say, from something that looks very like Kent into something that looks -very like Hell. - -Termonde was---- Let me recall what it was. It was a not unprosperous -town of some eleven or twelve thousand people. Though not destitute of -commerce and industries, it lived mainly on law (for it was an assize -town), on education, and on the army. The two handsomest residences -that I saw--one in puce-coloured brick at the approach to the bridge, -the other more grandiose in stone and inexplicably saved in the -principal street--belonged one to a judge, the other to an avocat. -Termonde, like many other places in the Low Countries, had already been -lifted into history by war. It repelled Louis XIV with its dykes, but -Marlborough took it dry. Such was Termonde. - -To-day it is a tumbled avalanche of brick, stone, twisted iron and -shattered glass, over which the remaining public buildings rise like -cliffs over a flood. I walked every foot of every street. Of the Rue -de l’Eglise, the chief street, the Porte de Boom and Church of Notre -Dame at one end, and the Hôtel de Ville, Palais de Justice, and Museum -at the other are untouched. So is the avocat’s house, of which I have -spoken, chalked over with that piteous legend to which one has become -so accustomed. Friends here! Please spare! (in German and German -characters). The rest of the street is as if the breath of Armageddon -had withered it. The post office, the chapel and convent of the Poor -Clares, the hospital, the orphanage have all disappeared. - -There is no need to multiply descriptive details. It is always the same -capricious devastation, the same arabesques of ruin, with which flame -searches its mad way through architecture. About one-half of the Grand’ -Place has been saved owing to the fact that the Germans were gathered -there, drinking champagne, when fire was being sown through the town. - -The Marché au Bétail, a pretty little boulevard, has also disappeared. -The great College, at its corner, like the other schools, is gone. -Each of its façades resembles nothing so much as an X-ray photograph. -Through the charred ribs of what was a house the green-red-and-white of -a flower-garden flashes the eternal tricolour of nature. - - -CULTURE AND THE SICK - -In the Marché au Lin the Church of the Récolletes and the National Bank -lie disembowelled. It was here that the Germans laid on the pavements -the sick and wounded while they burned the beds from which they had -dragged them and the roof that had sheltered them. - -A few small factory buildings on the left bank of the river and the -poorest section of the workmen’s quarter remain. The rest of Termonde -is a mere heap of bricks. It was; it no longer is. Walking out towards -the southern side of the town I came suddenly--everything here happens -suddenly--upon a note of desolation, not the most desolate, but the -most crying of all. Through a chasm in a shattered façade I saw the -white walls of little houses, the white coifs of nuns, and the waving -green of trees. It was the Béguinage. Anyone who knows Flanders -knows these remote pools of silence, these quiet backwaters where no -oar breaks the surface, where the old and spent await death as one -courteously awaits an honoured visitor. I stepped in and found myself -in an irregular triangle of almshouses. At first nothing seemed to have -been touched. But in the centre there was a church, fringed with dwarf -cypress. Walking over, I found that it was, like Termonde, a skeleton. -The Germans, a nun told me, had on the entreaty of two Dutch ladies, -members of the community, consented to spare the cottages. But they -insisted on making a bonfire of the “cottage of the Bon Dieu!” - -Nothing was lacking in this abomination of desolation. I determined -to have some photographs made. Yes! our guide--a big country farmer, -who had out of pure courtesy accompanied us from Zele--knew of a -photographer who would doubtless be able to do our business. We went -to look for him. His street had disappeared, his house with it. We -walked back to the _estaminet_ to ask where he might be found. - -“But, monsieur! he was one of the first to be shot by the Germans!” -Later, on one of the quays we saw a white wooden cross, with lime -stamped down about its base. Bystanders told us that it marked the -grave of two Belgian civilians. “Ah!” said our farmer, “it is perhaps -there!” - - -ORGANISED INFAMY - -Now as to the procedure of the Germans. The facts admit of no doubt. I -set aside forthwith any damage caused to Termonde by the bombardment. -The bridge was dynamited, a number of houses on the outskirts were -shattered by shells. Nobody is childish enough to complain about that. -War is war, and, technically, Termonde is a fortified town--though -the old fortifications have been dismantled. But the burning was -deliberate, scientific, selective, devoid of military purpose. - -The German commander demanded a levy of two million francs. The money -was not there in the public treasury, and the Burgomaster was not there -to save his town as Braun saved Ghent. General Sommerfeld--that is the -name that now wears such a nimbus of infamy--had a chair brought from -an inn into the centre of the Grand Place. He sat down on it, crossed -his legs, and said: “It is our duty to burn the town!” - -The inhabitants were allowed two hours to clear out. Then the soldiers -went to work. Their apparatus is in the best tradition of German -science--patented, for all I know, from Charlottenburg. It consists -of a small portable pressure-caisson filled with benzine and fitted -with a spray. Other witnesses said that there was also a great caisson -on wheels. With this they sprinkled the doors, the ground storeys of -the houses--as doorposts were once fatally sprinkled with blood in -Egypt--and set fire to the buildings. - -Others used a sort of phosphorus-paste with which they smeared -the object to be destroyed. They completed the work by flinging -hand-grenades and prepared fuses into the infant flames. - -The selective power of this apparatus was remarkable. Remembering -Louvain, and how the burning of the University had destroyed German -prestige for a century, General Sommerfeld had evidently given -directions that public monumental buildings were to be spared. Thus the -Museum and the Hôtel de Ville both stand; but right between them his -petroleurs picked out and destroyed a hotel as neatly as you pick a -winkle out of a shell. Similarly they cut the avocat’s house, of which -I have spoken, out of their sea of destruction. - -General Sommerfeld’s soldiery stole, pillaged, and drank everything -on which they could lay hands. Witnesses on this point are many, and -unshakable. Their moderation must impress anybody who talks to them. A -citizen of Termonde who had himself been held as a hostage said to me, -standing amid the ruins of his town-- - -“Monsieur! there is human nature also among the Germans. I saw many -officers in tears. A lieutenant came and shook me by the hand, crying: -‘It is not our fault! It is a shame!’” - - -“HE MUST BE HANGED” - -Do not think that the evil, written here in the debris of Belgium, will -be cancelled and blotted out by subscriptions and indemnities. It calls -also for that holy vengeance without which all public law is a nullity. -Sommerfeld has got to be hanged. When are the Allies going to issue a -proclamation placing definitely outside the privilege of military law -Sommerfeld and his kind? - -The more one sees of Belgium the more deeply her magnificent courage -pierces into the soul. I saw women weeping amid the ruins of Termonde. -But I also saw builders’ men stolidly smoking their pipes as they -shovelled out the bricks and rubble to make room for new foundations. - -I talked with the pioupious. They had torn up half the pavement on the -southern road and stretched barbed wire and brambles over the loose -stones... to encourage the Uhlans. As you approached from without you -saw the wicked eyes of the street trenches, and the grass-grown mounds -of the old fortifications, winking down at you. The town was held by an -outpost of three or four companies. - -“Sir! American Sir!” said one of the pioupious, in the sort of English -which an Antwerp Fleming who has spent two years among Scotchmen in the -United States may be expected to speak. “Fourth Infantry of the Line -at your service! We have two things only which we greatly much desire: -Cigarettes and Revenge!” - - -IRISH HORSES - -On the other side of the town a battery of artillery, magnificently -horsed, was waiting under the trees for any alarm. Most of the horses -were Irish. I felt a little _nostalgia_ as I rubbed the sensitive nose -of a roan mare. I wished that I had with me a poet or two of the Celtic -renaissance to make a poem telling her how she had begun at the fair -of Ballina, or Moy, or perhaps Ballsbridge itself, and how she would -wander the white roads of Europe--not white now, but red--and die at -last over there on the banks of the Rhine near pleasant Coblenz, or -many-pinnacled Cologne. There being no poet about, I could but scratch -the butt of her ears and give her some chocolate. - -Two hours in the tram, five on the carriage-trip, three and a half to -accomplish the hour’s train journey from Lokeren to Antwerp. I am now -writing this impression of Termonde in this besieged city (in which -no light is permitted after eight) by the light of two most excellent -candles. - - -IV.--MALINES - -The prompt, creative courage of these Belgians is admirable. No sooner -have the soldiers “cleaned” an invaded district than the engineers -hurry along to rebuild bridges, repair railways, to open again the -encumbered channels of intercourse. It was therefore without surprise -that I found trains running again from Antwerp to Malines, crowded but -comfortable, and sharp almost to the minute. Their resuscitating effect -on the town, however, was not very great. It looked too much like -pumping blood into a corpse. - -The journey is right across one of the most important sectors of -the Antwerp defences. The countryside shows the aspect of a sort of -terrible security. It has been stripped not only to the skin, but -to the skeleton. Woods, houses, where necessary, crops, have been -sacrificed to the impregnability of the war capital. The typical -prepared position shows a criss-cross entanglement of barbed wire, -a long stretch of level ground, now entirely naked, more wire or -_chevaux-de-frise_ of pointed stakes, raised trenches, defended in -front by artificial ditches, and glaring grimly down on the whole -scene of the forts of Brialmont, with death lying couched in its guns. - -Of Malines little of the material fabric of the town has suffered, -with the exception of the cathedral. Through about twenty other houses -shells had torn gashes as erratic as those which apparently a bullet -tears through living tissue. But most of the streets remain unchanged. -This statement is not, perhaps, as reassuring as it sounds. It is as -if you were to say, in speaking of an attack on Oxford, that only -the colleges had suffered. Malines is not only a cathedral city; -the cathedral, situated geographically at its heart, dominates its -whole economy. It is the spiritual centre of Belgium. The Cardinal -Archbishop’s palace, unpretentious between its thick trees and its -quiet canal, is in some sense the moral capital of this valorous people. - -Like Louvain, Malines got its bread largely by education. Its -manufacturing industries, so to say, radiated from the cathedral. -It printed missals and breviaries. It made lace for ecclesiastical -vestments, and then other lace. It cut and carved heavy oak into -furniture for churches, and then it made other furniture. Every shell -launched against the cathedral was therefore launched against the very -being and essence of Malines city. - -I am not ashamed to confess that when I, an Irish Catholic, walked -into the Grand’ Place and saw the stamp of Berlin imprinted on those -good grey walls I did not think at once of material injury, or money, -or subscriptions. What came was anger against the desecration of a -holy place. My mind said to me, “This is how Nietzsche has, from his -grave, spat, as he wished to spit, upon Nazareth.” A picture came of -that sinister Quixote, who made cruelty his sacrament, and who was -yet so humanly dear in some of his moods, standing behind a great -Krupp howitzer and shouting, “Charlottenburg _contra_ Christ. I back -Charlottenburg!” - -One notices in some of the English papers protests against the too -ready acceptance of unanalysed and unconfirmed “atrocities.” So liable -is panic to mix myth with fact that I have pleaded more than once for -the constitution of an International Commission to examine all the -evidence. But in the meantime we find it difficult to divest ourselves -of the faculty of inference. If you come, during time of war, upon a -civilian, hanging by the neck, with his hands tied behind his back, -and a fire burning under him, the theory of suicide or accident does -not seem to embrace the full scope of the fact. A similar process of -reasoning forces you to the conclusion that the Germans would not have -hit Malines Cathedral so often if they had not aimed at it. The other -buildings struck by shells are either on the line of fire to the Grand’ -Place or in its immediate neighbourhood. - -The city was three times bombarded. Unlike Termonde, it is open and -without the least trace of fortification. None of the bombardments -achieved any military object. No attempt was made to capture, fire, -shell, or in any way diminish in efficiency the State railway works. -I fear that the case looks complete. The Germans deliberately broke -through the laws of civilised war, and, just as deliberately, broke -through the walls of the cathedral. - -To describe in detail, and to put an estimate on the damage done, -is a task for experts with ample time at their command. The Belgian -Commission were to open a formal enquiry on the day following my -visit, and kindly invited me to accompany them, but it was impossible. -The following invoice of Hunnery is, therefore, only provisional. -There is not a whole pane of glass left in the cathedral. The middle -lateral window on the assailed flank of the edifice was itself struck; -the others were shattered by the detonation. The stained glass is, -I believe, modern, but as you saw it lying heaped on the pavement, -like the shards of a rainbow, it looked beautiful enough to have been -spared. A great gulf has been torn through the groined roof near its -junction with the tower. The tower itself is blotched here and there -a pallid white by the exploding shells. The great clock, the largest -in Belgium, had been also struck, and its hands flapped in the wind -like torn ribbons. The famous carillon, or peal of bells, does not, -however, seem to have been injured. - -In the left aisle the charred remnant of a canvas still hung in its -frame, but what the picture was no one could tell me. The pavement -itself was torn up here and there like ground uprooted by swine. The -equestrian monument near the southerly entrance has, as to the horse, -suffered decapitation, and the figure has lost an arm. Fragments -chipped off mouldings and capitals lie about in desolate heaps. And to -complete the desolation, all the precious objects have been removed -from the cathedral as from the other churches and public buildings. The -ciboria, the chalices, the candlesticks, the rich orphreyed vestments -have been removed to Antwerp. - -Thither have gone Van Dyck’s “Crucifixion,” and Rubens’s “Miraculous -Draught of Fishes.” In its own way the most bizarre inhibition imposed -by the war is that which prevents you from seeing a Rubens in Antwerp. -They are all hidden away from the cultured burglars of Berlin. The -“carnal ideal,” which Verhaeren discovers behind the great strokes -of his spiritual ancestor would, it is feared, prove irresistible to -Attila. - -On the day of my visit Cardinal Mercier had returned. I had last met -him at Louvain--not in the flesh, but in his books. This master of -psychology is one of those who have dared to think that the Latin -definiteness of Thomas of Aquin is closer to the sound soul of Europe -than the fog of Koenigsberg, or the cloudy intoxication of Hegel. The -scholar, called to rule, has also been called to suffer. He was passing -through the Grand’ Place as a long procession of women stood formed -up outside the door of the municipal offices waiting wretchedly for -bread. There was a stir, cheering, excitement which he repressed with a -gesture. To those who approached him he said: “Your cheers are due to -the army and the King, not to me. I am a Belgian citizen, no more.” - -The ruin of the civil population does not, as in Termonde, brand itself -on your eyes, but it is, of course, none the less real. The city is a -mere cemetery of shutters. The bombardments came after Louvain had been -taught its lesson, and the Malinois did not stop to write notes on the -text of that lesson. They fled _en masse_. One sees them in the rain -and wind-swept bathing machines at Ostend. You hear them at Folkestone -and in London. I saw still another packed trainload leaving Malines -for Heyst-sur-Mer, from which many will disperse over the littoral -generally, and others will filter into England. In Malines itself a few -cafés, a few bakeries, and other shops of prime necessity are open. -Everything else is as in a city of plague. - -Consider what that means. It means, very bluntly, the triumph of German -terrorism. If the Hague Convention is worth anything, and is not -merely another “scrap of paper,” the lace-makers and the chair-makers -of Malines should, under its protection, be now at work, and not in -forced idleness and exile. - -Readers must be weary of hearing the Prussian method characterised -as one of scientific blackguardism. But that is what it is. There is -nothing incoherent, tumultuous, or spasmodic about it; it goes on a -well-formulated principle. And it has succeeded. By producing a panic -among the civil population it has created the problem of the refugees. -It inflicts day by day on Belgium an economic loss, the size of which -cannot even be guessed at. Can nothing be done to check its operation? -Can nothing be done to guarantee Malines against the fate of Termonde? -The Belgian Commission in its last report stated the case with such -concentrated force that no apology is needed for recalling their words-- - -“The true motives behind the atrocities, of which we have collected -such heart-breaking evidence, can only be, on the one hand, the desire -to terrorise and demoralise the civil population, conformably to the -inhuman theories of German military writers, and, on the other hand, -the desire to pillage. A shot fired, no one knows where, or by whom, or -at whom, by a drunken soldier, or an excitable official, serves as a -pretext for the sacking of a whole city. Individual looting is followed -by the levying of war contributions so large as to be unpayable, and -by the taking away of hostages to be shot or held prisoners till the -payment of the full ransom, after the approved and classical method of -brigandage. It must also be remembered that all resistance opposed by -the regular army is, according to the needs of the situation, ascribed -to the inhabitants, and that the invader invariably avenges on the -civil population the checks which he suffers during the campaign, and -even his own mistakes. - -“In the course of this enquiry we cite only facts supported by -conclusive evidence. It is further to be observed that so far we -have been able to signalise only a small part of a mass of crimes -against law, humanity, and civilisation which will fill one of the -most sinister and revolting pages in contemporary history. If an -international enquiry, such as that made in the Balkans by the Carnegie -Commission, could be made in Belgium, we are convinced that it would -establish the truth of our assertions.” - -Why can it not be made? There are two public opinions in the United -Kingdom--one sensational and weak, the other slow and strong. The -first demands, so to say, a photograph of every limb of every corpse, -and then “registers a protest.” The second demands iron for iron and -blood for blood. It is of the second that we have need. Accumulate and -examine your evidence by all means, but then act. A nation, with sword -in hand, is not a public meeting; its function is not to protest, but -to punish. A joint declaration by the Allies that every commanding -officer, up to the Kaiser himself, guilty of an infraction of the laws -of war, will be brought to trial and retribution, either immediately on -capture, or after the victory, would, I am convinced, effectively stop -the present plan of terrorism. - -And what about America? Does her moral prestige not impose upon her a -clear duty of initiative in this matter of an International Enquiry? -Can she ultimately afford to keep such familiar company with the cloudy -murderers of Berlin? These questions are hot for an answer. - - * * * * * - -The guns were hammering away all day over towards Termonde, and before -I got back to Antwerp I had walked into a warm skirmish of patrols. -They are at present the settled order of the day. Both sides keep -nibbling away, but neither is in a position at present to risk a real -mouthful. - - -V.--IN OSTEND - - _Sept. 24, Ostend._ - -From the military point of view Belgium is a backwater. It has no tide -of its own. All its future movement depends on the ebb and flow of the -immense struggle in France. The advance posts, or wandering patrols--if -I may change the image--snarl and snap at one another continually. -Every day, almost, from here to Antwerp, a German “Taube”--surely the -most ill-omened dove that ever invaded the skies--hums over us. But -Belgium has not yet got its cue. - -The Belgian army would risk too much in a swoop on Brussels. The -Germans, on the other hand, while less depleted than might have been -anticipated, and strong enough to hold their own, are not strong enough -to take the offensive with effect. We hear every day two scare stories. -One is that Brussels has been evacuated; the other that von Goltz is -pounding the forts at Antwerp. The mere mathematics of war rules out -both; one for the present, the other, we hope and believe, for all time. - -The weather has cleared. The equinox would seem to have spent its -showers, and the bloody and desperate pause on the Aisne should soon -be resolved to our advantage. The moment that happens the “pistol of -Antwerp” will go off. But the revenge is not yet. - -It ought to be remembered that Belgium is one of the allied countries -which had to sacrifice, and did sacrifice without a murmur, her -richly beautiful capital, to the large strategical game which General -Joffre has played with such brilliant success. She has since rejected -temptations to peace offered under flag of truce at Antwerp by the -Germans. With a noble faith and restraint she has put herself last, and -the law of Europe first. - -Meantime the Germans are reported to spend most of their time digging -trenches north of Brussels. A very interesting traveller, who has -just got back from the capital, tells us that the invaders call the -Belgians “the little black rats,” because of the effectiveness with -which our pioupious pop up, pick off their men, and pop down again into -invulnerability. - -At Brussels French newspapers find their subterranean way through the -whole population. The Hunnish attempt to kill knowledge of facts as -they are born has been a gross failure. According to this witness, -the whole temper of the population has changed. They have “learned -the great language, caught the clear accent” of that magnificent -Burgomaster of theirs, with the explosive name, M. Max. They no longer -allow themselves to be bullied. - -President Wilson once wrote that in order to be moral you must -cultivate the feeling that somebody is always looking on. In Brussels -the American Minister, Mr. Brand Whitlock, is looking on. As lawyer, -politician, and novelist, he possesses a triple intensity of vision. -There will be no Termondes while that eye is levelled. - -One is glad to say that, amid the general softness and protestations, -King Albert’s Government is standing for the salutary, strong law. At -Sempst, near Malines, yesterday a German trooper was captured in a -farmyard, in which he had just killed two children. He was taken to -Waelhem, the facts were briefly established, and, without further ado, -he was shot. - -I notice that the Right Hon. G. W. E. Russell asks in _The Daily News_ -if we have the right to kill. Have we the right to spare? One thing we -cannot escape from: the duty to punish. Nobody talks of revenge, or -vindictiveness, or cruelty. But since we are fighting for justice, and -since the gospel of murder--murder of the body and of the spirit--has -been loosed against Europe, we have no choice. - -We cannot restore Louvain, but we can give back to Belgium the glory -of her own Rubens now exiled in the great gallery of Munich. We cannot -call back Rheims out of its smoke of dissolution, but we can put -Cologne again under the care of civilised France. We must not spoil or -ravage one monument of humane effort, religious or secular, in Germany. -But the Denkmal at Bingen has got to go, and the Column of Insolence at -Berlin has got to go. Mr. Lowes Dickinson has said that Germany must -not be humiliated. Not Germany, but Prussia must be humiliated. Berlin -militarism must pass under the Caudine Forks, and the forks must be set -so low as to sweep the spike of the helmet as it passes. - -I saw a mad Belgian soldier taken away from the Ostend Infirmary a few -days ago. Of course, I don’t know, of my own personal observation, -why he went mad. But one of the attendants told me that the soldier -told him that he had remained the only survivor of a Belgian patrol -which had repelled the attack of a much heavier German advance post. -Reinforcements arrived; all his comrades were killed, and he was taken -prisoner. His captors roped him up against a tree, in the posture of -crucifixion, but without lifting his feet from the ground. - -A firing party was ordered to take its stand at the usual twelve paces. -Time after time their rifles went up to the “present!” Sometimes a -volley was at that moment fired behind him. At last he was cut down; -somehow or other he scrambled within reach of the Red Cross. They were -very kind to him in Ostend, but he kept on babbling about crucifixions -and a crucifixion near Jerusalem. - -The story is wholly “unverified,” but the man himself so far believed -it as to go mad. And since _L’Indépendance Belge_ has thought that it -should be published, I, who also saw the madman, also put it in print. - - - - -TREATING BELGIUM DECENTLY - - - _August 31, 1914._ - -Perhaps the finest thing in the whole colossal business in which we -are now engaged is the frankness with which the French and British -War Offices, and the Press in these countries, admit the checks and -even actual reverses which the Allies are sustaining, and are bound -in certain areas to sustain. It is understood that we cannot romance -ourselves into victory. For the rest the censorship has been very -prudently exercised, and is now much mitigated. - -These circumstances make it difficult to understand the bald ambiguity -of the news from Namur. Is it the town that has fallen or is it the -forts? If the first, nothing; if the second, a new twist to the -campaign. We are bound to assume, as all the military writers do, that -the circle of forts has been captured or surrendered. - -I do not want to say one word as to the military significance of the -affair. And if a torrential German advance has, after enormous losses, -swamped the defence, I do not want to say anything at all. But if, by -chance, the defenders of Namur lacked the spirit of those of Liége; if, -overwhelmed by the picture of blood, devastation, and panic which the -south-east of Belgium now presents, they yielded up their position; -then the question, “Are we treating Belgium decently?” has a grave and -urgent meaning. - -I arrived yesterday from Belgium, knowing nothing of Namur. It seemed -to me a clear duty to attempt in a small way to bring home to the -people of these islands the appalling price that Belgium has had to pay -for holding to the path of honour and courage. Nothing said here is a -criticism of the purely military aspects of the prologue now concluded. -It was inevitable that in the clash of millions, Belgium and her two -hundred thousand soldiers should have been treated as a mere right-wing -pawn. But think what the gambit meant to a Belgium patriot. It meant, -in any and all circumstances, the devastation of Liége and the country -behind it. It meant the surrender not only of the capital, but of the -whole country except Antwerp. And the Belgians were under no illusions -as to the terrorisation of non-combatants which is an essential part of -the Prussian art of war. I quote from a Belgian journal the following -summary of it. It is headed-- - - - “THUS SPAKE... BISMARCK IN 1870 - - “True strategy consists in hitting your enemy, and hitting him - hard. Above all, you must inflict on the inhabitants of invaded - towns the maximum of suffering, so that they may become sick of - the struggle, and may bring pressure to bear on their Government - to discontinue it. You must leave the people through whom you - march only their eyes to weep with. - - “In every case the principle which guided our general was that - war must be made terrible to the civil population, so that it may - sue for peace.” - -And so on, and so on. Little Belgium--her gallant soldiers and her -laborious peasants alike--has been mashed to a bloody pulp where the -heel of the Prussian, shod with iron and with this damnable philosophy, -has passed. And all the time the Belgians kept on asking in hope, -in despair, “Where are the English? Where are the French?” Can you -wonder if in the end they began to ask it in anger? Would it be a -contradiction of all the laws of human nature to suppose that the panic -terror which swept over the undefended land may have penetrated through -the steel blinds of the forts of Namur, taken the heart out of the -troops, impelled to surrender? - -Let us examine our consciences. What have we done to show our -appreciation of Belgium? There was the Royal message. There was -Lord Sydenham’s noble letter in _The Times_ which has been quoted -everywhere. There is a subscription on foot. There is the promised -loan. So far so good. But it is not enough. The stunned sense of having -been delivered to Armageddon is noticeable everywhere, but especially -in Flanders. The Flemish journals such as the _Laatste Nieuws_ are full -of violent anti-French, and in a less degree of anti-English articles. -Germanophiles are harping on the kinship of the Flemish tongue, the -Flemish stock and manners, to Germany. People sneer at the loan. My -Flemish barber said to me on Sunday: “Oh! you are a fine people, you -English. You look for business among the corpses. You will kindly lend -us money at a good, whacking rate of interest. You philanthropists!” - -What, then, is needed? War means blood and treasure. That faded phrase -has been lit up suddenly, and we know what it means. The proof of blood -the gallant soldiers of the two great Western Allies have already given -at Mons and along the Sambre. I am convinced that the United Kingdom -would be acting with fruitful generosity if Parliament were not to -sanction a loan, but to vote a free grant. - -Conjoined with that I hope and assume that Sir Edward Grey will -renew the solemn pledges already given that, come what may, we mean -to see Belgium through. The fear is general that the Germans may be -allowed to get such a footing in Belgium as to have some plausible -case in international law for proclaiming annexation. Let Parliament -announce--and these dramatic cries and gestures of diplomacy are -necessary--that so long as there is one shot left and one soldier to -fire it, the Allies will never allow one foot of Belgian soil to remain -under German domination. - -What I have written is not inspired by even the least touch of -discouragement. The breakneck advance on the German right seems to -me not the stride of conquerors, but the mad hurry of columns flung -forward in a frenzied gamble. Sursum corda! But let us remember that -all alliances need delicate handling. Belgium is in agony. A stroke, -swift and generous, such as suggested, will recall her, and all her -people, to the glorious courage of Liége. Antwerp, and the field army -now sheltered about it, have still a great part to play. - - - - -BELGIUM IN PEACE - -WORK OF THREE GENERATIONS--COMPARISONS WITH IRELAND--SOME MEMORIES - - -It is an irony characteristic of this scurvy and disastrous time that -Belgium should have first found her way to the general imagination of -these countries through the waste redness of war. Peace was her whole -being. For eighty years, trusting to the good faith of Europe, she -had pursued an economical evolution without parallel. For national -defence she had relied on that most solemn treaty of the nineteenth -century. Even a little time ago, even since Agadir, her army, although -unsuspectedly alert in technique, was still a jest of vaudeville. In -temper and fibre, the Belgian people was the least militarist on the -Continent. It is true that in recent years, wise foreseeing men of arms -and men of politics, troubled by the audacity of Prussian apostles -of conquest like Bernhardi, had begun to take alarm. Brialmont, the -great engineer, had fortified Liége against Germany, and improved the -defences of Namur against France. He had also, of course, planned the -new entrenched position of Antwerp, the war-capital, and incidentally -provided us with the first-class mystery of its subsequent easy fall. -De Broqueville had carried a new army scheme which in due development -would have given Belgium at need a million bayonets to defend her -neutrality instead of three hundred thousand. King Leopold, couched -like a super-spider behind his fine-drawn webs of diplomacy and -finance, had made way for King Albert of the simpler gospel. But on -the whole the temper of Belgium was not radically changed. When in -1912 the Kaiser, receiving General Heimburger, Governor of Liége, at -Aix-la-Chapelle during manœuvres, expressed his astonishment at the -improvement of the defences on the Belgo-German frontier, the latter -had no stronger reply than: “Well, Majesty, we soldiers had a chance of -getting something extra out of our Government, and we took it.” Neither -your courteous and subtle Liégois, nor your genial and abundant citizen -of Brussels, nor your four-square indomitable Flamand really believed -that the treaty would ever be violated, or that he would ever be called -on to die for his independence. - -We know now how that treaty was respected. There will be pens, and to -spare, to celebrate the heroic defence of the valley of the Meuse, -the stubborn withdrawal of an outmatched but unbroken army, the tide -of rapine and devastation that marched with the Treaty-Breakers, the -driving into exile of a gallant people, the rosary of desolation, -Liége, Visé, Louvain, Termonde, Namur, Ypres. For my part I should -like to recall something of what Belgium was in peace, and what she did -give or was in train of giving to the triumphs of civilisation. - -One does not need to say anything of her treasury of art; her painters -from Van Eyck to the enigmatic madness of Wierbz; her incomparable -belfries, hôtels de ville and halles, testifying still to the richest -municipal life of the middle ages; her cathedrals; of Bruges of the -three hundred bridges--one of which the present writer has cause to -remember as he was all but drowned under it--of the Castle of Bouillon, -from which Godefroid went to the Holy Land to capture Jerusalem -and to refuse to wear a crown of gold where his Saviour had worn a -crown of thorns. Nor is there need to say anything of the ambiguous -splendour of such places as Ostend, in summer a Paradise at once of -children and of those no longer conspicuously childlike. Nor again, -of the remote beauty and clean winds of the Ardennes. It is of the -life that the Belgian nation, working on its environment, had made for -itself in three generations of guaranteed peace, that I like, on this -anniversary, to recall some sort of inadequate picture. - -Belgium was the most thickly peopled state in Europe. In the Meuse -valley, from Liége to Seraing, she possessed the most extensive -manufacturing area of its size in the world, surpassing Lancashire and -Massachusetts. She had a greater length of railway line per square -mile than any other country in Europe. She produced a greater value of -manufactured goods _per capita_ than either of her great neighbours, -France and Germany, and had a larger _per capita_ foreign trade. Her -agriculture was so enterprising that it would have been difficult to -find an untilled rood or a rood wasted on a fence, in all Flanders. -Such production of wealth had generated on a large scale all the social -problems characteristic of our time; and so earnest and loyal was she -in her attempt to reach solutions that French writers have been found -to call her, not the “cockpit,” but the “social laboratory” of Europe. -What is of special interest to us is that, despite the ablest Socialist -and Liberal criticism, Belgium had maintained in power for a generation -a Catholic Government, and was working out her problems on the basis of -Catholic individualism. In all aspects to know her was for a citizen -of any small nation a tonic and an inspiration. She was no Paradise -assuredly; she had failed in some points in which we have succeeded, -but it was impossible to look into any department of her activity -without learning something worth the trouble. When it is remembered -that, on the one hand, she had a duality of language, and on the other, -that through flax she came into intimate touch with North-east Ulster, -the interest of her life for an Irishman is obviously enhanced. - -Coal, “the bread of manufacturing industry,” was, of course, the basis -of Belgian prosperity. In her black country, the “borinage” centred on -Mons. She employed 150,000 miners, raised 24,000,000 tons of coal per -annum, and consumed almost that quantity in her factories and homes. I -have an eerie recollection of climbing the belfry of Mons some years -ago, and picking out, or persuading myself that I had succeeded in -picking out, the battlefields about it: Malplaquet, Jemappes, Fontenoy, -Ligny. A Frenchman on the same errand asked dreamily: “When will there -be another?” Alas! we can answer that question now: the “borinage” has -taken another full draught of Irish blood. - -This precious natural possession of coal Belgium certainly utilises -to the full. Her mining country, unhappily, had all the sordor that -seems inseparable from that enterprise. Mons had an admirable School of -Commerce and Industry. Its watchword was expansion and expatriation. -The device may sound strange in our ears; what it means to convey, of -course, is that Belgium must find markets abroad. She trains her sons -not to be lost to her, but to go abroad and open new fields of conquest -for her industries. There was also an unusual dispensary which treated -the miners for an endemic complaint called “miner’s worm,” or more -learnedly, ankylostomiasis. - -The metal industries, of course, centre on Liége. There was no more -wonderful sight, not in Pittsburg, not on the Clyde, than the pillars -of smoke and the pillars of fire which stream upwards from the steel -foundries and factories along the Meuse. It was a singular pride -to remember that the whole first impulsion of that great industry -proceeded from the brain of an Irishman, John Cockerill. It is known -that until 1825, it was, under English law, a criminal offence, -punishable by transportation, for a skilled workman to emigrate to a -foreign country, or for anyone to export machinery or plans. William -Cockerill, however, took the risk, went first to Sweden, where he -was ill received, and afterwards to Verviers. He founded the machine -woollen industry of Verviers, and his son John, in due course, founded -the metal industry of Liége and its belt of towns. The lives of the -Cockerills would make a romantic chapter: I am sorry that I have -not been able to come on much biographical matter. Obtaining a good -deal more iron ore, chiefly from her neighbour, Luxembourg, than she -produced herself, Belgium, before the war, reached an annual output of -about a million and a half tons each of pig-iron and steel. She made -all sorts of machinery and had an immense export of all. I have a vivid -memory of a visit to the great Fabrique Nationale (F.N.) at Herstal. -The figures of production per day were given to us as something like -800 Browning automatic pistols, 500 Mauser rifles, 400 fowling-pieces, -150 bicycles, 50 motor-bicycles and 10 motor-cars. These two latter -items had probably greatly increased. Your guide took great pleasure in -dazing you with the degree of specialisation practised. Thus it took -350 special machines or tools to make a Browning, and something like -700 to make a Mauser. If all the plant of Herstal and its neighbouring -towns is in German hands, it will be seen that their invasion of -Belgium gave them something more even than an opportunity of running -murder as a national pastime. - -Ghent as a textile city owes its importance mainly to cotton. But -both there and at Courtrai linen possessed a keener interest for an -Irishman. Ghent possesses the two largest linen-spinning installations -in the world. Between these two places and North-east Ireland there -was the closest intercourse, and it would have been an interesting -exercise to have made a detailed study of the Ulster colony that -lived there. Cases were not unknown of the dourest North of Ireland -buyers intermarrying with Flemish Catholic families, and ultimately -suffering absorption. Lace was, of course, a notable product. It will -be remembered that certain enquiries disclosed the fact some years ago -that Belgian skill was equal to the fabrication, not only of Brussels -and Malines, but also of “Limerick” and “Carrickmacross” lace, chiefly -for the American market. - -Of the progressive character of agriculture some indication has been -given. It is curious that whilst South Germany, Denmark, and even -Hungary have been ransacked for models by various Irish propagandists, -Belgian agriculture, which was not inferior either in technique or in -organisation, was almost ignored. Much of the land is, as with us, -rather a manufactured article than a natural product; rich polders -stolen from the sea, or sand made fertile by irrigation. If one were -to touch on any special point in agriculture, it would be the complete -success which Belgium had made of the beet. She produced all her own -sugar, including that used in her great brewing industry, and exported -great quantities as well. - -The productive apparatus of Belgium was assuredly rich and varied. And -each industry fed and maintained itself by an educational institute of -the first order. Mons has been mentioned. There was also the University -of Liége, mainly an engineering University; the great Commercial School -of Antwerp, the Agricultural Laboratories at Louvain and Ghent, the -Higher School of Textiles at Verviers, and so on. And all this was done -at “the cross-roads of Europe,” under the fire of French and German -competition, without recourse to any really protectionist tariffs. - -But however dominant a factor intensity of production may be, it is -rather the attitude of a people towards the problems of distribution -that marks it out as, in a human point of view, a success or a failure: -Belgium was beyond doubt a success. Not that she had abolished -poverty: there was poverty more drab and hopeless in some parts of her -countryside than anything of our congested districts. There was the old -plague of cheap gin almost everywhere. - -But she was facing her social task in the right temper. The Belgian in -economic affairs is by nature a realist and an appeasable man. In the -number of days per worker lost through labour disputes, Belgium was -easily at the foot of the list of industrial countries. “The Social -Question,” they repeat after Colins, “is to be settled by science, not -by violence.” Time and again the central labour committees, Socialist -as well as Catholics, have suppressed strikes inaugurated by their -own members. This realism of outlook gave you in Belgium the supreme -type of business-like politics. The great Socialist co-operatives of -Brussels and Ghent--the “Maison du Peuple” and the “Voormit”--starting -from ludicrously small beginnings, bestrode the world of workers like -a Colossus. If you were an associate, they sold you your clothes, -boots, bread, meat, beer, furniture, books, amusements--everything you -consumed--and managed your business as well as gave you free their -propagandist papers, and an annual bonus out of the profits, in order -to sweeten the principles proposed. The smaller Catholic organisations -in the cities acted on similar lines. In the country the great Catholic -“Boerenbond,” or Land League, with its headquarters at Louvain, -applied the same formula to the buying and selling of agricultural -necessaries on a great scale. Such a phenomenon as empty extremism -could not arise. - -These immense co-operatives were, perhaps, the most characteristic -Belgian contribution to social readjustment. But in direct action by -the State they had also been pioneers. The first experiment in Old Age -Pensions did not come from Germany--formerly the worshipped idol of -English Liberals and Tariff Reformers alike. It came from the city of -Ghent. The first experiment in the deliberate building of “workmen’s -dwellings” as such was not made in Mülhausen, it was made in Verviers. -The whole body of Belgian law regulating economic life is expounded -in two masterly volumes issued from Louvain by Father Vermeersh, the -Jesuit, who so bravely exposed the early atrocities in the Congo. -(Perhaps it is as well to interpolate here that if the crimes were -great, the amendment has been complete. On the same terms it would -be possible to forgive all the sins of history.) The intervention of -formal law is not quite as comprehensive as it is in these countries. -But it helps the worker at all his crises: birth, marriage, accident, -disease, old age. In one respect at least it is far superior to our -code: property in small parcels is much more readily accessible to the -labourer. This is accomplished by exemption of workmen’s home sites -and garden plots from various heads of taxation, and by the provision -of cheap loans. It will be found in the end that this accessibility to -land, to land in fee-simple, is the real solution of half our labour -difficulties, and the real counter-programme to Socialism. And the -nation that pioneered it will enjoy deserved honour. Like other Latin -countries Belgium has what we, to our shame, have not: a Homestead and -Household Protection Act, the only bulwark against usury. - -As to the particular points in which Belgian experience may enlighten -ours, there is one which ought to be mentioned. Cheap fee-simple land -for industrial workers plus cheap railways, has done a great deal -to break the isolation of country and town, and to solve housing -difficulties. There is also a distinct human gain. Your industrial -worker who grows his own vegetables on his own land is a very different -man from the unit of your propertyless proletariat. The railway policy -of Belgium is generally misunderstood. In the first instance, only -the main lines are owned by the State; in the second, the complaint -that the State Railways “do not pay” misses the whole essence of the -matter. They are not run as dividend-producing concerns; they are run -as one of the fundamental public utilities. Roads used to “pay”; now -they are paid for out of the public purse. Who complains? The Belgian -State Railways did certainly not lose money; further, their policy was -not controlled by the necessity of making it directly. Railways so -conducted yield a diffused national dividend of utility, the value of -which is incalculable. - -A further token of this firm handling of the tangles of everyday life -is to be found in the work done in the School of Social Sciences at -Louvain. I had not much opportunity of studying its courses, but I -fancy that Father Corcoran, the distinguished Jesuit educationist, -would know all about it. It is likely that he derived from it the idea -of the Leo Guild. In Belgium, at all events, it was a thing of course -that a priest should be not an economist--a poor title and quality--but -a trained healer of economic disease. The activity manifested under -the inspiration of the Church was extremely rich, and diversified. And -not only in Flanders, but also in Wallonie. I have a list showing for -the little Walloon town of Soignies, a town of 9000 inhabitants, no -less than fifteen different Catholic economic societies. Nobody can -ever have gone to Mass in Belgium without contributing at the door his -“denier scolaire” for the education of poor children, or without seeing -the Catholic Young Guards, engaged in some of their manifestations. -Priests in Belgium would tell you that their success is due to the -care with which they have avoided every hint of “clericalism.” At -all events, a Catholic Government has been able in one of the freest -countries in Europe to maintain, and at the last election, to -strengthen, its position against all assaults. It used to be said that -the industrialisation of the Campine--now agricultural, but rich in -coal as yet unmined--would ultimately put Socialism in the saddle. The -war has intervened. Who will venture to cast a horoscope now? - -The language situation in Belgian was well known to Irish readers. -Indeed the compliment was returned. The last paper I remember looking -at before the German column under Van Boehm wheeled by Ghent was a copy -of _Ons Land_. It contained excellent photographs of prominent Gaelic -League personages, with an account of the movement in Ireland. In -Flanders, the position is a sort of transposition of ours into another -key. The Flamand is in a majority of nine to eight. He presents, -although a Catholic, a marked temperamental resemblance to our typical -Protestant Ulsterman. So far as one could judge he has pretty well had -his own way in all points except one. His language will live side by -side with French, but it can hardly hope, or even desire, to displace -the lingua franca of civilisation. By the way, it was interesting to -notice the Pro-German articles in some of the Flemish papers even after -the invasion. The Germans, it was said, were first cousins of the -Flemings, Teutons like them, solid, pious, religious people, not like -the atheistical Walloons and French! I am afraid that the burning zeal -of the Germans towards their kinsmen was too lamentably literal for -that campaign to succeed. But it is well known that German agents have -been promising the Flamands an autonomous Flanders, under the eagle of -Berlin... after the annexation. Certain journalists lately addressed a -manifesto to King Albert. They received a cold and dignified answer, -to the effect that the first task of the Belgian nation was to recover -Belgium, and all Belgium; afterwards the nation would settle its own -future. The most interesting by-product of the conflict of tongues -in Belgium is one that will certainly not be repeated here. In the -Marolles--the Coombe, so to say, of Brussels--the necessities of daily -intercourse have produced a mixture of French and Flemish which has -developed strong individuality. One heard songs in it which cannot be -described by any candid person as being funny without being vulgar. The -linguistic future of Belgium will, no doubt, be worked out on a basis -of equality. The clash was never charged with any political menace; -after the war separation of any deep kind would be unimaginable. -Belgium, said King Albert, has lost everything except her soul. Is it -not even true that, for the first time, she has found her soul? As the -poet, Antoine Classe, phrased it-- - - “Flamands, Walloons, - Ne sont que des prénoms, - Belge est notre nom de famille.” - -In literature, written in French, Brussels is to Paris something as -Dublin is to London. The same gibes at the “Brussels Brogue,” the same -uneasy and all but indignant tremor when a great Belgian writer steps -on the scene, the same grudged applause, finally the same adulation. It -is a notable fact that most of the Belgians who have planted conquering -banners in French literature are of Flemish stock--Maeterlinck, -Verhaeren, Rodenbach, Cammaerts. Their imagination is coloured by two -traditions. Of Maeterlinck one need say nothing. Verhaeren is certainly -one of our supreme living poets, perhaps the supreme poet of our -civilisation. Rodenbach, more local, is for ever part of the beauty and -sadness of Bruges. Cammaerts is known by his exquisite songs. Camille -Lemonnier, the painter and author, is perhaps the most vital and -abundant representative of the Walloon stream of influence. - - * * * * * - -Such is an inadequate outline, a cinema survey of the work and the -place of Belgian in time of peace. Such was the little, great nation -that William the Treaty-Breaker has violated and ravaged. When one -remembers it all--memory on golden memory, remembers the black ruins -where a year ago men laboured and prayed at peace with other men, -remembers the slow building-up and the sudden devastation, eighty -years gone in a fortnight--does not the heart harden against these -metaphysical barbarians of Prussia? Belgium to-day is the most -illustrious evicted tenant of modern history. But, her enemies put -down, she will return. _Vive la Belgique!_ - - - - -“G.H.Q.” - - -There is a certain magic in initial letters, and they seem to be most -magical when they run in trinities. Who has not heard of the G.O.M. and -B.M.G and A.B.C. and G.B.S. and that R.I.P. which has a richer gloom -than even Raleigh’s forlorn _Hic Jacet_? But in this war the greatest -of all is G.H.Q. - -G.H.Q. stands for General Headquarters, known to most newspaper readers -as the place where the telegrams come from to depress or to cheer us. -But they have a great deal more to do at G.H.Q. than merely to receive -messages from the fighting front, and to send them home. Having had -the privilege of paying a visit there within the last ten days, I can -realise that fact with the vivid actuality of a thing seen. If the -Commander-in-Chief and his General Staff are the brain of an army, -cerebellum and cerebrum, G.H.Q. supplies its nervous and motor system. -Nerves, efferent and afferent, carrying in thrills of sensation and -carrying out waves of movement to the extreme limits of the military -organism, muscles in association with the nerves--these make up G.H.Q. - -Let me detail some of its activities. - -When you export an army you have got to export with it a government. -Our army in France is to all intents and purposes a colony in arms, -with a purely male population larger than the total population of New -Zealand. G.H.Q. is at once its Westminster and its War Office; its -railway--from booking-office to clearing-house--and its Bank; its -Scotland Yard and its Harley Street; its tinker, tailor, butcher, baker -and candlestick-maker. - -In Pantheistic philosophies all things issue from a central principle, -and all return to it. G.H.Q. is the Om of the East, the Absolute of -that cloudy rhetorician from Berlin whom we used to call a philosopher, -Hegel. Without G.H.Q. nothing; with G.H.Q. everything. - -It is not a bad description of war to say that it consists in carrying -heavy things from one place to another, and that victory depends on -carrying them faster and more efficiently than the enemy. The heavy -things may be soldiers, rifles, bully beef, howitzers, cartridges, -hospital appliances, shells, or a score of other things indispensable. -That is the reason why the first aspect of war that impresses one is -transportation. From London to the front there is a line of troop -trains, transports and convoys, linked together very nigh as closely -as the boats in a pontoon bridge. Behind the whole of the front every -road, railway and canal is scheduled. - -On any road traffic must proceed in only one prescribed direction. If -by any mischance you find yourself heading the other way, the first -military policeman will very abruptly let you know all about it. - -A line, at once elastic and unbreakable, carries our resolve from the -centre of formation here to the point of contact in the trenches. It -goes _ohne Hast_ and _ohne Rast_, to borrow Teutonisms that were once -more popular than they are likely ever to be again. No hurry, but no -intermission of effort, that is the motto and practice of G.H.Q. The -picturesque, bloody and heroic phases of war are praised everywhere and -fire the imagination. But consider to yourself how our army would get -on without its Carter Paterson! Its Carter Paterson is G.H.Q. - -G.H.Q. has got to see that things are carried, and it sees that they -are. The foolish French Minister of War told a misled nation in 1870 -that there was not a button missing from the gaiter of a soldier. That -boast, so mad and disastrous, is to-day for our Expeditionary Force -the “frigid and calculated” truth. The soldiers say to you all over -the lines: “Anything you send arrives. Nothing goes wrong.” There are -many others to praise as well as the Olympians of G.H.Q.--the chauffeur -mending his tyre with lyrical profanity _faute de mieux_, the mechanic -sweating behind the scenes at Boulogne or Calais, Mr. Tennant, Lord -Kitchener--but, without G.H.Q. nothing. - -They clothe themselves with all varieties of function. There is the -A.G. (Adjutant-General), who does everything, and, when he gets tired, -does something else for a change. There is the I.O. (Intelligence -Officer), who sees that every visitor is passed through an infinite -succession of sieves, lest he should prove to be a spy. There is the -Provost-Marshal, the Chairman of the Prison Commissioners of the -Battlefield. There is the Chief Engineer. There is the R.A.M.C. There -is the Casualty Clearing Station. There is the Field Cashier. There -is the R.T.O. (Railway Transportation Officer), who, if he does not -like the look of you, sets you emulating Puck in the rapidity of your -return. There is... What is there not? - -G.H.Q. is an army, a government, an administration, a literature. You -see those who wield its sceptre going about a French provincial town, -yawning down deserted boulevards strewn with the debris of autumn, -smoking in bare French rooms with green jalousies, always unperturbed, -always efficient, always courteous, generally bored. You see them -walking arm-in-arm, or in the saddle, knee to knee, with French staff -officers, maintaining and deepening the Alliance. Some of them have -tunics beribboned with the record of five campaigns; some are raw boys; -but, all together, they keep the fight going. They are the Business -Organisers of the war. - -Now that the news of our advance is coming hotly in, they will praise -bullets and bayonets. Mike O’Leary’s and General Fochs; but when one -comes to think of it, it is hard on G.H.Q. that the patient, continuous -infallibility which had not yet left a section, or even an individual -soldier, short of bread, beef, cartridges or medical care should be -left out of the picture. - - - - -“ZUR ERINNERUNG” - -A LETTER TO AN AUSTRIAN FELLOW-STUDENT - - - _In Unconquered France_ - -MY DEAR FRANZ, - -That was the familiar device you wrote in the book you gave me when -twelve years ago we drank our final Bruderschaft at Innsbruck station. -I was saying good-bye to your Alpenrose, your Rose of the Alps, where -the great mountains spring up their ten and fourteen thousand feet -out of the very pavements, where the Golden Roof glitters over its -antique arcades, where the great bronze warriors guard the sleep of -your Emperor Max, where Andreas Hofer fought the good fight against -an imperial tyrant, where inns, old before the French Revolution, all -but touch gables across the narrow, immemorial _gassen_. You wanted -me to remember all that, but most of all, I think, you wanted me to -remember the quiet valleys, full of colour and peace, the red cupolaed -churches where we went to Mass at four o’clock of a Sunday morning, -the mountains we conquered together, with their summit air that we -thought better than wine, until we came back, leg-weary if heart-high, -in the evening to drink your thin country vintage, and applaud the -zither-players and the amazing Tyrolese dancers. When I was last in -your Tyrol I did not see you, Franz: you had gone to Berlin to study -philology, that characteristic pseudo-science which Nietzsche and your -Prussians have transformed into a seed-bed of criminal philosophies. - -Those good days of our youth are worse than dead, a rivulet lost in the -salt sea of estrangement that has engulfed so many friendships and so -much happiness. We have other things to remember. Two years ago your -Austria drove a sword into the heart of Europe. The agony of simple -men then initiated still continues. I wonder where that damnable, -recurrent date found you this midsummer? Fighting against that _Italia -irredenta_ with which you used to sympathise so generously? Falling -back before that Russia which you used to agree with me in regarding -as the chosen home of great novels and profound religion? In the lines -against France, that France which shaped and nourished the soul of -every free soul in Teutondom--and they have not been many--from Heine -to your own tragic Empress? There is another possibility which I had -almost forgotten. No Man’s Land, or, as one had better call it, Dead -Man’s Land, is no great width at the point we hold. Just as I am here -swallowing chalk and clay, consorting with rats and lesser forms of -obscene life, mixing with wounds and blood, so may you be over there. -I look across the long grass, lush with disintegrating corpses, and -imagine that Prussia may have laid hold of you for other pursuits than -philology. Perhaps it is you whose machine-gun taps every night like a -devil-ridden typewriter against this particular area of our parapet? - -You will agree with me, even now, that war, if not Hell, is cousin to -it, cousin German. To condemn humanity to pass through that chamber of -torture is a decision so grave and terrible that even emperors might -well tremble before it. In the lineaments of the obscurest man slain -in battle stands written the judgment of the rulers of the earth. Can -your Austria face her conscience? I know that at the question you will -be disposed to parry with a gibe at “English self-righteousness.” But, -as it happens, I am not English, and mere self-righteousness does not -survive the ordeal of battle. Living through this nightmare of blood -you cannot but ask yourself how it began. The diplomatic correspondence -is there to answer the question. These documents, the most memorable in -secular history, are the charter of justification behind every decree -of death that passes from the Allied lines to yours. Your Austria had -grounds, tragical grounds, of complaint against some Serbians: you -sought not justice, but the destruction of Serbian independence. You -leagued yourself with Prussia--that blood-and-iron-monger--to break -the faith of Europe and the homes of Belgium. You have heard all -this before? You will hear it again, till the end of time. Not all -the babbling savants of Berlin can ever erase the record of those -two bully’s blows. They are the Alpha and the Omega of the war. Of -course, it is true that there were other forces behind this reversion -to violence and barbarism. All the explosive sediment of history was -behind it, but it was your touch on the trigger that released all that -imprisoned damnation. - -Your natural place was not with Prussia. You, who were once the master, -are now the valet of Germanism. You had not elaborated through forty -years a religion of murder. Like us Irish, you were perhaps more -fascinating than successful; you were a nation of gentlemen. You had -grace, delicacy and honour. You listened to the crowned commercial -traveller from Potsdam, who promised you a short war and a golden -guerdon of trade. We know now that it was he who forced your hand in -the Serbian negotiations. To be allured by such a bribe is no new -sin in our experience; every nation of the Alliance, at some time or -other in the bad past, has fallen in similar wise. Does it seem to you -that Mephistopheles is in the way of keeping his promise? I notice in -your newspapers that your people are impressed by the area of enemy -territory you occupy. The present truth of the military situation is -that you occupy only as a detected burglar “occupies” the house he has -attempted to rifle--that is to say, pending the arrival of the police. -And, Franz, the police, although as usual somewhat slow, have arrived. -There is no doubt of that. - -It seems to me quite candidly that the time has come to separate -Habsburg from Hohenzollern. We are willing to believe that you acted -under duress. During the war you have not befouled your name beyond -forgiveness: no Cavell or Fryatt looms up in judgment against you. -Your base and cynical over-lord, having compelled you to a gamble in -blood, now begins to exhibit the nakedness of soul of every cut-throat -cut-purse who finds that he has caught a Tartar. I do not know that any -deep hatred of Austria is nourished by anyone in the Allied countries -who understands the inner economy of the Central Empires. A _locus -pœnitentiæ_ will not be refused you. Come back to the civilisation to -which you belong. Make it possible for me once again to renew our old -Bruderschaft in Innsbruck, and to rejoice together that the Twilight of -the Gods of Cruelty has deepened into enduring night. - - - - -SILHOUETTES FROM THE FRONT - - -I.--THE WAY TO THE TRENCHES - -They have a saying among the followers of Mohammed, “Shun him who has -thrice made the pilgrimage to Mecca, the Holy City! His conversation -is an offence.” It is, indeed, the vice of travellers that they will -talk. No man is safe from us if only we have been anywhere he has not -been--from Birr, as the song says, to Bareilly. But the temptation -of the trenches is the most formidable of all. Who has resisted it? -Raw and ripe we have each of us tried to daub his own picture of -that amazing fact, of the strange shifts and incredible devisings to -which civilised nations have been forced to resort in order to save -civilisation. One brush will add a stroke that escapes another. All -the brushes and books, and all the cinema films together will never -come near the reality. That is the sole rationale of these thumb-nail -silhouettes. - -If you were to ask any patron of the present Continental tour for -his first impression, he would probably note the excellence of the -travelling arrangements. Tickets are free, or rather they are not -necessary. It is impossible to miss your train: the columns of them -thunder without haste and without rest from the remotest station back -at home to the ultimate railhead where their thunder dies in that of -the guns. The sea-lacunæ are obliterated by an all but unbroken bridge -of untorpedoed transports. Delays due to loss of luggage are unknown. -You may, indeed, lose your luggage, but you do not delay. There are no -tips on this journey, and it would be idle to book seats in advance. -An avoidable expense, for you will get there without them. Either with -a draft, a post of minor importance but yet of some; or with your -battalion in all the pomp and circumstance of war; or, likely enough, -in these latter days as an isolated officer reinforcement with a typed -telegram and a moving order, you will arrive. Of course there are -incidental divagations. With traffic rigidly scheduled and regulated as -it must be, an occasional traveller is to be found who has lost his way -and has perhaps accomplished ten kilometres between dawn and dusk. I -met one such, and said-- - -“You seem to have lost your unit?” - -“Lost my unit?” he replied with intense rancour. “I have lost my -company, lost my battalion, lost my brigade, lost my division, -my corps. A little more and I shall have lost the b----y British -Expeditionary Force.” - -Indubitably it is the perfection of transportation. Napoleon said, -or is supposed to have said, that an army, like a snake, moves on -its belly. The truth is, of course, that the art of war is, as to -six-sevenths of it, the art of carrying heavy things from one place -to another. You have got to move obvious necessaries, such as food and -fuel and housing-timber and spare clothes; and human frames--that to -marching men are heavier at the end of a long day than anything in the -world; and rifles, bayonets and bombs, the ultimate _ratio decidendi_ -of all operations; and shells that look like death, and weigh as much -as a model bungalow; and frowning Frankensteins of guns that look like -the Day of Judgment, and weigh as much as a small foundry; and the -wounded who come back with the Cross, steeped in blood, to stand as a -fit symbol of their sacrifice. But you must move a great deal that is -less obvious and more necessary. When you export an army such as ours, -which is in reality a nation and not a small one, you must send with -it a government. Now knowledge, and the administrative body in which -it expresses itself, is of all things the most difficult to export. -This scheme of transportation is the first miracle of sheer brain-power -that strikes you, but it is not the greatest. I do not scruple to say -that as a study in government, that is to say, in the efficient conduct -of human things in the mass, the present army, as organised through -G.H.Q., is far more impressive than most civil constitutions. - -I do not speak merely of the actual Higher Command. Your heads of that -must carry all the apparatus of all its range from minor tactics to -military statesmanship. Note, rather, then, when you send an army you -must send a Treasury, a General Post Office, a Judiciary and Record -Office, and one hardly knows what beside. Your quartermaster-general -has got to be the Selfridge of six million gaily grumbling customers, -who are perpetually on the move. A mere battalion quartermaster must -possess qualities that would win a fortune in a large suburban shop. - -And it is possible to overlook the service of information--the -signallers. Everywhere the army goes it lays behind it a tentacular -network of news-carrying wire. The arm of its reporting power is -indefinitely longer than that of any Associated Press. From the company -dug-out in the front trench to Sir Douglas Haig, and from him to -Whitehall, there is no gap. On the earth, beneath it and above, this -nerve-system extends: aeroplane, observation balloon, patrol, vedette, -sniping-post, all collect their varying toll of fact and surmise; -electricity, drilled to the use of the men who wear the blue-and-white -bands, vibrates it on to its destination. And so is this particular -area of the army cerebrum kept alive and alert. I have hardly spoken -of the A.S.C., of the endless chain of supply that for ever runs and -returns on its infallible cogs about the roads and railways. - -There are other, many other, things to admire as patterns of -organisation. It is what our subalterns, with their strict and shy -economy of speech, describe as a “great show.” All the world has heard -of carrying on. But it was first of all necessary to carry. And we have -carried to war across the seas not a mere army, but a people in arms. - - -II.--THE LONG ENDURANCE - -In the history of war, especially as it was practised by the Irish -regiments, we have been accustomed to the brief ecstasy of assault, -the flash of bayonets, the headlong avalanche of death and victory.... -Often there had been, before this sharp decision, the heroism of a long -march. But in general, instantaneity had been the characteristic of -Irish soldiers as it is of Irish football forwards. There are instances -enough of the old quality in this war from Festubert to Suvla Bay, from -Loos to that shell-powdered sinister terrain over which the Ulster -Division swept in its great charges. But there is another heroism. The -three chapters of this war may well bear for rubrics: the Grim Retreat, -the Long Endurance, the Epic Push. It is of the second that I write -here. - -Note that this, the greatest, is also the dullest of all recorded -campaigns. It is wrong, indeed, to call it a campaign or even a series -of campaigns: one had better style it the Wall-paper War. Everywhere -the same type and development of fighting, the same pattern repeated -and indefinitely repeated. It is true that the walls are the walls of -the world, and the colours are those of life and death. None the less -the effect on the mind is that of near bigness, which is always of its -nature wearisome. It is not of that weariness of the detached mind -that I now write, but of the more intimate and crushing fatigue of the -actual man on the spot. There may very well be units of this immense -army that on their return home will have apparently little to show for -their lost blood. - -People will say to them-- - -“I suppose you were in the dash at X? No? Oh, it was the capture of Y? -I mean, of course, the round-up at Z?” - -And they will answer rather dully-- - -“No. We just held on. We are the lot that just stuck to A, and weren’t -shifted out of B.” - -And the response will be a disappointed and belittling “Oh yes!” - -But, when it is understood, this long endurance will be seen to be -something very notable in itself, and, more than that, an essential -element in the slow and great victory. Movements are picturesque, but -in order that something should move it was necessary that something -should stand still. The ends of a lever move effectively only when it -is based on an unmoving fulcrum. If the rivet of a scissors did not -stand fast, the blades would cut little. And the tale of the units to -whom it came merely to hold the line is the great tale. - -In the trenches it is the day-by-dayness that tells and tries. It -is always the same tone of duty: certain days in billets, certain -days in reserve, certain days in the front trench. One is reminded of -those endless chains by which some well-buckets are worked, except -that nothing or very little ever seems to come up in the bucket to -pay the labour of turning. General Joffre as grignotard is one of -the phrase-makers of the war. But this nibbling process works both -ways. We nibble; they nibble. They are nibbled; we are nibbled. A few -casualties every turn, another grating of the saw-teeth of death and -disease, and before very long a strong unit is weak. And, of course, -the nerve-strain is not slight. Everybody going up to the trenches -from the C. O. down to the last arrival in the last draft knows it to -be moral certainty that there are two or three that will not march -back. Everybody knows that it may be anybody. In the trenches death -is random, illogical, devoid of principle. One is shot not on sight, -but on blindness, out of sight. You feel that a man who is hit has had -worse luck than a golfer whose opponent holes out in one at a blind -hole. Yet these things do happen. Very few people are hit by lightning, -and in a storm it is a comfort to remember this. But some people are -hit by lightning. Here one is in a place where a very trivial piece of -geographical bad luck may be fatal. There is much to nibble the nerves. - -One likes to image this whole task of holding the line under the image -of a sentry-group. This is not to depreciate any other man or any other -function. From colonel down all the world here has the same job. The -sentry-group is the symbol. A figure in khaki stands on the shelf of -fire-bag, his steel helmet forming a serious bulge over the parapet -as he peers through the night towards the German lines. His comrade -sits on the shelf beside him waiting to help, to report, to carry the -gas-alarm, the alarm of an attack. Over there in front across No Man’s -Land there are shell-holes and unburied men. Strange things happen -there. Patrols and counter-patrols come and go. There are two sinister -fences of barbed wire, on the barbs of which blood-stained strips of -uniform and fragments more sinister have been known to hang uncollected -for a long time. The air is shaken with diabolical reverberations; -it is stabbed with malign illumination as the Véry lights shoot up, -broaden to a blaze, and go out. This contrast of night and light and -gloom is trying to the eyes. The rifle-grenades and trench-mortars, -flung at short range, that scream through the air are trying to the -ears. They may drop a traverse away, and other men not charged for the -moment with his duty may seek shelter. But not he. Strange things issue -from No Man’s Land, and the eyes of the army never close or flinch. And -so, strained, tense and immovable he leans and looks forward into the -night of menace. - -But the trench has not fallen. As for him, he carried his pack for -Ireland and Europe, and now pack-carrying is over. - -He has held the line. - - -III.--RHAPSODY ON RATS - -What first strikes one in a trench is, contrary to report, not the Rat -but the Slat. A trench-board is a sort of ladder, laid horizontally -along a ditch of ill repute, and the rungs of this ladder are the -slats. It is true that if this ladder were set upright it would -be impossible to climb it, for the slats are too close together. -Nevertheless, it has the form and aspirations of a ladder, and yearns -towards the vertical. To follow the windings of the trench, this -board is of necessity made in short sections. Now, one often enters a -trench in the dark. Certain short boards have been displaced by the -outgoing unit. An incautious foot, with, say, fifteen stone avoirdupois -behind it, is set on one end, and the perpendicular ambition of the -trench-board manifests itself in a jarring wallop of the other end on -one’s tin hat. The slat decidedly strikes you. - -It is unpleasant to walk on, as anybody who has ever laboriously evaded -coal-cellar gratings will realise. It exists in numbers that have never -been counted. You can walk from the North Sea to the foot-hills of the -Alps with the soles of your boots continuously beslatted, save where -there is an odd broken board which there has not been time to repair. -At the end of the war there will probably be slat-excursions organised -by American tourist companies--they are said to have already purchased -the ground--with the privilege to each pilgrim of removing one slat -as a souvenir. What is to be said for them is that they stand between -you and a flounder along the bottom mud. In winter, when the drainage -improvisations prove false, and the fighting ditches run hip-high, the -foothold is to be valued. And now as to the rats. - -Ratavia, as one may designate it, resembles China in that there has -never been a census of its population, but that it approximates to the -mathematical infinite. They are everywhere--large rats, small rats, -bushy rats, shy rats and impudent, with their malign whiskers, their -obscene eyes, loathsome all the way from overlapping teeth to kangaroo -tail. You see them on the parades and the shelter-roofs at night, -slinking along on their pestiferous errands. You lie in your dug-out, -famished, not for food (that goes without saying), but for sleep, -and hear them scurrying up and down their shafts, nibbling at what -they find, dragging scraps of old newspapers along, with intolerable -cracklings, to bed themselves. They scurry across your blankets and -your very face. Nothing suppresses their numbers. Not dogs smuggled in -in breach of regulations. Not poison, which most certainly ought not to -be used. Not the revolver-practice in which irritated subalterns have -been known to indulge. Men die and rats increase. - -I see just one defence that they can make: it was not they who invaded -our kingdom, but we who invaded theirs. We descended, we even dug -ourselves down to their level. It is true that in our heroic moments -we may style the trenches the New Catacombs to which freedom descended -for a while to return in triumph. But it is also true that they are -rat-holes, rat-avenues, rat-areas. The dramatic translation of an -old period was called “The Birds”; the dramatisation of this must be -called “The Rats.” Strangely enough, it has been left for me to tell -the decisive chapter of the inner history of the war. Kaiser Wilhelm, -whose resemblance to a rat has been too little noticed--you have but to -take the wax out of his moustache and allow it to droop--was seated in -his ugly palace at Potsdam, considering his ultimatum to Serbia, when -there suddenly appeared before him, down the chimney or out of some -diplomatic orifice in the panelling, a Rat, the master and pattern of -all rats. “Majesty!” said he, “I am come to offer you my aid in this -war which you are planning. As you are the Emperor of all the Germans, -so am I the Emperor of all the Rats. Our interests coincide.” - -They conferred together very shrewdly, and struck an alliance. -“Good!” said his Majesty, slapping his thigh. “It is decided. We are -with-one-another-firmly-united. The war will begin forthwith.” - -So the great quintessential Super-Rat, the Rattish _Ding an sich_, left -to mobilise his forces, and the Kaiser drew over a sheet of paper and -wrote the magical and black word that unlocks Hell. And the great rat -called in his Austria, which is the louse, and his Turkey, which is the -sand-flea, and his Bulgaria, which is that porter of poison, the fly. -So the battle was joined between the clean and the obscene. - -It must be said for the Kaiser that with this one ally he kept faith. -Ratavia has increased enormously in population and prosperity. It has -suffered from no menace of famine, for Wilhelm, the faith-keeper, has -even sacrificed his own subjects generously in order to avert that -calamity. - -But the end is not yet. The Emperor of the Rats will come once again to -Potsdam. - -“Majesty!” he will say. “I am a student of Treitschke, who teaches that -an alliance is to be kept by the stronger of two associates only as -long as his profit lies that way.” And as Majesty, shrivelled, decaying -with the pallor of death on him, trembles in his chair the Great Rat -will add-- - -“I propose to annex you.” - - - - -THE NEW FRANCE - - -Madame Caillaux, who was formerly an actress, has achieved in real -life her most remarkable dramatic success. Like Emerson’s Lexington -farmer, she has certainly fired a shot heard round the world. The -assassination of a great political editor by the wife of a powerful -minister has recalled to us in a lurid flash the monstrous vanities and -violences that raven behind the polite exterior of civilisation. It -has given a good many other editors a peg on which to hang a new array -of reproachful platitudes. But its effect on the immediate course of -politics in France is likely to be of trivial importance. There will be -a loud momentary splash, and a wide-going rush of ripples, but it will -be found to have been no more than a stone flung into a river already -swollen and hurrying to an ambiguous issue. Personal scandals and -tragedies are not allowed to disturb that battle of ideas which is the -essential life of the Republic. It will be noted that Madame Caillaux’ -automatic pistol did not purchase for her husband a respite of even -twenty hours. The day following, M. Barthou brought the attack into -the Chamber to a head by reading the letter of M. Fabre, the Public -Prosecutor; the Rochette enquiry has been not delayed, but expedited, -and the electoral struggle comes on with even more headlong rapidity. -Making all discount for the error of vision, characteristic of the -foreign observer, we are able to say with assurance that the programmes -submitted for the approaching election mark the most serious attempt -made since the war of 1870 to re-establish France in her traditions. - -One may aptly compare France, as a contemporary compared Parnell, to a -granite rock overlaid with a shallow drift of detritus. In politics, -especially in Parliament, the most distracting flurries of dust succeed -and displace one another with a sort of constant inconstancy. Penetrate -them, and you come upon an economic and social fabric characterised by -massive stability. Nobody who bears this in mind will be blinded by -whatever chances to be the latest sand-storm. _La nouvelle France_ was -not abolished by the political manœuvre that placed M. Doumergue at the -head of the State. It remains, and it grows stronger. This new France -means the birth into the moral order of Europe of a fresh and strong -reality. What had been for many years a mere vision, glimmering through -banked clouds, has become a tangible and habitable fact. The election -of President Poincaré, accepted on all sides as the token of a profound -change of spirit, has not in its results belied the prophets. Now, -beyond all doubt, deference must be paid to the tradition which regards -the French as an instantaneous, and, so to say, hair-trigger people. -Formulæ seem to change as rapidly as fashions; and the possibility of -return to a period of Saturday-to-Monday ministers has not yet been -banished to the limbo of the ridiculous. Allowance must be made for -the swiftness, the genius for falling into line, the brief passions of -unanimity so “temperamental” to the Republic. But at the end of the -account the change has lost nothing of its impressiveness. It is a -true, not a false dawn. - -M. Poincaré stands for many things: it is no mere flourish of words -to say that through him France heard and obeyed the call of her past. -She deliberately reverted to her origins, and her traditional sources -of strength. The new France put itself to school to old France. -Intellect, family tradition, gracious manners, thrift, minute industry, -a certain austere discipline of thought, and with all that an immense -cheerfulness, able to _ça ira_ itself out of any desperate pass--such -was _la douce France_ of M. René Bazin and of history. The folly must -not be imputed to me of supposing that the election of President -Poincaré restored, or will restore, that submerged world. But that -is the atmosphere evoked by his personality. The good M. Dupont and -that amiable plumpness, M. Durand, being of the earth earthy, and of -Latin earth into the bargain, are in no danger of being transformed -into angels of light. They will wink and chuckle as before over their -dominoes and their aperitives; they will try to anticipate each other -with the latest ambiguity of the comic paper and the vaudeville. But -they are none the less conscious of the new orientation, and they -adapt themselves to it with a purr of satisfaction. The lines on -which reconstruction proceeds are in the nature of things that are -inevitable. Patriotism is once more in fashion: were Hervé to revive -his brilliant dream of planting the tricolour on the dunghill he -would run some risk of being planted there himself. It is, no doubt, -unfortunate that the national idea should in our day find expression -universally in the increasing diversion of capital from productive -industry to unproductive armaments. Signs are not lacking that the -excess, or rather the frenzied debauch of which Europe has in this -regard been guilty, has created an impossible situation. The so-called -“strike of capital” even indicates that the point has been reached -at which the disease must either generate its own cure, or else kill -the patient. But while your ten competitors are arming more and more -heavily, it is foolish to stand in your shirt chanting the praises of -a millennium which obstinately refuses to arrive. France has accepted -the Three Years’ Service Law; and it is certain that no ministry of -the near future will dare to repeal that measure. This increase of the -army by fifty per cent. is expensive: it is a defeat for the party of -reason, if you will, and a triumph for that of violence. But it is -an act of sacrifice rendered necessary by events. Any possibility of -repeal is ruled out by the opening of old wounds in Alsace-Lorraine. -And because the Army Act must stand, the Loan must go through. On -that point, doubt is inadmissible: _la nouvelle France_ has made up -its mind. The conditions of issue of the new Rente, its immunity or -otherwise from taxation, even its amount, are questions in controversy. -The discussion on them, so far as it has proceeded, has been of extreme -interest as an illustration of French acumen in public finance; it -may become a text-book instance in due course, and it might even be -studied with profit by the financiers of the new Irish Land Act. The -French Treasury has already lost by the delay, but, borrowing in its -own market, it will at all events operate on better terms than any -of the other borrowing nations, now clamouring for admission to it. -But however details may be arranged, the fact that there must be an -issue is a thing settled. The new France is, in short, possessed of -the spirit of sacrifice. The patriotism that is in fashion is sincere -enough to pay the piper from whom it has called the tune. - -But it is in the region of ideas, rather than in that of current -policy, that we must seek for the key to the future. It would be -extravagant to say that the mocking hatred of Christianity has been -banished, and that the vendetta against the Church is at an end. -Despite M. Briand’s famous _apaisement_ speech, despite the success of -M. Poincaré’s “national” programme, the State has not yet returned even -to a position of neutrality. But the vivid colour of hope dominates the -horizon. Combes-ism is no longer opposed as unjust, it is dismissed -as vulgar. The boulevards may not have shed their scepticism, but at -all events they recognise religion as one of the ideal forces that -make men good citizens and gallant soldiers. As the army recovers its -prestige there is a return to the spirit of that strange and burning -remonstrance of Alexandre Dumas, the younger-- - -“Had I been Bazaine” (he wrote), “I would have set up a statue of the -Virgin in the midst of my army on the Fifteenth of August--not because -it was _Saint Napoleon_ but because it was _Sainte Marie_--and I would -have delivered battle against the God whom King William carries about -in his pocket, behind whom he speaks like a ventriloquist, and who is -not the God of battles, for the very simple reason that there is no God -of battles. I would have said to my soldiers: ‘My children, I place -the Virgin in your midst. See in her your daughter, your betrothed, -your wife, your sister, your mother. Over there is a masked “God” who -menaces her with insult. Defend her! Honour her feast with a victory!’ -And the Germans would have been defeated. There is, there will always -be, in the French soldier something of the Frank of Clovis, something -of the Crusader of Saint Louis.” - -The essence of truth distilled in that last sentence will more and -more impose itself. If soldiers will not fight on an empty stomach, -still less will they fight on an empty soul. A shrug, a sensualism, -an epigram, and the “lie of religion” is shattered beyond repair: so -far, so good. But with religion there has gone the whole category of -the ideal. In a world from which all values have been expelled, except -the values of appetite, there remains no principle of sacrifice. The -only maxim which it is capable of evolving from its own resources -is that of egotism, enlightened by prudence; for that _credo_ men -will do many things, but they will not die. Such a gospel may for a -time be expounded, and even practised, by the noisy minorities who -make laws and write books: the anonymous shoulders of the common -people are strong enough to carry that and heavier burdens. But the -peculiar weakness of any such philosophy is that it has only to be -generally accepted in order to become impossible. Egotism and the -pleasure-calculus will procure a brief, if not very respectable, -ecstasy for the masters, as they loll in their carved and curtained -litters, turning over with a languid hand the latest bibelot of -selfishness. But let that point of view infect the bearers of the -litter, and they will set it down with disturbing roughness. Morality -begins where hedonism ends. In France the evolution, whether conducted -in the personal consciousness of a master like Bourget, or in the -general mind and being, has followed the same curve to the same issue. -After Renan there was but one refinement possible: M. Anatole France -appeared. But the signs of dissolution have, of late, been accumulating -about this specialist in _patchouli_ and paganism. For instance, he has -been translated into English. Anatomists like M. Michaut, whose book -is one of the literary events of recent years, have made the tour of -his philosophy from Dan to Beersheba, and found all barren. Through the -_sociologisme_ of writers like Guyau, and the _solidarité_ of writers -like Bourgeois, the new France has come back to the old sanities. -The experiment of the passing generation consisted essentially in an -attempt to live without a brain or a conscience. That experiment, it -is curious to note, was pushed to its extreme by an English-writing, -French-trained Irishman, Mr. George Moore. It has reached its Vale. A -rhapsodist in the last issue of the _Sociological Review_ bewails, but -at any rate confesses, the change. It is bad enough that “reactionary” -illusions like patriotism should be returning to honour. But when you -find University students going to Mass----Going on week-days. And -Bergson and mysticism, construed as a tonic of action, setting the -fashion. - -In the field of politics, as such, the most interesting new fact is -the attitude of the Conservatives. For a long time, in the hope of -discrediting the Republic, they made it a principle to support not the -best but the worst Republican. A gradual process, culminating in the -shock of Casablanca and Agadir, has made manifest the hopelessness -of such merely negative action, if it could be called action. They -have come down into the arena. President Poincaré was their first -achievement. The Three Years’ Law of the Barthou Ministry was their -second. If at the following elections the ancient apathy and the -modern _m’enfichisme_, as it is styled, can be overcome, they will -reach the third, and that will be permanent. The five pistol-shots of -Madame Caillaux may very well prove to have been the first effective -dissipation of a slumber. - -The alignment of parties is, at all events, clearer than ever before. -On the one side, the Radicals and Radical-Socialists “unified” at Pau. -The essential principle and foundation of this group is the existence -of a state of war between the friends and enemies of the Republic. -The point of view is that of Jacobinism, but for the guillotine of -purification there has been substituted the administrative machine. It -is understood that the “eating of curates” is the normal occupation of -all adherents; but, of course, one appetite will exceed another. The -better is the unappeasable enemy of the merely good-- - -_Un pur trouve toujours un plus pur qui l’épure._ - -On the other side the new party of appeasement of MM. Briand and -Barthou. Its leaders and members have come to it, as to every central -position, from different camps and by different routes. Hammered upon -from the outside by German aggression, they demand domestic peace as -the first condition of national security. They ask for a _république -aérée et habitable_. They propose an army strengthened and increased -through the sacrifices of the rich and the middle classes. It is -a synthesis of Déroulède and Millerand, of militarism and social -transformation. - -M. Jaurès and his integral Socialists may, of course, be trusted to -find their place among the “pacifists.” The late Herr Bebel led the -German Social Democrats back to an acceptance of the national idea; but -not so M. Jaurès. A strategist at once bold and astute, who has never -known the responsibilities of office, to whom _la patrie_ is only a -gunmaker’s advertisement, he will almost certainly co-operate with the -reorganised _bloc_. - -It is for the prophets to tell us what the elections will bring forth. -For us, plain onlookers, the life of the most interesting and logical -nation in Europe has come to a crisis, the solution of which may -notably react not only upon civilisation and humanity--those great -abstractions--but upon ourselves, and the little parts we play in each. - - - - -THE SOLDIER-PRIESTS OF FRANCE - - -It makes me a little proud to remember that I was one of the few -writers in these countries to announce and celebrate the birth of -_la nouvelle France_ long before the coming of the war. For many -years the Republic has been in ill repute in the Catholic world. Men -thought of her as the home of Renan and scepticism, of Gambetta and -anti-clericalism, of Combes--the unspeakable Combes--and persecution, -of Anatole France and refined sensualism, of a score of lesser writers -and plain pornography. That interpretation of her life was never true -although it had elements of truth in it. Even in the old France there -were two strains: there was Rabelais as well as Pascal, Montaigne -as well as Bossuet, Voltaire as well as St. Francis de Sales. There -is, indeed, lodged in the very mind and temper of France a seed of -perilous adventure. Her courage is a constant temptation to dally with -the blasphemous and the foul: her lucidity--for vague and furtive -innuendoes are like a toothache to French style--doubles the offence -when she lapses. - -But on the other hand there was something peculiarly obnoxious in the -circumstance that these attacks on France proceeded in great part from -German sources. That there were many splendid Catholics in Germany was -of course true. They were strong enough in numbers and organisation -to have done something finer than throw themselves into the arms of -Prussianism. The failure of the Centre Party in that regard will lie -as a heavy cloud on its future. But that German Catholics should have -lent themselves, as they did, to a systematic denigration of France in -foreign periodicals was contemptible. The truth is that every German -in the modern period has become infected with the superstition that -he belongs to the chosen race. Matthew Arnold--who, for the rest, did -not himself believe very luminously in God--started in these countries -the notion that the war of 1870 was, as he called it, the judgment -of Judæa on Greece. That a Protestant God should have thus judged a -country whose old title was that of “eldest daughter of the Church,” -was an interpretation of events peculiarly agreeable to militant -Protestants both in England and Germany. But that Catholics should -have assimilated such a view was remarkable. It is true that French -policy played disastrously into the hands of Bismarck. Gambetta’s -error of anti-clericalism led from disintegration to disintegration. -Bismarck has left on record statements of his reasons for embarking on -the _Kulturkampf_, which for frigid wickedness of purpose cannot be -equalled in political literature. - -“The laurels of Sadowa and Sedan do not satisfy my ambitions, I have a -more glorious mission, that of making myself master of Catholicism.” - -“The enemy of Germany is Pontifical Rome. That is the danger which -menaces the relations of Germany and France. If France identifies -herself with Rome she constitutes herself by that fact alone the sworn -enemy of Germany.” - -France made her mistakes, but before the war she had begun to correct -and cancel them. The gradual return to fair play from the midnight -bigotry of Combes to the policy of appeasement of M. Briand, and the -execution of that policy by M. Poincaré was very marked in all its -stages. And in the measure in which that correction of old mistakes -and tyrannies is made, not only in France but under every other Allied -Flag, will the coming victory repay the blood that is buying it. But -that German Catholics should have held up their country before the -world as a shining model, and France as an abandoned and degenerate -nation, is a thing intelligible only to those who know the vanity and -self-exaltation of the modern German. While they were thus fabling, -who really spoke for Germany in the ear of the world? These are the -Germans. Schopenhauer with his scientific pessimism, truer indeed -and nobler than any light philosophy of pleasure, but profoundly -anti-Christian. Treitschke, who taught that the State is above all -moral laws. A line of theologians from Strauss to Harnack and his -contemporaries, who claimed to have shredded into mere rags of myth -the historical beginning of the Christian faith and fold. Nietzsche, -who “transcended morality” for the individual as Treitschke had done -for the State, and preached pride, pleasure and domination as the -cardinal virtues. Nietzsche who wrote-- - -“They have said to you: Happy are the peaceful! but I say to you: Happy -are the warriors, for they shall be called not the sons of Jehovah, but -the sons of Odin, who is greater than Jehovah!” - -Who else stood for German thought? Haeckel, whose _Riddle of the -Universe_ carried its vulgar “omniscience” of materialism in sixpenny -editions all round the world. And the Catholic spokesmen of such a -people cried out to Heaven against the country of Coppée and de Mun, of -Bazin, Barrès, Bourget, Ferdinand Brunetière and all the noblest voices -of our time. One trivial touch is worth adding to the picture. The -Catholic Committee of Action in France has established a fact, which, -indeed, was already known, namely, that great numbers of the obscene -books which disgrace some bookstalls in Paris are normally printed in -French in Budapest, Vienna and certain German cities. - -Such was the contrast between the two peoples. The sins of France were -in process of amendment. The corruptions of thought for which she was -responsible had this mitigating quality: that they were such as destroy -only those who practise them. And the true France, devoted to the -establishment of a régime of world-peace, held out hospitable hands to -every ideal of gracious import in science, religion and literature, -wherever it arose. The essential sin of Prussia, on the contrary, -was, that, worshipping only force, she planned the subjugation of all -Europe. The goal of domination at which she aimed could be reached only -through an ocean of blood. She willed war, she willed murder, and to -prepare her way she sought to impose on the world a picture in which -she appeared as a Knight of the Holy Ghost “in shining armour,” and -all the other non-Germanic nations as robber-empires, degenerates, -incompetents. - -These words of introduction were necessary in view of the systematic -libelling of France which goes on in certain obscure papers, and which -proceeds, as all the world knows, chiefly from German organisations -in the United States. But the purpose of this article is not -controversial, but positive. It is concerned merely to give a random -glimpse of the heroism with which at this moment in the trenches, -the camps, and the hospitals the priests of France are serving the -tricolour of the transfigured Republic. - -A literature on the subject is already in existence. The book of the -Abbé Klein, well known for his luminous study of the United States, -has been translated into English: for that reason, and also because -it is less rich in detail, I do not draw on it. The pictures of war -which follow are derived mainly from a collection of soldiers’ letters, -edited by Ernest Daudet, from _Les Soutanes sous la Mitraille_, by -the Abbé René Gaell, _prêtre-infirmier_, and from _Le Clergé, Les -Catholiques, et la Guerre_, by Gabriel Langlois, with a preface by Mgr. -Herscher, Archbishop of Laodicea. - -Priests and ecclesiastical students are serving in the armies of the -Republic in many capacities. Some are chaplains, regularly attached to -the army ambulances and hospitals: the old virus of anti-clericalism -was still active enough to delay their nomination till the eleventh -hour. Others are doing the same work, but as volunteers under a scheme -inaugurated by the late Comte de Mun. Still others are employed as -stretcher-bearers or hospital attendants. The balance, the great -majority, are fighting side by side with their fellow-citizens as -plain soldiers of the Army of Liberation. This inclusion of priests -in the ranks is peculiar to France. It dates from the adoption of -the Two Years’ Law, when, on the shortening of the term of military -service, all exemptions were suppressed. It is hardly to be denied that -the measure was inspired less by logic than by malice. But in actual -working out it has recoiled singularly on those who saw in it a lever -for the disintegration of the Church. The soldier-priests have been the -little leaven that has leavened the whole mass. - -It is impossible to estimate the total number engaged under all these -heads. We do know that there are not less than twenty thousand occupied -in the care of the wounded, and that sixty thousand is a conservative -total estimate. They are sown through every corps of the Grand Army, -and their influence would seem to be as great with the _gamin_ and -the _gouailleur_ of Paris as with the simplest peasant of Brittany or -Alsace. - -The first picture that seizes the imagination is the return of the -soldier-priests from all the ends of the earth to give their answer to -the crime of Prussia. From foreign universities, from Constantinople, -Jerusalem, Madagascar, the Americas, from Ireland itself they came, -trooping at the sound of the bugle of defence. It is, of course, -foolish to suppose that all, or most of them, had been driven into -enforced exile: most of them were voluntarily engaged in teaching -or missionary work, but some were, in the truest and saddest sense, -exiles. What matter! Their mother France had sinned, but her sins -were as snow against the scarlet brutality of Prussia. M. Bompard, -the French Ambassador at Constantinople, gives in his official report -a vivid picture of the priests of every Order eagerly imploring -facilities--almost quarrelling in their ardour--to return to France and -the flag without a moment’s delay. - -“If I live for a hundred years,” writes the Archbishop of Laodicea, -“I shall never forget the spectacle I witnessed at the station of -Fribourg (Switzerland) during the days of mobilisation.... I saw a -great crowd of compatriots who, with shouts of ‘France for ever!’ -‘Switzerland for ever!’ were streaming into the last train. Among them -I noticed many young men wearing soutanes or other ecclesiastical -costume. When I learned that they were expelled religious I could not -forbear expressing to them my gratitude and enthusiasm. I shall never -forget the generous eagerness with which they were flying to the help -of France. They declared themselves ready to do their duty, their -whole duty. A sympathetic crowd surrounded them, cheering heartily. I -shall always have before my eyes that picture of waving handkerchiefs, -of young manly faces, radiant with faith and hope. The mobilisation -appeared to me in all its beauty ‘symbolised by a sword surmounted by a -cross.’” - -So they returned, and, once in the field, their record is almost -monotonous in its heroism. Mgr. Herscher truly describes the collection -of incidents and letters assembled by M. Langlois as a “breviary of -patriotism.” You find in it a cloud of witnesses testifying to the -fashion in which, with the first roar of the guns, religion came back -to honour. - -“There are neither pagans nor sceptics here,” writes one young soldier. -“Everybody is glad, if he has five minutes, to spend them before the -altar. Before the war many were ashamed to be seen kneeling or making -the sign of the Cross; you find no one like that now.” - -“The cannon,” says another, “is a good converter.” “Nothing gives you -the feeling of absolute dependence on God so well as twenty-four hours -in the trenches.” “If my friends saw me now,” runs the confession of -a Parisian, “they would certainly not recognize me, me the mocker who -believed in nothing. I am transformed.” The chief anxiety of those who -have strayed, and come back, is to let their people at home know that -they died in the faith of Christ. “Tell my wife, father, to teach the -little one her prayers. That is the best of all!” runs a typical last -message. - -“I do not fear death,” writes a fatally wounded boy of twenty-two. “I -have seen it and see it too close this moment: there is nothing horrid -about it, for it leads to happiness.” - -The Abbé Morette, who served in 1870, is, in this war, an army -chaplain. He gives graphic and touching pictures of the re-awakening. - -“When we are fortunate enough to be able to set up our field chapel, -or to celebrate Mass and Benediction in some church half-destroyed -by the enemy, it is a curious spectacle to see the officers mingled -indifferently with their men ‘waiting their turn.’ No favour is shown -to the commissioned ranks--one chaplain hears the confession, the other -gives Holy Communion. Sometimes when danger is reported too near one -gives Communion that evening... by way of _viaticum_. Sometimes when -the order to advance comes unexpectedly we have to give absolution _en -bloc_ to a whole company ... on condition of subsequent confession -later when the recipient returns... if he does return!” - -It is the same with the enemy’s wounded. The Abbé, not without a -gleam of humour, shows himself acting as interpreter between a French -Lutheran minister, who did not know German, and German wounded of his -denomination. “The most scrupulous theologian might perhaps find in my -exhortations certain grammatical faults, but not, I think, any capital -error of dogma.” - -Assuredly it is long years since, in the fair plains of France, Mass -was celebrated in such settings of beauty and terror. This is how a -Montmartrois attended it in a village church-- - -“I was returning with the rest of a fatigue party from digging potatoes -for the company.... With the clay still on my hands I managed to work -my way into a place beside my lieutenant, a commandant, a sergeant, and -some comrades. The elevation had been reached.... And then in the choir -the fresh, clear voices of young girls intoned the canticle: ‘Mary, -Queen of France, protect us!’ My nerves could not bear the tension, and -then ... well, I hid my face in my képi. - -“They sang very prettily, the little country maidens, and the three -canticles to Joan of Arc (which I did not know!) were ‘the right thing -in the right place.’... I offered a prayer of thanks to the good God -for having protected me against all dangers. - -“The poor old priest... Mass finished, turned round in front of -the altar and said to us in a strangled voice: ‘And now, valiant -soldiers,... go to victory!’” - -Or they pray in the open. - -“Imagine a very beautiful valley, planted with great trees all -yellowing with autumn, horses tied to every trunk, huts of every kind, -shape, and style, soldiers of all arms: the whole forming a picture of -incomparable dignity. - -“The altar was set up against two giant oaks. There were more than a -thousand soldiers present, including the Staff, generals, colonels and -commandants.” - -And this is how Cardinal Lucon celebrated his Christmas Mass in a -cellar in bombarded Rheims-- - -“I shall never forget that Christmas night. The altar was supported on -champagne-cases, and each person assisting had a champagne-case for -a seat. There were present refugees who have nowhere else to sleep, -citizens taking refuge from the shells, and at least 800 soldiers -and officers of all grades. The hymns were sung by a group of fifty -soldiers. They sang all our popular hymns.... It was very impressive; -we seemed to have returned to the Catacombs.” - -The Abbé Félicien Laroutzet, second-lieutenant in the 144th of the -Line, paints us still another Mass with a brush steeped in even -stranger colours. He had been permitted to say Mass for the first time -for a month-- - -“Hardly had I finished the Elevation than a German shell hit the tower -just above the choir, and plunged the church in darkness. Then a -second. It was to be feared that a third would enter by the windows and -shatter the altar to fragments. During the Communion the third shell -arrived. Almost complete darkness ensued, but the altar, the curé, and -myself went untouched. I finished Communion as quickly as possible, and -we escaped.” - -This famous encounter, he adds, secured his promotion to the grade of -second-lieutenant. - -And so on, and so on. All behind the front; with shells, friendly and -hostile, whistling in a perpetual criss-cross overhead, on improvised -altars; with every idle vanity shrivelled under the scrutiny of death, -the soldiers of France assist humbly at the supreme sacrifice. As -the celebrant raises for adoration the Host, transubstantiated from -bread to the Body of Christ, the buglers lift their instruments, and a -fanfare of spiritual triumph cleaves through the thunder of the guns. -The _Ave Maria_ and the _Stabat Mater_, chanted in stout soldier -voices, are followed by the _Marseillaise_. Thus does France, returned -to her origins, repel the invader of her peaceful land, the ravager of -homes, the profaner of churches. - -When we come to the priest-combatants, the _curés sac-au-dos_, the -record is one of stainless and noble heroism. As Mgr. Herscher says, it -would be necessary to invent a new language in order to characterise -justly what have become deeds of every day. It is not in “clerical” -newspapers that the courage of the soldier-priest is enshrined, but in -the columns of the _Journal Officiel_. The Legion of Honour and the -Military Medal have been awarded in numerous instances, and citations -in the Orders of the Day have been still more frequent. - -Thus Corporal de Gironde, of the 81st of the Line, receives the -Military Medal for extraordinarily daring patrol work. He is a Jesuit. -The Dominican Corporal Jaméguy rallies, within fifty yards of the -German trenches, a party of five unwounded and eight wounded men who -had been cut off, and leads them all into safety the next day under a -vicious fire. The Abbé Boravalle writes-- - -“After a very hot day our commandant announced that he was making -recommendations in our company for promotion to the rank of corporal. -Of four recommended, three were priests: I am proud to be one of them.” - -Incidents of devoted heroism, in which there is a swift counterchange -between the rôle of soldier and that of priest, are almost innumerable: -certainly no selection can convey a just notion of their abundance. Let -me quote the words of a writer in the _Journal de Genève_, the chief -organ of Swiss Protestantism-- - -“Observe that there is not a list of those who have fallen on the field -of honour or who are cited in the Order of the Day of the Army in which -you will not find priests. Such a one carried the flag into action; -another, recommended for the Legion of Honour, was killed that very -day; a third, seeing his company waver--he was a lieutenant--leaped to -their head shouting, ‘I am a priest. I do not fear death! Forward! He -recovered the position, but fell riddled with bullets. - -“Or we read such stories as this: After the battle, amongst the wounded -and agonising, a soldier not so badly wounded as the rest dragged -himself to an erect position and cried out to the dying: ‘I am a -priest. Receive absolution!’ And he blessed them with his mutilated -hand.” - -Take again the testimony of M. Frédéric Masson, a great writer, but no -Catholic-- - -“What Frenchmen were the first to march? Who gave the example, who went -to death instantly and without a murmur, who merited the epaulettes and -the crosses? The priests. - -“There they are with their knapsacks on their backs, and soon the -knapsacks will be off by order of our generals. In this supreme peril -we need officers. And many, for many are being killed. You will see the -priests in command of sections, companies--who knows if you will not -see them in command of regiments if there are any priests left! There -they are all the braver because it is their duty to be tender: _beati -milites_, and if they are a little short in military instruction, which -is easily acquired, one recalls the saying of Bonaparte to Subry--they -have what is not to be acquired: contempt for death, for they are -priests and they believe.” - -The superior education of the _prêtre-soldat_, as compared with the -majority of his comrades, gives to his narrative letters a special -value. A seminarist describes a night surprise on a German sentry post-- - -“I crawl through the mud, stopping for five minutes every three or four -yards... reach the edge of the canal and drop quietly in.... I advance -very slowly, the sentry is not more than ten paces away. But suddenly -my teeth begin to chatter, and I am unable, for all my efforts, to keep -my jaws quiet. Fear? No, cold!... I am obliged to take my handkerchief -and tie it round my head as if I had the toothache....” - -He surprises the sentry, chokes him into insensibility, trusses him up, -and crawls back to his men. The reconnaissance completed they return to -their lair in a little wood. They are troubled about the fate of the -sentry. - -“My sergeant, my two soldiers, and myself recite a decade of the Rosary -for him. One of the soldiers refused at first to pray for a Boche. It -was necessary to explain a whole heap of theological matters to him -on charity in time of war. He at last consented on condition that we -should say two other decades for our own dear soldiers.... I do not -dare to say that I find pleasure in the work I have to do. But when I -think of our poor France, and of the crimes of these barbarians: if you -knew what they have done!” - -So runs the record. Everywhere you find the priest first in danger, and -in abnegation, confessing his comrades in the trenches, then heading -their bayonet-charge; after the battle, his rifle laid aside, he is -whispering consolation into the ear of some poor broken enemy, Pole or -German, launched against civilisation by the bloodthirsty megalomania -of a Prussian Emperor. - -I cannot close this paper of random instances without transcribing in -full the story of Sister Julie of Gerbeviller. This is how her name -stands in the _Journal Officiel_-- - -“By order of the Minister of War to be Chevalier of the Legion of -Honour: Mme. Amélie Rigard, in religion Sister Julie, nurse at the -field hospital of Gerbeviller.” - -Appointed by her Superior to this hospital, she remained at her post -during an incessant bombardment in charge of a thousand wounded. She -fed and cared for them, and saved them, by the calm authority of her -manner, from being put to death during the German occupation. Can one -read without a thrill of pride and admiration this glorious salute paid -by soldiers of France to the heroic nun? - -On the recapture of Gerbeviller a squadron of _chasseurs_ halts before -the hospital.... The captain asks to see Sister Julie. - -“Sister, will you do us a favour? Permit me to parade my soldiers -before you.” - -Prevailing with difficulty over her modesty, the captain has his way. -Turning to his squadron, he orders the “Portez lance!” - -“Comrades, you remember when we checked the Germans here on August -25th. We saw in this direction huge flames rising up into the heavens. -You see what these flames meant.... - -“Well in the middle of this evacuated village, under the shells and -bullets, even after the retreat of our heroic infantry who--one against -ten--had held the bridge so long, a woman remained here at the post of -charity attending to the wounded, lavishing her care on all. It was -Sister Julie. - -“The President of the Republic has hung on her breast the Cross of the -brave. Salute it!” - -So, with swords and lances at the salute, the squadron swept on to -battle. - -It is a noble and touching episode, worthy of France, and there were -many such as Sister Julie in the dark days of retreat. Innumerable, -patient, fearless women tended the poilu back to health, won the whole -nation to the height of resolution and confidence from which it now so -confidently confronts the future. - -These books are a rich, even an inexhaustible repository of Catholic -heroism. It will be a pity, and a grave loss to the literature of the -war, if they are not made available for English readers. France has -long enough been judged for her sins; it is time that there was some -celebration of her virtues. She has been long enough condemned on a -bill of indictment drafted by her enemies, and would-be conquerors: it -is time that we listened to her speaking for herself. Nor in praising -France do I, or do my fellow-writers, think it necessary to blacken -German Catholicism. Simple, misled, unfree units of the Central Powers -are dying all over Europe at the bidding of two disastrous Emperors: -these plain soldiers, obeying the call of patriotism and deprived of -any true vision of things, are dying in good faith, in our good Faith, -and dying well. But over all the leaders of German Catholicism lies -the red cloud of blood with which the statecraft of their country has -enveloped the world. When they burned Louvain, the barbarians lit a -fire which is not easily to be put out. - - - - -THE GOSPEL OF THE DEVIL - - -I.--BISMARCK - -What is the Devil’s Gospel? I take it that the three main articles are -violence, intellect, and a certain malign splendour of domination. If -that is the formula of the Courts of Hell, it is certainly the formula -of Prussianism. - -There is here no question of mere instinctive egotism. We are in -presence of an Evangel of Conquest, fully worked out, and completely -conscious of itself. Later in this series we shall have an opportunity -of examining the wild work of some of the Berlin theorists of -blackguardism. But before there was a theory, there was a fact. In -the world of action Prussia had thrown up two huge mountain-peaks of -achievement: Frederick the Great, so grossly flattered by Carlyle, -and Bismarck. Between them yawns that Valley of Purification to which -Jena marks the entrance. For that interregnum of humility Prussia is -truly great: your heart beats with Körner, with Fichte, even with the -cloudy Hegel. But two generations later the type is once more master: -Frederick, reincarnated, calls himself Otto Eduarde Leopold Bismarck -Schönhausen. He is the modern Wotan to whom Germany has built her -altars. - -In that curious non-moral mode of writing history for which that German -“moralist,” Carlyle, was chiefly responsible Bismarck was a “great -man.” He changed the map of Europe. He stole Schleswig-Holstein from -Denmark; euchred Austria out of her share of the spoils; and taking, -as his raw materials, the old free German States, the blood of France, -and the imbecile bluff of Napoleon, he produced Modern Germany. Let us -observe the light of idealism in which he worked. It is not literature, -or imagination, or mere phrase-spinning to say that Bismarck made -cruelty his sacrament. I am anxious to make this study as objective and -free from prejudice as possible. It is Bismarck who speaks for himself -in 1849-- - -“It is desirable and necessary to improve the social and political -condition of Germany; this, however, cannot be brought about by -resolutions, and votes of majorities or speeches of individuals, but by -_blood and iron_.” - -If this was Bismarck’s own guiding star, there were others who -recognised it as clearly as himself. When the list of a suggested new -Cabinet was presented to Frederick William IV in just that year, 1849, -he drew a thick line through Bismarck’s name and wrote opposite it in -the margin-- - -“Red-hot reactionary. Likes the smell of blood. May be employed later -on.” - -When employed later on--in France--he did not belie the nostril -diagnosis. I quote from Hoche’s _Bismarck Intime_-- - -“Apropos of the burnt villages and the peasants who were burnt, -Bismarck remarked that the smell from the villages was ‘like the smell -of roast onions.’ Favre remarked to Bismarck that ladies were to be -seen strolling on the boulevards, and pretty, healthy children were -playing around. ‘You surprise me,’ said Bismarck; ‘I thought you had -already eaten all the children.’ - -“Favre complained to Bismarck that his soldiers had fired on a -hospital, _L’Hospice des Quinze-Vingts_: ‘Why not?’ he replied. ‘The -French fired on our soldiers who were vigorous and strong.’” - -The Prussia, to whose tradition he succeeded, lives in the irony or -indignant protest of the great humanists. I cite but two. “War,” said -Mirabeau, “is the national industry of Prussia.” And Mr. Frederic -Harrison, in a superb essay, published when Germany was hammering at -the gates of Paris in 1870–71, drew out a sound digest of title-- - -“Prussia is the sole European kingdom which has been built up -province by province on the battlefield, cemented stone by stone in -blood. Its kings have been soldiers; sometimes generals, sometimes -drill-sergeants, but ever soldiers; its people are a drilled nation of -soldiers on furlough; its sovereign is simply commander-in-chief; its -aristocracy are officers of the staff; its capital is a camp.” - -He went on to characterise in words that bite deeper since Liége, -Louvain, and Antwerp-- - -“Unhappily the gospel of the sword has sunk deeper into the entire -Prussian people than any other in Europe. The social system being that -of an army, and each citizen drilled man by man, there is no sign of -national conscience in the matter. And this servile temper, begotten -by this eternal drill, inclines a whole nation to repeat as if by word -of command, and perhaps to believe, the convenient sophisms which the -chief of its staff puts into their mouths.” - -His central belief was that power consists in bullying. Had he thought -things over he might, perhaps, have noticed that it costs more strength -to lift a man up than to knock him down. He chose the other way. His -spiritual successors tell you that the meaning of the black, red, and -white of the German tricolour is: “Through night and blood to the -light.” Germany had legitimate ambitions. There are ways of influencing -the world that do not involve war: it was not powder, or bayonets, -or even howitzers that laid Europe in intellectual bondage to Kant. -Bismarck chose the formula of “Blood and Iron.” What it cost he himself -will tell us, speaking out of the shadows and desolation of old age. -The quotation is from Busch, his less discreet Boswell-- - -“‘There is no doubt, however,’ said Bismarck, ‘that I have caused -unhappiness to great numbers. But for me three great wars would not -have taken place. Eighty thousand men would not have been killed, and -would not now be mourned by parents, brothers, sisters, and widows.’ -‘And sweethearts,’ I added somewhat prosaically and inconsiderately. -‘And sweethearts,’ he repeated. ‘I have settled that with God, however. -But I have had little, if any, pleasure from all that I have done, -while on the contrary, I have had a great deal of worry, anxiety, and -trouble.’” - -He sought power, and, in seeking it, he had little regard for scraps -of paper. Frederick the Great had taught him that, if a ruler is -sometimes bound to sacrifice his life, he is often bound to sacrifice -his honour to the greatness of the State. Maturely, coldly, with ashes -fallen over all the flames of passion, he tells us in his _Reflections -and Reminiscences_ how he forced on the Franco-German War. There are -versions of the story more vivid and so far more vile. The Ems telegram -has arrived. Bismarck is dining with von Moltke and Roon, and all -three fail to find anything resembling war in it. But the Prince has a -“conviction”-- - -“Under this conviction I made use of the royal authorisation -communicated to me through Abeken, to publish the contents of the -telegram; and in the presence of my two guests I reduced the telegram -by striking out words, but without adding or altering.... - -“The difference in the effect of the abbreviated text of the Ems -telegram as compared with that produced by the original was not the -result of stronger words but of the form which made this announcement -seem decisive, _while Abeken’s version would only have been regarded -as a fragment of a negotiation still pending, and to be continued at -Berlin_. - -“After I had read out the concentrated edition to my two guests, Moltke -remarked: ‘Now it has a different ring; it sounded before like a -parley; now it is like a flourish in answer to a challenge.’” - -Bismarck then explained what he would do with his “concentrated -edition.” - -“This explanation brought in the two generals a revulsion to a more -joyous mood, the liveliness of which surprised me. They had suddenly -recovered their pleasure in eating and drinking, and spoke in a more -cheerful vein. Roon said: ‘Our God of old lives still, and will not -let us perish in disgrace.’ Moltke so far relinquished his passive -equanimity that, glancing up joyously towards the ceiling, and -abandoning his usual punctiliousness of speech, he smote his hand upon -his breast and said: ‘If I may but live to lead our armies in such a -war, then the devil may come directly afterwards and fetch away the -“old carcase.”’” - -If the God of Roon, the God of falsified telegrams, was the same God -with whom Bismarck “settled matters” regarding his eighty thousand -slain, that strange compact of reconciliation is readily intelligible. -Otherwise, no! - -If Bismarck made cruelty his sacrament, in the gross, he was far from -neglecting details. No torch lit a village in France, no finger pulled -a trigger against non-combatants, that was not sped by his counsel. I -first read his words in Belgium as the stories of Liége, and Visé, and -Aerschot, and Louvain poured in-- - -“True strategy consists in hitting your enemy and hitting him hard. -Above all, you must inflict on the inhabitants of invaded towns the -maximum of suffering, so that they may become sick of the struggle, and -may bring pressure to bear on their government to discontinue it. You -must leave the people through whom you march only their eyes to weep -with. - -“In every case the principle which guided our general was that war must -be made terrible to the civil population so that it may sue for peace.” - -And when Favre, coming out from the heroic defence of Paris, appealed -to him in name of that “brotherhood which binds the brave of all the -earth,” the Wotan of modern Germany replied-- - -“‘You speak of your resistance! You are proud of your resistance. Well, -let me tell you, if M. Trochu were a German general, I would shoot him -this evening. You have not the right--do you understand?--in the face -of God, in the face of humanity, for mere military vainglory, to expose -to the horrors of famine a city of two millions.... Do not speak of -your resistance, it is criminal!’” - -Abeken, who was called “Bismarck’s Pen,” wrote of his chief-- - -“Goethe’s saying, ‘Faithful to one aim, even on a crooked road,’ suits -him well.” - -Such was the founder of the German Empire, and such the methods by -which he founded it. - - -II.--NIETZSCHE - -It is in no way surprising to find defenders of the calamitous prophet -of Hohenzollernism active to prove that he meant this fine thing, -and that, and did not mean blood and domination. The truth is that -only too many English writers allowed themselves to be tarred with -the Nietzschean brush. They made him a cult, a boom, a pinnacle of -superior vision. Now that the Moloch, whose high priests were beyond -all others Nietzsche and Houston Stewart Chamberlain, is exacting his -awful tribute, the worshippers, once so self-confident, begin to fear a -little for their own reputations. For the issue of this war is to kill -Prussianism, not only in Germany, but in the whole life and philosophy -of Europe. The universal watchword is: “Never again!” - -The vogue of the Supermaniacs is, perhaps, best explained by -the curious lack of seriousness in dealing with ideas which is -characteristic of the English mind in its worst periods. Great journals -flatter the Harnacks and the Euckens and the rest in their attempt -to deny all authenticity to the “scraps of paper” on which Christian -belief is founded, and wonder, in the next column, why people are not -going to church. Professor Cramb--who, by the way, is painfully German -in his “anti-German” book--touches upon this inexplicable unreality of -English thought. He suggests that it has counted for much in producing -in Germany that professorial contempt which one finds, especially, in -a writer like Treitschke. When your Prussian says: “Fill me a bath of -blood!” he means blood. When your English critic reads it, he says, too -often: “What a vivid image!” - -Of the “deep damnation” which lies at the heart of the Nietzschean -philosophy no doubt is admissible. It is idle to say that he -contradicted himself at twenty turns, and that especially he hated -the professors and raked them with the shrapnel of his irony. It is -the way of supermen to hate other supermen. It is the badge of the -tribe. Of all his writings Germany took and absorbed just as much as -fitted in with her mood of domination and Empire. Hauptmann--another -of the flattered renegades--told us the other day that if you open -the knapsack of a German soldier you will probably find in it a copy -of _Thus Spake Zarathustra_. Nietzsche was angry with the professors -only because they preferred obscure, and he preferred lucid brutality. -Not since Lucifer was so much light used to dark ends. Not since Diana -was great in Ephesus were such beautiful images cast or carven in the -service of a false worship. He made German dance, as before him, only -Heine had done. - -“I have the idea,” he wrote, “that with _Zarathustra_ I have brought -the German language to its point of perfection.” - -The boast is probably true. The devil was always a good stylist, and it -is not inappropriate that when his gospel is at its worst, his prose -should be at its best. We may charitably assume that those whom he led -off the plain paths of life into his foul and blood-bathed jungles, -were taken captive, not by his message, but by his music. - -What then was his creed, or rather his vision? For he was the -mystagogue of Prussianism, who chanted but never explained. As -in the case of Bismarck, I propose to exclude as far as possible -anything written _ad hoc_, or since the war. My first witness is -Alfred Fouillée, the doyen of French philosophy, Whose _Nietzsche et -l’Immoralisme_ appeared in 1902 (the unfamiliarity of Fouillée’s name -is a biting satire on our leaders of thought)-- - -“If the Vandals had read a course in Hegelian metaphysics, they would -have held the same language as Nietzsche.” - -The popular instinct which named the Prussians the Huns was thus long -anticipated by the greatest Platonist in Europe. - - * * * * * - -To Nietzsche the whole motive behind life is a sort of metaphysical -symbol which he calls the Will-to-Power. The whole task of life is -to impose your power on others _an andern Macht auslassen_. With what -aim? To evolve the Superman. But in this struggle of all against all -we must, in a world divided into nations and classes, struggle for the -victory of some nation and some fashion of government. For Prussia, and -for an aristocracy more scientifically cruel than the world has ever -known. And what is the first step towards this Elysium? War, and again -war. War, with the formula of the Assassins for its formula-- - -“Nothing is true, everything is permitted.” - - * * * * * - -It is idle to remind us that Nietzsche touched life at other points, -and that in his flaming incoherence you will find contradictions of -this vision. For it was this vision of Attila, and no other, that -conquered the imagination of Prussia. She desired all Europe for an -Empire, and after that the seas, and at last the world. It needed but -one further step in this mysticism of the madhouse to decree divine -honours to the Kaiser. - -Now let Nietzsche speak for himself. Thus spake Zarathustra on the -morality of war-- - -“You shall love peace as a means to new wars, and a short peace better -than a long.... - -“I do not counsel you labour, I do not counsel you peace, but victory. -Let your labour be a conflict, and your peace a victory.... - -“It was said of old that a good cause sanctifies war; but I say to you -that a good war sanctifies any cause.” - -As to what he meant by a “good” war he leaves us in no doubt. He meant -simply a war in which a victorious Prussia would slay and burn without -measure and without pity. - -“My brothers, I place above you this new Table of the Law: Be hard!” - - * * * * * - -Zarathustra washes, with shame, his hands, because they have aided -someone who was suffering. “Nay, I labour to cleanse my very soul” of -the sin of pity, he adds. - -“I dream,” he cries, “of an association of men who would be whole and -complete, who would know no compromise, and who would give themselves -the name of destroyers....” - -In memorial verses on the death of a friend, killed in France in 1870, -he writes-- - -“Even in the hour of death he ordered men, and he ordered them to -destroy.” - -The three cardinal virtues of the warrior are “pleasure, pride and the -instinct of domination.” - -“If I am convinced”--he means, plainly, “Since I am convinced”--he -writes, “that harshness, cruelty, trickery, audacity, and the mood of -battle tend to augment the vitality of man, I shall say Yes! to evil, -and sin....” - -And lest any of his defenders should seek to explain away this very -coherent doctrine as “poetry,” let it be remembered that this was a man -who had seen war, much of the war of 1870. During its actual progress -he wrote deliberately a Satanic pæan from which he never receded-- - -“On the one hand they (the Democrats) conjure up systems of European -equilibrium; on the other hand, they do their best to deprive absolute -sovereigns of the right to declare war.... They feel it incumbent on -them to weaken the monarchical instinct of the masses, and do weaken it -by propagating amongst them the liberal and optimistic conception of -the world which has its roots in the doctrines of French rationalism -and the Revolution; that is, in a philosophy altogether foreign to the -German spirit, a Latin platitude, devoid of any metaphysical meaning.” - -We “must have war, and war again.” - -“It will not, therefore, be thought that I do ill when I raise here -the pæan of war. The resonance of its silver bow is terrible. It comes -to us sombre as night; nevertheless, Apollo accompanies, Apollo the -rightful leader of states, the god who purifies them.... Let us say it -then; war is necessary to the state, as the slave is to society.” - - * * * * * - -This transition leads us without a break on to some amiable views -regarding the internal organization of states. To Nietzsche the mass of -humanity is a sweating negligibility-- - -“The misery of those who live by labour must be made yet more rigorous, -in order that a very few Olympian men may create a world of art.” -(Unnecessary to say that the son of the Pastor of Naumburg was to have -a life membership of Olympus.) “At their expense, by the artifice of -unpaid labour, the privileged classes should be relieved from the -struggle for life, and given such new conditions that they can create, -and satisfy a new order of needs.... And if it is true to say that -the Greeks were destroyed by slavery, this other affirmation is most -certainly even truer; for lack of slavery, we are perishing.” - -The reader can but be astonished at the modesty of the slightly -impecunious professor from Basel. Why did he not call himself a god? -Why a mere superman? - -On the subject of God and gods, however, he had views of his own. Just -as Fichte used to say to his philosophical students at a certain point -in the course: “To-morrow, gentlemen, I will proceed to create God!” -so Nietzsche was never tired of repeating: “I have killed God!” His -argument is very simple-- - -“If there did exist gods, how could I bear not to be a god? -Consequently, there are no gods.” - -As to that special mode of worship called Christianity, upon which all -justice, love, pity, and help of our neighbours, is in the tradition of -Europe, immovably based, he is unable to speak with even a colour of -sanity. - -“The Christian concept of God--God as the deity of the sick, God as -spider, God as spirit--is one of the most corrupt concepts of God that -have ever been attained on earth.” Christianity and alcohol are “the -two great instruments of corruption.” - -That he said, “You are going among women. Do not forget your whip!” -I do not regard as essential to his philosophy. Most men have said -angry things about women at one time or other. But it does happen that -the position of women is more abject in Germany than anywhere else in -Europe. And it does happen that Nietzsche also said-- - -“For man, happiness lies in the formula, I desire. For woman, in the -formula, he desires.” - -And also “man is to be reared for war, woman for the recreation of the -warrior. All the rest is folly.” - -Did Hauptmann’s Germans, one wonders, whip out their new knapsack -Bibles and run over this text before they entered Aerschot and Louvain? - -In his practical ethics he works out the theory of the Ems telegram and -the Berlin Press Bureau-- - -“In point of fact it matters greatly to what end one lies, whether one -preserves or destroys by means of falsehood.” - -It would be a simple weariness to multiply passages in greater -abundance. They are all of the same texture, for, despite incoherence -and contradictions, they all come from the same centre of corruption, -the Will-to-Power. It is a long-drawn-out Metaphysics of Bullying, -nothing less and nothing more. - -One has only to think of the soil into which seed like this was dropped -in order to understand the harvest of desolation that the swords are -now reaping. Think of Prussia, flattered by all the world--even by -Matthew Arnold--into regarding herself as the chosen of the Lord. -Think of the unearned prosperity brought by the French tribute, of the -raw egotism, the coarse insolence bred by it. Think of how the old -Germanic racial chauvinism was nourished by the theories of Gobineau as -freshened by the appalling Chamberlain. Think of how French intellect -has been boycotted in England and America for thirty years, while -troops of translators, critics and publishers ran round canvassing -first-class reputations for fourth-rate German scholars. Think of the -tawdry pretensions of Berlin, of the infinite vulgarity of the Alley -and Column of Victory. - - * * * * * - -Is it to be wondered at that a creed like Nietzsche’s, let loose -in such a world, has succeeded? Reading it, Krupp feels himself a -veritable knight of the Holy Ghost. Kaiser Wilhelm’s brow grows heavy -with the growing cares of the superman. Buccaneer Bernhardi cries out: -“My lust for blood is philosophised.” The diplomats join in in chorus: -“Remember Bismarck! Since France and England both want peace, let us -either lie or bully them into war!” - -Nietzsche said of himself: “I am a fatality!” He was. Three years -before this war was thought of, in attempting to define Nietzscheanism -in an introduction to Halévy’s _Life_, I wrote as opening words: “The -duel between Nietzsche and Civilisation is over....” - -I was wrong; it is not over. But between Prussianism and Civilisation -it is that this epical war is joined; there is not room on earth for -the two. - - -III.--TREITSCHKE AND THE PROFESSORS - -I confess that I am weary of these German Professors. Having deposed -God--by stern decree of their theological Press Bureau--they felt -that a gap had been created, and volunteered to fill it. But as a -substitute divinity the Herr Professor falls a little short of perfect -accomplishment. I have sat under or come in contact with a few truly -great men among them, like Windleband of Heidelberg, and Pastor of -Innsbruck. But the Haeckels, the Harnacks, the Euckens, and the -rest mistook their trade when they went in for omniscience. These -drill-sergeants of metaphysics understand everything except reality. -The “fog of war,” of which one had heard so much, was as nothing to the -fog of peace into which they had plunged Germany and Europe. - -You must remember the nature of the system of which they are the -mature, show products. In a German university it is unusual for a -student to take a degree. Our own institutions are appalling enough, -in all conscience; but there is, at least, a sort of scheduled, -educational mediocrity to which even athletic demigods must attain. -And there is not the least doubt that, in the intervals of neglecting -their work, our college men do, in the mass, enter by subtle ways into -the mysterious and honourable art of being gentlemen. In a German -university you do not find any uniform, general life on which everybody -can draw. The caste system--on which all Prussia is founded--manifests -itself very soon. Either you clip off your friends’ ears in duels, keep -dogs, abjure learning, and absorb beer for two or three years, or else -you set out to be a Herr Doktor. By steadily accumulating notes, and -grimly avoiding fresh air, you arrive at the moment when you can order -a visiting card with this wizard-title on it. Then, wearing a nimbus -of adulation, you pass on to be a _Privat Dozent_, and ultimately a -Herr Professor. Everybody’s hat is off to you; you meet with no real -criticism or free thrust of thought. - -Add to this the fact that German is a singularly difficult language -in which to tell the truth plainly, even if you should desire to do -so. Two or three writers, like Schiller, Schopenhauer, and Nietzsche, -have contrived the miracle; but the general impression inflicted on -the Latin mind by German literature is that of inadequately cooked -plum-duff. One understands a great Socialist like Otto Effertz -turning in his third book from German to French with the observation: -“Formerly I wrote in a provincial dialect. I now experiment in a -European language.” A brilliant lady of my acquaintance, who suffered -fools more or less gladly at Marburg and Bonn, is of opinion that -the Prussian reaches his most exquisite moment of lyricism when, at -Christmas or Easter, he ties a bow of blue ribbon on a sausage, and -presents it to his beloved. This is a disputable view; but it does -indicate certain inadequacies in the German apparatus of expression -which really exist. - -Imagine, then, your Herr Professor, thus fed on gross flattery, -inducted into the most rigid caste system in Europe, mentally -imprisoned in a language in which it is easier to say Yes! and No! -together to any question than to say either separately: turn him -loose on German history, give him a Kaiser and a Court audience who -demand adulation, give him, further, a set of prosperous bandits like -Frederick the Great and fruitful liars like Bismarck to work on, and -you get Treitschke. I have looked more or less carefully through eight -large volumes of his history and essays. In one sentence you find -jingoism, in the next egotism. For my part, I have been unable to -find much else. I gather from Dr. Max Lenz and other biographers that -this renegade Saxon was at one time or other blind, deaf, and honest. -Whether he was all three simultaneously, or in what permutations -he worked, I do not know, and one is very far from gibing at human -suffering. But when an invalid sets up as a Prophet of Bullydom, when -a feeble creature, saved from collapse only by human affection, goes -about to blaspheme all the intimate sanctities of civilisation, one -feels justified in summoning him to the bar of his own Darwinism. Among -modern nations Prussia has had the strange experience of having a -Gospel of Relentless Force preached to her by invalids and degenerates. -Her metaphysic has been dictated from a hospital ward. - -The one thing you find in Treitschke, reverberating through page -after page, is the doctrine of a Chosen People. He used his learning, -which was not inconsiderable, his prestige, and his influence to keep -hammering into Prussia the belief that she was the chosen race, the -seed of the superman, the predestined ruler of Western civilisation. -He preached the ruthless supremacy of the State, and the sacrifice to -military power of all humane activities. He regarded Holland, Belgium, -Denmark, Luxemburg as fragments of Germany that had been temporarily -broken off, and must be recovered. He taught those whom he influenced -to dream of a Vandal Empire, straddled across all Europe from Dunkirk -to Belgrade. Domination, domination, and again domination: that is the -message of Treitschke. Were he alive he would have rejoiced blatantly -at the tearing up of the “scrap of paper” which stood for nothing -except the conscience of Europe and the integrity of Belgium. - -I understand that we are to have solemn and careful studies of his -works issued in English. A great deal of his detailed historical -research is probably of high value. But it would be just as well if -critics realised that, for the future, when a German corrupter like -Treitschke is translated, he comes not to judge, but to be judged. He -preached the Gospel of the Devil, the gospel of domination, cruelty, -and planned barbarism. Whatever intellectual prestige he came to -acquire will no more save him than brilliancy will save Lucifer. - - - - -TRADE OR HONOUR? - - -A democracy, which, for its own defence, has deprived itself of free -speech is a dangerous paradox. The position is not merely abnormal; -it is so abnormal that the path of return to normality is to the -average citizen unimaginable. Since war is the supplanting of reason -by violence it is natural that it should swallow up Liberalism which -is precisely the opposite. All values are turned inside out. Killing -becomes a solemn duty. Lying is holy on condition that it deceives -the enemy to his death. Men must approve their manhood by handing -themselves over soul and body to others, their military superiors. -Criticism, and the individual mind, accept engulfment in a world of -patterned conduct, salutes, absolutism. All that corruption of the -essence of life comes with war as its inseparable shadow, and the -rankness of the Prussian offence is not merely to have foregone honour, -and broken treaties and sown untimely death throughout the world, -but also to have compelled civilisation to debase itself in order to -preserve itself. So, at least, must it strike a Liberal. - -We have bowed to the whole process of retrogression imposed on us. -With bitterness of spirit we have seen unnecessary arbitrariness added -to what was necessary, added by methods as contemptible as were -ever used in furtherance of the old political and economic tyrannies -before the war. Now we have the right to call a halt. The rich, -reckless clamourers who in these days are almost the monopolists of -free speech have already achieved some deterioration of the ideal for -which the people of the Allied countries took up the challenge of war. -We may assume that the Allied Governments are better custodians of -the democratic faith, but there is always danger, in times of stress, -from those whom one may call the terrorists of “patriotism.” Protest -has become an obligation. Nobody who has watched latest developments -can fail to be alarmed by their manifest tendency. That tendency may -be summarised in one ignoble sentence. An attempt is being made to -transform what began as a war for honour into a war for trade. Powerful -intriguers of unbounded assurance are sedulous behind the backs of -the fighting men, scheming to run up new flags in the place of the -old. The inscription “Justice” is to be hauled down, and “Markets” -is to be hoisted in its stead. In pursuance of that new object the -powerful innovators are ready to extend far beyond their natural term -the torture and agony which are now the sole realities of Europe. They -are willing, for the accomplishment of it, to ordain that the blood of -better men shall drip indefinitely into the cistern of Gehenna. And -since it is the bellowers and gamblers at home and not the silent -trench-fellows of death at the front that exercise most influence -on national policy, it is to be feared that the former may prevail. -Assuredly protest is a matter of obligation. - -This is no argument, or faint-hearted appeal, for a premature or -inconclusive peace. Truly the scourge of war is more terrible, more -Apocalyptic in its horror, than even the most active imagination could -have pictured. When the time comes to write down in every country a -plain record of it, with its wounds and weariness, and flesh-stabbing, -and bone-pulverising, and lunacies, and rats and lice and maggots, -and all the crawling festerment of battle-fields, two landmarks in -human progress will be reached. The world will for the first time -understand the nobility, beyond all phrase, of soldiers, and it will -understand also the foulness, beyond all phrase, of those who compel -them into war. In these days God help the militarists! There will -be no need to organise a peace movement; it will organise itself in -all democratic countries, spontaneous and irresistible as a prime -force of nature. It will still be necessary to arm against those who -linger in the blood-mists of autocracy, just as civilised men provide -against tigers and murderers and syphilis. But God help those who go -preaching to mutilated veterans and stricken homes the gospel that -war is a normal incident of the intercourse between nations, and an -ennobling thing to be cultivated for its own sake! That by the way. -Such is modern war, and knowing it to be such, there is not a man or -woman of the Allied peoples, in uniform or out of it, but is ready to -go through with it day after day and, if need be, year after year until -the anti-human evangel of Berlin is down in the mud. That resolution, -so unmistakable, is the supreme answer of democracy to the whole race -of blood-and-ironmongers. They loved war, praised war, planned war; -we loathed it, believed so little that a modern state would loose it -on the world as even to neglect advisable precautions. And now the -peace-workers have the war-workers by the throat, and are humbling them -in their own picked arena. Despite Nietzsche and Bernhardi and the -rest, democracy does not so soften men that they will not die for their -ideals. They will do more than die, they will conquer. - -So much is liminal; it lies across the threshold of any temple of -peace that can be imagined. Until the objects for which the Allies -went into the war are achieved it must go on, and we mean it to go on, -regardless of any waste of life or substance. But there is another -proposition just as basal against the ignoring of which the writer -of this article enters his protest. No statesman has the right to -change, behind the backs of the fighting men, the aim and purpose -of the war. No government has a mandate to substitute markets for -justice. The necessary blood must be spent, it will spend itself -freely and without question. But the diplomatist who lavishes one -life in excess, in order to achieve objects other than that for which -peaceful citizens transformed themselves into soldiers, is a criminal -against civilisation. There are many, very many, men in the New Army -who believe that no war merely for trade can be justifiable or other -than an abomination. If another Power launches war in the name of -trade, your resistance is a very different matter: it is the answer of -a higher to a lower morality. It must succeed in order precisely to -punish those who are willing to make war solely for trade. - -Is the fear well founded that powerful men are in fact working behind -the stages to bring about such a transformation as has been indicated? -Is it merely fancy that discovers the assiduous and not over-clean -finger of predatory finance in certain pies that are now on the menu? -If so, Liberalism cannot too soon awaken. The New Army attested to -die, if need be, for the public law of Europe: there was no mention of -tariffs in the bond. - -It will be obvious that I am not here speaking of co-operation and -co-ordination, economic as well as military, between the Allies for -the speeding on of victory. That exists, and has existed in greater or -less measure since the beginning; whatever strengthens it is plainly -sound and desirable. What is spoken of is the attempt to encumber -purely military issues with a whole new economic programme, and to make -the length of the war turn as much on the latter as on the former. It -is time for somebody to say quite brutally that this is a struggle to -destroy Prussian militarism, not to establish British Protectionism. -To this last we may come, but blood and more especially the blood -of men enrolled on another appeal, must not be the argument of the -innovators. Nor is it suggested that the influence of economic on -military resources should be overlooked. The economic factor has indeed -proved to be far less decisive, or far less rapidly decisive, than many -forecasters of events had anticipated, and for two very valid reasons. -For one thing the enemy has at his command the whole centre of Europe, -a vast geographical _bloc_ interknit in almost all its parts by an -uninterrupted system of intercourse which so far remains intact. For -another the operation of the economic motive turns on the assumption of -a minimum standard of life below which man will not consent to fall, -willingly or at all. In normal times of peace this is rigid, and any -serious depression of it will produce widespread commotion and revolt. -But in war, when the struggle is or is conceived to be for national -existence, belligerent peoples will agree to the lopping away of luxury -after luxury and conventional necessary after conventional necessary. -For a considerable part of the process they find the society in which -they live actually stronger and not weaker. Even when the weakening -pinch comes it is countered by a spirit of sacrifice, altogether -abnormal and not easily to be measured. So long as the army has a rag -to its back, a crust of bread, and a cartridge, economic exhaustion -is not complete. The end will probably come sooner, and defeat will -be accepted out of calculation before it is accepted out of sheer -necessity. What is much more probable is that a military decision will -have been obtained at a much earlier stage, but with all this said -there remains a perfectly clear distinction between assigning their -due rôle to economic conditions on the one hand, and transforming an -honour-war into a trade-war on the other hand. - -The worst sin of those who desire or seem to desire such a change is -that of effecting a deterioration of the moral ideal of the Allies. -This is no affair of fine words but of abiding realities. Either -this is on our part a war into which we were forced by aggressive -militarism--come to overt baseness in the Prussian breach of faith -with Belgium and assault on peaceful France, and the Austrian blow of -destruction at Serbia--or else it is a mere struggle for domination -between greedy Powers. If it were the latter it would be wise to say -no more of the antithesis between barbarism and civilisation. It would -be wise to finish the nightmare of blood as well as we could, to -pouch the spoils, and be silent. But since it is the former we must -resist any debasement of purpose. Since it is a war for the ending -of militarism it must include in its ultimate historical sweep the -liberation of all peoples who desire liberation, even the Germans. So -long as it continues unwarped from its original intention that hope may -be fulfilled. Not only is a _locus pœnitentiæ_ left for the democracy -which must one day arise even in Prussia, but much more is involved. An -opportunity is given for that immediate repudiation of a government by -a people which in the past has always taken the form of a revolution. -Nobody is able to say dogmatically that there is any prospect of such -a development within the Central Powers, and nobody is able to say -dogmatically that there is not: we are not allowed to know. It is the -habit of those countries to surround their frontiers with a wall of -brass. We do catch, through the species of man like Liebknecht and -Haase, certain rumblings and rumours of discontent, but cannot even -guess at their significance. When certain writers profess to find the -solidarity in crime of the whole body of the Germanic populations -established by the absence of protest against notorious outrages they -show little acquaintance with the condition of public opinion in these -countries. Prussian militarism and intellectualism begin by lying to -and mentally debauching their own citizens. Every German newspaper -has represented the Zeppelin raids as successful attacks on purely -military and naval establishments, any other damage being incidental -and not designed. Till the end of the war the average ignorant peasant -and mechanic will have heard no other story than that the _Lusitania_ -was a war-ship treacherously disguised. One has only to read the German -White Book on Belgium, as translated by Professor Morgan, to understand -the sort of scientific denigration of that little people that has -been invoked to justify so much of the tale of Louvain and Aerschot -and the rest as has been allowed to penetrate to the masses. Penny -editions of the Bryce Report do not circulate under either Habsburgs -or Hohenzollerns. If fragments of the truth do find a surreptitious -way in, the police are there to see that natural indignation shall not -express itself. We gather from Liebknecht that the official shepherding -of opinion in this regard goes as far as penal servitude and even -capital punishment. The actual state of mind of a democratic remnant -that may exist is, therefore, to us a clasped and sealed book. - -But we do know by the mere inner light of our own principles a great -deal that is relevant. The decree of democracy to a whole nation, -however bedevilled and misled, can never be one of unconditional -destruction. It is not our message to the Germans. So long as their -populations identify themselves with the policy of their present -miscreant governments they must share their fate. Defeat and, after -defeat, outlawry will be their portion. That outlawry will continue -until the historical crime of 1914 is purged by chastisement. But -the moment the first internal fissure appears a new order has begun. -A Germany that has punished her own crowned and helmeted criminals -will come before Europe in a very different guise from one that has -naturally adopted them. The breaking away of Austria from Prussia--an -unnatural alliance--will fix for us a very wide gulf between Austrian -and Prussian. There have been wars in which the greatest internal -changes took place without influencing the course of the conflict. The -fall of Napoleon III did not bring the struggle of 1870 to an end. But -the fall of Wilhelm II would undoubtedly bring this war to an end. If -the Teutonic masses desire an early peace, and an early re-entry into -the fabric of civilisation, they have but to destroy the false gods -they adored. The diplomatist of the old pattern will tell us that these -are fantastic suggestions. But the truth is that nothing could seem -to our awakened eyes half as fantastic as the old diplomacy, with its -suave blindness and sham omniscience. The new diplomacy should help to -release imprisoned forces. The inner disruption of the Central Alliance -is never very far from practical politics. When the full toll of blood -and disillusionment, exacted by Hohenzollernism, comes to be realised, -strange births may issue into being. So many men have died for liberty -that we have no right to disbelieve in any of its possibilities. And so -long as we adhere, as we must adhere, with a loyalty even meticulous, -to the true cause and first spirit of the Allies, no such possibility -is ruled out. - -But consent to the substitution of “trade” for “honour” as our device, -and mark the malign transformation. Some of our less well-inspired -publicists have already done something to communicate to the _bloc_ -of enemy countries a unity which does not inhere in its nature. -Things breaking up from within may be held together by pressure from -without, and such pressure has been in some measure supplied by -those to whom reference is made. By steadily ignoring every impulse -of disintegration, racial, economic and moral, they have plastered -over although they have not sealed up the structural cracks. The new -programme, if adopted, will, however, go far to harden the plaster -into cement. The spokesmen of Prussianism will be presented with a -complete triumph over any faint voice of civilisation that may still -be lifted within the enemy realms. They will say quite legitimately: -“Our opponents babbled of honour, and moral ideas. We said that that -was all hypocrisy, and that their real aim was to isolate, impoverish, -and if possible destroy the whole Germanic race. Who now is right? The -shopkeepers’ programme has now been openly proclaimed. The struggle -of the Germanies is now a struggle for the mere right to exist. What -have you to say now in reply to the Kaiser’s resolve to arm every man -and boy and woman, aye, and every cat and dog in the Fatherland before -submitting to extinction?” - -In truth there would be nothing to say. Our ideal would have fallen in -the common mud, the last hope of humanity would have perished, and the -war must be indefinitely prolonged. If you have driven an enemy into a -corner and hold your bayonet pointed at his breast; if he asks on what -terms you will accept his surrender and your answer is that in that -case he will be not bayoneted but hanged, you must expect resistance _à -outrance_. It will become an affair not of courage but of mere sanity. -Whatever the divagations of their statesmanship, the Allies will, -of course, win. The nations, however stampeded, will not sacrifice -the least element of their unity, and the armies, to whatever new -deflection their inspiration be submitted, will fight their unwavering -way to victory. But it will be a victory tainted with ambiguous and -selfish ends. History will write of us that we began nobly, but that -our purpose corrupted. The Great War for freedom will not, indeed, have -been waged in vain; that is already decided: but it will have but half -kept its promises. Blood and iron will have been once more established -as the veritable masters of men, and nothing will open before the world -save a vista of new wars. - - - - -Transcriber’s Notes - - -Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a -predominant preference was found in the original book; otherwise they -were not changed. - -Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced quotation -marks were remedied when the change was obvious, and otherwise left -unbalanced. - -Two unclosed parentheses were silently corrected. - -In the original book, multi-section chapter headings (with Roman -Numerals) included repetitions of the chapter title. 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- } - - table {width: auto; max-width: 100%; margin: 1em auto 1em auto;} - table#sources {max-width: 30em;} - - .tdl { - padding-left: 1em; - text-indent: -1em; - padding-right: 0; - } - - .figcenter {max-width: 100%; margin: 0 auto 0 auto;} - img {max-height: 80%;} - - hr { - margin-top: .1em; - margin-bottom: .1em; - visibility: hidden; - color: white; - width: .01em; - display: none; - } - - .blockquot {margin: 1.5em 3% 1.5em 3%;} - - .poetry {display: block; text-align: left; margin-left: 2.5em;} - .poetry .attrib {text-align: right; margin-right: 2em;} - .poetry .stanza {page-break-inside: avoid;} - - .transnote { - page-break-inside: avoid; - margin-left: 2%; - margin-right: 2%; - margin-top: 1em; - margin-bottom: 1em; - padding: .5em; - } - -} - - </style> - </head> - -<body> - -<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Ways of War, by Tom Kettle</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online -at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Ways of War</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Tom Kettle and Mary Sheehy Kettle</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: March 04, 2021 [eBook #64633]</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Charlie Howard and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)</div> - -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WAYS OF WAR ***</div> - -<div class="transnote"> -<p class="larger center">Transcriber’s Note</p> - -<p>A larger version of the Frontispiece may be seen by right-clicking it -and selecting an option to view it separately, or by double-tapping and/or -stretching it.</p> -</div> - -<h1>THE WAYS OF WAR</h1> - -<div class="newpage p4 figcenter" id="i_frontis" style="max-width: 25em;"> - <img src="images/i_frontis.jpg" alt="" /> - <div class="caption"> - -<p class="floatl"><i>Lafayette, Dublin, photographers.</i></p> -<p class="floatr"><i>Emery Walker phot.</i></p> -<p class="floatc larger"><i>Thos M. Kettle</i></p></div> -</div> - -<div class="newpage p4 center larger wspace"> -<p class="xlarge bold"> -THE WAYS OF WAR</p> - -<p class="p4"><span class="xsmall">BY</span><br /> -PROFESSOR T. M. KETTLE<br /> -<span class="xsmall">LIEUT. 9TH DUBLIN FUSILIERS</span></p> - -<p class="p2"><span class="xsmall">WITH A MEMOIR BY HIS WIFE</span><br /> -MARY S. KETTLE</p> - -<p class="p4 vspace">NEW YORK<br /> -CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS<br /> -1917 -</p> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p class="newpage p4 center wspace vspace"> -<span class="small">TO</span><br /> -<span class="larger">MY DEAR WIFE AND COMRADE</span><br /> - -<span class="small"><i xml:lang="la" lang="la">EX UMBRIS ET IMAGINIBUS IN VERITATEM</i></span> -</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_vii">vii</span></p> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="PREFATORY_NOTE">PREFATORY NOTE</h2> -</div> - -<p><span class="firstword">Perhaps</span> the order of the chapters in the present -book requires a word of explanation. They -have a natural sequence as the confessions of an -Irish man of letters as to why he felt called upon -to offer up his life in the war for the freedom of -the world. Kettle was one of the most brilliant -figures both in the Young Ireland and Young -Europe of his time. The opening chapters reveal -him as a Nationalist concerned about the liberty -not only of Ireland—though he never for a moment -forgot that—but of every nation, small -and great. He hoped to make these chapters part -of a separate book, expounding the Irish attitude -to the war; but unfortunately, as one must think, -the War Office would not permit an Irish Officer -to put his name to a work of the kind. After the -chapters describing the inevitable sympathy of an -Irishman with Serbia and Belgium—little nations -attacked by two Imperial bullies—comes an account -of the tragic scenes Kettle himself witnessed -in Belgium, where he served as a war-correspondent -in the early days of the war. “Silhouettes from -the Front,” which follow, describe what he saw -and felt later on, when, having taken a commission -in the Dublin Fusiliers, he accompanied his -regiment to France in time to take part in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_viii">viii</span> -Battle of the Somme. Then some chapters containing -hints of that passion for France which was -one of the great passions of his life. One of these, -entitled “The New France,” was written before -the war had made the world realise that France -is still the triumphant flag-bearer of European -civilisation. Then, in “The Gospel of the Devil,” -we have an examination of the armed philosophies -that have laid so much of France and the -rest of Europe desolate. The book closes with -“Trade or Honour?”—an appeal to the Allies to -preserve high and disinterested motives in ending -the war as in beginning it, and to turn a deaf ear -to those political hucksters to whom gain means -more than freedom. Thus “The Ways of War” -is a book, not only of patriotism, but of international -idealism. Above all, it is a passionate -human document—the “apologia pro vita sua” of -a soldier who died for freedom.</p> - -<p class="right l2 larger">L.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="b1">Many of the chapters in this book have already appeared in -various newspapers and magazines, to the editors and proprietors -of which thanks are due for permission to reprint them -here. The sources of the chapters referred to are as <span class="locked">follows—</span></p> - -<table id="sources" summary="Sources of the chapters"> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">“Under the Heel of the Hun”</td> - <td class="tdc" rowspan="4"><span class="x4large">}</span></td> - <td class="tdl vmid" rowspan="4"><cite>Daily News.</cite></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">“Zur Erinnerung”</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">“The Way to the Trenches”</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl">“G.H.Q.”</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl" colspan="3">“Belgium in Time of Peace“: <cite>Freeman’s Journal.</cite></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl" colspan="3">“The New France”: <cite>Irish Ecclesiastical Record.</cite></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl" colspan="3">“The Soldier-Priests of France“: <cite>The Hibernian Journal.</cite></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl" colspan="3">“The Gospel of the Devil”: <cite>T. P.’s War Journal.</cite></td> -</tr> -</table> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_ix">ix</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CONTENTS">CONTENTS</h2> -</div> - -<table id="toc" summary="Contents"> -<tr class="small"> - <td colspan="2"> </td> - <td class="tdr">PAGE</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl chap notpad" colspan="2">MEMOIR</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl chap" colspan="2">WHY IRELAND FOUGHT—</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdr top section">I.</td> - <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Prelude</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_58">58</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdr top section">II.</td> - <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Bullying of Serbia</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_75">75</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdr top section">III.</td> - <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Crime against Belgium</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_91">91</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl chap" colspan="2">UNDER THE HEEL OF THE HUN—</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdr top section">I.</td> - <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">A World Adrift</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdr top section">II.</td> - <td class="tdl">“<span class="smcap">Europe against the Barbarians</span>”<br /><span class="smcap">Some Things at Stake.</span></td> - <td class="tdr top2"><a href="#Page_109">109</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdr top section">III.</td> - <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Termonde</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_115">115</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdr top section">IV.</td> - <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Malines</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_125">125</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdr top section">V.</td> - <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">In Ostend</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_134">134</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl chap" colspan="2">TREATING BELGIUM DECENTLY</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_139">139</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl chap" colspan="2">BELGIUM IN PEACE</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_144">144</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl chap" colspan="2">“G.H.Q.”</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl chap" colspan="2">“ZUR ERINNERUNG.” <span class="smcap">A Letter to an Austrian Fellow-Student</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_165">165</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl chap" colspan="2">SILHOUETTES FROM THE FRONT—</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdr top section">I.</td> - <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Way to the Trenches</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_170">170</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdr top section">II.</td> - <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">The Long Endurance</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_175">175</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdr top section">III.</td> - <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Rhapsody on Rats</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_180">180</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl chap" colspan="2">THE NEW FRANCE</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_184">184</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl chap" colspan="2">THE SOLDIER-PRIESTS OF FRANCE</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_194">194</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl chap" colspan="2">THE GOSPEL OF THE DEVIL—</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdr top section">I.</td> - <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Bismarck</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_212">212</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdr top section">II.</td> - <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Nietzsche</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdr top section">III.</td> - <td class="tdl"><span class="smcap">Treitschke and the Professors</span></td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl chap" colspan="2">TRADE OR HONOUR?</td> - <td class="tdr"><a href="#Page_235">235</a></td> -</tr> -</table> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_1">1</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_WAYS_OF_WAR"><span class="larger">THE WAYS OF WAR</span></h2> -</div> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="MEMOIR">MEMOIR</h2> - -<p><span class="firstword">My</span> husband in his last letter to his brother, -written on the 8th of September, 1916, on the -battlefield, expressed the wish that I should write -a memoir of him as a preface to his war book. It -is only at his express instance that I would have -undertaken the writing of such a memoir, as there -are many obvious reasons—notably two—why I -am unfitted for that high duty. I have not the -literary gifts of many of his distinguished friends, -who in writing of him would have exercised -their powers of sympathetic understanding and -appreciation to the uttermost. But the personal -relationship is an even greater handicap. If the -reader will accept me as his comrade—since he -has honoured me with the proud distinction—I -shall do my best to interpret the “soul-side” with -which he “faced the world.” For my shortcomings, -I must crave indulgence. I only bring to -this task the vision of love.</p> - -<p>I shall give hereafter a biographical sketch, -but first I wish to deal with his attitude to the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_2">2</span> -war and a few points which he desired to be -emphasised.</p> - -<p>What urged him—the scholar, the metaphysician, -the poet, above all the Irishman, irrevocably -and immutably Irish, the man of peace, who -had nothing of the soldier except courage—to take -a commission in the British Army and engage -in the cruel and bloody business of war? His -motives for taking this step, he wished to be made -clear beyond misrepresentation. It should be -unnecessary to do this, as he proclaimed them on -many platforms and in many papers. His attitude -and action are the natural sequence and logic -of his character and ideals. Since I first knew -him, he loved to call himself a “capitaine routier” -of freedom, and that is the alpha and omega of his -whole personality. As Mr. Lynd has said, he was -not a Nationalist through love of a flag, but -through love of freedom. It was this love of freedom -that made him in his student days in the -Royal University lead the protest against the -playing of “God Save the King” at the conferring -of Degrees. The words of the Students’ manifesto -went, “We desire to protest against the -unjust, wasteful and inefficient Government of -which that air is a symbol.” It was the same love -of freedom that made him during the Boer War -distribute in the streets of Dublin anti-recruiting -leaflets. The Tom Kettle who did these things, -who said in an election speech in 1910 that “for<span class="pagenum" id="Page_3">3</span> -his part he preferred German Invasion to British -Finance,” was the same Tom Kettle who believed -it Ireland’s duty in 1914 to take the sword against -Germany as the Ally of England.</p> - -<p>“This war is without parallel,” he wrote in -August, 1914; “Britain, France, Russia, enter it, -purged from their past sins of domination. France -is right now as she was wrong in 1870, England -is right now as she was wrong in the Boer War, -Russia is right now as she was wrong on Bloody -Sunday.”</p> - -<p>In August and September, he acted as war correspondent -for the <i>Daily News</i>, and in this capacity -was a witness of the agony of Belgium. He -returned to Ireland burning with indignation -against Prussia. He referred to Germany as “the -outlaw of Europe.” “It is impossible not to be -with Belgium in this struggle,” he wrote to the -<i>Daily News</i>; “it is impossible any longer to be -passive. Germany has thrown down a well-considered -challenge to all the forces of our civilisation. -War is hell, but it is only a hell of suffering, -not of dishonour, and through it, over its flaming -coals, Justice must walk, were it on bare feet.”</p> - -<p>It was as an Irish soldier in the army of Europe -and civilisation that he entered the war. “He -was horrified,” said Mr. Lynd very truly, “by the -spectacle of a bully let loose on a little nation. -He was horrified, too, at the philosophic lie at the -back of all this greed of territory and power. He<span class="pagenum" id="Page_4">4</span> -was horrified at seeing the Europe he loved going -down into brawling and bloody ruin. Not least—and -no one can understand contemporary Ireland -who does not realise this—he was horrified -by the thought that if Germany won, Belgium -would be what he had mourned in Ireland—a -nation in chains. An international Nationalist—that -was the mood in which he offered his services -to the War Office.”</p> - -<p>I think the chief reason his motives have been -misunderstood is that few have gone to the trouble -of understanding his wide outlook. He was a -European. He was deeply steeped in European -culture. He was <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">au courant</i> with European -politics. He knew his France, his Germany, his -Russia as well as we know our Limerick, Cork and -Belfast. Mr. Healy once said his idea of a nation -ended with the Kish lightship. Tom Kettle’s ideal -was an Ireland identified with the life of Europe. -“Ireland,” he wrote, “awaits her Goethe who will -one day arise to teach her that, while a strong -nation has herself for centre, she has the universe -for circumference.... My only programme -for Ireland consists in equal parts of Home Rule -and the Ten Commandments. My only counsel -to Ireland is, that to become deeply Irish, she must -become European.”</p> - -<p>That counsel was given six years before the war. -It was acting on that counsel that he deemed it -right to make the final sacrifice, and in a European<span class="pagenum" id="Page_5">5</span> -struggle sign his ideal with the seal of his -blood. England and English thought had nothing -to do with his attitude to the war. England happened -to be on the side of Justice. He acknowledges -that, but says rather bitterly, “England goes -to fight for liberty in Europe but junkerdom in -Ireland.” Mr. Shane Leslie is absolutely right -when he says, “He died for no Imperialistic concept, -no fatuous Jingoism.”</p> - -<p>“Let this war go forward,” he wrote to the <i>Daily -News</i> in 1914, “on its own merits and its own strong -justice. After the war of the peoples, let us have -the peoples’ peace. Let us drop statecraft and return -to the Ten Commandments—now that we -have got such a good bit of the way back.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Padraic Colum, in a memoir of my husband -in the Irish-American paper, <cite>Ireland</cite>, says: -“When the Germans broke into Belgium, he advised -the Irish to join the British Army and to -fight for the rights of small nationalities. Had -death found him in those early days he would at -least have died for a cause he believed in.” I -think Mr. Colum, if only for the sake of an old -friendship, might have troubled to understand the -idea for which Tom Kettle died, and in which he -believed to the end. Does Mr. Colum mean to -suggest that my husband no longer believed in the -maintenance of the rights of small nationalities? -Was his enthusiasm for Belgium quenched—Belgium -the heroic who preferred to lose all that she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_6">6</span> -might gain her own soul? Is not Belgium still an -invaded country? And even if England juggles -with Ireland’s liberty, is not the fight for truth -and justice to go on? As my husband says in this -volume, “Ireland had a duty not only to herself -but to the world... and whatever befell, the -path taken by her must be the path of honour and -justice.”</p> - -<p>In one of my last letters from him, he speaks -his faith, even if it is the faith of a sad and burdened -soul: “It is a grim and awful job, and no -man can feel up to it. The waste—the science of -waste and bloodshed! How my heart loathes it -and yet it is God’s only way to Justice.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Colum proceeds: “He knew by the dreams -he remembered that his place should have been -with those who died for the cause of Irish Nationality.” -I postulate that Tom Kettle died most -nobly for the cause of Irish Nationality, in dying -for the cause of European honour.</p> - -<p>Mr. Colum continues: “He knew she (Ireland) -would not now take her eyes from the scroll -that bears the names of Pearse and Plunkett and -O’Rahilly and so many others, and yet, Thomas -Kettle at the last would not have grudged these -men Ireland’s proud remembrance.” I think, too, -I may confidently assert that Tom Kettle’s name -will be entered on the scroll of Irish patriots, and -that he has earned, and will have, Ireland’s “proud -remembrance” quite as much as the rebel leaders<span class="pagenum" id="Page_7">7</span> -whose valour and noble disinterestedness he honoured, -but whose ideals he most emphatically did -not share.</p> - -<p>Mr. Leslie is in shining contrast to Mr. Colum -in sympathetic understanding: “Irishmen will -think of him with his gentle brother-in-law, -Sheehy-Skeffington, as two intellectuals who, after -their manner and their light, wrought and thought -and died for Ireland. What boots it if one was -murdered by a British officer and the other was -slain in honourable war by Germans? To Ireland, -they are both lovable, and in the Irish mind, -their memory shall not fail.... Ireland knows -that they were both men of peace and that they both -offered their lives for her. England can claim -neither. In death, they are divided, but in the -heart of Ireland they are one.”</p> - -<p>In <i>The Day’s Burden</i>, my husband referred to -Ireland as “the spectre at the Banquet of the Empire.” -He died that Ireland might not be the -spectre at the Peace Conference of Nations.</p> - -<p>His last thoughts were with Ireland, and in each -letter of farewell written to friends from the battlefield, -he protests that he died in her holy cause. -His soldier servant, writing home to me, says that -on the eve of the battle the officers were served -with pieces of green cloth to be stitched on the back -of their uniforms, indicating that they belonged -to the Irish Brigade. Tom touched his lovingly, -saying: “Boy, I am proud to die for it!” Ireland,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_8">8</span> -Christianity, Europe—that was what he died for. -“He carried his pack for Ireland and Europe. -Now pack-carrying is over. He has held the line.” -Or, as he says in his last poem to his little daughter, -he <span class="locked">died—</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indentq">“Not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But for a dream born in a herdsman’s shed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And for the secret scripture of the poor.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>That was the dream that haunted his soul, that -impelled him to the last sacrifice, and what a sacrifice! -What he gave, he gave well—all his gifts, -his passionate freedom-loving heart, his “winged -and ravening intellect,” intimate ties of home and -friendship and motherland, his career, and better -than career—the chance of fulfilling his hopes for -Ireland—he sacrificed all that “makes life a great -and beautiful adventure.” And now that he has -died... “in the waste and the wreckage paying -the price of the dreams that cannot sleep,” let -not anyone commit that last treachery of travestying -his ideals and aspirations.</p> - -<p>In his final letter to his brother, written the day -before he was killed, he outlined the things for -which, had he lived, he would have <span class="locked">worked—</span></p> - -<p>“If I live I mean to spend the rest of my life -working for perpetual peace. I have seen war, and -faced modern artillery, and I know what an outrage -it is against simple men.”</p> - -<p>And in another letter, written to me some weeks<span class="pagenum" id="Page_9">9</span> -before he entered the battle of the Somme, he -speaks of this mission even more <span class="locked">poignantly—</span></p> - -<p>“I want to live, too, to use all my powers of -thinking, writing and working, to drive out of -civilisation this foul thing called War and to put -in its place understanding and comradeship.” -This note, indeed, rings through all his letters -like a pleading. “If God spares me, I shall accept -it as a special mission to preach love and peace for -the rest of my life.”</p> - -<p>It is this that makes his sacrifice doubly great, -that he, realising with all the wealth of his abundant -imagination the horror and cruelty and outrage -of war, should step deliberately from the -sheltered ways of peace and security and take his -share “in the grim and awful job” because “it was -only a hell of suffering but not of dishonour, and -through it, over its flaming coals, Justice must -walk, were it on bare feet.”</p> - -<p>Prussia was to him the enemy of peace and civilisation. -In almost his last letter, he again emphasises -this.</p> - -<p>“Unless you hate war, as such, you cannot really -hate Prussia. If you admit war as an essential part -of civilisation, then what you are hating is merely -Prussian efficiency.”</p> - -<p>And with this mission of universal peace -mingled his dream of a reconciled Ulster. He -knew that there was no abiding cause of disunion -between North and South, and hoped that out of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_10">10</span> -common dangers shared and suffering endured on -a European battleground, there would issue a -United Ireland. For this he counted much on -“the brotherhood that binds the brave of all the -earth.” “There is a vision of Ireland,” he wrote -in 1915, “better than that which sees in it only a -cockpit, or eternal skull-cracking Donnybrook -Fair—a vision that sees the real enemies of the -nation to be ignorance, poverty, disease; and turning -away from the ashes of dead hatreds, sets out to -accomplish the defeat of these real enemies. Out -of this disastrous war, we may pluck, as France -and Belgium have plucked, the precious gift of -national unity.”</p> - -<p>In one of my letters he <span class="locked">writes—</span></p> - -<p>“One duty does indeed lie before me, that of -devoting myself to the working out of a reconciliation -between Ulster and Ireland. I feel God -speaking to our hearts in that sense out of this terrible -war.”</p> - -<p>In his Political Testament he makes a dying -plea for the realisation of his dream.</p> - -<p>“Had I lived I had meant to call my next book -on the relations of Ireland and England: <i>The -Two Fools: A Tragedy of Errors</i>. It has needed -all the folly of England and all the folly of Ireland -to produce the situation in which our unhappy -country is now involved.</p> - -<p>“I have mixed much with Englishmen and with -Protestant Ulstermen, and I know that there is no<span class="pagenum" id="Page_11">11</span> -real or abiding reason for the gulfs, salter than -the sea, that now dismember the natural alliance -of both of them with us Irish Nationalists. It -needs only a Fiat Lux, of a kind very easily -compassed, to replace the unnatural by the natural.</p> - -<p>“In the name, and by the seal of the blood given -in the last two years, I ask for Colonial Home Rule -for Ireland—a thing essential in itself and essential -as a prologue to the reconstruction of the Empire. -Ulster will agree.</p> - -<p>“And I ask for the immediate withdrawal of -martial law in Ireland, and an amnesty for all Sinn -Fein prisoners. If this war has taught us anything -it is that great things can be done only in a -great way.”</p> - -<p>As a writer in the <cite>Freeman</cite> very truly <span class="locked">says—</span></p> - -<p>“If Tom Kettle could have asked for a gift in -return for his great sacrifice, it would have been -that a great peace unite the hearts and strivings of -all those of his fellow-countrymen who worked -for the only land he loved.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Leslie interpreted his vision <span class="locked">exquisitely—</span></p> - -<p>“He did not resent the littleness that had dogged -his life and left him lonely at the end—but he -looked back and hated the pettiness and meanness -which had injured Ireland—which had taken -every advantage of Ireland, which had fooled her -leaders and shuffled off her children on feeble -promises. He asked for that touch of greatness<span class="pagenum" id="Page_12">12</span> -by which alone great things are achieved. Like -a thousand ardent spirits in Ireland at the time, -he was ready to leap to a new era by the bridge -of great things greatly done, even if the bridge -was to be the bridge of death. English statesmen -offered them a bridge of paper and an insecure -footing at that, but many rushed forward, hopeful -of the future. Others turned bitterly back. All -who died, whether they died in Ireland or France, -died bitterly.</p> - -<p>“Disappointed but undismayed Kettle stood -with nought but a mystic’s dream between himself -and the Great Horror. He felt afraid for Ireland, -but not for himself. Then the irony of his life and -the bitterness of his death must have come home to -him... stripped of all, his career, his ambitions, -his friends and lovers, with his back turned -to Ireland and his heart turned against England -he threw himself over the mighty Gulf, where at -least he could be sure that all things good or evil -were on the great scale his soul had always required. -With earth’s littleness he was done.”</p> - -<p>He wished, too, to live to chronicle the deeds of -his beloved Dublin Fusiliers. There is no more -generous praise ever given to men than that he -gave his Dubliners—unless, perhaps, their praise -of him. In his last letter to his brother, on the eve -of death, he <span class="locked">says—</span></p> - -<p>“I have never seen anything in my life so beautiful -as the clean and so to say radiant valour of my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_13">13</span> -Dublin Fusiliers. There is something divine in -men like that.”</p> - -<p>Again in a letter to a <span class="locked">friend—</span></p> - -<p>“We are moving up to-night into the battle of -the Somme. The bombardment, destruction and -bloodshed are beyond all imagination, nor did I -ever think the valour of simple men could be quite -as beautiful as that of my Dublin Fusiliers. I -have had two chances of leaving them—one on sick -leave and one to take a staff job. I have chosen to -stay with my comrades.”</p> - -<p>In a letter written to me shortly after going out, -he writes out of his great, generous heart: “What -impresses and moves me above all, is the amazing -faith, patience and courage of the men. To me it -is not a sort of looking-down-on but rather a looking-up-to -appreciation of them. I pray and pray -and am afraid, but they go quietly and heroically -on. God make me less inferior to them.”</p> - -<p>That is the essence of Tom Kettle, his noble and -humble appraisement of a gift which he possessed -<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">par excellence</i> himself. And I think he found happiness -and peace of heart with those loyal, valorous -men whose comrade he was and whose risks -he shared. They too, I think, knew and loved the -greatness of him, and found in his genius, his radiant -simplicity and high courage, their example and -inspiration.</p> - -<div class="tb">* * * * *</div> - -<p>Thomas M. Kettle was the third son of Andrew<span class="pagenum" id="Page_14">14</span> -J. Kettle, and of Margaret MacCourt. He was -born at Artane, Co. Dublin, in 1880. From his -father, the great land reformer who did more than -any other to emancipate Irish farmers from the -crushing yoke of landlordism, Tom Kettle inherited -his political principles. He might be said -to have “lisped” in politics. From his father, too, -he inherited that courage, moral as well as physical, -that fearless outspoken way he had of enunciating -his beliefs and ideas. He was intensely proud -of his father and always loved, in later years, when -the old man was confined indoors, to drive out to -his country home to thresh out current politics -with him. Though apparently they seldom came -to agreement, still it was obvious that each radiated -pride in the other.</p> - -<p>Tom Kettle lived in the country till he was -twelve, and the quiet charm and peace of the land -cast a spell on him that held him always. He -hungered to go back, to quit politics and platforms, -and in a picturesque cottage cultivate literature -and crops. It was a dream he would never have -realised—he was born to be in the thick of things—but -it was constantly before him like a mirage.</p> - -<p>In one of his last letters he recurs to <span class="locked">it—</span></p> - -<p>“We are going to live in the country, and I am -going to grow early potatoes. I am also going to -work very hard and make very few speeches.”</p> - -<p>He was educated first at the Christian Brothers’ -school in Richmond Street, Dublin. In 1894 he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_15">15</span> -went to Clongowes Wood College. He had a brilliant -Intermediate career, obtaining First Place in -the Senior Grade with many medals and distinctions. -There is a story told that this year when his -great success was a matter of public comment, his -father’s only remark was, “I see you failed in -Book-keeping.” It might strike as harsh those who -did not know Mr. Kettle, but it was not really intended -as such, it was meant rather to check vanity -and a possible swelled head. To Tom, it was exquisitely -humorous, and he loved the upright, -somewhat stern old man none the less for his seeming -lack of appreciation.</p> - -<p>In 1897 he went to University College. In a -year or so, he became Auditor of the Literary and -Historical Society and obtained the Gold Medal -for Oratory. His great gifts were already conspicuous. -A fellow-student wrote of him: -“Amongst them all, Kettle stood supreme. Already -that facility for grasping a complicated subject -and condensing it in a happy phrase, that -bright, eager mind so ready to take issue on behalf -of a good cause, that intellectual supremacy which -was so pre-eminently his, had marked him out for -far-reaching influence and a distinguished career.”</p> - -<p>His University course was interrupted by a -breakdown in health which necessitated his withdrawal -from collegiate life for nearly a year. -Over-study had strained his nervous system, and -he never quite regained normal health. In 1904<span class="pagenum" id="Page_16">16</span> -a brother, a veritable twin-soul, to whom he was -deeply attached, and of whom he had high hopes, -died. This was an everlasting grief to him. This -sorrow, together with his shattered nerves, was -responsible for his somewhat tragic and melancholy -temperament. In 1904 he went to the Tyrol -to recuperate, and in that wander-year, Europe -laid her spell on him. He was a fine linguist and, -being an omnivorous reader, was soon intimately -acquainted with the best European literature.</p> - -<p>His journalistic talent was displayed as Editor -of <i>St. Stephen’s</i>, 1903–4, a spasmodically produced -college magazine which he described in a long-remembered -phrase as “unprejudiced as to date of -issue.”</p> - -<p>In 1902 he had entered the King’s Inns as a Law -student. Of this period, a friend writes: “At -the students’ dinners Kettle was cordially welcomed, -and though very young in those days, still -at no time and in no place did rich humour and -rare conversational power show to more advantage. -The company one meets at Law students’ dinners -is varied to a degree, boys in their ’teens sitting at -table with men of middle age and over on even -terms. Struggling poverty sits check by jowl with -good salary and wealth. On one occasion when -Kettle was dining, one of the men present was a -very well-to-do business man of about fifty. This -gentleman was holding forth very earnestly on the -rights of property and the amount of violence a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_17">17</span> -householder is entitled to display towards a burglar. -Kettle suddenly startled him with the query: -‘Have you ever considered this question from the -point of view of the burglar?’ The magnate was -horrified and hastily withdrew.”</p> - -<p>That story is typical of him. His term at King’s -Inns concluded with his securing a Victoria Prize, -and he was called to the Bar in 1905. With his -oratorical gifts and passionate delivery, a brilliant -career was foretold. A writer in the <cite>Irish Law -Times</cite> says: “He did everything that came his -way with distinction.... There was a freshness -and vigour about his style and a rare eloquence -in his language which satisfied everyone -that he would be an instant success if he was going -to make law his profession.” Personally, I think -he would never have been happy as a lawyer. He -was too sensitive. I remember his defending a -criminal who was convicted and sentenced to penal -servitude. The conviction worried him greatly. -He used to say that it was a fearful responsibility -to plead for a man and think that perhaps had -another lawyer been chosen there would be no -conviction. That the man was guilty mattered -nothing to him. He went on the principle that -the innocent are those who are not found out.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indentq">“Everywhere the word is man and woman;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Everywhere the old sad sins find room.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>He looked at the Law Courts and their victims,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_18">18</span> -not with the eyes of a modern lawyer who seems -as if a spiritual blotting-pad had been applied, -draining him of all emotion—he looked rather -with the eyes of a metaphysician. In <cite>The Day’s -Burden</cite>, he wrote: “One does feel intensely that -these legal forms and moulds are too narrow and -too nicely definite, too blank to psychology to contain -the passionate chaos of life that is poured into -them.” He was at once judge and jury, prisoner -and counsel. He had that uncanny gift of seeing -everybody’s point of view with equal intensity of -vision. Such a gift makes for a very lovable personality, -but a lawyer should only see the point of -view for which he is briefed.</p> - -<p>When the opportunity offered he forsook the -Law. In 1904 he was first President of the -“Young Ireland Branch” of the United Irish -League. In 1905 came his brief editorship of the -<i>Nationist</i>. These two events were the stepping-stones -to his political career, and it was upon them -that he came to the notice of the public. The -<i>Nationist</i>—a name he coined—was a weekly -journal. He was editor for three months of its six -months’ life. If its career was brief, it was brilliant. -It was, perhaps, the most courageous of -Irish papers—and what is more, courageous in -consummate prose. He thoroughly enjoyed this -period of journalistic activity. He was allowed -rather a free hand by the proprietors, and it was a -keen joy to him to exercise his powers in the endeavour<span class="pagenum" id="Page_19">19</span> -to educate the young Nationalist mind. -Finally, however, he was deemed too outspoken, -and he left the editor’s chair with regret.</p> - -<p>“If one had taken the precaution to have a father -who had accumulated sufficient wealth,” he wrote -once, “to allow his sons the caviare of candour, -nothing would be more entertaining than starting -a paper.”</p> - -<p>In 1906 an opportunity was offered to him of -entering Parliament. It was his chance, but it was -a fighting chance. After the most strenuous of -fights, he was returned as Parliamentary representative -for East Tyrone. His majority was only -sixteen, and it may be fairly said that only he could -have won and held that seat in the Nationalist -interest.</p> - -<p>In the autumn of 1906 he went with Mr. Hazleton -to America on a Home Rule Mission. His -oratorical gifts were much appreciated there, and -his six months’ tour of the States was a fine experience, -if a physically trying one. He liked America, -with her love of freedom and her genial, hospitable -ways, and always hoped again to “cross the -pond.”</p> - -<p>I remember a few sayings which he brought -back from America which he regarded as typical -of American humour—such as “I don’t know -where I am going, but I am on my way,” and “We -trust in God; all others pay cash.”</p> - -<p>In 1908 he translated M. Dubois’ <i>Contemporary<span class="pagenum" id="Page_20">20</span> -Ireland</i>, and wrote an introduction, which established -his literary reputation.</p> - -<p>At the general election in 1910 my husband increased -his majority of sixteen to one of one hundred -and eighteen. Mr. Shane Leslie, who gave -him valuable help in this election, wrote <span class="locked">thus—</span></p> - -<p>“Kettle was the most delightful of platform -speakers, and his witticisms and lyrical turns of -speech made the election one long intellectual treat. -He could turn over weighty questions of economics -or of international policy with an ease that struck -home to the peasant mind.... At one spot, I -remember, he was greeted by a poverty-stricken -populace, who had improvised a mountain band -and crude home-made torches of turf and paraffin. -Kettle immediately said: ‘Friends, you have met -us with God’s two best gifts to man—fire and -music.’ It was as instantaneous as graceful.” Having -had such a hard fight, he loved his constituency -as if it were a human thing. The issues fought in -East Tyrone, as in all northern constituencies, were -not the issues raised in ordinary Nationalist -politics. In the North, religion is the predominant -colour; it is the Catholic Green against the -Protestant Orange. I say guardedly, predominant; -of course there is the great issue—Home -Rule <i>v.</i> Unionism. But the conspicuous place -religion took struck a Dubliner as something quite -extraordinary. I remember one amusing incident -of the election, which my husband often cited as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_21">21</span> -typical. Our motor-car broke down, and while -repairs were in progress a small boy was an interested -spectator. When all was in order again -and we were about to start, the boy looked wistfully -at us—at least as wistfully as a northern boy -can: they are not demonstrative except on the -Twelfth of July. My husband interpreting the -look, invited him for a drive. He accepted, and as -my husband set him down after his spin the boy -lifted his cap and said: “Thank you, Mr. Kettle, -I am much obliged. To hell With the Pope!” and -walked sedately away. It was surely a spirited and -quaint declaration of independence and incorruptibility.</p> - -<p>Another incident, too, stands out. The night -the poll was declared there was wild enthusiasm -in Tyrone. As Mr. Leslie says, “there was a green -rash.” My husband had promised that if he won, -he would address a meeting at Cookstown. To get -there it was necessary to pass through an Orange -hamlet; as feeling was high and the hour late, it -was deemed imprudent for us to go, but my husband -insisted. We were about to start in a motor -when one supporter, who had done his best to detain -us, said very lugubriously: “Well, you have -a terrible road before you.” “What’s the matter -with it?” questioned the chauffeur anxiously. He -was a Dublin man and quite ignorant of local politics. -“Is it full of hills?” “No,” replied the other -in a tone of grave warning; “full of Protestants.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_22">22</span></p> - -<p>My husband’s opponent in this last election was -Mr. Saunderson, who based his claims chiefly on -the fact that he was the son of the late Colonel -Saunderson. “Mr. Saunderson,” said my husband, -“has protested so often that he is the son of Colonel -Saunderson, that I, for my part, am inclined to believe -him”—a touch of ridicule that went home -with an Irish audience.</p> - -<p>He was impatient of bigotry and narrowness -and any attempt to stir up in Ulster the ashes of -old hatreds and animosities. Once appealing to -Ulstermen to forego their enthusiasm for William -of Orange, he said with effect: “Why let us quarrel -over a dead Dutchman?” His famous reply to -Kipling, who by his doggerel tried to fan the -flames of civil war, is worth <span class="locked">quoting—</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indentq">“The poet, for a coin,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Hands to the gabbling rout</div> - <div class="verse indent0">A bucketful of Boyne</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To put the sunrise out.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In Parliament, he was an instant success. He -was a born orator and spoke with all the intensity -that passionate conviction lends. In his book on -<cite>Irish Orators</cite>, he wrote: “Without knowledge, -sincerity, and a hearty spiritual commitment to -public causes, the crown of oratory, such as it is, -is not to be won.” He had those requisites abundantly. -In this book he gives a definition of an -orator than which nothing could be finer: “The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_23">23</span> -sound and rumour of great multitudes, passions -hot as ginger in the mouth, torches, tumultuous -comings and goings, and, riding through the whirlwind -of it all, a personality, with something about -him of the prophet, something of the actor, a touch -of the charlatan, crying out not so much with his -own voice as with that of the multitude, establishing -with a gesture, refuting with a glance, stirring -ecstasies of hatred and affection—is not that a common, -and far from fantastic, conception of the -orator?”</p> - -<p>An appreciation of him containing reminiscences -of two speeches in the House may not be -deemed amiss here: “Wit and humour, denunciation -and appeal came from him not merely -fluently but always with effect. Tall and slight, -with his soft boyish face and luminous eyes, he -soon startled and then compelled the attention of -the House by his peculiar irresistible sparkle and -his luminous argument. Two pictures of him in -that period survive. The first was on the occasion -of the second reading of one of the numerous -Women’s Suffrage Bills. ‘Mr. Speaker,’ he said -in his rich Dublin accent and almost drawling -intonation, ‘they say that if we admit women here -as members, the House will lose in mental power.’ -He flung a finger round the packed benches: ‘Mr. -Speaker,’ he continued, ‘it is impossible.’ The -House roared with laughter. ‘They tell me also -that the House will suffer in morals. Mr. Speaker,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_24">24</span> -I don’t believe that is possible either.’ The applause -rang out again at this double hit.... -I remember him again in the House on a hot night -in June. A dull debate on Foreign Affairs was in -progress. The recent travels of Mr. Roosevelt -through Egypt and his lecture to England at the -Guildhall reception were under discussion. Kettle -let loose upon the famous Teddy the barbed -irony of his wit. I recall only one of his biting -phrases: ‘This new Tartarin of Tarascon who -has come from America to shoot lions and lecture -Empires.”</p> - -<p>Another distinguished critic writing of him -says: “His darting phrases made straight for the -heart of unintelligence—sometimes also, no doubt, -for the heart of intelligence. When he sat in Parliament -he summed up the frailty of Mr. Balfour -in yielding to the Tariff Reformers in the phrase: -‘They have nailed their leader to the mast.’”</p> - -<p>He could be caustic to a degree. “I don’t mind -loquacity,” he once remarked, “so long as it is not -Belloc-quacity.”</p> - -<p>“Mr. Long,” he said another time, “knows a -sentence should have a beginning, but he quite forgets -it should also have an end.”</p> - -<p>In a flashing epigram he once summed up the -difference between the two great English Parties: -“When in office, the Liberals forget their principles -and the Tories remember their friends.” -Asked once to define a Jingo, he replied: “A Jingo<span class="pagenum" id="Page_25">25</span> -is a man who pays for one seat in a tram-car and -occupies two.”</p> - -<p>This was, I think, the happiest period of his -public life. Some have maintained that he should -never have entered Parliament—that in doing so -“he to Party gave up what was meant for mankind.” -To me, looking back, it seems not his going -in, but his coming out of Parliament, that was -wrong. He was pre-eminently suited to the life. -His gifts ensured him success in the House, and -his avid intellect made every debate a subject of -interest to him. In London political and journalistic -life he found his level. He was in touch with -the current of European life. Dublin he felt, after -London, a backwater, for, owing to the destruction -of the national life, there is no intellectual -centre. Not that he would have endured living in -London. He loved too much for that his Dublin, -“the grey and laughing capital.” A quotation -from <cite>The Day’s Burden</cite> explains at once his liking -for the tonic experience and stimulus of a foreign -city and his <em>nostalgia</em> for home. “A dead Frenchman, -a cynic as they say, one Brizeux, murmurs -to himself in one of his comedies as I murmur -to myself every time I leave Ireland: ‘Do not cry -out against <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">la patrie</i>. Your native land, after all, -will give you the two most exquisite pleasures of -your life, that of leaving her and that of coming -back.’”</p> - -<p>In 1909, the year of our marriage, he was<span class="pagenum" id="Page_26">26</span> -appointed Professor of National Economics in the -National University. In 1910 he resigned his seat -in Parliament, as he found it impossible to combine -the duties of Professor and Member. It was -a whole-time professorship and, further, the subject -was almost a unique one, and had practically -no text-books. It was therefore necessary for him -to devote all his energies, for some years at any -rate, to his work in the University. This he did -whole-heartedly, as Economics had always attracted -him; he regarded it as one of the most -important branches of study in the University. He -thought that Ireland was in special need of trained -economists. In his own words, he set himself to -“formulate an economic idea fitted to express the -self-realisation of a nation which is resolute to -realise itself.” He did not wish either that Economics -should be regarded as a dismal science. -Writing of Geography, he says, “Geography is a -prudent science, but one day she will take risks—even -the risk of being interesting.” That risk -Economics, in his keeping, certainly adventured. -“The Science of Economics is commonly held to -be lamentably arid and dismal. If that is your -experience blame the Economists, for the slice of -life with which Economics has to deal vibrates -and, so to say, bleeds with actuality. All science, -all exploration, all history in its material factors, -the whole epic of man’s effort to subdue the earth<span class="pagenum" id="Page_27">27</span> -and establish himself on it, fall within the domain -of the Economist.”</p> - -<p>As in every sphere of activity which he entered, -he assumed his duties in the College with eager -enthusiasm, and was very proud of being identified -from the first with the National University.</p> - -<p>But if my husband ceased to be a Member of -Parliament, it does not mean that he became -merely a Professor. He was a leading spirit in -every live movement, and by speech and article -kept in the political current. When the great -labour strike occurred in Dublin in 1913, he was -chairman of the Peace Committee which endeavoured -to establish better feeling between the -employers and employees. He was also a member -of the Education Commission appointed by Mr. -Birrell to enquire into the grievances of Irish -teachers.</p> - -<p>As for his work in literature in 1910, he published -a volume of essays entitled <i>The Day’s -Burden</i>, the best known and most characteristic of -his writings.</p> - -<p>In 1911 he wrote a pamphlet on <i>Home Rule -Finance</i>, and in the same year he translated and -edited Luther Kneller’s <i>Christianity and the -Leaders of Modern Science</i>.</p> - -<p>In 1911 he also edited and wrote a brilliant -introduction to M. Halévy’s <i>Life of Nietzsche</i>, -translated by Mr. Hone.</p> - -<p>In 1912 he wrote <i>The Open Secret of Ireland</i>,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_28">28</span> -putting the case of Ireland in his own inimitable -way.</p> - -<p>In 1912 he was one of the first prominent men -identified with the foundation of the National -Volunteers. A passage taken from an article -written for the <cite>Daily News</cite> on the Volunteers has -now a poignant <span class="locked">interest—</span></p> - -<p>“The impulse behind the new departure is not -that of the swashbuckler or the fire-eater. Ancient -Pistol has no share in it. In no country is the red -barbarism of war as a solvent of differences more -fully recognised than in Ireland. In no other is -the wastage of the public substance on vast armaments -more strongly condemned on grounds alike -of conscience and intelligence. If Ireland has a -distinguished military tradition, she has another -tradition to which she holds more proudly, that of -peace and culture. In her golden age she, unique -in Europe, wrought out the ideal of the civilisation-state -as contrasted with the brute-force state. -She never oppressed or sought to destroy another -nation. What she proposes to herself now is not -to browbeat or dragoon or diminish by violence -the civil or religious liberty of any man—but -simply to safeguard her own.”</p> - -<p>It is this man who speaks thus proudly of Ireland’s -noble tradition of peace and culture, this -man to whom war was “red barbarism,” who -found it necessary to quit his own assured path “of -peace and culture” and, with only the qualification<span class="pagenum" id="Page_29">29</span> -of courage, assume the profession of a -soldier.</p> - -<p>In 1914 he edited a book on <i>Irish Orators and -Irish Oratory</i>. Many have held his introduction -to this his finest piece of writing.</p> - -<p>When the war broke out he was engaged in -Belgium buying rifles for the Volunteers. In -August and September, 1914, he was war correspondent -for the <i>Daily News</i> in Belgium. I shall -quote just one passage which briefly sums up his -attitude—an attitude which I have already endeavoured -to explain, as far as explanation is -necessary. “When this great war fell on Europe, -those who knew even a little of current ethical -and political ideas felt that the hour of Destiny -had sounded. Europe had once more been threatened -by Barbarism, Odin had thrown down his last -challenge to Christ. To you, these may or may not -seem mere phrases: to anyone whose duty has imposed -on him some knowledge of Prussia, they are -realities as true as the foul of Hell. When the -most fully guaranteed and most sacred treaty in -Europe—that which protected Belgium—was violated -by Germany, when the frontier was crossed -and the guns opened on Liége, without hesitation -we declared that the lot of Ireland was on the side -of the Allies. As the wave of infamy swept further -and further over the plains of Belgium and France, -we felt it was the duty of those who could do so to -pass from words to deeds.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_30">30</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indentq">“To Odin’s challenge, we cried Amen!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">We stayed the plough and laid by the pen,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And we shouldered our guns like gentlemen</div> - <div class="verse indent0">That the wiser weak might hold.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>In November, 1914, he joined, as he called it, -the “Army of Freedom.” His oratorical gifts and -prestige as a Nationalist made him a great asset to -the recruiting committee. It is said he made over -two hundred speeches throughout Ireland. “He -spent himself tirelessly on the task,” writes a contributor -to a Unionist paper. “His brilliant -speeches were the admiration of all who heard -them. To him, they were a heavy duty. ‘The -absentee Irishman to-day,’ he said in a fine epigram, -‘is the man who stays at home.’ All the time -he was on these spell-binding missions, he was -chafing to be at the front. His happy and fighting -nature delighted in the rough-and-tumble of platform -work, and in the interruption of the ‘voice’ -and hot thrust of retort. I remember him telling -me of an Australian minor poet who was too proud -to fight. The poet was arguing that men of letters -should stay at home and cultivate the muses and -hand on the torch of culture to the future. ‘I -would rather be a tenth-rate minor poet,’ he said, -‘than a great soldier.’ Kettle’s retort on this occasion -was deadly. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘aren’t you?’”</p> - -<p>He went to the front with a burdened heart. -The murder of his brother-in-law, Francis Sheehy-Skeffington, -cast a deep gloom on his spirit. As he<span class="pagenum" id="Page_31">31</span> -wrote to his friend Mr. Lynd shortly before his -death, it “oppressed him with horror.” I do not -think it out of place to recall here a brief obituary -notice he wrote of Mr. Sheehy-Skeffington, whom -he loved, as Mr. Lynd so truly says, for the “uncompromising -and radically gentle idealist he -<span class="locked">was”—</span></p> - -<p>“It would be difficult at any time to convey in -the deadness of language an adequate sense of the -courage, vitality, superabundant faith, and self-ignoring -manliness which were the characteristic -things we associated with Francis Sheehy-Skeffington. -To me, writing amidst the rumour of camps, -the task is impossible. There are clouds that will -never lift.</p> - -<p>“He was to me the good comrade of many hopes, -and though the ways of this scurvy and disastrous -world led us apart, he remained to me an inextinguishable -flame. This ‘agitator,’ this ‘public -menace,’ this ‘disturber’ was wholly emancipated -from egotism, and incapable of personal hatred. -He was a man who had ranged the whole world -of ideas, and rather than my own words I would -use those of the great whom we agreed in admiring. -I could style him with <span class="locked">Guyau—</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Droit comme un rayon de lumière,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Et, comme lui, vibrant et chaud;—’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">“or put in his mouth the proud and humble faith of -Robert <span class="locked">Buchanan—</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_32">32</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">‘Never to bow or kneel</div> - <div class="verse indent2">To any brazen lie;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To love the worst, to feel</div> - <div class="verse indent2">The worst is even as I.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To count all triumph vain</div> - <div class="verse indent2">That helps no burdened man;</div> - <div class="verse indent0">I think so still and so</div> - <div class="verse indent2">I end as I began.’</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>“But in truth there is no phrase of any of his -torchbearers that does not win new life from association -with him. Strangest of all, he, who turned -away from soldiers, left to all soldiers an example -of courage in death to which there are not many -parallels. This brave and honourable man died -to the rattle of musketry; his name will be recalled -to the ruffle of drums.”</p> - -<p>Easter week, too, had been for him a harrowing -and terrible experience. MacDonagh, who -was shot, was a fellow-professor at the College, as -was also MacNeill, in whose favour he gave evidence -at the court-martial. Pearse, the leader, was -a friend of many years. With the rebellion he had -no sympathy—indeed it made him furious. He -used to say bitterly that they had spoiled it all—spoiled -his dream of a free united Ireland in a free -Europe. But what really seared his heart was the -fearful retribution that fell on the leaders of the -rebellion. When Beaumarchais’s play, <i>The Marriage -of Figaro</i>, was produced, it created a furore. -The author’s cynical comment was that the only -thing madder than the play was its success. So it<span class="pagenum" id="Page_33">33</span> -might be said that the only thing madder than the -insurrection was the manner of its suppression. -Two wrongs do not make a right, nor do two follies -make common sense. We in Ireland had the right, -if not the precedent, to expect as fair treatment as -was meted out by Botha to rebels in South Africa. -My husband felt after the disasters of Easter week -more than ever committed to the attitude he had -taken up. He brought pressure to bear that he -might be sent immediately to the front. On the -14th of July, 1916, he sailed for France.</p> - -<p>His comrades speak of his wonderful courage, -endurance and buoyant spirits at the front. He -was never out of cheer, though he had a curious -prophetic feeling all through that he would die on -the battlefield in France.</p> - -<p>“Do not think of us as glum,” he wrote to me in -August. “Gaiety is a sort of courage, and my Company -is the gayest of the Battalion.” In a letter -to a friend he again speaks of his happy mood and -his deep love of France: “I myself am quite -extraordinarily happy. If it should come my way -to die, I shall sleep well in the France I always -loved, and shall know that I have done something -towards bringing to birth the Ireland one has -dreamed of.”</p> - -<p>France he loved in truth. In this volume he -refers to her “as the most interesting and logical -of nations,” and in <cite>The Day’s Burden</cite> he says: -“The Irish mind is moreover like the French—‘lucid,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_34">34</span> -vigorous and positive,’ though less methodical -since it never had the happiness to undergo -the Latin discipline. France and Ireland have -been made to understand each other.” France, -too, knew and loved him. In a beautiful tribute -to him in a French journal, <cite>L’Opinion</cite>, the writer -says: “All parties bowed in sorrow over his grave, -for in last analysis they were all Irish, and they -knew that in losing him, whether he was friend or -enemy, they had lost a true son of Ireland. A son -of Ireland? He was more. He was Ireland! He -had fought for all the aspirations of his race, for -Independence, for Home Rule, for the Celtic -Renaissance, for a United Ireland, for the eternal -Cause of Humanity.... He died, a hero in -the uniform of a British soldier, because he knew -that the faults of a period or of a man should not -prevail against the cause of right or liberty.”</p> - -<p>In a farewell letter to his close and honoured -friend, Mr. Devlin, he shows that he had envisaged -death and was ready: “As you know, the -character of the fighting has changed; it is no -longer a question of serving one’s apprenticeship -in a trench with intermittent bursts of leaving -cover and pushing right on. It is Mons backwards -with endless new obstacles to cross. Consequently -our offensive must go on without break. -This means, of course, the usual exaction in blood. -You will have noticed by the papers how high the -price is, and all Irish Regiments will continue to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_35">35</span> -have front places at the performances. So you see, -even I have no particular certainty of coming back. -I passed through, as everybody of sense does, a -sharp agony of separation. If I were an English -poet like that over-praised Rupert Brooke, I should -call it, no doubt, the Gethsemane before the climb -up the Windy Hill, but phrase-making seems now -a very dead thing to me—but now it is almost over -and I feel calm.... I hope to come back. If -not, I believe that to sleep here in the France I have -loved is no harsh fate, and that so passing out into -the silence, I shall help towards the Irish settlement. -Give my love to my colleagues—the Irish -people have no need of it.”</p> - -<p>But the moral and physical strain on a man, -bred as he was, was terrible, and in spite of his -fine efforts at insouciance there is a note of <em>nostalgia</em>. -“Physically I am having a heavy time. -I am doing my best, but I see better men than -me dropping out day by day and wonder if I shall -ever have the luck or grace to come home.” And -again: “The heat is bad, as are the insects and -rats, but the moral strain is positively terrible. It -is not that I am not happy in a way—a poor way—but -my heart does long for a chance to come -home.” And in another letter of farewell to a -friend he says: “I am not happy to die, the sacrifice -is over-great, but I am, content.” Some critics -have hinted that he died in France because he had -not the heart to live in Ireland. Some even went<span class="pagenum" id="Page_36">36</span> -so far as to suggest that he died in France because -he knew he ought to have died in the G.P.O. in -Dublin. I quote these letters—almost too intimate -to quote—to show that he made the sacrifice, -knowing and feeling that it was a sacrifice—he -made it for his Ireland and his Europe. He came -unscathed through the engagement before Guillemont. -An officer, telling me of that, said he behaved -splendidly, taking every risk and seemed -withal to have a charmed life. They had a day to -reorganise before attacking Ginchy. In his last -letter to his brother, written on the 8th, he described -the battle-scene and his mood. “I am calm -and happy but desperately anxious to live.... -The big guns are coughing and smacking their -shells, which sound for all the world like overhead -express trains, at anything from 10 to 100 -per minute on this sector; the men are grubbing -and an odd one is writing home. Somewhere the -Choosers of the Slain are touching, as in our Norse -story they used to touch, with invisible wands those -who are to die.”</p> - -<p>On the midnight of the 8th they advanced to -their position before Ginchy. A fellow-officer -gave me a gruesome description of the march, saying: -“The stench of the dead that covered the -road was so awful that we both used foot-powder -on our faces.” On the 9th, within thirty yards of -Ginchy, he met his death from a bullet from the -Prussian Guards.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_37">37</span></p> - -<p>I quote here an account which a staff-officer from -the front gave to the Press Association of his last -<span class="locked">days—</span></p> - -<p>“Kettle was one of the finest officers we had -with us. The men worshipped him, and would -have followed him to the ends of the earth. He -was an exceptionally brave and capable officer, -who had always the interests of his men at heart. -He was in the thick of the hard fighting in the -Guillemont-Ginchy region. I saw him at various -stages of the fighting. He was enjoying it like any -veteran, though it cannot be denied that the trade -of war, and the horrible business of killing one’s -fellows was distasteful to a man with his sensitive -mind and kindly disposition. I know it was with -the greatest reluctance that he discarded the Professor’s -gown for the soldier’s uniform, but once -the choice was made he threw himself into his new -profession, because he believed he was serving Ireland -and humanity by so doing.</p> - -<p>“In the Guillemont fighting I caught a glimpse -of him for a brief spell. He was in the thick of a -hard struggle, which had for its object the dislodgment -of the enemy from a redoubt they held -close to the village. He was temporarily in command -of the company, and he was directing operations -with a coolness and daring that marked him -out as a born leader of men. He seemed always to -know what was the right thing to do, and he was -always on the right spot to order the doing of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_38">38</span> -right thing at the right moment. The men under -his command on that occasion fought with a heroism -worthy of their leader. They were assailed -furiously on both flanks by the foe. They resisted -all attempts to force them back, and at the right -moment they pressed home a vigorous counter-attack -that swept the enemy off the field.</p> - -<p>“The next time I saw him his men were again -in a tight corner. They were advancing against -the strongest part of the enemy’s position in that -region. Kettle kept them together wonderfully -in spite of the terrible ordeal they had to go -through, and they carried the enemy’s position in -record time. It was in the hottest corner of the -Ginchy fighting that he went down. He was leading -his men with a gallantry and judgment that -would almost certainly have won him official -recognition had he lived, and may do so yet. His -beloved Fusiliers were facing a deadly fire and -were dashing forward irresistibly to grapple with -the foe. Their ranks were smitten by a tempest of -fire. Men went down right and left—some never -to rise again. Kettle was among the latter. He -dropped to earth and made an effort to get up. I -think he must have been hit again. Anyhow, he -collapsed completely. A wail of anguish went up -from his men as soon as they saw that their officer -was down. He turned to them and urged them -forward to where the Huns were entrenched. -They did not need his injunction. They swept<span class="pagenum" id="Page_39">39</span> -forward with a rush. With levelled bayonets they -crashed into the foe. There was deadly work, indeed, -and the Huns paid dearly for the loss of -Kettle.</p> - -<p>“When the battle was over his men came back -to camp with sore hearts. They seemed to feel his -loss more than that of any of the others. The men -would talk of nothing else but the loss of their -‘own Captain Tom,’ and his brother officers were -quite as sincere, if less effusive, in the display of -their grief. His loss will be mourned by all ranks -of the Brigade, for he was known outside his own -particular battalion, and his place will be hard to -fill either in the ranks of his battalion or in the -hearts of his men.”</p> - -<p>Had he survived Ginchy, he would have been -appointed Base Censor and been out of the danger -zone. He had refused to take up his appointment -till he had seen his comrades through; he wished -also to give the lie to his enemies who had delighted -to call him a “platform soldier.” Had he -survived Ginchy, even though he were covered -with wounds and glory, would not the tongues of -his revilers, who, he said, always spoke of him -“with inverted commas in their voice,” have -waged their war of calumny again? But death is -very convincing. As the <cite>Freeman</cite> said, “His victor’s -grave at Ginchy is their answer.” He could -have no more splendid epitaph than the official -War Office announcement that he fell “at the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_40">40</span> -post of honour, leading his men in a victorious -charge.”</p> - -<p>“It is not the death of the Professor nor of the -soldier, nor of the politician, nor even of the poet -and the essayist, that causes the heartache we feel,” -writes a comrade. “It is the loss of that rare, -charming, wondrous personality summed up in -those two simple words—Tom Kettle.”</p> - -<p>A friend once said of him that he was “infinitely -lovable.” His great gifts accompanied by a rare -simplicity and charm of manner that broke down -all social barriers, compelled affection. He was -known to all as “Tom Kettle.” To his men, he -was “their own Captain Tom.” Perhaps the greatest -proof of his magnetic personality lies in the -fact that all classes, the Unionist and Nationalist, -the soldier, the Sinn Feiner, and, as the <cite>Freeman</cite> -says, “those wearing the convict garb” of England, -united in mourning his death and paying tribute -to his memory.</p> - -<p>The <cite>Irish Times</cite>, the opponent of all his political -ideals, said: “As Irish Unionists we lay our -wreath on the grave of a generous Nationalist, -a brilliant Irishman, and a loyal soldier of the -King.”</p> - -<p>“There was in his rich and versatile temperament,” -said the <cite>Church of Ireland Gazette</cite>, “nothing -of that narrow, obscurantist spirit which is the -curse of much of Irish Nationalism.”</p> - -<p>Ireland was his one splendid prejudice. In <cite>The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_41">41</span> -Open Secret of Ireland</cite> he wrote: “We came, we, -the invaders,”—an allusion to his Norse ancestry—“to -dominate and remained to serve. For Ireland -has signed us with the oil and chrism of her -human sacrament, and even though we should -deny the faith with our lips, she would hold our -hearts to the end.” He had a radiant pride in the -indomitable spirit of his country that, many times -conquered, was always unconquered. “A people -such as this is not to be exterminated. An ideal -(that of National Autonomy) is not to be destroyed. -Imitate in Ireland” (he counsels England) -“your own wisdom in dealing with the -Colonies, and the same policy will bear the same -harvest. For justice given the Colonies gave you -friendship, as for injustice stubbornly upheld, -they had given you hatred. The analogy with Ireland -is complete so far as the cards have been -played. The same human elements are there, the -same pride, the same anger, the same willingness -to forget. Why then should the augury fail?” In -his pamphlet on <cite>Home Rule Finance</cite> he says: -“The Irish problem that is now knocking so -peremptorily at the door of Westminster is a -problem with a past, history is of its very essence -and substance; the wave that breaks in suave music -on the beach of to-day, has behind it the unspent -impulse of fierce storms and vast upheavals. It -is not wise, it is not even safe to handle the reorganisation -of the political fabric of Ireland in the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_42">42</span> -same ‘practical’ fashion that you would handle the -reconstruction of an Oil Company. There is in -liberty a certain tonic inspiration, there is in the -national idea a deep fountain of courage and -energy not to be figured out in dots and decimals; -and unless you can call these psychological forces -into action your Home Rule Bill will be only ink, -paper and disappointment. In one word Home -Rule must be a moral as well as a material liquidation -of the past.” His pride in Ireland forbade -the insult of futile sympathy. “Tears, as we read -in Wordsworth, to human suffering are due. If -there be anyone with tears at command, he may -shed them, with great fitness and no profit at all, -over the long martyrdom of Ireland. But let him, -at least if he values facts, think twice before he -goes on to apply to her that other line which speaks -of human hopes defeated and overthrown. No -other people in the world has held so staunchly to -its inner vision; none other has, with such fiery -patience, repelled the hostility of circumstances, -and in the end reshaped them after the desire of -her heart. Hats off to success, gentlemen! Your -modern god may well be troubled at the sight of -this enigmatic Ireland which at once despises him -and tumbles his faithfullest worshippers in the -sand of their own amphitheatre. Yet, so it is. -The confederate general, seeing victory suddenly -snatched from his hands and not for the first time, -by Meagher’s Brigade, exclaimed in immortal<span class="pagenum" id="Page_43">43</span> -profanity, ‘There comes that damned green flag -again!’ I have often commended that phrase to -Englishmen as admirably expressive of the historical -rôle and record of Ireland in British -politics. The damned green flag flutters again in -their eyes, and if they will but listen to the music -that marches with it, they will find that the lamenting -fifes are dominated wholly by the drums of -victory.” Ireland always moved him to lyric -patriotism. His appeal not to rend “the seamless -garment of Irish Nationality” is immortal. Mr. -Lynd, whom I have quoted so frequently because -he has understood my husband as it is given to few -to understand another, calls the last lines of his -“Reason in Rhyme” his testament to England as -his call to Europeanism is his testament to Ireland.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indentq">“Bond from the toil of hate we may not cease:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Free, we are free to be your friend.</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And when you make your banquet, and we come,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Soldier with equal soldier must we sit</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Closing a battle, not forgetting it.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">With not a name to hide</div> - <div class="verse indent0">This mate and mother of valiant ‘rebels’ dead</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Must come with all her history on her head.</div> - <div class="verse indent2">We keep the past for pride:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No deepest peace shall strike our poets dumb:</div> - <div class="verse indent0">No rawest squad of all Death’s volunteers,</div> - <div class="verse indent2">No rudest man who died</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To tear your flag down in the bitter years</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But shall have praise and three times thrice again</div> - <div class="verse indent0">When at that table men shall drink with men.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_44">44</span></p> - -<p>“It was to the standard of the intellect in a -gloomy world that he always gaily rallied,” Mr. -Lynd observes with truth. He saw the unbridgeable -gulf which exists between aspiration and -achievement. Heine once said bitterly: “You -want to give the woman you love the sun, moon -and stars, and all you can give her is a house on a -terrace.” He, like Heine, knew this sense of defeat, -and it is this which made him regard “optimism -as an attractive form of mental disease.” As -he says of Hamlet, “he passed through life annotating -it with a gloss of melancholy speculation.”</p> - -<p>He felt the “weary weight of all this unintelligible -world.” “The twentieth century,” he wrote -in an article, “which cuts such a fine figure in -encyclopædias is most familiarly known to the -majority of its children as a new sort of headache.” -But he was a fighting pessimist that called for the -best. “Impossibilism is a poor word and an unmanly -doctrine. We have got to keep moving on -and, since that is so, we had better put as good -thought as we can into our itinerary. The task -of civilisation was never easy. Freedom—the -phrase belongs to Fichte or someone of his circle—has -always been a battle and a march: it is of the -nature of both that they should appear to the participants, -during the heat of movement, as planless -and chaotic.”</p> - -<p>Perhaps the finest definition of his philosophy of -life may be found in an essay in <cite>The Day’s Burden</cite>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_45">45</span> -“A wise man soon grows disillusioned of disillusionment. -The first lilac freshness of life will indeed -never return. The graves are sealed, and no -hand will open them to give us back dead comrades -or dead dreams. As we look out on the -burdened march of humanity, as we look in on the -leashed but straining passions of our unpurified -hearts, we can but bow our heads and accept the -discipline of pessimism. Bricriu must have his -hour as well as Cuchullin. But the cynical mood -is one that can be resisted. Cynicism, however exercisable -in literature, is in life the last treachery, -the irredeemable defeat.... But we must continue -loyal to the instinct which makes us hope -much, we must believe in all the Utopias.”</p> - -<p>Pessimism is indeed written on his banner, but -it is a pessimism which achieves. “Is not the -whole Christian conception of life rooted in pessimism,” -he argues, “as becomes a philosophy expressive -of a world in which the ideal can never -quite overcome the crumbling incoherence of matter? -May we not say of all good causes what -Arnold said only of the proud and defeated Celts: -‘They always went down to battle, but they always -fell’!”</p> - -<p>There is no need to comment on him as a man -of letters. A master of exquisite prose, he had in -perfection what he himself calls “the incommunicable -gift of phrase” and “the avid intellect which -must needs think out of things everything to be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_46">46</span> -found in them.” What he wrote of Anatole -France, might fittingly be applied to himself. “A -pessimism, stabbed and gashed with the radiance -of epigrams as a thunder-cloud is stabbed by -lightning is a type of spiritual life far from contemptible. -A reasonable sadness, chastened by the -music of consummate prose is an attitude and an -achievement, that will help many men to bear with -more resignation the burden of our century.” His -defence of the use of the epigram and its purpose -is vigorous and arresting: “The epigrammatist, -too, and the whole tribe of image-makers dwell -under a disfavour far too austere. We must distinguish. -There is in such images an earned and -an unearned increment of applause. The sudden, -vast, dazzling, and deep-shadowed view of -traversed altitudes that breaks on the vision of a -climber, who, after long effort, has reached the -mountain-top, is not to be grudged him. And the -image that closes up in a little room the infinite -riches of an argument carefully pursued is not -only legitimate but admirable.”</p> - -<p>His writings abound in fine images and epigrams -which seem to come naturally to his pen. -Galway is to him the “Bruges-la-Morte” of western -Ireland; again “the opulent loneliness of the -Golden Vale,” is a picture in words. He referred -to Irish emigrants as “landless men from a manless -land”; England, he said, found Ireland a nation -and left her a question. Loyalty he described as<span class="pagenum" id="Page_47">47</span> -the bloom on the face of freedom. Mr. Healy, -whose wit he admired and whose politics he deplored, -he called “a brilliant calamity.” “It is -with ideas,” he wrote, “as with umbrellas, if left -lying about they are peculiarly liable to change of -ownership.” Describing a man of poor parents -who had achieved greatness, he said: “He was of -humble origin like the violin string.” A very stupid -book, published one winter, he referred to “as very -suitable for the Christmas fire.” Of the Royal Irish -Constabulary he said: “It was formerly an army -of occupation. Now, owing to the all but complete -disappearance of crime, it is an army of no occupation.” -Cleverness he defined as a sort of perfumed -malice, the perfume predominating in literature, -the malice in life. The inevitableness of Home -Rule, he declared, resided in the fact that it is -a biped among ideas. “It marches to triumph on -two feet, an Irish and Imperial foot.” And surely -this is one of his finest epigrams: “Life is a cheap -table d’hôte in a rather dirty restaurant, with time -changing the plates before you have had enough -of anything.” Sufferers from the influenza will -appreciate his description of that malady. “Other -illnesses are positive, influenza is negative. It -makes one an absentee from oneself.” Talking -of Mr. George Moore, he described him as “suffering -from the sick imagination of the growing -boy.” The grazing system he declared must be -exterminated root and branch, <em>brute and ranch</em>.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_48">48</span> -In his <cite>Home Rule Finance</cite>, he says: “Home Rule -may be a divorce between two administrations, it -will be a marriage between two nations. You are -in any case free to choose for your inspiration between -alimony and matrimony, the emphasis in -either case is on the last syllable.”</p> - -<p>Few think of him as a poet, and yet his poetry -has as unique and distinguished a <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">cachet</i> as his -prose. In political poetry and battle song he -equalled the best. His “Epitaph on the House -of Lords” ranks beside Chesterton’s memorable -poem on the same subject. His battle song entitled -“The Last Crusade” embodies in perfect -lyric form his vision of the <span class="locked">war—</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indentq">“Then lift the flag of the last Crusade!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And fill the ranks of the Last Brigade!</div> - <div class="verse indent0">March on to the fields where the world’s re-made,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the ancient Dreams come true!”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">A sonnet written to his little daughter on the battlefield -has been declared by a literary critic as -sufficient to found the reputation of a poet.</p> - -<p class="p2 b0 center">“TO MY DAUGHTER BETTY, THE GIFT OF -GOD.</p> - -<div class="poetry-container p0"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="in2"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indentq">“In wiser days, my darling rosebud, blown</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To beauty proud as was your mother’s prime,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">In that desired, delayed, incredible time,</div> - <div class="verse indentq">“You’ll ask why I abandoned you, my own,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And the dear heart that was your baby throne,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To dice with death. And, oh! they’ll give you rhyme</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And reason: some will call the thing sublime,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And some decry it in a knowing tone.</div><span class="pagenum" id="Page_49">49</span> - <div class="verse indent0">So here, while the mad guns curse overhead,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And tired men sigh, with mud for couch and floor,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">But for a dream, born in a herdsman’s shed,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">And for the secret Scripture of the poor.</div> - </div></div> - - <p class="in0 b0">“<i>In the field, before Guillemont, Somme,</i></p> - <p class="p0 in0 in2">“<i>September 4, 1916.</i>”</p> -</div> -</div> - -<p class="in0">“Ballade Autumnal” is in Villon’s perfect manner, -and his replies to Kipling and Watson will be -remembered in Ireland for all time. In a volume -entitled <i>Poems and Parodies</i>, his verses have been -collected and published.</p> - -<p>Style in writing was a thing he regarded as of -paramount importance. Though a prolific writer -for newspapers, he was no believer in the theory of -dashing off an article. On the contrary, he maintained -that one of the drawbacks incidental to anything -hastily written is that it is bound to be too -serious. To write well, you must labour infinitely, -otherwise one’s work is sure to bear traces of what -he called the “heavy paw.” In the <cite>Nationist</cite>, -when the slipshod work of some popular writer -was being reviewed he observed, “At least <em>we</em> are -stylists.”</p> - -<p>In the same degree as he loved the expert, he abhorred -the quack, the charlatan, the pseudo-writer -of prose or poetry. I remember one night a popular -novelist and writer of magazine stories, who -had achieved fame and money without achieving<span class="pagenum" id="Page_50">50</span> -literature, was telling with great unction of his -success. He told how his recent book had been -translated not only into French, Italian, Spanish, -but even into a Dutch dialect. My husband, flicking -the ash from a cigarette, said in a very urbane -voice: “That is very interesting. I dare say then -it will soon be translated into English.”</p> - -<p>In speaking, too, while his notes were scanty, in -fact mere headings, he always thought out beforehand -both the matter and form. As he put it, he -favoured “carefully prepared impromptus.”</p> - -<p>Friends will remember him at his best as a conversationalist. -As a raconteur he was inimitable, -and, as a critic says, “It was not so much the point -of his tale that counted. The divagations from -the text in which he loved to indulge were the -delight of his auditors.” “What Doctor Johnson -said of Burke,” observes another critic, “was -essentially true of Kettle, ‘that you could not have -stood under an archway in his company to escape -a passing shower without realising that he was a -great man.’”</p> - -<p>He had the literary man’s constitutional distaste -for writing or answering letters. A friend once -said chaffingly to him that he might write “The -Life and Letters of T. M. Kettle.” “Well,” retorted -Tom, “you may write my life, but there -won’t be any letters, for I never write any.” He -was also unpunctual in keeping appointments, and -finding the telephone very useful, he said it should<span class="pagenum" id="Page_51">51</span> -be called not “telephone,” but “tell-a-fib,” as that -was its chief function.</p> - -<p>He was intensely Catholic and always flaunted -the banner of his religion. “Religion,” he writes -in this volume, “is one of the ideal forces that make -men good citizens and gallant soldiers.” And -again, “If soldiers will not fight on an empty -stomach, still less will they fight on an empty soul.” -Perhaps because he loved his faith, so he could -afford to take it humorously at times. I remember -once his throwing off in an epigram the difference -between the Catholic and Protestant religions. -“The Catholics take their beliefs table -d’hôte,” he said, “and the Protestants theirs à la -carte.” What chiefly appealed to him in Catholicity -was its mystery and its gospel of mercy. If -he often quoted Heine’s well-known semi-cynical -“Dieu me pardonnera, c’est son métier,” it was because -he felt an amazed gratitude that a God -should choose such an original profession. He -greatly liked the society of Irish priests. He used -to say they were gentlemen first, and priests after. -They, too, loved him, and took his gentle chaff as -it was meant. I remember how a priest friend of -his enjoyed a sermon for golfers which Tom composed -for him. Needless to say it was never -preached. In it golfers were enjoined to “get out -of the bunker of mortal sin with the niblick of -Confession.” During the Dublin strike an anti-cleric -was railing against the priests, who had intervened<span class="pagenum" id="Page_52">52</span> -to prevent the deportation of the children. -Tom completely won him over with the -original argument “that the priests were acting as -members of a spiritual trade union.” Writing of -the great Catholic poet, Francis Thompson, he -puts in a lyric plea for his religion: “The superiority -of the Catholic poet is that he reinforces the -natural will by waters falling an infinite height -from the infinite ocean of spirit. He has two -worlds against one. If we place our Fortunate -Islands solely within the walls of space and time, -they will dissolve into a mocking dream; for there -will always be pain that no wisdom can assuage. -They must lie on the edge of the horizon with the -glimmer of a strange sea about their shores and -their mountain peaks hidden among the clouds.” -He had a wonderful spiritual humility. What he -found admirable in Russian literature was “an immense -and desolating sob of humility and self-reproach.” -He abjured the self-righteous who, -he used to say, went round as if they were “live -monuments erected by God in honour of the Ten -Commandments.” He was, indeed, over generous -in the praise of qualities in others which he had -superlatively himself. Anyone with a gift, a -“plus” man at golf, a Feis Gold Medallist, an -expert gardener—just the distinguishing <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">cachet</i> of -excellence won his admiration. Witness how he -lauds the valour of his Dublin Fusiliers, and yet -his courage was no newly acquired virtue. I remember<span class="pagenum" id="Page_53">53</span> -several years ago he went to a political -meeting at Newcastle West. A faction party took -possession of the platform. The intending speakers -were for abandoning the meeting, but Tom declined -to give in without at least a fight, and led -the attack on the platform. After a nasty struggle -they captured their objective. Mr. Gwynn, who -was one of the speakers, was so impressed with my -husband’s daring that he wrote me his admiration, -saying that he led the attack “with nothing but an -umbrella and a University degree.” His moral -courage, too, never failed. When occasion demanded -it, he could always be counted on to say -“the dire full-throated thing.”</p> - -<p>For the memory of Parnell he had a deep reverence. -This is his vision of <span class="locked">him—</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indentq">“A flaming coal</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Lit at the stars and sent</div> - <div class="verse indent0">To burn the sin of patience from her soul,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">The Scandal of Content.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p>A life, or rather an impressionist study, of “the -Chief’s” career was a work he frequently projected -but unfortunately never accomplished. The plinth -at the back of Parnell’s Statue in O’Connell Street -should, he maintained, have been broken to symbolise -the wrecking of Parnell’s career. “Parnell,” -he wrote, “died with half his music in him.” -Once in a discussion on the eighties he remarked: -“What is the history of the eighties? It is the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_54">54</span> -history of two Irishmen—Oscar Wilde and Parnell.” -For G. K. Chesterton my husband had a -great admiration. In <cite>The Open Secret of Ireland</cite>, -he refers to him as wielding “the wisest pen in -contemporary English letters. There is in his -mere sanity a touch of magic so potent that although -incapable of dullness he has achieved -authority, and although convinced that faith is -more romantic than doubt or even sin, he has got -himself published and read.” The only flaw he -found in Mr. Chesterton was that he was not a -suffragist. My husband was, of course, an ardent -supporter of the Women’s Movement, and wrote -a brilliant pamphlet entitled <i>Why Bully Women?</i> -Mr. Chesterton paid him a noble tribute in the -course of an article in the <cite>Observer</cite>: “The former -case, that of the man of letters who becomes by -strength of will a man of war, is better exemplified -in a man like Professor Kettle, whose fall in battle -ought to crush the slanderers of Ireland as the fall -of a tower could crush nettles.”</p> - -<p>Another book projected but unachieved was on -Dublin. His idea was to, follow the method of -E. V. Lucas in his <i>Wanderer in London</i>. For -Dublin city he had a great love and pride: “Of -no mean city am I,” he often quoted proudly of -his native city. For its poor he had a tremendous -pity. The city beggars always found him an easy -victim. I remember one night on coming out of -a theatre, an urchin of about five years came clamouring<span class="pagenum" id="Page_55">55</span> -after him. I began the usual stunt on the -parental iniquity that allowed youngsters to go out -begging at eleven at night; but Tom, unheeding, -was already chatting with the boy. “What’s your -name?” he asked. “Patsy Murphy, sir.” “Well, -Patsy, which would you rather, a shilling or a -halfpenny?” “A halfpenny, sir,” was the amazing -reply. “Now tell me why?” questioned my -husband, interested. “Well,” said the kid, “I -might get the halfpenny but I’d never get the shilling.” -His naïve philosophy got him both on this -occasion.</p> - -<p>In a speech on Dublin he said: “We cannot -ignore the slums, for the slums are Dublin and -Dublin is the slums.” On the same occasion he -remarked: “Dublin is in one respect like every -other city. It is convinced that it possesses the most -beautiful women and the worst corporation.”</p> - -<p>In a letter written from the boat on his way to -France, with already a prophetic sense of death -waiting for him on the battlefield, he wrote: “I -have never felt my own essay ‘On Saying Good-bye’ -more profoundly aux tréfonds de mon cœur.”</p> - -<p>I shall quote the conclusion of the <span class="locked">essay—</span></p> - -<p>“There is only one journey, as it seems to me -... in which we attain our ideal of going away -and going home at the same time. Death, normally -encountered, has all the attractions of suicide without -any of its horrors. The old woman” (an old -woman previously mentioned who complained that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_56">56</span> -“the only bothersome thing about walking was -that the miles began at the wrong end“)—”the -old woman when she comes to that road will find -the miles beginning at the right end. We shall all -bid our first real adieu to those brother-jesters of -ours. Time and Space: and though the handkerchiefs -flutter, no lack of courage will have power -to cheat or defeat us. ‘However amusing the comedy -may have been,’ wrote Pascal, ‘there is always -blood in the fifth act. They scatter a little dust in -your face; and then all is over, for ever.’ Blood -there may be, but blood does not necessarily mean -tragedy. The wisdom of humility bids us pray -that in that fifth act we may have good lines and a -timely exit; but, fine or feeble, there is comfort -in breaking the parting word into its two significant -halves, à Dieu. Since life has been a constant -slipping from one good-bye to another, why -should we fear that sole good-bye which promises -to cancel all its forerunners?”</p> - -<p>Could one meet death in a nobler way? He -had his last lines at Ginchy, and “his fine word -and incomparable gesture.” And now Picardy of -the waving poplars—Picardy that my student days -had garlanded with many memories, that shone in -recollection with many friendships, now by the -strange way of destiny holds my husband’s grave. -But he sleeps well in his beloved France, wearing -the green emblem of his Motherland with his -fallen comrades of the “Irish Brigade.” As his<span class="pagenum" id="Page_57">57</span> -distant wind-swept grave in the Valley of the -Somme rises to vision, some noble words of René -Bazin recur to me making a picture: “The loyal -land, the honest land, the land of love, now moist, -now parched, where one sleeps the last sleep with -the lullaby wind in the shade of the Cross.” The -many who loved him and now grieve for him will -find in his own proud lines on Parnell a fitting -<span class="locked">message—</span></p> -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indentq">“Tears will betray all pride, but when ye mourn him,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">Be it in soldier wise,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">As for a captain who hath gently borne him,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">And in the midnight dies....</div> - </div> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indent0">So let him keep, where all world-wounds are healed,</div> - <div class="verse indent4">The silences of God.”</div> - </div> - <div class="attrib"><span class="smcap">Mary S. Kettle.</span></div> -</div> -</div> - -<hr /> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_58">58</span></p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<h2 class="nobreak" id="WHY_IRELAND_FOUGHT">WHY IRELAND FOUGHT</h2> -</div> - -<h3>I.—<span class="smcap">Prelude</span></h3> - -<p><span class="firstword">We</span> have lived to see Europe—that Europe -which carried the fortunes and the hopes of all -mankind—degraded to a foul something which -no image can so much as shadow forth. To a detached -intelligence it must resemble nothing so -much as a sort of malign middle term between a -lunatic asylum and a butcher’s stall.</p> - -<p>We have seen committed, under our own amazed -eyes, the greatest crime against civilisation of which -civilisation itself keeps any record. The Blood-and-Ironmongers -have entered into possession of -the soul of humanity. No one who remembers our -social miseries will say that that was a house swept -and garnished, but it did seem secure against such -an invasion of diabolism: that was an illusion, and -it has perished. The face of things is changed, -and all the streams are flowing up the hills and -not down them. If in the old world it was the task -of men to build, develop, redeem, integrate, carnage -and destruction are now imposed upon us as -the first conditions of human society. We are -gripped in the ancient bloodiness of that paradox -which bids us kill life in order to save life.</p> - -<p>Nations are at war on land and sea, and under<span class="pagenum" id="Page_59">59</span> -and above both <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">usque ad cœlum et infernum</i>. -Millions of men have been marched to this Assize -of Blood to be torn with shells and bullets, gutted -with bayonets, tortured with vermin, to dig themselves -into holes and grovel there in mud and fragments -of the flesh of their comrades, to rot with -disease, to go mad, and in the most merciful case -to die.</p> - -<p>Worse, if possible, is the malign transformation -of the mind of mankind. Dr. Jekyll has been -wholly submerged in Mr. Hyde. Killing has become -an hourly commonplace—for the aggressor -as the mere practice of his trade, for the assailed -as a necessity of defence and victory. The material -apparatus of butchery and destruction has -proven to be far more tremendous in its effects -than even its planners had imagined. The fabric -of settled life has disappeared not by single houses, -but by whole towns. Cathedrals are mere dust and -shards of stained glass. Strong forts have all but -vanished under the Thor’s hammer of a single -bombardment. The very earth, that a few months -ago gave us food and iron and coal, is wealed, -pitted, scarred, mounded, entrenched into the semblance -of some devil’s nightmare.</p> - -<p>All this came upon a world which was more -favourable to the hopes of honest, Christian men -than any save the Golden Ages of fable. Being -myself a plain, Christian man, I am not going to -suggest that in 1914 the Earthly Paradise had arrived<span class="pagenum" id="Page_60">60</span> -or was in sight. Coventry Patmore is entirely -right when he says that belief in the perfectibility -of man on earth is the last proof of weakmindedness. -If we fall to rise, it is also true that we rise -to fall. It is, perhaps, the chief gain of the agony -of war that men have come once more to recognise -that in their proudest exaltations sin stands chuckling -at their elbows; that moral evil is a reality, -and that the opposite notion was a spider-web spun -by German metaphysics out of its own entrails. -But with these limitations the world before the -war promised well for all reasonable human hopes. -The old materialism was all but dead. It is true -that a few antiquated German heresiarchs like -Professor Haeckel still expounded a thing called -Monism in sixpenny editions. It is true that a -tribe of German professors were still engaged -(with much aid and abetment from English savants -and publishers) in an attempt to shred into -myth those plain historical documents, the Gospels. -But on the whole the reigning philosophy -was that of Bergson, a philosophy of life, Latin -and lucid, which was a distinct return to St. -Thomas Aquinas, to Aristotle, and to the common -daylight. And in the region of Higher Criticism -people were asking themselves very earnestly -whether savants like Harnack and the rest, having -regard to their general flat-footedness of apprehension, -were likely to be good judges of any evidence -of anything whatever, human or divine.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_61">61</span></p> - -<p>In the field of social problems the outlook was -of the hopefullest. The conscience of men had -been aroused more sharply than ever before to the -mass of evil in our society which was inevitable -only as a fruit of selfish apathy, and could be exterminated -by sound knowledge and strong action. -The very loud clamour of the indecently rich was -in itself the best proof that the main cause had been -bull’s-eyed, and the best guarantee of approaching -change. On the other hand the emptiness of the -old Socialism, its inadequacy not only to the spiritual -but to the bodily business of life, had emerged -into clear vision. Property for every man, and not -too much property for any man, had become the -watchword of sensible men. Trusts, combines, and -private conspiracies of every kind, economic and -political, were growing more nervous and by consequence -more honest under a growing acuteness of -scrutiny. Conservatism, which, for all its faults, -had kept the roots of life from being torn up, and -Democracy, which, for all its, had been like the -sap in the tree forcing itself out into new forms -of life, were coming to understand that they were -not enemies but allies. If you refused all change -it was death; if you changed everything at once it -was equally death.</p> - -<p>There were, indeed, obvious blots. Men, and -not irresponsible men, were playing with fire in -these countries. The King’s conference at Buckingham -Palace was known to have failed just<span class="pagenum" id="Page_62">62</span> -twelve days before Armageddon. We were committed -to the monstrous doctrine that only through -the criminal madness of civil war could the political -future of Ireland be settled. Women, or some -women, were already at guerilla war with men, -or with some men, and the failure to find a way -out was a grave reproach to statesmanship. Perhaps -our most damning defect of that vanished -time before the war was our entire lack of the sense -of proportion. All the little fishes of controversy -talked like whales. The galled jade did not <em>wince</em>, -it trumpeted and charged like a wounded bull-elephant. -If you put another penny on the income -tax the rich howled out in chorus that Dick Turpin -had got himself into the Exchequer, that all industry -would come to an end, that the stately homes -of England would fall into decay, and that all -capital would emigrate to Kamchatka. If a bilious -works manager spoke crossly to a similarly indisposed -Trade Union workman, there was grave -danger that in a week we should have a national -crisis and a national strike.</p> - -<p>The scene has changed. There must be many -a man who, looking out on the spectacle of blood -and disaster which now passes for Europe, exclaims: -“If I had only known!” There is many -a home, deep in the mourning of this titanic tragedy, -in which they sigh: “If we could only bring -back that 1914 in which we were not wise!”</p> - -<p>These are not vain regrets; they have the germ<span class="pagenum" id="Page_63">63</span> -of future wisdom. But they are not our immediate -business. Enough for the present to remember -that we were playing with unrealities while this -crime of all history was being prepared.</p> - -<p>All our civilisation of that time, however disturbed, -had in it a principle of growth and reconciliation. -The temper of these countries might -have permitted inflammatory verbiage, and even -scattered anarchical outbursts, but it would have -revolted to sanity at the first actual shedding of -blood.</p> - -<p>And now every landmark has been submerged -in an Atlantic of blood. There has been forced -upon us a dispensation in which our very souls are -steeped in blood. The horizon of the future, such -horizon as is discernible, is visible only through a -mist of blood. Now this was not a war demanded -by the peoples of the world. It was not, like the -Great Revolution, created by the universal uprising -of oppressed men, to be marred and to pass over -into murder, lust and tyranny. It was not like the -old wars of religion. The sort of religion that -tortures its enemies and puts them to death no -longer flourishes under the standard of the Cross. -It does flourish under that of the Crescent, as the -corpses of eight hundred thousand slain Armenians -terribly testify. There was indeed before -the war one people in Europe, but only one, whose -leaders preached war as a national duty and function. -How far the militarism of his rulers had<span class="pagenum" id="Page_64">64</span> -penetrated to the common man in Germany must -remain something of a question. Personally, I do -not think that the peasant who knelt by the wayside -crucifix in the Tyrol, or the comfortable, stout -farmer in Bavaria or Würtemberg, or the miner in -Westphalia, or any typical Rhinelander wanted -to dip his hands in blood. He bore with rulers -who did so want. In the rest of Europe the atmosphere -was one of profound peace. That it was so -in France even German witnesses testify.</p> - -<p>It will be said that all such considerations are -now empty, that we have experienced war and -realise all that it means, and that it is the part of -wisdom to banish such memories from the human -imagination. This sort of plea is, indeed, likely -to be popular; it has all the qualities of popularity—that -is to say, it is feeble, edifying, and -free from all the roughness of truth. But it is precisely -the truth in all its roughness of which we -stand in need. Our duty is not to banish the memories -of war as we have experienced it, but to burn -them in beyond effacement, every line and trait, -every dot and detail. Civilised men, in the mass, -have not yet begun to understand the baseness and -the magnitude of this adventure in de-civilisation. -There is no calculus of suffering that can sum up -the agonies endured since the sentence of blood was -daubed on the lintel of every cottage in Europe. -The story of war is not yet realised because it has -not yet been told; there has not been time for the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_65">65</span> -telling even to begin. It is the part of wisdom to -see that it is not slurred over, but written and remembered.</p> - -<p>We shall have the usual fluttered imputations of -“rhetoric” and “extravagance,” the usual “scientific -historians” with their deprecating gesture, against -“the introduction of feeling” into any narrative. -Such people, I suppose, have their place in the -world. This is a scientific age, and the function -of science may be exhausted when it has counted -the corpses on a battlefield, unless indeed it goes -on to append an estimate of their manurial value. -It can render both these accounts without admitting -a hint of emotion into its voice. But to the conscience -the killing of men remains the most terrible -of all acts. A mutilated corpse not only overwhelms -it with horror, but also suggests at once -that there is a murderer somewhere on the earth -who must be sought out and punished. Passion -will break into the voice, and anger into the veins -at such a confrontation, for to be above passion is -to be below humanity. I have no apology, then, -to make for any “emotional” phrase or sentence -in this book. It is in the main a narrative of facts—verified -by evidence which stands unshaken by criticism—but -I confess that, being no more than -human, I have slipped into the luxury of occasional -indignation.</p> - -<p>When I call this war a crime I use the word in -its fullest and simplest sense, an evil act issuing<span class="pagenum" id="Page_66">66</span> -from the deliberate choice of certain human wills. -There is a sort of pietism, hardly distinguishable -from atheism, to which war appears as a sort of -natural calamity, produced by overmastering external -conditions. You will hear people of this -school of thoughtlessness chattering away as if the -earthquake of Lisbon, the cholera outbreak of -1839, and the war of 1914 all belonged to the same -category of evil. But the first was plainly beyond -the reach of human power; the second was an evil -imposed from without which might have been nullified -by a wise organization of medical knowledge; -and the third was, on the part of its authors, -just as plainly a thing of deliberate human choice. -Another type of mind, numerously represented, -considers that it has settled everything philosophically -when to war it has added the label “inevitable.” -Everything is apparently involved in a -sort of gelatinous determinism; everybody is somewhat -to blame for everything, and nobody is very -definitely to blame for anything. According to -this notion because Germany is rather big, and the -British Empire, France, Russia, Italy, and Austria-Hungary -are also rather big, and because they -all manufacture goods and sell them, the fabric -of civilisation is to blow up in minute fragments -from time to time under the explosion of an “inevitable -war.” No casual connection is indicated. -Before thought begins these two doctrines must -be dismissed. War is not a calamity of nature, and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_67">67</span> -there are no “inevitable wars.” Or rather the only -war inevitable is a war against aggression, and aggression -itself is never inevitable.</p> - -<p>If any fault has ever been urged against Belgium -it was that of a too great and apathetic complacency. -The average Englishman—bating the -unreal fever-frenzy regarding Ireland—so little -planned attack on anyone that events have proved -his complete unpreparedness, an unpreparedness -common and creditable to all the Allies. Russia -wanted no war, Italy wanted none, Serbia, ravaged -with disease, wanted none. Yet suddenly there was -launched upon us this abomination of desolation.</p> - -<p>Who launched it? Who was guilty of this crime -above all crimes? The author of it, whether a -ruler, a junta, or a whole nation, comes before history -stained with an infamy to which no language -can reach. If his assassin’s stroke is not beaten -down into the dust it is all over with Europe and -civilisation. Who, then, was the criminal? There -is an invertebrate view according to which everybody -is equally blameable and blameless for everything. -The holders of this view have never gone -quite so far as to take up the New Testament story, -and argue that Judas Iscariot was a misunderstood -man; but, were they logical, they would do so. -Since they are not logical they must not be allowed -to apply their mechanical and deterministic formula -to the tragedy of world-history. No nation -in this war is without a blot, and many blots on its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_68">68</span> -past, not even Ireland. Any people that claims -complete worthiness to bear the sword and shield -of justice is a people intoxicated with vanity. The -participants in this struggle are, like the participants -and witnesses in a murder-trial, human. -That does not prevent a jury adjudging the supreme -guilt of blood to that one of the many imperfect -individuals on whom it lies.</p> - -<p>The Great War was in its origin a Great Crime, -and the documents are there to prove it. That is -one advantage we possess formerly forbidden to -public opinion. The Press and popular education -have done much harm, but this solid good -stands to their credit: they have made it impossible, -as in old times, to order war in secret councils for -motives undisclosed, or not disclosed till long after -the events. Every belligerent Government has -found itself under the necessity of issuing to the -world diplomatic correspondence relating to the -outbreak of the war. All the publications of the -Powers engaged will be found in a single volume, -<i>Collected Diplomatic Documents relating to the -Outbreak of the European War</i> (E. Ponsonby, 1<i>s.</i> -net). To that volume frequent reference will be -made in these pages. One omission must be noted, -a hiatus more significant and sinister than any -printed evidence. The influence exercised by Berlin -on Vienna must be, for the historian, the central -pivot of all <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">ante-bellum</i> negotiations. But in neither -of the books published by the Germanic Powers<span class="pagenum" id="Page_69">69</span> -is there any real disclosure of what passed -between Berlin and Vienna during that fateful -period. Allegations of atrocities, too, no longer -rest merely on the evidence of private persons. -Formal Commissions, composed of lawyers and -statesmen of international reputation, have sifted -the whole mass of charges, eliminated hearsay, and -committed themselves to a verdict that nothing -can shake. That great prince of the Church, Cardinal -Mercier, and his Bishops, have issued documents -with every solemnity of form and occasion -which in the early days of the struggle were not -available. A whole library of comment, in which -the ablest minds not only of the United Kingdom -and France but also of the United States and Germany -itself have collaborated in a reasoned examination -of the issues at stake, is at our disposal.</p> - -<p>The evidence in the whole case is indeed at once -so clear and so voluminous that one might well -have supposed any further survey of it to be superfluous. -That is not so. It is a far from frequent -experience to find a man in Ireland, even among -those who assume to themselves a new leadership -of opinion, who has made an honest study of documents -within reach of all the world. You will still -hear “intellectuals” explaining at length that they -“don’t believe the Germans committed any atrocities -in Belgium.” You will hear facile sneers at -the notion that attacks of Great Powers on small -nationalities had anything to do with the war. The<span class="pagenum" id="Page_70">70</span> -sooner the unworthiness of this familiar attitude is -recognised by everybody in Ireland the better.</p> - -<p>No man has the right to offer an opinion on any -subject that is a matter of evidence until he has -read the evidence. Upon anyone who has read it -in this instance the twin <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">niaiseries</i> just cited make -the impression merely of blank unreason. What -would one make of a man, and a writer to boot, -who began modern French history by dismissing -the alleged existence of Napoleon with a shrug -and a gibe? Or who “didn’t believe” that there -ever were evictions in Ireland? The parallel is -exact. The evidence in proof of the first pair of -propositions differs from that in proof of the second -pair only in being fresher and more abundant. -Going upon that evidence, any branch of which -can be pursued in detail by any enquirer, I propose -to establish this following argument.</p> - -<p>This war originated in an attempt by Austria-Hungary, -a large Empire, to destroy the independence -of Serbia, a small nation.</p> - -<p>It grew to its present dimensions because Germany, -and under German pressure Austria-Hungary, -rejected every proposal making for peace suggested -by the present Allied Powers but especially -by the United Kingdom through Sir Edward -Grey.</p> - -<p>Germany offered bribes to the United Kingdom, -and to Belgium herself, to induce them to consent -to a violation of the European treaty which protected<span class="pagenum" id="Page_71">71</span> -Belgian independence and enforced Belgian -neutrality.</p> - -<p>Having broken like an armed burglar into Belgium, -Germany was there guilty of a systematic -campaign of murder, pillage, outrage, and destruction, -justified, planned and ordered by her military -and intellectual leaders. Such a campaign was -inherent in her philosophy of politics, and of war. -She stood for the gospel of force; and the sacrament -of cruelty. To link with her in any wise a -nation like Ireland that has always stood for spiritual -freedom is an act of treason and blasphemy -against our whole past.</p> - -<p>The Allied Powers did not come into the war, -and will not come before history, sinless. The past -of both Great Britain and France was deeply -stained with domination, that is to say, with Prussianism. -Much of it was still apparent in some -of their politics. But they had begun to cleanse -themselves. The working out of the democratic -formula would have in due course completed that -process, and will complete it. Prussia, on the contrary, -had adopted her vice as the highest virtue. -Her philosophy did not correct her appetites, it -canonised them. Therefore, speaking of main -ideas, the triumph of Prussia must mean the triumph -of force: the triumph of the Allies must -mean the triumph of law.</p> - -<p>In such a conflict to counsel Ireland to stand -neutral in judgment, is as if one were to counsel<span class="pagenum" id="Page_72">72</span> -a Christian to stand neutral in judgment between -Nero and St. Peter. To counsel her to stand neutral -in action would have been to abandon all her -old valour and decision, and to establish in their -places the new cardinal virtues of comfort and -cowardice. In such matters you cannot compromise. -Neutrality is already a decision, a decision -of adherence to the evil side. To trim is to betray. -It will be an ill end of all our “idealistic” movements -when their success so transforms the young -men of this nation that in this world they shall be -content to be neutral, and that nothing will offer -them in the next save to be blown about by the -winds.</p> - -<p>Used with the wisdom which is sown in tears -and blood, this tragedy of Europe may be and -must be the prologue to the two reconciliations of -which all statesmen have dreamed, the reconciliation -of Protestant Ulster with Ireland, and the -reconciliation of Ireland with Great Britain.</p> - -<p>In this book—pieced together amid preoccupations -of a very different kind—I have reprinted certain -articles on various aspects of the war published -in its earlier stages. I have done so not out of -vanity, the reader may rest assured, but to repel -an imputation. It has been charged against us who -have taken our stand with the Allies that we were -merely dancing to the tune of Imperialism, that -our ideas came to us from London, that we hated -Prussia and Prussianism not honestly but simply<span class="pagenum" id="Page_73">73</span> -to order. Our recruiting appeals have been twisted -from their plain utterance and obvious meaning. -Wordy young men, with no very notable public -services to their record, have “stigmatised” (a -word in which they delight) us all from Mr. Redmond -down as renegades to Irish Nationalism. -What we have said and done is to be remembered -and is to rise up in judgment against us in the new -Ireland that is coming. I do not know whether -anybody else is pained or alarmed, but my withers -are unwrung. Since I knew Prussian “culture” -at close quarters I have loathed it, and written my -loathing. The outbreak of war caught me in Belgium, -where I was running arms for the National -Volunteers, and on the 6th of August, 1914, I wrote -from Brussels in the <cite>Daily News</cite> that it was a war -of “civilisation against barbarians.” I assisted for -many overwhelming weeks at the agony of the -valiant Belgian nation. I have written no word -and spoken none that was not the word of an Irish -Nationalist, who had been at the trouble of thinking -for himself. Ireland was my centre of reference -as it was that of Mr. Redmond, Mr. T. P. -O’Connor, Mr. Dillon, and Mr. Devlin in their -speeches, and of Mr. Hugh A. Law in his clear -and noble pamphlet, <i>Why is Ireland at War?</i></p> - -<p>It is true that we have all made two assumptions. -We assumed that Ireland had a duty not only to -herself but to the world; we assumed further that, -whatever befell, the path taken by her must be the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_74">74</span> -path of honour and justice. If these postulates are -rejected there is no more to be said: the future -must in that case undoubtedly belong to the friends -of the burners of Louvain.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_75">75</span></p> -</div> - -<h3>II.—<span class="smcap">The Bullying of Serbia</span></h3> - -<p><span class="firstword">The</span> first declaration of war in this world-conflict -was that of Austria-Hungary against Serbia -on the 27th of July, 1914. The first shots fired in -the war were those fired by Austrian monitors on -the Danube into Belgrade on the 29th of July, -1914. Austria-Hungary is or was then a great -Empire with a population of 50,000,000 and an -army of 2,500,000; Serbia is or was then a peasant -State with a population of 5,000,000 and an army -of 230,000.</p> - -<p>How these shots—heard alas! farther and more -disastrously than that of Emerson’s embattled -farmers!—came to be fired is a plain story often -told, and never disputed or disputable. It will -be sufficient to recall the main features of it. On -the 28th of June the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, -heir to the Emperor Francis Joseph, and his wife -were assassinated in Sarajevo, the capital of the -province of Bosnia, annexed to Austria-Hungary -in 1909. Any reader of the English or French -papers of that time will remember the sincere and -universal sympathy expressed for the old unhappy -Emperor, and his ill-starred realm and family. It<span class="pagenum" id="Page_76">76</span> -was a crime that awakened horror throughout Europe. -The annexation had been cynical, but crime -is no cure for crime. In general character and -consequences there is an historic act which presents -remarkable resemblances to the Sarajevo outrage, -I mean the Phœnix Park murders. In each case -irresponsible men stained a good cause, and in each -case an attempt was made to indict a nation. The -assassins were arrested, Prinzip who had fired the -fatal pistol-shots, and Cabinovitch who had thrown -bombs. They were in the hands of the law, and -exemplary justice might reasonably be expected. -The seething pot of Balkan politics, said the average -man in these countries, had boiled up once -more in noxious scum. It was another tragic episode. -And so people in the Entente countries -turned back to their own troubles. How acute -these troubles were we are now in danger of forgetting, -but we have learned enough since then -of the German political psychologist and his ways -to conclude that they were a prime factor in subsequent -decisions. The threat of civil war in “Ulster,” -an unprecedented crisis in the Army, gun-running, -arming and drilling public and secret, a -woman suffrage and a labour movement, both so -far gone in violence as to be on the immediate edge -of anarchy, left the Government of these countries -little leisure for the politics of the Near East. -France was in serious difficulties as regards her -public finance, violent fiscal controversies were<span class="pagenum" id="Page_77">77</span> -impending, the Caillaux trial threatened to rival -that of Dreyfus in releasing savage passions, the -military unpreparedness of the country was notorious. -Russia naturally stood far closer to Serbia, -but labour riots in Petrograd, a revival of revolutionary -activity, and widespread menace of internal -disturbance seemed hopelessly to cripple her. -Nothing could have been more remote from the -desire of any of the Entente nations than a European -war springing out of Sarajevo.</p> - -<p>But there were other forces at work in the sinister -drama. On the very morrow of the assassinations -the Austro-Hungarian Press opened what Professor -Denis well calls a systematic “expectoration of -hatred” against Serbia—Prinzip and Cabinovitch -were both Austrian, not Serbian subjects. The -Serbian Government pressed the formal courtesy -of grief so far as to postpone the national fêtes -arranged in celebration of the battle of Kosovo. -They had already warned the Austrian police of -the Anarchist Associations of Cabinovitch, and -now offered their help in bringing to justice any -accomplices who might be traced within their -jurisdiction. All this was of no avail. The Austro-Hungarian -Red Book is not always discreet in -its selections. Thus an incriminating passage from -the <cite>Pravda</cite> runs (3rd July, <span class="locked">1914)—</span></p> - -<p>“The Policy of Vienna is a cynical one. It exploits -the death of the unfortunate couple for its -abominable aims against the Serbian people.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_78">78</span></p> - -<p>The <cite xml:lang="de" lang="de">Militärische Rundschau</cite> demanded war -(15th <span class="locked">July)—</span></p> - -<p>“At this moment the initiative rests with us: -Russia is not ready, moral factors and right are -on our side as well as might.”</p> - -<p>The <cite xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Neue Freie Presse</cite> demands “war to the -knife, and in the name of humanity the extermination -of the cursed Serbian race.”</p> - -<p>The furious indictment of the whole Serbian -nation continued in the Press of Vienna and Budapest, -and found echoes even in that of these countries. -The task was easy, for the ill repute, clinging -to Serbian politicians since the murder of King -Alexander and Queen Draga, had not been wholly -banished by her later heroic deeds.</p> - -<p>These journalistic outbursts and the protests of -the Serbian Press, although unnoticed by the outside -world, attracted, as was natural, the attention -of diplomatists. But an interchange of barbed epithets -across the Danube was no new thing, and the -Austrian Foreign Office assumed an attitude of reassurance -which deceived even Russia, and lulled -the other Entente Powers into complete security -(Serbian Book, No. 6, No. 12, No. 17). We now -know that there were other observers less misled, -such as M. D’Apchier le Mangin, who noted the -massing of guns and munitions on the Serbian frontier -as early as the 11th of July, and M. Jules Cambon, -who had convinced himself by the 21st of -July that Germany had set in train the preliminaries<span class="pagenum" id="Page_79">79</span> -to mobilisation. But nothing open or public -(for the police proceedings against the assassins -had been held <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">in camera</i>) had prepared the way -for the Austrian <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">coup</i>. It was an amazed Europe -that learned the terms of the Note presented at -Belgrade by the Austrian Ambassador on the 23rd -of July. There were no illusions as to its meaning -and implications, for none were possible. Newspapers -so little akin as the <i>Morning Post</i> and M. -Clemenceau’s <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">L’Homme Libre</i> characterised it in -the same phrase: it was a summons to Serbia to -abdicate her sovereignty and independence, and to -exist henceforth as a vassal-state of the Dual Empire. -This document is the Devil’s Cauldron from -which have sprung all the horrors of the present -war. As to its extravagant character and probable -consequences, opinion is unanimous, even unofficial -German opinion. The Berlin <cite xml:lang="de" lang="de">Vorwärts</cite> writes -(25th <span class="locked">July)—</span></p> - -<p>“From whatever point of view one considers the -situation, a European War is at our gates. And -why? Because the Austrian Government and the -Austrian War Party are determined to clear, by a -<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">coup de main</i>, a place in which they can fill their -lungs.”</p> - -<p>In the Foreign Offices the same language was -used. Sir Edward Grey said to the Austrian Ambassador -that he “had never before seen one State -address to another independent State a document -of so formidable a character.” The reader can<span class="pagenum" id="Page_80">80</span> -very easily verify for himself this impression by -reference to the <i>Diplomatic Correspondence</i>. To -such a document Serbia was given forty-eight -hours to reply. As M. Denis points out, Prinzip, -the assassin, taken in the act, was allowed three -months to prepare his defence, for he was not -brought to trial until October: the Serbian nation, -exhausted by two wars, was allowed two days in -which to decide between a surrender of its independence -and an immediate invasion. Almost “to -the scandal of Europe,” a reply was delivered -within the time. The Austrian representative received -it at Belgrade, and in half-an-hour had demanded -his passports; fifteen minutes later he was -on board the train. The <em>will to war</em> of the Germanic -Powers find many cynical and dramatic expressions -in the interchanges between the Chancelleries, -but none so nude of all decency as this.</p> - -<p>In these two days M. Pashich, in his passionate -anxiety for peace, had agreed to terms more humiliating -than have often been dictated after a victorious -war. The Austrian Note had opened with a -long indictment of the Serbian nation. Complicity -in the crime of Sarajevo was assumed without -any tittle of evidence, however vague or feeble, -then or since produced. Nevertheless the Serbian -Prime Minister bowed to the storm. His surrender -was so complete that it deserves to be read -textually. These are, in skeleton, the main features -(British Blue Book, No. 39).</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_81">81</span></p> - -<p>The Serbian Government, having protested their -entire loyalty past and present to their engagements, -both of treaty and of neighbourliness -towards Austria-Hungary, nevertheless “undertake -to cause to be published on the first page of -the <cite>Journal Officiel</cite>, on the date of the 13th (26th) -of July, the following <span class="locked">declaration—</span></p> - -<p>‘The Royal Government of Serbia condemn all -propaganda which may be directed against Austria-Hungary, -that is to say, all such tendencies as -aim at ultimately detaching from the Austro-Hungarian -Monarchy territories which form part -thereof, and they sincerely deplore the baneful consequences -of these criminal movements. The Royal -Government regret that, according to the communication -from the Imperial and Royal Government, -certain Serbian officers and officials should -have taken part in the above-mentioned propaganda, -and thus compromised the good neighbourly -relations to which the Royal Serbian Government -was solemnly engaged by the declaration -of the 31st of March, 1909, which declaration disapproves -and repudiates all idea or attempt at interference -with the destiny of the inhabitants of -any part whatsoever of Austria-Hungary, and they -consider it their duty formally to warn the officers, -officials and entire population of the kingdom that -henceforth they will take the most rigorous steps -against all such persons as are guilty of such acts,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_82">82</span> -to prevent and to repress Which they Will use their -utmost endeavour.’</p> - -<p>“This declaration will be brought to the knowledge -of the Royal Army in an order of the day, in -the name of His Majesty the King, by His Royal -Highness the Crown Prince Alexander, and will -be published in the next official army bulletin.”</p> - -<p>The Serbian Government further <span class="locked">undertakes—</span></p> - -<p>1. To introduce severe Press laws against any -anti-Austrian propaganda, and to amend the constitution -so as to give more vigorous effect to these -laws.</p> - -<p>2. To dissolve the “Narodna Odbrana,” although -none of its members have been proved to -have committed criminal acts, and “every other -society which may be directing its efforts against -Austria-Hungary.”</p> - -<p>3. To <em>remove without delay from their public -educational establishments in Serbia all that serves -or could serve to foment propaganda against Austria-Hungary</em>. -(I print this in italics that the -shades of the sins of the National Board may find -comfort and be appeased.)</p> - -<p>4. To remove from the Army all persons proved -guilty of acts directed against Austria-Hungary.</p> - -<p>5. “The Royal Government must confess that -they do not clearly grasp the meaning or the scope -of the demand made by the Imperial and Royal -Government that Serbia shall undertake to accept -the collaboration of the organs of the Imperial and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_83">83</span> -Royal Government upon their territory, but they -declare that they will admit such collaboration as -agrees with the principle of international law, With -criminal procedure, and with good neighbourly -relations.</p> - -<p>6. “It goes without saying that the Royal Government -consider it their duty to open an enquiry -against all such persons as are, or eventually may -be, implicated in the plot of the 15th of June, and -who happen to be within the territory of the kingdom. -As regards the participation in this enquiry -of Austro-Hungarian agents or authorities appointed -for this purpose by the Imperial and Royal -Government, the Royal Government cannot accept -such an arrangement, as it would be a violation of -the Constitution and of the law of criminal procedure; -nevertheless, in concrete cases communications -as to the results of the investigation in question -might be given to the Austro-Hungarian -agents.”</p> - -<p>7. To arrest any incriminated persons.</p> - -<p>8. To reinforce and extend the measures against -illicit traffic of arms and explosives across the frontier, -and to punish severely any official who has -failed in his duty.</p> - -<p>9. To deal with any anti-Austrian utterances of -Serbian officials.</p> - -<p>10. To keep the Austro-Hungarian Government -informed of the carrying out of these engagements.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_84">84</span></p> - -<p>Then follows the offer which confirms the good -faith of Serbia, and which damns the Central Empires -before the Judgment of History.</p> - -<p>“If the Imperial and Royal Government are -not satisfied with this reply, the Serbian Government, -considering that it is not to the common -interest to precipitate the solution of this question, -are ready, as always to accept a pacific understanding, -either by referring this question to the decision -of the International Tribunal of The Hague, or -to the Great Powers which took part in the drawing -up of the declaration made by the Serbian Government -on the 18th (31st) of March, 1909.”</p> - -<p>Of the ten points of the Austrian Note eight are -conceded under conditions of unparalleled humiliation. -No diplomatic triumph could be more -complete. Serbia yields, well knowing that her -immediate past is a good deal fly-blown and that -nobody in Western Europe has the least intention -of dying for her <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">beaux yeux</i>. But paragraphs 5 -and 6, demanding the association of Austrian officials -in judicial enquiries to be held within the -territory and under the jurisdiction of the Serbian -Government, aim at more than humiliation; they -demand that Serbia shall abdicate her own independent -sovereignty. M. Pashich rejects them, but -in a mode that will remain as the final condemnation -before history of the Germanic Powers.</p> - -<p>M. Sazonof went to the root of the matter at -once in a conversation with the Austrian representative<span class="pagenum" id="Page_85">85</span> -in Petrograd. This is the Austrian version -(24th <span class="locked">July)—</span></p> - -<p>“The participation of Imperial and Royal (Austrian) -officials in the suppression of the revolutionary -movements elicited further protest on the -part of the minister. Serbia then will no longer -be master in her own house. You will always be -wanting to interfere again, and what a life you -will lead Europe.”</p> - -<p>“<em>Serbia would no longer be master in her own -house.</em>” There was the key to Austrian ambitions. -The independence of Serbia was to be violated, -her territory was to admit foreign officials, and -gradually a small nation was to disappear into the -patchwork-quilt possessions of the <em>Dual Monarchy</em>. -There you have the sinister House of the -Hapsburgs exposed in the very act of pressing the -button, and releasing the current which has shattered -the fabric of Europe.</p> - -<p>Swaddle and disguise it as you will in words, -there is the seed of origin of the European War. -There is no plainer transaction in history: the -clock has a crystal face that allow us to see all the -works. You may, if you will, call up a mist of eloquence -and people it with ghosts, the ghosts of -wicked things done by English in Ireland and -India, Russians in Finland, French in Morocco, -Italians in Tripoli, Belgians in the Congo, and -Serbians all the way back to Kosovo. You may -write at length of the inherent perils of the “European<span class="pagenum" id="Page_86">86</span> -system,” the expansion of races, the discharge -of long accumulating thunder-clouds, of <i xml:lang="de" lang="de">Hauptströmungen</i>, -of iron laws of destiny, and all the rest -of the lurid, deterministic farrago of sham omniscience -which forms the stock-in-trade of the German -savant. You may point out that there is a -sense in which all previous history is behind even -the least important event in history, and that the -Austrian ultimatum did but set a match to a long-laid -train. Much of what you say will be true, -and much will also be horrible. But nothing can -alter the fact that this war originated in the attempt -of a great Empire to exploit legitimate anger -against crime in order to destroy the independence -of a small State; that the small State, having accepted -every other humiliation, offered to submit -in this to the judgment of either of the recognised -international tribunals, and that the great Empire -refused.</p> - -<p>The one theory, the only one, that explains the -Austrian attitude, namely, that the Germanic -Powers willed war, explains also the remainder of -the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">ante-bellum</i> interchanges. From the first no -illusion was possible as to what was at stake. M. -Sazonof on behalf of Russia allowed none to arise. -He pointed out with that brevity and frankness -which will be found in this affair to characterise -the whole course of Russian diplomacy that any invasion -of the sovereign rights of Serbia must disturb -the equilibrium of the Balkans and with it -the equilibrium of all Europe, and that if it came -to war it would be impossible to localise it. M.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_87">87</span> -Sazonof, indeed, never fails in these transactions to -hit on the right idea, and the right phrase. Serbia, -he said to Count Szapary in words that can scarce -miss moving an Irish Nationalist, would, if the -Austrian demands were conceded, “no longer be -master in her own house. ‘You will always be -wanting to intervene again, and what a life you -will lead Europe’” (Austrian Red Book, No. 14). -He “had been disagreeably affected by the circumstance -that Austria-Hungary had offered a dossier -for investigation when an ultimatum had already -been presented.” What Russia could not accept -with indifference was the eventual intention of the -Dual Monarchy “<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">de dévorer la Serbie</i>” (<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Ibid.</i>, No. -16). In all her reasonable demands he promised -to support Austria-Hungary. So did France; so -did Great Britain. All three of them counselled, -that is to say as things stood, directed, Serbia, if -she desired their countenance, to give every satisfaction -consistent with her sovereign rights. It -is precisely on this unallowable violation that -Austria-Hungary insists. As for Germany, there -is not one hint in all the diplomatic documents of -any mediation at Vienna in the direction of a peaceful -solution. “The bolt once fired,” said Baron -Schoen at Paris, Germany had nothing to do except -support her Ally, and support her in demands -however impossible.</p> - -<p>The will to war of the Germanies thus made -manifest explains, and alone explains the rest of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_88">88</span> -the sorry business. The earnest, constant, and even -passionate efforts of the British and French Governments -to find a formula for the assembling of -a conference of the Powers were rebuffed at every -turn. Sir Edward Grey persisted in his conciliatory -course till the last moment. He refused to -proclaim the solidarity of the United Kingdom in -any and all circumstances with France and Russia, -although earnestly urged by both to do so.</p> - -<p>He risked the very existence of the Entente by -showing himself ready in the interests of peace to -consent to what Russia must have regarded as an -almost intolerable humiliation. So late as the 29th -of July he writes of a conversation with the German -Ambassador: “In a short time, I supposed, -the Austrian forces would be in Belgrade and in -occupation of some Serbian territory. But even -then it might be possible to bring some mediation -into existence, if Austria, while saying that she -must hold the occupied territory until she had complete -satisfaction from Serbia, stated that she would -not advance further, pending an effort of the -Powers to mediate between her and Russia” (Blue -Book, No. 88). At the same time, six days before -the Anglo-German breach, he gave the Ambassador -a very definite warning which is in itself sufficient -to repel the charge, since made in some quarters in -Ireland and America, that he designed by his ambiguous -attitude to “lure” Germany on and then -“crush” her. That such a charge, whether made<span class="pagenum" id="Page_89">89</span> -honestly or not, is in formal contradiction with the -facts is <span class="locked">evident—</span></p> - -<p>“The situation was very grave. While it was -restricted to the issues at present actually involved, -we had no thought of interfering in it. But if -Germany became involved in it, and then France, -the issue might be so great that it would involve all -European interests; and I did not wish him to be -misled by the friendly tone of our conversation—which -I hoped would continue—into thinking that -we should stand aside.</p> - -<p>“I hoped that the friendly tone of our conversations -would continue as at present, and that I should -be able to keep as closely in touch with the German -Government in working for peace. But if we -failed in our efforts to keep the peace, and if the -issue spread so that it involved practically every -European interest, I did not wish to be open to -any reproach from him that the friendly tone of -all our conversations had misled him or his Government -into supposing that we should not take -action, and to the reproach that, if they had not -been so misled, the course of things might have -been different.</p> - -<p>“The German Ambassador took no exception to -what I had said; indeed, he told me that it accorded -with what he had already given in Berlin -as his view of the situation.”</p> - -<p>The appeal from force to law, from killing to -reason—that substitution of the better new way<span class="pagenum" id="Page_90">90</span> -for the bad old way which had for so long been -the goal of democracy in international affairs—was -rejected by the Germanies. Neither to the International -Tribunal of the Hague, so proposed by -Serbia, nor to a conference of the Great Powers, -but to the sinister logic of Krupp and Zeppelin did -the Central Empires resort for a settlement.</p> - -<p>All the accumulated hatred of European history -were let loose to fill the world with tumult and -rapine. It is true that if you trace these hatreds -back to their sources you will find no immaculate -nations. True also that they were perilous stuff -of which the European system had not purged -itself. But the unchallengeable fact remains that -while democracy was seeking a solution in terms -of peace, “the old German God” forced it in terms -of war. Nothing can ever displace or disguise the -plain historical record which exhibits as the origin -of our Armageddon the intransigent determination -of the great Empire of Austria-Hungary to violate -the sovereign rights of the small nation of Serbia.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_91">91</span></p> -</div> - -<h3>III.—<span class="smcap">The Crime Against Belgium</span></h3> - -<p><span class="firstword">The</span> case of Belgium is marked by the tremendous -simplicity which characterises almost everything -in human affairs that can be called really -great. The choice put to her was a choice between -right and wrong, so naked and clear, so stripped of -all ambiguities, all subintents and saving-clauses -as to resemble rather a battle between spiritual -principles than a concrete situation in contemporary -politics. And, further, Belgium was and till -the end of time remains the touchstone of German -<i xml:lang="de" lang="de">Kultur</i>. For generations the masters of Prussia -had been elaborating a coherent doctrine of domination -to be attained through scientific brutality. -It is one of the sins of democracy to have thrust -that doctrine out of its thoughts, whenever it so -much as heard of it, as being too bad to be true, -for the foul thing was meant down to its worst -word. All the world knows now that although -Prussia is not to be believed when she promises -fidelity, she is most thoroughly to be believed when -she threatens murder; it was assigned to Belgium -that in her blood this discovery should be proclaimed, -not to be forgotten while men live.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_92">92</span></p> - -<p>Belgium is the test by which every issue in this -war stands or falls. The late Judge Adams used -to relate how he once set up for a horse-stealer a -complicated and eloquent defence ranging from -the French Revolution to the Irish Land System. -The Judge listened patiently to the last word of -the ringing peroration, and then observed: “Very -good, Mr. Adams, very good! But tell me now: -Why did your client steal the horse?” In the same -way you will hear your Prussian or pro-Prussian -rambling on about the Slav menace to German -“culture,” about the secret designs of France, and -the robber Empire of Great Britain. To get to -the heart of this question you have only to say: -“Very fine, no doubt. Something in it, perhaps! -But tell us now, why did your German friend -break his solemn guarantee, and violate the frontier -of neutral independent Belgium?” That trivial -arrow is enough to bring to earth the Zeppelin of -his <i xml:lang="de" lang="de">Welt-Politik</i>, with its whole cargo of metaphysics.</p> - -<p>There was no illusion to cloud the minds of King -Albert or his Government. The King knew his -Kaiser; he had already been menaced by him, and -his Chief of Staff von Moltke, in an interview reported -by M. Jules Cambon nine months before -the war (French Yellow Book, No. 6). He had -had every opportunity afforded him of studying -the gospel according to Krupp. He knew that, -when the ultimatum was delivered at Brussels, the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_93">93</span> -German Army of the Lower Rhine was already -massed and was marching on Liége, and that no -help could possibly reach him from France or England -before the 42 cm.’s had ample time to batter -his eastern defences to pieces. He knew also -how inadequate were his own military resources; a -scheme of reorganisation that would have enabled -Belgium to put in the field an army of defence of -a million men had indeed been formulated, but -was not yet in operation. Every German and pro-German -influence in the country was invoked to -induce him to break his treaty obligations, and -stand aside. The Social Democrats publicly and -shamelessly appealed to their Belgian “comrades” -to rise superior to “that bourgeois idea, honour.” -But the King and his Government held fast.</p> - -<p>The position of Belgium was as clear as it was -terrible. One sometimes hears ill-informed people -speak as if the neutrality of that country had been -a matter of its own choice, from which it could -depart by a new act of choice. This, of course, was -not the case. Neutrality was imposed on Belgium, -as the price and the correlative of guaranteed independence, -by the five Powers whose signatures will -be found appended to the treaties of 1831 and 1839. -Situated at the cross-roads of Europe, Belgium had -by the deliberate policy of Europe been established -as a buffer-state, a buffer by land between France -and Germany, and by sea between England and the -heart of the Continent. Her neutrality was not a<span class="pagenum" id="Page_94">94</span> -commodity to bargain with, but a fundamental condition -of her independence; it was her formal duty -to preserve it, or at least attempt to preserve it, by -force of arms against any invasion. Should any -of the guarantors assail it the others were bound to -come to its defence. It has been suggested that -both France and Great Britain were very ill-prepared -to fulfil this obligation; German writers -have, indeed, tauntingly gloated over the fact, for -it is a fact. The bad faith of Germany was so long -evident—her very army manœuvres having been, -in fact, based on the hypothesis of a rapid invasion -of Belgium—that defensive measures were plainly -called for. But two points must be remembered. -For one thing, the moral question remains unaltered. -You do not justify a murderer by saying -that the police ought to have been there to prevent -him committing the crime. For another, any new -defensive organisation adopted would certainly -have been represented by Germany as a clear proof -of intended aggression, and would in all likelihood -have precipitated the outbreak.</p> - -<p>It is necessary to bear all these circumstances -in mind in order to appreciate at its full worth -the heroic decision of Belgium. Deliberately, with -the courage not of hot blood but of conscience and -honour, she lost the world in order to gain her -own soul. In the treachery of Germany there was -lacking not even one episodical baseness. Her -representatives lied up to the last moment. Two<span class="pagenum" id="Page_95">95</span> -hours before he presented his ultimatum the German -Minister at Brussels issued a message of reassurance -through the columns of <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Le Soir</i>; well -do I remember how avidly the citizens of Brussels -not so much bought as tore out of the hands of -the newsboys that issue of the 2nd of August with -Herr von Below Saleske’s message, and the sigh -of relief that followed the reading of it. He employed -an image the sinister fitness of which we -did not then suspect.</p> - -<p>“I have not done so, and personally I do not see -any reason why I should have done so, seeing that -it was superfluous. The view has always been accepted -by us that the neutrality of Belgium will -not be violated. If the French Minister had made -a formal declaration to that effect it is doubtless -because he wished to reinforce obvious fact by -some words of reassurance. <em>The German troops -will not march over Belgian territory. We are on -the eve of grave events. Perhaps you will see your -neighbor’s house on fire, but the flames will spare -yours.</em>”</p> - -<p>The vision of burning towns has come to have -a sinister fitness.</p> - -<p>We know now that already, on the 31st of July, -Germany had declined to give any undertaking to -respect Belgian neutrality because any reply to the -British demand made in that sense “could not but -disclose a certain amount of their plan of campaign -in the event of war ensuing.” There is no more<span class="pagenum" id="Page_96">96</span> -illuminating phrase in the whole body of correspondence. -The violation, it thus plainly appears, -was no improvisation under stress of circumstances; -on the contrary, it had long since been assumed as -a postulate by the German General Staff in the -drafting of their war-plan. The declaration of -war by a guaranteering Great Power on a guaranteed -small nation is a thing so infrequent, it is such -a salient in the long line of iniquity, that it must -once again be quoted in full. Any guardian in -private life who finds himself reluctantly compelled -in the interests of a higher morality to murder -his ward, any trustee obliged by <i xml:lang="de" lang="de">Notwehr</i> to -steal the trust-property, may well enrol it among -his forms and precedents. It was delivered at -Brussels at seven o’clock on the evening of the 2nd -of August. It is worth noting that it was drawn -up in German, by way of compliment, no doubt, -to the “Teutonic kinship” of <span class="locked">Belgium—</span></p> - -<p class="in0">“(Very confidential.)</p> - -<p>“Reliable information has been received by the -German Government to the effect that French -forces intend to march on the line of the Meuse -by Givet and Namur. This information leaves no -doubt as to the intention of France to march -through Belgian territory against Germany.</p> - -<p>“The German Government cannot but fear that -Belgium, in spite of the utmost goodwill, will be -unable without assistance to repel so considerable a -French invasion with sufficient prospect of success<span class="pagenum" id="Page_97">97</span> -to afford an adequate guarantee against danger to -Germany. It is essential for the self-defence of -Germany that she should anticipate any such hostile -attack. The German Government would, however, -feel the deepest regret if Belgium regarded -as an act of hostility against herself the fact that -the measures of Germany’s opponents force Germany, -for her own protection, to enter Belgian -territory.</p> - -<p>“In order to exclude any possibility of misunderstanding, -the German Government make the following -<span class="locked">declaration—</span></p> - -<p>“1. Germany has in view no act of hostility -against Belgium. In the event of Belgium being -prepared in the coming war to maintain an attitude -of friendly neutrality towards Germany, the German -Government bind themselves, at the conclusion -of peace, to guarantee the possessions and independence -of the Belgian Kingdom in full.</p> - -<p>“2. Germany undertakes, under the above-mentioned -condition, to evacuate Belgian territory on -the conclusion of peace.</p> - -<p>“3. If Belgium adopts a friendly attitude, Germany -is prepared, in co-operation with the Belgian -authorities, to purchase all necessaries for her -troops against a cash payment, and to pay an indemnity -for any damage that may have been caused -by German troops.</p> - -<p>“4. Should Belgium oppose the German troops, -and in particular should she throw difficulties in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_98">98</span> -the way of their march by a resistance of the fortresses -on the Meuse, or by destroying railways, -roads, tunnels, or other similar works, Germany -will, to her regret, be compelled to consider Belgium -as an enemy.</p> - -<p>“In this event, Germany can undertake no obligations -towards Belgium, but the eventual adjustment -of the relations between the two States must -be left to the decision of arms.</p> - -<p>“The German Government, however, entertain -the distinct hope that this eventuality will not -occur, and that the Belgian Government will know -how to take the necessary measures to prevent the -occurrence of incidents such as those mentioned. -In this case the friendly ties which bind the two -neighbouring States will grow stronger and more -enduring.”</p> - -<p>I beg the reader to notice carefully the nature -of the “evidence” against France set forth in the -first paragraph. The Belgian Army is weaker than -that of France, <em>therefore</em> France is going to invade -Belgium. Since the time of the grave-digger in -<i>Hamlet</i> there was never such logic as this. All -Prussian “culture” is in the document: the coarse -offer of ready cash, the clumsy lie, the empty -promise, and the mailed fist.</p> - -<p>King Albert called his Ministers together, and -at seven o’clock the following morning great “little -Belgium” handed this proud reply to the unmoral -Goliath. [I omit the formal first <span class="locked">paragraph.]—</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_99">99</span></p> - -<p>“This notification has profoundly and painfully -astonished the King’s Government.</p> - -<p>“The intentions which she attributes to France -are in contradiction to the formal declarations -made to us under date of the 1st of August in the -name of the Government of the Republic.</p> - -<p>“<em>Moreover, if, contrary to our expectation, the -country’s neutrality should be violated by France, -Belgium would fulfil its international duties and -her army would oppose a most vigorous resistance -to the invader.</em></p> - -<p>“The treaties of 1839, confirmed by the treaties -of 1870, perpetuate Belgium’s independence and -neutrality under the guarantee of the Powers, and -especially under the guarantee of the Government -of His Majesty the King of Prussia.</p> - -<p>“Belgium has always faithfully observed her international -obligations; she has fulfilled her duties -in a spirit of loyal impartiality; she has neglected -no opportunity to maintain her neutrality and to -cause it to be respected by others.</p> - -<p>“The attack upon her independence with which -Germany menaces her is a flagrant violation of -the law of Nations.</p> - -<p>“No strategic interest can justify the violation -of that right.</p> - -<p>“The Belgian Government, by accepting the -propositions mentioned, would sacrifice its national -honour and betray at the same time its duty towards -Europe.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_100">100</span></p> - -<p>“Conscious of the rôle which Belgium has -played for more than eighty years in the civilised -world, it refuses to believe that its independence -can only be preserved at the price of a violation -of its neutrality.</p> - -<p>“If the Belgian Government be disappointed -in its expectations, it is resolved to repulse by -every means in its power any attack upon its -rights.”</p> - -<p>Of these documents we in Brussels were at the -time, of course, wholly ignorant. But on Tuesday, -August 4th, we became aware that some terrible -darkness had come upon the sun. There was galloping -and the glitter of swords and lances in the -streets; the King was on his way to take counsel -with a specially summoned session of his Parliament. -In a little while the newsboys were crying -the papers madly through the streets; we tore them -from their hands, and the smudged print blazed -into our souls that speech with which Albert rose -to take his place among the heroes of European -freedom. I make no apology for printing here -every word of it. It is the case of Belgium, the -case of the Allies, and the case of civilisation.</p> - -<p>“Never, since 1830, has a more serious hour -struck for Belgium: the integrity of our territory -is threatened!</p> - -<p>“The very strength of our right, the sympathy -which Belgium, proud of her free institutions and -of her moral conquests, has uninterruptedly enjoyed<span class="pagenum" id="Page_101">101</span> -at the hands of other nations, the necessity -of her autonomous existence for the equilibrium -of Europe, still make us hope that the threatening -events will not take place.</p> - -<p>“However, if our expectations be deceived, if -we are obliged to resist the invaders of our soil -and to defend our menaced homes, this duty, however -hard, will find us armed and prepared for -the greatest sacrifices.</p> - -<p>“Already our gallant youth, in anticipation of -every eventuality, is ready, firmly resolved, with -the traditional tenacity and coolness of the Belgians, -to defend the endangered country.</p> - -<p>“In the name of the nation, I fraternally salute -the army. Everywhere, Flemings and Walloons, -in the cities and in the country, one sole sentiment -binds our hearts: Patriotism; one sole vision fills -our spirits: our endangered independence; one -sole duty imposes itself upon us: a stubborn resistance.</p> - -<p>“Under these circumstances two virtues are indispensable: -a cool courage, but a strong courage, -and a close union of all the Belgian people.</p> - -<p>“Both of these virtues have already been demonstrated -brilliantly under the eyes of the nation, -filled with enthusiasm.</p> - -<p>“The perfect mobilisation of our army, the number -of voluntary enlistments, the devotion of the -civil population, the self-denial of families, have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_102">102</span> -shown, beyond dispute, the consoling bravery -which animates the whole Belgian people.</p> - -<p>“The time for action has come.</p> - -<p>“I have assembled you, Gentlemen, in order to -allow the Legislative Chambers to unite with the -people in the same spirit of sacrifice.</p> - -<p>“You will therefore immediately take measures -necessary for war as well as for preservation of -public order, under the present circumstances.</p> - -<p>“When I look upon this enthusiastic assembly, -an assembly in which there is but one party, the -side of the Fatherland, where every heart beats -in unison, my mind goes back to the Congress of -1830, and I ask you, Gentlemen, are you firmly resolved -to maintain the sacred patrimony of your -forefathers?</p> - -<p>“None in this country but will do his duty.</p> - -<p>“The army, strong and disciplined as it is, is -equal to its task. My Government and myself -have the utmost confidence in its leaders and its -soldiers.</p> - -<p>“Closely allied with the population, and supported -by it, the Government is conscious of its -responsibilities and will assume them to the very -end with the deliberate conviction that the efforts -of each and every one, if united in a spirit of most -fervent patriotism, will safeguard the supreme -welfare of the country.</p> - -<p>“If the foreigner, trampling upon our neutrality,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_103">103</span> -the duties of which we have always scrupulously -observed, violates, the territory, he will find -every Belgian around his Sovereign, who will -never betray his Constitutional Oath, and around -the Government invested with the supreme confidence -of the entire nation.</p> - -<p>“I have faith in our destiny: a country which -defends itself cannot but gain the respect of everyone: -that country cannot perish.</p> - -<p>“German troops have occupied Luxemburg, and -are perhaps even now trampling upon Belgian soil. -This act is contrary to the law of Nations.”</p> - -<p>The rumour ran through Brussels from end to -end as with the swift vibrations that at such times -shake the sensitive organism of all Latin cities. -Nobody who was there will ever forget the torrential -and swirling crowds before the Gare du -Nord, the fierce cheers and the foreboding silence. -The peace of eighty years was broken. Honour -and the law of Europe had summoned Belgium -into the red ways of war; she went singing and -unafraid, but the vision of blood was not hidden -from her or from us. As we stood on the café -tables roaring “La Brabançonne” we knew that -there was a midnight to traverse before the dawn. -But we did not know that the upbuilding of three -generations of human labour was to be broken by -three months of scientific brutality. We did not -know that Belgium was passing into her Gethsemane.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_104">104</span></p> - -<p>On the same day von Emmich had marched his -columns across the Rubicon that divides honour -from infamy. On the same day some hours later -Sir Edward Grey had drawn the sword, and flung -away the scabbard.</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_105">105</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="UNDER_THE_HEEL_OF_THE_HUN">UNDER THE HEEL OF THE HUN</h2> -</div> - -<h3>I.—<span class="smcap">A World Adrift</span></h3> - -<p class="sigright"><i>Brussels, August 5, 1914.</i></p> - -<p><span class="firstword">All</span> Europe is a study in strain. The unexpected -swing of events has brought Belgium—Belgium -which for eighty years has lived only -for a neutral independence—to the centre of the -arena. The Waterloo of 1914, as that of 1815, -may very well be fought on Belgian soil.</p> - -<p>It is impossible to exaggerate the sincere amazement -of the man in the street, the man in the café. -“We have gorged the Albuches with money. They -have blacklegged us in business. We are stuffed -with them—bah! our national life is choked with -these German sausages. And now! Traitors, -cowards, violators of honour and the free Belgian -frontier!”</p> - -<p>The anti-German feeling is heating rapidly to -a frenzy. No more demi-Munichs in the restaurants. -Even if the beer be of German nativity, -which is sometimes a little in doubt, it must be -sold as Belgian. The more discreet patrons had -already painted out, or draped in patriotic bunting, -all advertisements for German products. But -the ruse was not general nor always successful.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_106">106</span> -The window-breakers had already appeared, waving -the tricolour, chanting “La Brabançonne.” -Every street, and, indeed, every buttonhole, has -blossomed as suddenly as the staff of Tannhäuser. -Cockades, rosettes, bows, the tricolours of France -and Belgium, the red, white and blue of England, -flower inexplicably into being. At ten centimes -a time we manifest our sympathies, and make dazzling -fortunes for the street-sellers.</p> - -<p>At the house of a public official one finds a sort -of synopsis of the general desolation. The family -has just scrambled back from Switzerland. The -eldest son, a captain of engineers, had already left -for the front, ordered to action too urgently to wait -even for a last handshake, a last kiss. His children -cannot go out to breathe the air because the -governess is German, and therefore liable to patriotic -assault. The household is keyed up to any -disaster.</p> - -<p>At the Post Office there is a tumult that soon -settles down into a patient queue outside the savings -bank and money-order offices. The cashiers -pay out the new five-franc notes; fresh and crisp, -obviously and attractively new, they are fingered -with distrustful fingers. Then the fingers grow -suddenly ashamed of their distrust in the star of -Belgium, stuff their notes into their wallets, and -step briskly out to the music of the drums that beat -in all hearts.</p> - -<p>The English declaration of war has evoked extraordinary<span class="pagenum" id="Page_107">107</span> -enthusiasm, and at the same time -brought so near the sombre and terrible crisis as -to still the expression of that enthusiasm. It was -no light-hearted crowd that stood to watch the -Red Cross go to the front this morning. They -streamed by in commandeered or volunteered -motor-cars. Soldiers, unshaven and unslept, -lounged with their boots upon cushions that a -few days ago ministered to the very dainty masters -of luxury. Limousines, taxis, trade-cars all -went by laden with stretchers and medicine-cases. -Everywhere the smell of rubber and antiseptics. -And everywhere the desolating thought that before -midnight these snowy bandages will be bloodied, -and these stretchers laden with human debris. -À la guerre comme à la guerre!</p> - -<p>Everywhere girls are hurrying through the -streets with tin collecting-boxes. We subscribe -to the Red Cross, to funds to support those about -to become widows of the sword, to buy milk for -the infants. Many of the great hotels have already -been offered as hospitals. The gleaming symbol -of Geneva—that inexplicable lapse of the soldiers -of Europe into plain Christian mercy—is already -displayed on them. Shops, big and small, are being -prepared to serve as depots for the distribution -of food in case of need.</p> - -<p>It is impossible not to be with Belgium in the -struggle. It is impossible any longer to be passive. -Germany has thrown down a well-considered challenge<span class="pagenum" id="Page_108">108</span> -to all the deepest forces of our civilisation. -War is hell, but it is only a hell of suffering, not -a hell of dishonour. And through it, over its -flaming coals, Justice must walk, were it on bare -feet.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_109">109</span></p> -</div> - -<h3>II.—“<span class="smcap">Europe against the Barbarians</span>”</h3> - -<p class="sigright"><i>Brussels, August 8.</i></p> - -<p><span class="firstword">We</span> may well doubt whether any imagination is -large enough to contain the issues of the war. It -overwhelms us and freezes our blood fast like a -vision of terror from the Apocalypse. What is, -perhaps, most terrible of all is the complete and -necessary banishment of peace from the scene of -Europe. Hereafter there may be a time for such -a word, but not now. The arbitration movement -to which we had committed so many hopes has -gone up in flames like a cardboard Elysium. Europe, -we said, was a monstrous contradiction in -terms—an armed peace. There is no contradiction -now, it is a manual of pure logic after Krupp. -The Norman Angell evangel to the money-masters -has failed; there is even something noble in the -sudden appeal of the financiers of every country -to a higher plane of values. You may suspend -your International Bureau of Labour which used -to function at Brussels. Jaurès is dead; Vandervelde, -cherishing <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">la patrie</i> beyond everything else, -has joined the Ministry; in Germany, as in France, -Belgium, and Great Britain, the comrades are with<span class="pagenum" id="Page_110">110</span> -the colours. When next the committee-room of -the Maison du Peuple receives the European chiefs -of labour what a change will be there!</p> - -<p>As for Serbia, it seems probable that nobody -will have time to go to war with her. Her function -has been that of the electric button which discharges -the great gun of a fortress. And now that -the lightnings have been released, what is the stake -for which we are playing? It is as simple as it -is colossal. It is Europe against the barbarians. -The authentic Teuton touch betrayed itself in the -gross proposition of bribes, followed by the instant -violation of the Belgian frontier. The “big blonde -brute” stepped from the pages of Nietzsche out -on to the plains about Liége. Brought suddenly -to think of it, one realises the corruption of moral -standards for which Germany has in our time been -responsible. Since Schopenhauer died nothing has -come from her in the region of philosophy except -that gospel of domination.</p> - -<p>And now we suddenly understand that the Immoralists -meant what they said. We were reading, -not as we thought a string of drawing-room paradoxes, -but the advance proof-sheets of a veritable -Bullies’ Bible. The General Bernhardis who have -been teaching Germany to desire war, to provoke -it, to regard it as a creative and not a destructive -act, to accept it as merely the inevitable prologue -to German domination, have proved to be not only -brutal, but formidable. Since Belgium, and its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_111">111</span> -protecting treaty, barred the way, both simply had -to go. “Nothing is true, everything is permitted -to the strong.” Afterwards it will be the turn of -the others. And at the end of the process a monster, -gorged with blood and with the torn limbs -of civilisation, is to lie sprawled over all Central -Europe, while some new metaphysician from Berlin -booms heavily into his self-intoxicated brain -some new fable of preordination.</p> - -<p>I do not wish in any way to exaggerate. France -has her corruptions. But the whole set of her -thought, even when it abjured Christian “illusions,” -was towards solidarity, towards reasonableness, -and co-operation. Russia has her vile tyrannies. -But from all Russian literature there -comes an immense and desolating sob of humility -and self-reproach. Great Britain has not yet liquidated -her account with Ireland, nor altogether -purified her relations with India and Egypt. But -Great Britain does not, at any rate, throw aside -all plain, pedestrian Christian standards as rubbish. -In the Rhineland, too, and in the south there -are millions of hearty men and women who are not -yet Prussified, and who still think it possible that -there may exist a Being greater in some respects -than the Imperial Kaiser. But all the central -thought of Germany has been for a generation -corrupt. It has been foul with the odour of desired -shambles.</p> - -<p>The issue, then, is Europe against the barbarians.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_112">112</span> -It is not easy, perhaps, for anyone living at home -in our islands to develop fully What may be called -the European sense. You acquire it as you get -your sea legs, quickly, but not without actual experience. -There underlies the whole Continent a -minutely reticulated system of nerves which convey, -and multiply, every shock of feeling from one -end of it to the other. Here in Brussels we are, -for the time at least, at the central <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">sensorium</i>. The -élan of Belgium takes possession of you. The -courage and anguish of this glorious little nation, -fighting now for its very life, stir one to something -like the clear mood of its own heroism. In every -direction there opens a vista of waste and suffering. -Already the long trail of wounded has begun -to wind its sorrowful way back to the capital. -Prisoners arrive, too simple of aspect, one would -think, to be the instruments by which Europe is -to be tortured to the pattern of a new devilry. -You say to yourself, as you hear all the world saying: -C’est incroyable! It is not to be believed. It -is a nightmare! And then the conviction shapes -itself clearly, settles upon and masters your mind, -that this German assault on civilisation has got to -be repelled and utterly shattered once and for all.</p> - -<p>Had Belgium consented to a free passage across -her territory so that the French forts might be -evaded, the problem was simply to profit by the -slow mobilisation of France, and to strike straight -and hard at Paris. On her refusal the problem<span class="pagenum" id="Page_113">113</span> -was to hamstring Belgium. Liége was to be carried -by a <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">coup de main</i>, and the advance pushed -right on to Antwerp. This would have cut the -country in two, made anything like an effective -Belgian mobilisation impossible, detached outlying -places from their supply depots, and left Belgium -helpless under the heel of a comparatively -small section of the German forces. Both gambits -have been countered. There has been no free passage -and no surprise victory. The Belgian mobilisation -has not been even hampered. The whole -German plan was founded on a swift and invincible -dash; in the actual event both characteristics -are lacking. General Leman and Liége have given -the Allies day on invaluable day to come up. The -prestige which since 1871 has enveloped the Prussians -and their war methods has disappeared at -a blow. “Ah!”, says the Belgian pioupiou to you, -“those great Prussian teeth that chewed up France -in the ’70, they have bitten themselves to fragments -against the forts of Liége. Nous sommes un peu -là! Eh?”</p> - -<p>The great outstanding pinnacle of a fact is, perhaps, -the definitive entrance of England into the -comity of Europe. Regret it or not, there can be -no more isolation. And the other fact, noted here -also as of main importance, is the attitude of Ireland. -Mr. Redmond’s proffer of friendship, in -return for justice, had been made often before, but -never in such dramatic circumstances. I am appalled<span class="pagenum" id="Page_114">114</span> -to hear rumours to the effect that Sir Edward -Carson proposes at this moment to force Mr. -Bonar Law to bedevil the whole situation by a -political trick. He actually proposes, one hears, -that a course should be followed depriving Ireland -of the Home Rule Bill, which is coming to her -automatically by the mere efflux of a few weeks. -Can such madness still be possible? Is there any -imagination left in England?</p> - -<p>Here, at the opening of this vast and bloody -epic, Great Britain is right with the conscience of -Europe. It is assumed that she has reconciled Ireland. -A reconciled Ireland is ready to march side -by side with her to any desperate trial. And suddenly -the lawyer, with the Dublin accent, who had -been the chief architect of destruction in the whole -Empire, and who was thought to have come to -reason, proposes for Ireland what I can only call -a Prussian programme. England goes to fight for -liberty in Europe and for Junkerdom in Ireland. -It is incredible. Were it to come true it would -become utterly impossible to act on Mr. Redmond’s -speech. Another dream would have gone -down into the abyss. Ireland, wounded anew, -would turn sullenly away from you. Is that what -a sound Tory ought to desire? Will Tory England, -enlightened at last as to the real attitude of -Ireland, allow such a fatal crime to be committed?</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_115">115</span></p> -</div> - -<h3>III.—<span class="smcap">Termonde</span></h3> - -<p><span class="firstword">The</span> fate of Termonde is already known. But -I do not apologise for adding to the literature of -its devastation an account of a visit which I paid -to-day. Imagination lacks the stringency of the -scandal actually seen, and we have got, by repeated -strokes, to hammer into the imagination of the -world the things that Prussia has done in Belgium.</p> - -<p>I went from Ghent to Zele by train this morning, -and from Zele to Termonde by carriage. They -call Ghent the flower-town, and not without some -reason. It lies in that part of Flanders in which -cultivation is at its most intensive. That is to say, -it is the centre of one of the greatest agricultural -areas in the world. Near Ghent it was nursery-gardens -all the way, a checker-board of colour. -The geraniums, we thought, will never again look -like fire; they will look like blood. Further into -the country fewer flowers and more crops and -cattle. Not a square millimetre wasted. All the -familiar Flemish picture; the windmill that looks -like two combs crossed, and revolving on a pepper-box; -the old churches, the old castles, reminiscent -of the Spanish persecution; the strong peasant-faces—like -those of my own “Ulster,” but Catholic—lined<span class="pagenum" id="Page_116">116</span> -with labour; the wayside statues; the -villages, with little beauty save that of fruitful -effort.</p> - -<p>It is a flat country all the way to Termonde, and -especially as one nears the Scheldt. It is well timbered. -I noticed again a contrast I have often -noticed before. In England the trees look like -gentlemen of leisure. If they do any good it is -by a sort of graceful accident. In Belgium they -look like soldiers. They stand there in planned -ranks, repelling the infantry of the winds, drawing -the artillery of the rain, sheltering, protecting. -Add to them the waving patches of hemp, the corn-stacks, -the rich herbage, and you get a closely-tufted -and almost impenetrable country. It is -striped everywhere also with little canals and -ditches, so that any sort of military movement, -except over the cobbled roads, must be almost -impossible. If one remembers that the environs -of the towns are almost the only places open -enough for a conflict between any substantial -forces, a good many events become more intelligible.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">What Termonde was</span></h4> - -<p>But, for the moment, I am concerned with the -impression of remoteness and quiet labour which -such a country gives. The peasants yield to it. -At Zele, at Lokeren, they feel the war as some -great demon that has mysteriously passed them by.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_117">117</span> -And then, eight kilometres away, you turn the -bend of a country road at the Bridge of Termonde -and drive, let us say, from something that looks -very like Kent into something that looks very like -Hell.</p> - -<p>Termonde was—— Let me recall what it was. -It was a not unprosperous town of some eleven or -twelve thousand people. Though not destitute of -commerce and industries, it lived mainly on law -(for it was an assize town), on education, and on -the army. The two handsomest residences that I -saw—one in puce-coloured brick at the approach -to the bridge, the other more grandiose in stone -and inexplicably saved in the principal street—belonged -one to a judge, the other to an avocat. -Termonde, like many other places in the Low -Countries, had already been lifted into history by -war. It repelled Louis XIV with its dykes, but -Marlborough took it dry. Such was Termonde.</p> - -<p>To-day it is a tumbled avalanche of brick, stone, -twisted iron and shattered glass, over which the -remaining public buildings rise like cliffs over a -flood. I walked every foot of every street. Of -the Rue de l’Eglise, the chief street, the Porte de -Boom and Church of Notre Dame at one end, -and the Hôtel de Ville, Palais de Justice, and -Museum at the other are untouched. So is the -avocat’s house, of which I have spoken, chalked -over with that piteous legend to which one has -become so accustomed. Friends here! Please<span class="pagenum" id="Page_118">118</span> -spare! (in German and German characters). The -rest of the street is as if the breath of Armageddon -had withered it. The post office, the chapel -and convent of the Poor Clares, the hospital, the -orphanage have all disappeared.</p> - -<p>There is no need to multiply descriptive details. -It is always the same capricious devastation, -the same arabesques of ruin, with which -flame searches its mad way through architecture. -About one-half of the Grand’ Place has been saved -owing to the fact that the Germans were gathered -there, drinking champagne, when fire was being -sown through the town.</p> - -<p>The Marché au Bétail, a pretty little boulevard, -has also disappeared. The great College, -at its corner, like the other schools, is gone. Each -of its façades resembles nothing so much as an -X-ray photograph. Through the charred ribs of -what was a house the green-red-and-white of a -flower-garden flashes the eternal tricolour of nature.</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Culture and the Sick</span></h4> - -<p>In the Marché au Lin the Church of the Récolletes -and the National Bank lie disembowelled. -It was here that the Germans laid on the pavements -the sick and wounded while they burned -the beds from which they had dragged them and -the roof that had sheltered them.</p> - -<p>A few small factory buildings on the left bank<span class="pagenum" id="Page_119">119</span> -of the river and the poorest section of the workmen’s -quarter remain. The rest of Termonde is -a mere heap of bricks. It was; it no longer is. -Walking out towards the southern side of the -town I came suddenly—everything here happens -suddenly—upon a note of desolation, not the most -desolate, but the most crying of all. Through a -chasm in a shattered façade I saw the white walls -of little houses, the white coifs of nuns, and the -waving green of trees. It was the Béguinage. -Anyone who knows Flanders knows these remote -pools of silence, these quiet backwaters where no -oar breaks the surface, where the old and spent -await death as one courteously awaits an honoured -visitor. I stepped in and found myself in an irregular -triangle of almshouses. At first nothing -seemed to have been touched. But in the centre -there was a church, fringed with dwarf cypress. -Walking over, I found that it was, like Termonde, -a skeleton. The Germans, a nun told me, had on -the entreaty of two Dutch ladies, members of the -community, consented to spare the cottages. But -they insisted on making a bonfire of the “cottage -of the Bon Dieu!”</p> - -<p>Nothing was lacking in this abomination of -desolation. I determined to have some photographs -made. Yes! our guide—a big country -farmer, who had out of pure courtesy accompanied -us from Zele—knew of a photographer who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_120">120</span> -would doubtless be able to do our business. We -went to look for him. His street had disappeared, -his house with it. We walked back to the <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">estaminet</i> -to ask where he might be found.</p> - -<p>“But, monsieur! he was one of the first to be -shot by the Germans!” Later, on one of the quays -we saw a white wooden cross, with lime stamped -down about its base. Bystanders told us that it -marked the grave of two Belgian civilians. “Ah!” -said our farmer, “it is perhaps there!”</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Organised Infamy</span></h4> - -<p>Now as to the procedure of the Germans. The -facts admit of no doubt. I set aside forthwith any -damage caused to Termonde by the bombardment. -The bridge was dynamited, a number of houses on -the outskirts were shattered by shells. Nobody is -childish enough to complain about that. War is -war, and, technically, Termonde is a fortified town—though -the old fortifications have been dismantled. -But the burning was deliberate, scientific, -selective, devoid of military purpose.</p> - -<p>The German commander demanded a levy of -two million francs. The money was not there in -the public treasury, and the Burgomaster was not -there to save his town as Braun saved Ghent. -General Sommerfeld—that is the name that now -wears such a nimbus of infamy—had a chair -brought from an inn into the centre of the Grand<span class="pagenum" id="Page_121">121</span> -Place. He sat down on it, crossed his legs, and -said: “It is our duty to burn the town!”</p> - -<p>The inhabitants were allowed two hours to clear -out. Then the soldiers went to work. Their apparatus -is in the best tradition of German science—patented, -for all I know, from Charlottenburg. -It consists of a small portable pressure-caisson -filled with benzine and fitted with a spray. Other -witnesses said that there was also a great caisson -on wheels. With this they sprinkled the doors, -the ground storeys of the houses—as doorposts -were once fatally sprinkled with blood in Egypt—and -set fire to the buildings.</p> - -<p>Others used a sort of phosphorus-paste with -which they smeared the object to be destroyed. -They completed the work by flinging hand-grenades -and prepared fuses into the infant flames.</p> - -<p>The selective power of this apparatus was remarkable. -Remembering Louvain, and how the -burning of the University had destroyed German -prestige for a century, General Sommerfeld had -evidently given directions that public monumental -buildings were to be spared. Thus the Museum -and the Hôtel de Ville both stand; but right -between them his petroleurs picked out and destroyed -a hotel as neatly as you pick a winkle out -of a shell. Similarly they cut the avocat’s house, -of which I have spoken, out of their sea of destruction.</p> - -<p>General Sommerfeld’s soldiery stole, pillaged,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_122">122</span> -and drank everything on which they could lay -hands. Witnesses on this point are many, and -unshakable. Their moderation must impress anybody -who talks to them. A citizen of Termonde -who had himself been held as a hostage said to -me, standing amid the ruins of his <span class="locked">town—</span></p> - -<p>“Monsieur! there is human nature also among -the Germans. I saw many officers in tears. A -lieutenant came and shook me by the hand, crying: -‘It is not our fault! It is a shame!’”</p> - -<h4>“<span class="smcap">He must be Hanged</span>”</h4> - -<p>Do not think that the evil, written here in the -debris of Belgium, will be cancelled and blotted -out by subscriptions and indemnities. It calls also -for that holy vengeance without which all public -law is a nullity. Sommerfeld has got to be -hanged. When are the Allies going to issue a -proclamation placing definitely outside the privilege -of military law Sommerfeld and his -kind?</p> - -<p>The more one sees of Belgium the more deeply -her magnificent courage pierces into the soul. I -saw women weeping amid the ruins of Termonde. -But I also saw builders’ men stolidly smoking -their pipes as they shovelled out the bricks and -rubble to make room for new foundations.</p> - -<p>I talked with the pioupious. They had torn -up half the pavement on the southern road and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_123">123</span> -stretched barbed wire and brambles over the loose -stones... to encourage the Uhlans. As you approached -from without you saw the wicked eyes -of the street trenches, and the grass-grown mounds -of the old fortifications, winking down at you. -The town was held by an outpost of three or four -companies.</p> - -<p>“Sir! American Sir!” said one of the pioupious, -in the sort of English which an Antwerp -Fleming who has spent two years among Scotchmen -in the United States may be expected to -speak. “Fourth Infantry of the Line at your service! -We have two things only which we greatly -much desire: Cigarettes and Revenge!”</p> - -<h4><span class="smcap">Irish Horses</span></h4> - -<p>On the other side of the town a battery of artillery, -magnificently horsed, was waiting under -the trees for any alarm. Most of the horses were -Irish. I felt a little <em>nostalgia</em> as I rubbed the -sensitive nose of a roan mare. I wished that I had -with me a poet or two of the Celtic renaissance -to make a poem telling her how she had begun at -the fair of Ballina, or Moy, or perhaps Ballsbridge -itself, and how she would wander the white -roads of Europe—not white now, but red—and -die at last over there on the banks of the Rhine -near pleasant Coblenz, or many-pinnacled Cologne. -There being no poet about, I could but<span class="pagenum" id="Page_124">124</span> -scratch the butt of her ears and give her some -chocolate.</p> - -<p>Two hours in the tram, five on the carriage-trip, -three and a half to accomplish the hour’s -train journey from Lokeren to Antwerp. I am -now writing this impression of Termonde in this -besieged city (in which no light is permitted after -eight) by the light of two most excellent candles.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_125">125</span></p> -</div> - -<h3>IV.—<span class="smcap">Malines</span></h3> - -<p><span class="firstword">The</span> prompt, creative courage of these Belgians -is admirable. No sooner have the soldiers -“cleaned” an invaded district than the engineers -hurry along to rebuild bridges, repair railways, -to open again the encumbered channels of intercourse. -It was therefore without surprise that -I found trains running again from Antwerp to -Malines, crowded but comfortable, and sharp almost -to the minute. Their resuscitating effect on -the town, however, was not very great. It looked -too much like pumping blood into a corpse.</p> - -<p>The journey is right across one of the most important -sectors of the Antwerp defences. The -countryside shows the aspect of a sort of terrible -security. It has been stripped not only to the skin, -but to the skeleton. Woods, houses, where necessary, -crops, have been sacrificed to the impregnability -of the war capital. The typical prepared -position shows a criss-cross entanglement of barbed -wire, a long stretch of level ground, now entirely -naked, more wire or <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">chevaux-de-frise</i> of pointed -stakes, raised trenches, defended in front by artificial -ditches, and glaring grimly down on the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_126">126</span> -whole scene of the forts of Brialmont, with death -lying couched in its guns.</p> - -<p>Of Malines little of the material fabric of the -town has suffered, with the exception of the cathedral. -Through about twenty other houses shells -had torn gashes as erratic as those which apparently -a bullet tears through living tissue. But -most of the streets remain unchanged. This statement -is not, perhaps, as reassuring as it sounds. -It is as if you were to say, in speaking of an attack -on Oxford, that only the colleges had suffered. -Malines is not only a cathedral city; the -cathedral, situated geographically at its heart, -dominates its whole economy. It is the spiritual -centre of Belgium. The Cardinal Archbishop’s -palace, unpretentious between its thick trees and -its quiet canal, is in some sense the moral capital -of this valorous people.</p> - -<p>Like Louvain, Malines got its bread largely by -education. Its manufacturing industries, so to say, -radiated from the cathedral. It printed missals -and breviaries. It made lace for ecclesiastical -vestments, and then other lace. It cut and carved -heavy oak into furniture for churches, and then -it made other furniture. Every shell launched -against the cathedral was therefore launched -against the very being and essence of Malines -city.</p> - -<p>I am not ashamed to confess that when I, an -Irish Catholic, walked into the Grand’ Place and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_127">127</span> -saw the stamp of Berlin imprinted on those good -grey walls I did not think at once of material injury, -or money, or subscriptions. What came was -anger against the desecration of a holy place. My -mind said to me, “This is how Nietzsche has, from -his grave, spat, as he wished to spit, upon Nazareth.” -A picture came of that sinister Quixote, -who made cruelty his sacrament, and who was -yet so humanly dear in some of his moods, standing -behind a great Krupp howitzer and shouting, -“Charlottenburg <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">contra</i> Christ. I back Charlottenburg!”</p> - -<p>One notices in some of the English papers protests -against the too ready acceptance of unanalysed -and unconfirmed “atrocities.” So liable is -panic to mix myth with fact that I have pleaded -more than once for the constitution of an International -Commission to examine all the evidence. -But in the meantime we find it difficult to divest -ourselves of the faculty of inference. If you come, -during time of war, upon a civilian, hanging by -the neck, with his hands tied behind his back, and -a fire burning under him, the theory of suicide or -accident does not seem to embrace the full scope -of the fact. A similar process of reasoning forces -you to the conclusion that the Germans would not -have hit Malines Cathedral so often if they had -not aimed at it. The other buildings struck by -shells are either on the line of fire to the Grand’ -Place or in its immediate neighbourhood.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_128">128</span></p> - -<p>The city was three times bombarded. Unlike -Termonde, it is open and without the least trace -of fortification. None of the bombardments -achieved any military object. No attempt was -made to capture, fire, shell, or in any way diminish -in efficiency the State railway works. I fear -that the case looks complete. The Germans deliberately -broke through the laws of civilised war, -and, just as deliberately, broke through the walls -of the cathedral.</p> - -<p>To describe in detail, and to put an estimate -on the damage done, is a task for experts with -ample time at their command. The Belgian Commission -were to open a formal enquiry on the day -following my visit, and kindly invited me to accompany -them, but it was impossible. The following -invoice of Hunnery is, therefore, only provisional. -There is not a whole pane of glass left -in the cathedral. The middle lateral window on -the assailed flank of the edifice was itself struck; -the others were shattered by the detonation. The -stained glass is, I believe, modern, but as you saw -it lying heaped on the pavement, like the shards -of a rainbow, it looked beautiful enough to have -been spared. A great gulf has been torn through -the groined roof near its junction with the tower. -The tower itself is blotched here and there a -pallid white by the exploding shells. The great -clock, the largest in Belgium, had been also struck, -and its hands flapped in the wind like torn ribbons.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_129">129</span> -The famous carillon, or peal of bells, does -not, however, seem to have been injured.</p> - -<p>In the left aisle the charred remnant of a canvas -still hung in its frame, but what the picture was -no one could tell me. The pavement itself was -torn up here and there like ground uprooted by -swine. The equestrian monument near the southerly -entrance has, as to the horse, suffered decapitation, -and the figure has lost an arm. Fragments -chipped off mouldings and capitals lie about in -desolate heaps. And to complete the desolation, -all the precious objects have been removed from -the cathedral as from the other churches and public -buildings. The ciboria, the chalices, the candlesticks, -the rich orphreyed vestments have been -removed to Antwerp.</p> - -<p>Thither have gone Van Dyck’s “Crucifixion,” -and Rubens’s “Miraculous Draught of Fishes.” -In its own way the most bizarre inhibition imposed -by the war is that which prevents you from -seeing a Rubens in Antwerp. They are all hidden -away from the cultured burglars of Berlin. The -“carnal ideal,” which Verhaeren discovers behind -the great strokes of his spiritual ancestor would, -it is feared, prove irresistible to Attila.</p> - -<p>On the day of my visit Cardinal Mercier had -returned. I had last met him at Louvain—not in -the flesh, but in his books. This master of psychology -is one of those who have dared to think -that the Latin definiteness of Thomas of Aquin is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_130">130</span> -closer to the sound soul of Europe than the fog -of Koenigsberg, or the cloudy intoxication of -Hegel. The scholar, called to rule, has also been -called to suffer. He was passing through the -Grand’ Place as a long procession of women stood -formed up outside the door of the municipal offices -waiting wretchedly for bread. There was a -stir, cheering, excitement which he repressed with -a gesture. To those who approached him he said: -“Your cheers are due to the army and the King, -not to me. I am a Belgian citizen, no more.”</p> - -<p>The ruin of the civil population does not, as in -Termonde, brand itself on your eyes, but it is, of -course, none the less real. The city is a mere -cemetery of shutters. The bombardments came -after Louvain had been taught its lesson, and the -Malinois did not stop to write notes on the text -of that lesson. They fled <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">en masse</i>. One sees them -in the rain and wind-swept bathing machines at -Ostend. You hear them at Folkestone and in London. -I saw still another packed trainload leaving -Malines for Heyst-sur-Mer, from which many -will disperse over the littoral generally, and others -will filter into England. In Malines itself a few -cafés, a few bakeries, and other shops of prime -necessity are open. Everything else is as in a city -of plague.</p> - -<p>Consider what that means. It means, very -bluntly, the triumph of German terrorism. If -the Hague Convention is worth anything, and is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_131">131</span> -not merely another “scrap of paper,” the lace-makers -and the chair-makers of Malines should, -under its protection, be now at work, and not in -forced idleness and exile.</p> - -<p>Readers must be weary of hearing the Prussian -method characterised as one of scientific blackguardism. -But that is what it is. There is nothing -incoherent, tumultuous, or spasmodic about -it; it goes on a well-formulated principle. And -it has succeeded. By producing a panic among -the civil population it has created the problem of -the refugees. It inflicts day by day on Belgium -an economic loss, the size of which cannot even -be guessed at. Can nothing be done to check its -operation? Can nothing be done to guarantee -Malines against the fate of Termonde? The Belgian -Commission in its last report stated the case -with such concentrated force that no apology is -needed for recalling their <span class="locked">words—</span></p> - -<p>“The true motives behind the atrocities, of -which we have collected such heart-breaking evidence, -can only be, on the one hand, the desire to -terrorise and demoralise the civil population, conformably -to the inhuman theories of German military -writers, and, on the other hand, the desire -to pillage. A shot fired, no one knows where, or -by whom, or at whom, by a drunken soldier, or -an excitable official, serves as a pretext for the -sacking of a whole city. Individual looting is -followed by the levying of war contributions so<span class="pagenum" id="Page_132">132</span> -large as to be unpayable, and by the taking away -of hostages to be shot or held prisoners till the -payment of the full ransom, after the approved -and classical method of brigandage. It must also -be remembered that all resistance opposed by the -regular army is, according to the needs of the situation, -ascribed to the inhabitants, and that the -invader invariably avenges on the civil population -the checks which he suffers during the campaign, -and even his own mistakes.</p> - -<p>“In the course of this enquiry we cite only facts -supported by conclusive evidence. It is further -to be observed that so far we have been able to -signalise only a small part of a mass of crimes -against law, humanity, and civilisation which will -fill one of the most sinister and revolting pages -in contemporary history. If an international enquiry, -such as that made in the Balkans by the -Carnegie Commission, could be made in Belgium, -we are convinced that it would establish the truth -of our assertions.”</p> - -<p>Why can it not be made? There are two public -opinions in the United Kingdom—one sensational -and weak, the other slow and strong. The -first demands, so to say, a photograph of every -limb of every corpse, and then “registers a protest.” -The second demands iron for iron and -blood for blood. It is of the second that we have -need. Accumulate and examine your evidence by -all means, but then act. A nation, with sword in<span class="pagenum" id="Page_133">133</span> -hand, is not a public meeting; its function is not -to protest, but to punish. A joint declaration by -the Allies that every commanding officer, up to -the Kaiser himself, guilty of an infraction of the -laws of war, will be brought to trial and retribution, -either immediately on capture, or after the -victory, would, I am convinced, effectively stop -the present plan of terrorism.</p> - -<p>And what about America? Does her moral -prestige not impose upon her a clear duty of initiative -in this matter of an International Enquiry? -Can she ultimately afford to keep such familiar -company with the cloudy murderers of Berlin? -These questions are hot for an answer.</p> - -<div class="tb">* * * * *</div> - -<p>The guns were hammering away all day over -towards Termonde, and before I got back to Antwerp -I had walked into a warm skirmish of patrols. -They are at present the settled order of the -day. Both sides keep nibbling away, but neither -is in a position at present to risk a real mouthful.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_134">134</span></p> -</div> - -<h3>V.—<span class="smcap">In Ostend</span></h3> - -<p class="sigright"><i>Sept. 24, Ostend.</i></p> - -<p><span class="firstword">From</span> the military point of view Belgium is a -backwater. It has no tide of its own. All its -future movement depends on the ebb and flow of -the immense struggle in France. The advance -posts, or wandering patrols—if I may change the -image—snarl and snap at one another continually. -Every day, almost, from here to Antwerp, a German -“Taube”—surely the most ill-omened dove -that ever invaded the skies—hums over us. But -Belgium has not yet got its cue.</p> - -<p>The Belgian army would risk too much in a -swoop on Brussels. The Germans, on the other -hand, while less depleted than might have been -anticipated, and strong enough to hold their own, -are not strong enough to take the offensive with -effect. We hear every day two scare stories. One -is that Brussels has been evacuated; the other that -von Goltz is pounding the forts at Antwerp. The -mere mathematics of war rules out both; one for -the present, the other, we hope and believe, for -all time.</p> - -<p>The weather has cleared. The equinox would<span class="pagenum" id="Page_135">135</span> -seem to have spent its showers, and the bloody -and desperate pause on the Aisne should soon be -resolved to our advantage. The moment that happens -the “pistol of Antwerp” will go off. But the -revenge is not yet.</p> - -<p>It ought to be remembered that Belgium is one -of the allied countries which had to sacrifice, and -did sacrifice without a murmur, her richly beautiful -capital, to the large strategical game which -General Joffre has played with such brilliant success. -She has since rejected temptations to peace -offered under flag of truce at Antwerp by the -Germans. With a noble faith and restraint she -has put herself last, and the law of Europe first.</p> - -<p>Meantime the Germans are reported to spend -most of their time digging trenches north of Brussels. -A very interesting traveller, who has just -got back from the capital, tells us that the invaders -call the Belgians “the little black rats,” because -of the effectiveness with which our pioupious -pop up, pick off their men, and pop down -again into invulnerability.</p> - -<p>At Brussels French newspapers find their subterranean -way through the whole population. The -Hunnish attempt to kill knowledge of facts as -they are born has been a gross failure. According -to this witness, the whole temper of the population -has changed. They have “learned the great language, -caught the clear accent” of that magnificent -Burgomaster of theirs, with the explosive<span class="pagenum" id="Page_136">136</span> -name, M. Max. They no longer allow themselves -to be bullied.</p> - -<p>President Wilson once wrote that in order to -be moral you must cultivate the feeling that somebody -is always looking on. In Brussels the American -Minister, Mr. Brand Whitlock, is looking on. -As lawyer, politician, and novelist, he possesses a -triple intensity of vision. There will be no Termondes -while that eye is levelled.</p> - -<p>One is glad to say that, amid the general softness -and protestations, King Albert’s Government -is standing for the salutary, strong law. At -Sempst, near Malines, yesterday a German trooper -was captured in a farmyard, in which he had -just killed two children. He was taken to Waelhem, -the facts were briefly established, and, without -further ado, he was shot.</p> - -<p>I notice that the Right Hon. G. W. E. Russell -asks in <cite>The Daily News</cite> if we have the right to -kill. Have we the right to spare? One thing we -cannot escape from: the duty to punish. Nobody -talks of revenge, or vindictiveness, or cruelty. -But since we are fighting for justice, and since -the gospel of murder—murder of the body and -of the spirit—has been loosed against Europe, we -have no choice.</p> - -<p>We cannot restore Louvain, but we can give -back to Belgium the glory of her own Rubens -now exiled in the great gallery of Munich. We -cannot call back Rheims out of its smoke of dissolution,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_137">137</span> -but we can put Cologne again under the -care of civilised France. We must not spoil or -ravage one monument of humane effort, religious -or secular, in Germany. But the Denkmal at -Bingen has got to go, and the Column of Insolence -at Berlin has got to go. Mr. Lowes Dickinson -has said that Germany must not be humiliated. -Not Germany, but Prussia must be -humiliated. Berlin militarism must pass under -the Caudine Forks, and the forks must be set so -low as to sweep the spike of the helmet as it passes.</p> - -<p>I saw a mad Belgian soldier taken away from -the Ostend Infirmary a few days ago. Of course, -I don’t know, of my own personal observation, -why he went mad. But one of the attendants told -me that the soldier told him that he had remained -the only survivor of a Belgian patrol which had -repelled the attack of a much heavier German -advance post. Reinforcements arrived; all his -comrades were killed, and he was taken prisoner. -His captors roped him up against a tree, in the -posture of crucifixion, but without lifting his feet -from the ground.</p> - -<p>A firing party was ordered to take its stand at -the usual twelve paces. Time after time their -rifles went up to the “present!” Sometimes a volley -was at that moment fired behind him. At last -he was cut down; somehow or other he scrambled -within reach of the Red Cross. They were very -kind to him in Ostend, but he kept on babbling<span class="pagenum" id="Page_138">138</span> -about crucifixions and a crucifixion near Jerusalem.</p> - -<p>The story is wholly “unverified,” but the man -himself so far believed it as to go mad. And -since <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">L’Indépendance Belge</i> has thought that it -should be published, I, who also saw the madman, -also put it in print.</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_139">139</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="TREATING_BELGIUM_DECENTLY">TREATING BELGIUM DECENTLY</h2> -</div> - -<p class="sigright"><i>August 31, 1914.</i></p> - -<p><span class="firstword">Perhaps</span> the finest thing in the whole colossal -business in which we are now engaged is the -frankness with which the French and British War -Offices, and the Press in these countries, admit the -checks and even actual reverses which the Allies -are sustaining, and are bound in certain areas to -sustain. It is understood that we cannot romance -ourselves into victory. For the rest the censorship -has been very prudently exercised, and is now -much mitigated.</p> - -<p>These circumstances make it difficult to understand -the bald ambiguity of the news from Namur. -Is it the town that has fallen or is it the forts? If -the first, nothing; if the second, a new twist to the -campaign. We are bound to assume, as all the -military writers do, that the circle of forts has -been captured or surrendered.</p> - -<p>I do not want to say one word as to the military -significance of the affair. And if a torrential -German advance has, after enormous losses, -swamped the defence, I do not want to say anything -at all. But if, by chance, the defenders of -Namur lacked the spirit of those of Liége; if, -overwhelmed by the picture of blood, devastation,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_140">140</span> -and panic which the south-east of Belgium now -presents, they yielded up their position; then the -question, “Are we treating Belgium decently?” -has a grave and urgent meaning.</p> - -<p>I arrived yesterday from Belgium, knowing -nothing of Namur. It seemed to me a clear duty -to attempt in a small way to bring home to the -people of these islands the appalling price that -Belgium has had to pay for holding to the path -of honour and courage. Nothing said here is a -criticism of the purely military aspects of the prologue -now concluded. It was inevitable that in -the clash of millions, Belgium and her two hundred -thousand soldiers should have been treated -as a mere right-wing pawn. But think what the -gambit meant to a Belgium patriot. It meant, in -any and all circumstances, the devastation of -Liége and the country behind it. It meant the -surrender not only of the capital, but of the whole -country except Antwerp. And the Belgians were -under no illusions as to the terrorisation of non-combatants -which is an essential part of the Prussian -art of war. I quote from a Belgian journal -the following summary of it. It is <span class="locked">headed—</span></p> - -<div class="blockquot"> - -<p class="center p1 b1 larger">“<span class="smcap">Thus spake... Bismarck in 1870</span></p> - -<p>“True strategy consists in hitting your enemy, -and hitting him hard. Above all, you must inflict -on the inhabitants of invaded towns the maximum<span class="pagenum" id="Page_141">141</span> -of suffering, so that they may become sick -of the struggle, and may bring pressure to bear on -their Government to discontinue it. You must -leave the people through whom you march only -their eyes to weep with.</p> - -<p>“In every case the principle which guided our -general was that war must be made terrible to the -civil population, so that it may sue for peace.”</p> -</div> - -<p>And so on, and so on. Little Belgium—her gallant -soldiers and her laborious peasants alike—has -been mashed to a bloody pulp where the heel of -the Prussian, shod with iron and with this damnable -philosophy, has passed. And all the time -the Belgians kept on asking in hope, in despair, -“Where are the English? Where are the French?” -Can you wonder if in the end they began to ask -it in anger? Would it be a contradiction of all -the laws of human nature to suppose that the panic -terror which swept over the undefended land may -have penetrated through the steel blinds of the -forts of Namur, taken the heart out of the troops, -impelled to surrender?</p> - -<p>Let us examine our consciences. What have -we done to show our appreciation of Belgium? -There was the Royal message. There was Lord -Sydenham’s noble letter in <cite>The Times</cite> which has -been quoted everywhere. There is a subscription -on foot. There is the promised loan. So far so -good. But it is not enough. The stunned sense -of having been delivered to Armageddon is noticeable<span class="pagenum" id="Page_142">142</span> -everywhere, but especially in Flanders. -The Flemish journals such as the <i xml:lang="nl" lang="nl">Laatste Nieuws</i> -are full of violent anti-French, and in a less degree -of anti-English articles. Germanophiles are -harping on the kinship of the Flemish tongue, the -Flemish stock and manners, to Germany. People -sneer at the loan. My Flemish barber said to me -on Sunday: “Oh! you are a fine people, you English. -You look for business among the corpses. -You will kindly lend us money at a good, whacking -rate of interest. You philanthropists!”</p> - -<p>What, then, is needed? War means blood and -treasure. That faded phrase has been lit up suddenly, -and we know what it means. The proof -of blood the gallant soldiers of the two great -Western Allies have already given at Mons and -along the Sambre. I am convinced that the -United Kingdom would be acting with fruitful -generosity if Parliament were not to sanction a -loan, but to vote a free grant.</p> - -<p>Conjoined with that I hope and assume that -Sir Edward Grey will renew the solemn pledges -already given that, come what may, we mean to -see Belgium through. The fear is general that -the Germans may be allowed to get such a footing -in Belgium as to have some plausible case in international -law for proclaiming annexation. Let -Parliament announce—and these dramatic cries -and gestures of diplomacy are necessary—that so -long as there is one shot left and one soldier to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_143">143</span> -fire it, the Allies will never allow one foot of Belgian -soil to remain under German domination.</p> - -<p>What I have written is not inspired by even the -least touch of discouragement. The breakneck -advance on the German right seems to me not the -stride of conquerors, but the mad hurry of columns -flung forward in a frenzied gamble. Sursum -corda! But let us remember that all alliances -need delicate handling. Belgium is in -agony. A stroke, swift and generous, such as -suggested, will recall her, and all her people, to -the glorious courage of Liége. Antwerp, and the -field army now sheltered about it, have still a -great part to play.</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_144">144</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="BELGIUM_IN_PEACE">BELGIUM IN PEACE<br /> - -<span class="subhead">WORK OF THREE GENERATIONS—COMPARISONS -WITH IRELAND—SOME MEMORIES</span></h2> -</div> - -<p><span class="firstword">It</span> is an irony characteristic of this scurvy and -disastrous time that Belgium should have first -found her way to the general imagination of these -countries through the waste redness of war. Peace -was her whole being. For eighty years, trusting -to the good faith of Europe, she had pursued an -economical evolution without parallel. For national -defence she had relied on that most solemn -treaty of the nineteenth century. Even a little -time ago, even since Agadir, her army, although -unsuspectedly alert in technique, was still a jest -of vaudeville. In temper and fibre, the Belgian -people was the least militarist on the Continent. -It is true that in recent years, wise foreseeing men -of arms and men of politics, troubled by the audacity -of Prussian apostles of conquest like Bernhardi, -had begun to take alarm. Brialmont, the -great engineer, had fortified Liége against Germany, -and improved the defences of Namur -against France. He had also, of course, planned -the new entrenched position of Antwerp, the war-capital, -and incidentally provided us with the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_145">145</span> -first-class mystery of its subsequent easy fall. De -Broqueville had carried a new army scheme which -in due development would have given Belgium at -need a million bayonets to defend her neutrality -instead of three hundred thousand. King Leopold, -couched like a super-spider behind his fine-drawn -webs of diplomacy and finance, had made way for -King Albert of the simpler gospel. But on the -whole the temper of Belgium was not radically -changed. When in 1912 the Kaiser, receiving -General Heimburger, Governor of Liége, at Aix-la-Chapelle -during manœuvres, expressed his astonishment -at the improvement of the defences -on the Belgo-German frontier, the latter had no -stronger reply than: “Well, Majesty, we soldiers -had a chance of getting something extra out of our -Government, and we took it.” Neither your courteous -and subtle Liégois, nor your genial and abundant -citizen of Brussels, nor your four-square indomitable -Flamand really believed that the treaty -would ever be violated, or that he would ever be -called on to die for his independence.</p> - -<p>We know now how that treaty was respected. -There will be pens, and to spare, to celebrate the -heroic defence of the valley of the Meuse, the -stubborn withdrawal of an outmatched but unbroken -army, the tide of rapine and devastation -that marched with the Treaty-Breakers, the driving -into exile of a gallant people, the rosary of -desolation, Liége, Visé, Louvain, Termonde, Namur,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_146">146</span> -Ypres. For my part I should like to recall -something of what Belgium was in peace, and -what she did give or was in train of giving to the -triumphs of civilisation.</p> - -<p>One does not need to say anything of her treasury -of art; her painters from Van Eyck to the -enigmatic madness of Wierbz; her incomparable -belfries, hôtels de ville and halles, testifying still to -the richest municipal life of the middle ages; her -cathedrals; of Bruges of the three hundred bridges—one -of which the present writer has cause to remember -as he was all but drowned under it—of -the Castle of Bouillon, from which Godefroid went -to the Holy Land to capture Jerusalem and to refuse -to wear a crown of gold where his Saviour -had worn a crown of thorns. Nor is there need to -say anything of the ambiguous splendour of such -places as Ostend, in summer a Paradise at once -of children and of those no longer conspicuously -childlike. Nor again, of the remote beauty and -clean winds of the Ardennes. It is of the life that -the Belgian nation, working on its environment, -had made for itself in three generations of guaranteed -peace, that I like, on this anniversary, to -recall some sort of inadequate picture.</p> - -<p>Belgium was the most thickly peopled state in -Europe. In the Meuse valley, from Liége to Seraing, -she possessed the most extensive manufacturing -area of its size in the world, surpassing -Lancashire and Massachusetts. She had a greater<span class="pagenum" id="Page_147">147</span> -length of railway line per square mile than any -other country in Europe. She produced a greater -value of manufactured goods <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">per capita</i> than either -of her great neighbours, France and Germany, and -had a larger <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">per capita</i> foreign trade. Her agriculture -was so enterprising that it would have been -difficult to find an untilled rood or a rood wasted -on a fence, in all Flanders. Such production of -wealth had generated on a large scale all the social -problems characteristic of our time; and so earnest -and loyal was she in her attempt to reach solutions -that French writers have been found to call her, -not the “cockpit,” but the “social laboratory” of -Europe. What is of special interest to us is that, -despite the ablest Socialist and Liberal criticism, -Belgium had maintained in power for a generation -a Catholic Government, and was working out her -problems on the basis of Catholic individualism. -In all aspects to know her was for a citizen of -any small nation a tonic and an inspiration. She -was no Paradise assuredly; she had failed in some -points in which we have succeeded, but it was impossible -to look into any department of her activity -without learning something worth the trouble. -When it is remembered that, on the one hand, she -had a duality of language, and on the other, that -through flax she came into intimate touch with -North-east Ulster, the interest of her life for an -Irishman is obviously enhanced.</p> - -<p>Coal, “the bread of manufacturing industry,”<span class="pagenum" id="Page_148">148</span> -was, of course, the basis of Belgian prosperity. In -her black country, the “borinage” centred on Mons. -She employed 150,000 miners, raised 24,000,000 -tons of coal per annum, and consumed almost that -quantity in her factories and homes. I have an -eerie recollection of climbing the belfry of Mons -some years ago, and picking out, or persuading -myself that I had succeeded in picking out, the -battlefields about it: Malplaquet, Jemappes, Fontenoy, -Ligny. A Frenchman on the same errand -asked dreamily: “When will there be another?” -Alas! we can answer that question now: the “borinage” -has taken another full draught of Irish -blood.</p> - -<p>This precious natural possession of coal Belgium -certainly utilises to the full. Her mining country, -unhappily, had all the sordor that seems inseparable -from that enterprise. Mons had an admirable -School of Commerce and Industry. Its -watchword was expansion and expatriation. The -device may sound strange in our ears; what it -means to convey, of course, is that Belgium must -find markets abroad. She trains her sons not to be -lost to her, but to go abroad and open new fields -of conquest for her industries. There was also an -unusual dispensary which treated the miners for -an endemic complaint called “miner’s worm,” or -more learnedly, ankylostomiasis.</p> - -<p>The metal industries, of course, centre on Liége. -There was no more wonderful sight, not in Pittsburg,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_149">149</span> -not on the Clyde, than the pillars of smoke -and the pillars of fire which stream upwards from -the steel foundries and factories along the Meuse. -It was a singular pride to remember that the whole -first impulsion of that great industry proceeded -from the brain of an Irishman, John Cockerill. It -is known that until 1825, it was, under English -law, a criminal offence, punishable by transportation, -for a skilled workman to emigrate to a foreign -country, or for anyone to export machinery or -plans. William Cockerill, however, took the risk, -went first to Sweden, where he was ill received, -and afterwards to Verviers. He founded the machine -woollen industry of Verviers, and his son -John, in due course, founded the metal industry -of Liége and its belt of towns. The lives of the -Cockerills would make a romantic chapter: I am -sorry that I have not been able to come on much -biographical matter. Obtaining a good deal more -iron ore, chiefly from her neighbour, Luxembourg, -than she produced herself, Belgium, before the -war, reached an annual output of about a million -and a half tons each of pig-iron and steel. She -made all sorts of machinery and had an immense -export of all. I have a vivid memory of a visit -to the great Fabrique Nationale (F.N.) at Herstal. -The figures of production per day were given to -us as something like 800 Browning automatic pistols, -500 Mauser rifles, 400 fowling-pieces, 150 -bicycles, 50 motor-bicycles and 10 motor-cars.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_150">150</span> -These two latter items had probably greatly increased. -Your guide took great pleasure in dazing -you with the degree of specialisation practised. -Thus it took 350 special machines or tools to make -a Browning, and something like 700 to make a -Mauser. If all the plant of Herstal and its neighbouring -towns is in German hands, it will be seen -that their invasion of Belgium gave them something -more even than an opportunity of running -murder as a national pastime.</p> - -<p>Ghent as a textile city owes its importance mainly -to cotton. But both there and at Courtrai linen -possessed a keener interest for an Irishman. Ghent -possesses the two largest linen-spinning installations -in the world. Between these two places and North-east -Ireland there was the closest intercourse, and -it would have been an interesting exercise to have -made a detailed study of the Ulster colony that -lived there. Cases were not unknown of the dourest -North of Ireland buyers intermarrying with -Flemish Catholic families, and ultimately suffering -absorption. Lace was, of course, a notable -product. It will be remembered that certain enquiries -disclosed the fact some years ago that Belgian -skill was equal to the fabrication, not only of -Brussels and Malines, but also of “Limerick” and -“Carrickmacross” lace, chiefly for the American -market.</p> - -<p>Of the progressive character of agriculture some -indication has been given. It is curious that whilst<span class="pagenum" id="Page_151">151</span> -South Germany, Denmark, and even Hungary -have been ransacked for models by various Irish -propagandists, Belgian agriculture, which was not -inferior either in technique or in organisation, was -almost ignored. Much of the land is, as with us, -rather a manufactured article than a natural product; -rich polders stolen from the sea, or sand made -fertile by irrigation. If one were to touch on any -special point in agriculture, it would be the complete -success which Belgium had made of the beet. -She produced all her own sugar, including that -used in her great brewing industry, and exported -great quantities as well.</p> - -<p>The productive apparatus of Belgium was assuredly -rich and varied. And each industry fed -and maintained itself by an educational institute of -the first order. Mons has been mentioned. There -was also the University of Liége, mainly an engineering -University; the great Commercial School -of Antwerp, the Agricultural Laboratories at Louvain -and Ghent, the Higher School of Textiles at -Verviers, and so on. And all this was done at “the -cross-roads of Europe,” under the fire of French -and German competition, without recourse to any -really protectionist tariffs.</p> - -<p>But however dominant a factor intensity of production -may be, it is rather the attitude of a people -towards the problems of distribution that marks it -out as, in a human point of view, a success or a -failure: Belgium was beyond doubt a success.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_152">152</span> -Not that she had abolished poverty: there was poverty -more drab and hopeless in some parts of her -countryside than anything of our congested districts. -There was the old plague of cheap gin -almost everywhere.</p> - -<p>But she was facing her social task in the right -temper. The Belgian in economic affairs is by -nature a realist and an appeasable man. In the -number of days per worker lost through labour -disputes, Belgium was easily at the foot of the list -of industrial countries. “The Social Question,” -they repeat after Colins, “is to be settled by science, -not by violence.” Time and again the central -labour committees, Socialist as well as Catholics, -have suppressed strikes inaugurated by their own -members. This realism of outlook gave you in -Belgium the supreme type of business-like politics. -The great Socialist co-operatives of Brussels and -Ghent—the “Maison du Peuple” and the “Voormit”—starting -from ludicrously small beginnings, -bestrode the world of workers like a Colossus. If -you were an associate, they sold you your clothes, -boots, bread, meat, beer, furniture, books, amusements—everything -you consumed—and managed -your business as well as gave you free their propagandist -papers, and an annual bonus out of the -profits, in order to sweeten the principles proposed. -The smaller Catholic organisations in the cities -acted on similar lines. In the country the great -Catholic “Boerenbond,” or Land League, with its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_153">153</span> -headquarters at Louvain, applied the same formula -to the buying and selling of agricultural necessaries -on a great scale. Such a phenomenon as -empty extremism could not arise.</p> - -<p>These immense co-operatives were, perhaps, the -most characteristic Belgian contribution to social -readjustment. But in direct action by the State -they had also been pioneers. The first experiment -in Old Age Pensions did not come from Germany—formerly -the worshipped idol of English Liberals -and Tariff Reformers alike. It came from -the city of Ghent. The first experiment in the deliberate -building of “workmen’s dwellings” as such -was not made in Mülhausen, it was made in Verviers. -The whole body of Belgian law regulating -economic life is expounded in two masterly volumes -issued from Louvain by Father Vermeersh, -the Jesuit, who so bravely exposed the early atrocities -in the Congo. (Perhaps it is as well to interpolate -here that if the crimes were great, the -amendment has been complete. On the same terms -it would be possible to forgive all the sins of -history.) The intervention of formal law is not -quite as comprehensive as it is in these countries. -But it helps the worker at all his crises: birth, -marriage, accident, disease, old age. In one respect -at least it is far superior to our code: property -in small parcels is much more readily accessible to -the labourer. This is accomplished by exemption -of workmen’s home sites and garden plots from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_154">154</span> -various heads of taxation, and by the provision of -cheap loans. It will be found in the end that this -accessibility to land, to land in fee-simple, is the -real solution of half our labour difficulties, and the -real counter-programme to Socialism. And the -nation that pioneered it will enjoy deserved honour. -Like other Latin countries Belgium has what we, -to our shame, have not: a Homestead and Household -Protection Act, the only bulwark against -usury.</p> - -<p>As to the particular points in which Belgian experience -may enlighten ours, there is one which -ought to be mentioned. Cheap fee-simple land for -industrial workers plus cheap railways, has done -a great deal to break the isolation of country and -town, and to solve housing difficulties. There is -also a distinct human gain. Your industrial worker -who grows his own vegetables on his own land is a -very different man from the unit of your propertyless -proletariat. The railway policy of Belgium is -generally misunderstood. In the first instance, only -the main lines are owned by the State; in the second, -the complaint that the State Railways “do not -pay” misses the whole essence of the matter. They -are not run as dividend-producing concerns; they -are run as one of the fundamental public utilities. -Roads used to “pay”; now they are paid for out of -the public purse. Who complains? The Belgian -State Railways did certainly not lose money; further, -their policy was not controlled by the necessity<span class="pagenum" id="Page_155">155</span> -of making it directly. Railways so conducted -yield a diffused national dividend of utility, the -value of which is incalculable.</p> - -<p>A further token of this firm handling of the -tangles of everyday life is to be found in the work -done in the School of Social Sciences at Louvain. -I had not much opportunity of studying its courses, -but I fancy that Father Corcoran, the distinguished -Jesuit educationist, would know all about it. It is -likely that he derived from it the idea of the Leo -Guild. In Belgium, at all events, it was a thing -of course that a priest should be not an economist—a -poor title and quality—but a trained healer of -economic disease. The activity manifested under -the inspiration of the Church was extremely rich, -and diversified. And not only in Flanders, but -also in Wallonie. I have a list showing for the -little Walloon town of Soignies, a town of 9000 -inhabitants, no less than fifteen different Catholic -economic societies. Nobody can ever have gone to -Mass in Belgium without contributing at the door -his “denier scolaire” for the education of poor -children, or without seeing the Catholic Young -Guards, engaged in some of their manifestations. -Priests in Belgium would tell you that their success -is due to the care with which they have avoided -every hint of “clericalism.” At all events, a -Catholic Government has been able in one of the -freest countries in Europe to maintain, and at the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_156">156</span> -last election, to strengthen, its position against all -assaults. It used to be said that the industrialisation -of the Campine—now agricultural, but rich -in coal as yet unmined—would ultimately put -Socialism in the saddle. The war has intervened. -Who will venture to cast a horoscope now?</p> - -<p>The language situation in Belgian was well -known to Irish readers. Indeed the compliment -was returned. The last paper I remember looking -at before the German column under Van -Boehm wheeled by Ghent was a copy of <i xml:lang="nl" lang="nl">Ons Land</i>. -It contained excellent photographs of prominent -Gaelic League personages, with an account of the -movement in Ireland. In Flanders, the position is -a sort of transposition of ours into another key. -The Flamand is in a majority of nine to eight. He -presents, although a Catholic, a marked temperamental -resemblance to our typical Protestant Ulsterman. -So far as one could judge he has pretty -well had his own way in all points except one. His -language will live side by side with French, but it -can hardly hope, or even desire, to displace the -lingua franca of civilisation. By the way, it was -interesting to notice the Pro-German articles in -some of the Flemish papers even after the invasion. -The Germans, it was said, were first cousins of the -Flemings, Teutons like them, solid, pious, religious -people, not like the atheistical Walloons and -French! I am afraid that the burning zeal of the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_157">157</span> -Germans towards their kinsmen was too lamentably -literal for that campaign to succeed. But it -is well known that German agents have been promising -the Flamands an autonomous Flanders, under -the eagle of Berlin... after the annexation. -Certain journalists lately addressed a manifesto to -King Albert. They received a cold and dignified -answer, to the effect that the first task of the Belgian -nation was to recover Belgium, and all Belgium; -afterwards the nation would settle its own -future. The most interesting by-product of the -conflict of tongues in Belgium is one that will certainly -not be repeated here. In the Marolles—the -Coombe, so to say, of Brussels—the necessities of -daily intercourse have produced a mixture of -French and Flemish which has developed strong -individuality. One heard songs in it which cannot -be described by any candid person as being funny -without being vulgar. The linguistic future of -Belgium will, no doubt, be worked out on a basis -of equality. The clash was never charged with any -political menace; after the war separation of any -deep kind would be unimaginable. Belgium, said -King Albert, has lost everything except her soul. -Is it not even true that, for the first time, she has -found her soul? As the poet, Antoine Classe, -phrased <span class="locked">it—</span></p> - -<div class="poetry-container"> -<div class="poetry"> - <div class="stanza"> - <div class="verse indentq">“Flamands, Walloons,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Ne sont que des prénoms,</div> - <div class="verse indent0">Belge est notre nom de famille.”</div> - </div> -</div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_158">158</span></p> - -<p>In literature, written in French, Brussels is to -Paris something as Dublin is to London. The -same gibes at the “Brussels Brogue,” the same uneasy -and all but indignant tremor when a great -Belgian writer steps on the scene, the same grudged -applause, finally the same adulation. It is a notable -fact that most of the Belgians who have planted -conquering banners in French literature are of -Flemish stock—Maeterlinck, Verhaeren, Rodenbach, -Cammaerts. Their imagination is coloured -by two traditions. Of Maeterlinck one need say -nothing. Verhaeren is certainly one of our supreme -living poets, perhaps the supreme poet of -our civilisation. Rodenbach, more local, is for -ever part of the beauty and sadness of Bruges. -Cammaerts is known by his exquisite songs. Camille -Lemonnier, the painter and author, is perhaps -the most vital and abundant representative of -the Walloon stream of influence.</p> - -<div class="tb">* * * * *</div> - -<p>Such is an inadequate outline, a cinema survey -of the work and the place of Belgian in time of -peace. Such was the little, great nation that William -the Treaty-Breaker has violated and ravaged. -When one remembers it all—memory on golden -memory, remembers the black ruins where a year -ago men laboured and prayed at peace with other -men, remembers the slow building-up and the sudden -devastation, eighty years gone in a fortnight—does -not the heart harden against these metaphysical<span class="pagenum" id="Page_159">159</span> -barbarians of Prussia? Belgium to-day is the -most illustrious evicted tenant of modern history. -But, her enemies put down, she will return. <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Vive -la Belgique!</i></p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_160">160</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="GHQ">“G.H.Q.”</h2> -</div> - -<p><span class="firstword">There</span> is a certain magic in initial letters, and -they seem to be most magical when they run in -trinities. Who has not heard of the G.O.M. and -B.M.G and A.B.C. and G.B.S. and that R.I.P. -which has a richer gloom than even Raleigh’s forlorn -<em>Hic Jacet</em>? But in this war the greatest of -all is G.H.Q.</p> - -<p>G.H.Q. stands for General Headquarters, known -to most newspaper readers as the place where the -telegrams come from to depress or to cheer us. -But they have a great deal more to do at G.H.Q. -than merely to receive messages from the fighting -front, and to send them home. Having had the -privilege of paying a visit there within the last ten -days, I can realise that fact with the vivid actuality -of a thing seen. If the Commander-in-Chief and -his General Staff are the brain of an army, cerebellum -and cerebrum, G.H.Q. supplies its nervous -and motor system. Nerves, efferent and afferent, -carrying in thrills of sensation and carrying out -waves of movement to the extreme limits of the -military organism, muscles in association with the -nerves—these make up G.H.Q.</p> - -<p>Let me detail some of its activities.</p> - -<p>When you export an army you have got to export<span class="pagenum" id="Page_161">161</span> -with it a government. Our army in France is to -all intents and purposes a colony in arms, with a -purely male population larger than the total population -of New Zealand. G.H.Q. is at once its -Westminster and its War Office; its railway—from -booking-office to clearing-house—and its Bank; its -Scotland Yard and its Harley Street; its tinker, -tailor, butcher, baker and candlestick-maker.</p> - -<p>In Pantheistic philosophies all things issue from -a central principle, and all return to it. G.H.Q. is -the Om of the East, the Absolute of that cloudy -rhetorician from Berlin whom we used to call a -philosopher, Hegel. Without G.H.Q. nothing; -with G.H.Q. everything.</p> - -<p>It is not a bad description of war to say that it -consists in carrying heavy things from one place to -another, and that victory depends on carrying them -faster and more efficiently than the enemy. The -heavy things may be soldiers, rifles, bully beef, -howitzers, cartridges, hospital appliances, shells, -or a score of other things indispensable. That is -the reason why the first aspect of war that impresses -one is transportation. From London to the -front there is a line of troop trains, transports and -convoys, linked together very nigh as closely as the -boats in a pontoon bridge. Behind the whole of the -front every road, railway and canal is scheduled.</p> - -<p>On any road traffic must proceed in only one -prescribed direction. If by any mischance you find -yourself heading the other way, the first military<span class="pagenum" id="Page_162">162</span> -policeman will very abruptly let you know all -about it.</p> - -<p>A line, at once elastic and unbreakable, carries -our resolve from the centre of formation here to -the point of contact in the trenches. It goes <i xml:lang="de" lang="de">ohne -Hast</i> and <i xml:lang="de" lang="de">ohne Rast</i>, to borrow Teutonisms that -were once more popular than they are likely ever -to be again. No hurry, but no intermission of -effort, that is the motto and practice of G.H.Q. -The picturesque, bloody and heroic phases of war -are praised everywhere and fire the imagination. -But consider to yourself how our army would get -on without its Carter Paterson! Its Carter Paterson -is G.H.Q.</p> - -<p>G.H.Q. has got to see that things are carried, -and it sees that they are. The foolish French Minister -of War told a misled nation in 1870 that -there was not a button missing from the gaiter of -a soldier. That boast, so mad and disastrous, is -to-day for our Expeditionary Force the “frigid and -calculated” truth. The soldiers say to you all over -the lines: “Anything you send arrives. Nothing -goes wrong.” There are many others to praise as -well as the Olympians of G.H.Q.—the chauffeur -mending his tyre with lyrical profanity <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">faute de -mieux</i>, the mechanic sweating behind the scenes at -Boulogne or Calais, Mr. Tennant, Lord Kitchener—but, -without G.H.Q. nothing.</p> - -<p>They clothe themselves with all varieties of function. -There is the A.G. (Adjutant-General), who<span class="pagenum" id="Page_163">163</span> -does everything, and, when he gets tired, does -something else for a change. There is the I.O. -(Intelligence Officer), who sees that every visitor -is passed through an infinite succession of sieves, -lest he should prove to be a spy. There is the -Provost-Marshal, the Chairman of the Prison -Commissioners of the Battlefield. There is the -Chief Engineer. There is the R.A.M.C. There -is the Casualty Clearing Station. There is the -Field Cashier. There is the R.T.O. (Railway -Transportation Officer), who, if he does not like -the look of you, sets you emulating Puck in the -rapidity of your return. There is... What is -there not?</p> - -<p>G.H.Q. is an army, a government, an administration, -a literature. You see those who wield its -sceptre going about a French provincial town, -yawning down deserted boulevards strewn with the -debris of autumn, smoking in bare French rooms -with green jalousies, always unperturbed, always -efficient, always courteous, generally bored. You -see them walking arm-in-arm, or in the saddle, -knee to knee, with French staff officers, maintaining -and deepening the Alliance. Some of them -have tunics beribboned with the record of five -campaigns; some are raw boys; but, all together, -they keep the fight going. They are the Business -Organisers of the war.</p> - -<p>Now that the news of our advance is coming -hotly in, they will praise bullets and bayonets.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_164">164</span> -Mike O’Leary’s and General Fochs; but when one -comes to think of it, it is hard on G.H.Q. that the -patient, continuous infallibility which had not yet -left a section, or even an individual soldier, short -of bread, beef, cartridges or medical care should -be left out of the picture.</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_165">165</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="ZUR_ERINNERUNG">“ZUR ERINNERUNG”<br /> - -<span class="subhead">A LETTER TO AN AUSTRIAN FELLOW-STUDENT</span></h2> -</div> - -<p class="sigright"><i>In Unconquered France</i></p> - -<p><span class="smcap">My dear Franz</span>,</p> - -<p><span class="firstword in2">That</span> was the familiar device you wrote -in the book you gave me when twelve years ago -we drank our final Bruderschaft at Innsbruck station. -I was saying good-bye to your Alpenrose, -your Rose of the Alps, where the great mountains -spring up their ten and fourteen thousand feet out -of the very pavements, where the Golden Roof -glitters over its antique arcades, where the great -bronze warriors guard the sleep of your Emperor -Max, where Andreas Hofer fought the good fight -against an imperial tyrant, where inns, old before -the French Revolution, all but touch gables across -the narrow, immemorial <i xml:lang="de" lang="de">gassen</i>. You wanted -me to remember all that, but most of all, I think, -you wanted me to remember the quiet valleys, full -of colour and peace, the red cupolaed churches -where we went to Mass at four o’clock of a Sunday -morning, the mountains we conquered together, -with their summit air that we thought better than -wine, until we came back, leg-weary if heart-high, -in the evening to drink your thin country vintage,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_166">166</span> -and applaud the zither-players and the amazing -Tyrolese dancers. When I was last in your Tyrol -I did not see you, Franz: you had gone to Berlin -to study philology, that characteristic pseudo-science -which Nietzsche and your Prussians have -transformed into a seed-bed of criminal philosophies.</p> - -<p>Those good days of our youth are worse than -dead, a rivulet lost in the salt sea of estrangement -that has engulfed so many friendships and so much -happiness. We have other things to remember. -Two years ago your Austria drove a sword into -the heart of Europe. The agony of simple men -then initiated still continues. I wonder where that -damnable, recurrent date found you this midsummer? -Fighting against that <i xml:lang="it" lang="it">Italia irredenta</i> with -which you used to sympathise so generously? Falling -back before that Russia which you used to -agree with me in regarding as the chosen home -of great novels and profound religion? In the -lines against France, that France which shaped and -nourished the soul of every free soul in Teutondom—and -they have not been many—from Heine to -your own tragic Empress? There is another possibility -which I had almost forgotten. No Man’s -Land, or, as one had better call it, Dead Man’s -Land, is no great width at the point we hold. Just -as I am here swallowing chalk and clay, consorting -with rats and lesser forms of obscene life, mixing -with wounds and blood, so may you be over<span class="pagenum" id="Page_167">167</span> -there. I look across the long grass, lush with disintegrating -corpses, and imagine that Prussia may -have laid hold of you for other pursuits than philology. -Perhaps it is you whose machine-gun taps -every night like a devil-ridden typewriter against -this particular area of our parapet?</p> - -<p>You will agree with me, even now, that war, if -not Hell, is cousin to it, cousin German. To condemn -humanity to pass through that chamber of -torture is a decision so grave and terrible that even -emperors might well tremble before it. In the -lineaments of the obscurest man slain in battle -stands written the judgment of the rulers of the -earth. Can your Austria face her conscience? I -know that at the question you will be disposed to -parry with a gibe at “English self-righteousness.” -But, as it happens, I am not English, and mere self-righteousness -does not survive the ordeal of battle. -Living through this nightmare of blood you cannot -but ask yourself how it began. The diplomatic -correspondence is there to answer the question. -These documents, the most memorable in secular -history, are the charter of justification behind every -decree of death that passes from the Allied -lines to yours. Your Austria had grounds, tragical -grounds, of complaint against some Serbians: you -sought not justice, but the destruction of Serbian -independence. You leagued yourself with Prussia—that -blood-and-iron-monger—to break the faith -of Europe and the homes of Belgium. You have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_168">168</span> -heard all this before? You will hear it again, till -the end of time. Not all the babbling savants of -Berlin can ever erase the record of those two bully’s -blows. They are the Alpha and the Omega of the -war. Of course, it is true that there were other -forces behind this reversion to violence and barbarism. -All the explosive sediment of history was -behind it, but it was your touch on the trigger that -released all that imprisoned damnation.</p> - -<p>Your natural place was not with Prussia. You, -who were once the master, are now the valet of -Germanism. You had not elaborated through -forty years a religion of murder. Like us Irish, -you were perhaps more fascinating than successful; -you were a nation of gentlemen. You had grace, -delicacy and honour. You listened to the crowned -commercial traveller from Potsdam, who promised -you a short war and a golden guerdon of trade. -We know now that it was he who forced your hand -in the Serbian negotiations. To be allured by such -a bribe is no new sin in our experience; every nation -of the Alliance, at some time or other in the -bad past, has fallen in similar wise. Does it seem -to you that Mephistopheles is in the way of keeping -his promise? I notice in your newspapers that -your people are impressed by the area of enemy -territory you occupy. The present truth of the military -situation is that you occupy only as a detected -burglar “occupies” the house he has attempted to -rifle—that is to say, pending the arrival of the police.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_169">169</span> -And, Franz, the police, although as usual -somewhat slow, have arrived. There is no doubt -of that.</p> - -<p>It seems to me quite candidly that the time has -come to separate Habsburg from Hohenzollern. -We are willing to believe that you acted under -duress. During the war you have not befouled -your name beyond forgiveness: no Cavell or Fryatt -looms up in judgment against you. Your base -and cynical over-lord, having compelled you to a -gamble in blood, now begins to exhibit the nakedness -of soul of every cut-throat cut-purse who finds -that he has caught a Tartar. I do not know that -any deep hatred of Austria is nourished by anyone -in the Allied countries who understands the inner -economy of the Central Empires. A <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">locus pœnitentiæ</i> -will not be refused you. Come back to the -civilisation to which you belong. Make it possible -for me once again to renew our old Bruderschaft -in Innsbruck, and to rejoice together that the Twilight -of the Gods of Cruelty has deepened into -enduring night.</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_170">170</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="SILHOUETTES_FROM_THE_FRONT">SILHOUETTES FROM THE FRONT</h2> -</div> - -<h3>I.—<span class="smcap">The Way to the Trenches</span></h3> - -<p><span class="firstword">They</span> have a saying among the followers of Mohammed, -“Shun him who has thrice made the pilgrimage -to Mecca, the Holy City! His conversation -is an offence.” It is, indeed, the vice of -travellers that they will talk. No man is safe from -us if only we have been anywhere he has not been—from -Birr, as the song says, to Bareilly. But the -temptation of the trenches is the most formidable -of all. Who has resisted it? Raw and ripe we -have each of us tried to daub his own picture of -that amazing fact, of the strange shifts and incredible -devisings to which civilised nations have been -forced to resort in order to save civilisation. One -brush will add a stroke that escapes another. All -the brushes and books, and all the cinema films -together will never come near the reality. That is -the sole rationale of these thumb-nail silhouettes.</p> - -<p>If you were to ask any patron of the present -Continental tour for his first impression, he would -probably note the excellence of the travelling arrangements. -Tickets are free, or rather they are -not necessary. It is impossible to miss your train: -the columns of them thunder without haste and<span class="pagenum" id="Page_171">171</span> -without rest from the remotest station back at home -to the ultimate railhead where their thunder dies -in that of the guns. The sea-lacunæ are obliterated -by an all but unbroken bridge of untorpedoed -transports. Delays due to loss of luggage are unknown. -You may, indeed, lose your luggage, but -you do not delay. There are no tips on this journey, -and it would be idle to book seats in advance. -An avoidable expense, for you will get there without -them. Either with a draft, a post of minor -importance but yet of some; or with your battalion -in all the pomp and circumstance of war; or, likely -enough, in these latter days as an isolated officer -reinforcement with a typed telegram and a moving -order, you will arrive. Of course there are incidental -divagations. With traffic rigidly scheduled -and regulated as it must be, an occasional traveller -is to be found who has lost his way and has perhaps -accomplished ten kilometres between dawn and -dusk. I met one such, and <span class="locked">said—</span></p> - -<p>“You seem to have lost your unit?”</p> - -<p>“Lost my unit?” he replied with intense rancour. -“I have lost my company, lost my battalion, lost -my brigade, lost my division, my corps. A little -more and I shall have lost the b——y British Expeditionary -Force.”</p> - -<p>Indubitably it is the perfection of transportation. -Napoleon said, or is supposed to have said, that an -army, like a snake, moves on its belly. The truth -is, of course, that the art of war is, as to six-sevenths<span class="pagenum" id="Page_172">172</span> -of it, the art of carrying heavy things from one -place to another. You have got to move obvious -necessaries, such as food and fuel and housing-timber -and spare clothes; and human frames—that to -marching men are heavier at the end of a long day -than anything in the world; and rifles, bayonets -and bombs, the ultimate <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">ratio decidendi</i> of all operations; -and shells that look like death, and weigh -as much as a model bungalow; and frowning -Frankensteins of guns that look like the Day of -Judgment, and weigh as much as a small foundry; -and the wounded who come back with the Cross, -steeped in blood, to stand as a fit symbol of their -sacrifice. But you must move a great deal that is -less obvious and more necessary. When you export -an army such as ours, which is in reality a nation -and not a small one, you must send with it a government. -Now knowledge, and the administrative -body in which it expresses itself, is of all things the -most difficult to export. This scheme of transportation -is the first miracle of sheer brain-power that -strikes you, but it is not the greatest. I do not -scruple to say that as a study in government, that -is to say, in the efficient conduct of human things in -the mass, the present army, as organised through -G.H.Q., is far more impressive than most civil -constitutions.</p> - -<p>I do not speak merely of the actual Higher Command. -Your heads of that must carry all the apparatus -of all its range from minor tactics to military<span class="pagenum" id="Page_173">173</span> -statesmanship. Note, rather, then, when you -send an army you must send a Treasury, a General -Post Office, a Judiciary and Record Office, and -one hardly knows what beside. Your quartermaster-general -has got to be the Selfridge of six million -gaily grumbling customers, who are perpetually on -the move. A mere battalion quartermaster must -possess qualities that would win a fortune in a large -suburban shop.</p> - -<p>And it is possible to overlook the service of information—the -signallers. Everywhere the army -goes it lays behind it a tentacular network of news-carrying wire. -The arm of its reporting power is -indefinitely longer than that of any Associated -Press. From the company dug-out in the front -trench to Sir Douglas Haig, and from him to -Whitehall, there is no gap. On the earth, beneath -it and above, this nerve-system extends: aeroplane, -observation balloon, patrol, vedette, sniping-post, -all collect their varying toll of fact and surmise; -electricity, drilled to the use of the men who wear -the blue-and-white bands, vibrates it on to its destination. -And so is this particular area of the army -cerebrum kept alive and alert. I have hardly -spoken of the A.S.C., of the endless chain of supply -that for ever runs and returns on its infallible -cogs about the roads and railways.</p> - -<p>There are other, many other, things to admire -as patterns of organisation. It is what our subalterns, -with their strict and shy economy of speech,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_174">174</span> -describe as a “great show.” All the world has -heard of carrying on. But it was first of all necessary -to carry. And we have carried to war across -the seas not a mere army, but a people in arms.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_175">175</span></p> -</div> - -<h3>II.—<span class="smcap">The Long Endurance</span></h3> - -<p><span class="firstword">In</span> the history of war, especially as it was practised -by the Irish regiments, we have been accustomed -to the brief ecstasy of assault, the flash of -bayonets, the headlong avalanche of death and victory.... -Often there had been, before this sharp -decision, the heroism of a long march. But in general, -instantaneity had been the characteristic of -Irish soldiers as it is of Irish football forwards. -There are instances enough of the old quality in -this war from Festubert to Suvla Bay, from Loos -to that shell-powdered sinister terrain over which -the Ulster Division swept in its great charges. But -there is another heroism. The three chapters of -this war may well bear for rubrics: the Grim Retreat, -the Long Endurance, the Epic Push. It is -of the second that I write here.</p> - -<p>Note that this, the greatest, is also the dullest of -all recorded campaigns. It is wrong, indeed, to -call it a campaign or even a series of campaigns: -one had better style it the Wall-paper War. Everywhere -the same type and development of fighting, -the same pattern repeated and indefinitely repeated. -It is true that the walls are the walls of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_176">176</span> -the world, and the colours are those of life and -death. None the less the effect on the mind is that -of near bigness, which is always of its nature wearisome. -It is not of that weariness of the detached -mind that I now write, but of the more intimate -and crushing fatigue of the actual man on the spot. -There may very well be units of this immense army -that on their return home will have apparently -little to show for their lost blood.</p> - -<p>People will say to <span class="locked">them—</span></p> - -<p>“I suppose you were in the dash at X? No? -Oh, it was the capture of Y? I mean, of course, -the round-up at Z?”</p> - -<p>And they will answer rather <span class="locked">dully—</span></p> - -<p>“No. We just held on. We are the lot that just -stuck to A, and weren’t shifted out of B.”</p> - -<p>And the response will be a disappointed and -belittling “Oh yes!”</p> - -<p>But, when it is understood, this long endurance -will be seen to be something very notable in itself, -and, more than that, an essential element in the -slow and great victory. Movements are picturesque, -but in order that something should move it -was necessary that something should stand still. -The ends of a lever move effectively only when -it is based on an unmoving fulcrum. If the rivet -of a scissors did not stand fast, the blades would -cut little. And the tale of the units to whom it -came merely to hold the line is the great tale.</p> - -<p>In the trenches it is the day-by-dayness that tells<span class="pagenum" id="Page_177">177</span> -and tries. It is always the same tone of duty: certain -days in billets, certain days in reserve, certain -days in the front trench. One is reminded of those -endless chains by which some well-buckets are -worked, except that nothing or very little ever -seems to come up in the bucket to pay the labour -of turning. General Joffre as grignotard is one -of the phrase-makers of the war. But this nibbling -process works both ways. We nibble; they nibble. -They are nibbled; we are nibbled. A few casualties -every turn, another grating of the saw-teeth of -death and disease, and before very long a strong -unit is weak. And, of course, the nerve-strain is -not slight. Everybody going up to the trenches -from the C. O. down to the last arrival in the last -draft knows it to be moral certainty that there are -two or three that will not march back. Everybody -knows that it may be anybody. In the trenches -death is random, illogical, devoid of principle. -One is shot not on sight, but on blindness, out of -sight. You feel that a man who is hit has had -worse luck than a golfer whose opponent holes out -in one at a blind hole. Yet these things do happen. -Very few people are hit by lightning, and in a -storm it is a comfort to remember this. But some -people are hit by lightning. Here one is in a place -where a very trivial piece of geographical bad -luck may be fatal. There is much to nibble the -nerves.</p> - -<p>One likes to image this whole task of holding<span class="pagenum" id="Page_178">178</span> -the line under the image of a sentry-group. This -is not to depreciate any other man or any other -function. From colonel down all the world here -has the same job. The sentry-group is the symbol. -A figure in khaki stands on the shelf of fire-bag, -his steel helmet forming a serious bulge over the -parapet as he peers through the night towards the -German lines. His comrade sits on the shelf beside -him waiting to help, to report, to carry the -gas-alarm, the alarm of an attack. Over there in -front across No Man’s Land there are shell-holes -and unburied men. Strange things happen there. -Patrols and counter-patrols come and go. There -are two sinister fences of barbed wire, on the barbs -of which blood-stained strips of uniform and fragments -more sinister have been known to hang uncollected -for a long time. The air is shaken with -diabolical reverberations; it is stabbed with malign -illumination as the Véry lights shoot up, broaden -to a blaze, and go out. This contrast of night and -light and gloom is trying to the eyes. The rifle-grenades -and trench-mortars, flung at short range, -that scream through the air are trying to the ears. -They may drop a traverse away, and other men -not charged for the moment with his duty may -seek shelter. But not he. Strange things issue -from No Man’s Land, and the eyes of the army -never close or flinch. And so, strained, tense and -immovable he leans and looks forward into the -night of menace.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_179">179</span></p> - -<p>But the trench has not fallen. As for him, he -carried his pack for Ireland and Europe, and now -pack-carrying is over.</p> - -<p>He has held the line.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_180">180</span></p> -</div> - -<h3>III.—<span class="smcap">Rhapsody on Rats</span></h3> - -<p><span class="firstword">What</span> first strikes one in a trench is, contrary -to report, not the Rat but the Slat. A trench-board -is a sort of ladder, laid horizontally along a ditch -of ill repute, and the rungs of this ladder are the -slats. It is true that if this ladder were set upright -it would be impossible to climb it, for the slats are -too close together. Nevertheless, it has the form -and aspirations of a ladder, and yearns towards the -vertical. To follow the windings of the trench, -this board is of necessity made in short sections. -Now, one often enters a trench in the dark. Certain -short boards have been displaced by the outgoing unit. -An incautious foot, with, say, fifteen -stone avoirdupois behind it, is set on one end, and -the perpendicular ambition of the trench-board -manifests itself in a jarring wallop of the other end -on one’s tin hat. The slat decidedly strikes you.</p> - -<p>It is unpleasant to walk on, as anybody who has -ever laboriously evaded coal-cellar gratings will -realise. It exists in numbers that have never been -counted. You can walk from the North Sea to -the foot-hills of the Alps with the soles of your -boots continuously beslatted, save where there is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_181">181</span> -an odd broken board which there has not been time -to repair. At the end of the war there will probably -be slat-excursions organised by American -tourist companies—they are said to have already -purchased the ground—with the privilege to each -pilgrim of removing one slat as a souvenir. What -is to be said for them is that they stand between you -and a flounder along the bottom mud. In winter, -when the drainage improvisations prove false, and -the fighting ditches run hip-high, the foothold is to -be valued. And now as to the rats.</p> - -<p>Ratavia, as one may designate it, resembles -China in that there has never been a census of its -population, but that it approximates to the mathematical -infinite. They are everywhere—large rats, -small rats, bushy rats, shy rats and impudent, with -their malign whiskers, their obscene eyes, loathsome -all the way from overlapping teeth to kangaroo -tail. You see them on the parades and the -shelter-roofs at night, slinking along on their pestiferous -errands. You lie in your dug-out, famished, -not for food (that goes without saying), but -for sleep, and hear them scurrying up and down -their shafts, nibbling at what they find, dragging -scraps of old newspapers along, with intolerable -cracklings, to bed themselves. They scurry across -your blankets and your very face. Nothing suppresses -their numbers. Not dogs smuggled in in -breach of regulations. Not poison, which most -certainly ought not to be used. Not the revolver-practice<span class="pagenum" id="Page_182">182</span> -in which irritated subalterns have been -known to indulge. Men die and rats increase.</p> - -<p>I see just one defence that they can make: it was -not they who invaded our kingdom, but we who -invaded theirs. We descended, we even dug ourselves -down to their level. It is true that in our -heroic moments we may style the trenches the New -Catacombs to which freedom descended for a -while to return in triumph. But it is also true -that they are rat-holes, rat-avenues, rat-areas. The -dramatic translation of an old period was called -“The Birds”; the dramatisation of this must be -called “The Rats.” Strangely enough, it has been -left for me to tell the decisive chapter of the inner -history of the war. Kaiser Wilhelm, whose resemblance -to a rat has been too little noticed—you -have but to take the wax out of his moustache and -allow it to droop—was seated in his ugly palace -at Potsdam, considering his ultimatum to Serbia, -when there suddenly appeared before him, down -the chimney or out of some diplomatic orifice in -the panelling, a Rat, the master and pattern of all -rats. “Majesty!” said he, “I am come to offer you -my aid in this war which you are planning. As -you are the Emperor of all the Germans, so am I -the Emperor of all the Rats. Our interests coincide.”</p> - -<p>They conferred together very shrewdly, and -struck an alliance. “Good!” said his Majesty, -slapping his thigh. “It is decided. We are -with-one-another-firmly-united. The war will begin<span class="pagenum" id="Page_183">183</span> -forthwith.”</p> - -<p>So the great quintessential Super-Rat, the Rattish -<i xml:lang="de" lang="de">Ding an sich</i>, left to mobilise his forces, and -the Kaiser drew over a sheet of paper and wrote -the magical and black word that unlocks Hell. -And the great rat called in his Austria, which is -the louse, and his Turkey, which is the sand-flea, -and his Bulgaria, which is that porter of poison, -the fly. So the battle was joined between the clean -and the obscene.</p> - -<p>It must be said for the Kaiser that with this one -ally he kept faith. Ratavia has increased enormously -in population and prosperity. It has suffered -from no menace of famine, for Wilhelm, the -faith-keeper, has even sacrificed his own subjects -generously in order to avert that calamity.</p> - -<p>But the end is not yet. The Emperor of the Rats -will come once again to Potsdam.</p> - -<p>“Majesty!” he will say. “I am a student of -Treitschke, who teaches that an alliance is to be -kept by the stronger of two associates only as long -as his profit lies that way.” And as Majesty, shrivelled, -decaying with the pallor of death on him, -trembles in his chair the Great Rat will <span class="locked">add—</span></p> - -<p>“I propose to annex you.”</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_184">184</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_NEW_FRANCE">THE NEW FRANCE</h2> -</div> - -<p><span class="firstword">Madame Caillaux</span>, who was formerly an actress, -has achieved in real life her most remarkable -dramatic success. Like Emerson’s Lexington farmer, -she has certainly fired a shot heard round the -world. The assassination of a great political editor -by the wife of a powerful minister has recalled -to us in a lurid flash the monstrous vanities and -violences that raven behind the polite exterior of -civilisation. It has given a good many other editors -a peg on which to hang a new array of reproachful -platitudes. But its effect on the immediate -course of politics in France is likely to be -of trivial importance. There will be a loud momentary -splash, and a wide-going rush of ripples, -but it will be found to have been no more than a -stone flung into a river already swollen and hurrying -to an ambiguous issue. Personal scandals and -tragedies are not allowed to disturb that battle of -ideas which is the essential life of the Republic. -It will be noted that Madame Caillaux’ automatic -pistol did not purchase for her husband a respite -of even twenty hours. The day following, M. Barthou -brought the attack into the Chamber to a head -by reading the letter of M. Fabre, the Public Prosecutor; -the Rochette enquiry has been not delayed,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_185">185</span> -but expedited, and the electoral struggle comes on -with even more headlong rapidity. Making all -discount for the error of vision, characteristic of -the foreign observer, we are able to say with -assurance that the programmes submitted for the -approaching election mark the most serious attempt -made since the war of 1870 to re-establish -France in her traditions.</p> - -<p>One may aptly compare France, as a contemporary -compared Parnell, to a granite rock overlaid -with a shallow drift of detritus. In politics, especially -in Parliament, the most distracting flurries -of dust succeed and displace one another with a -sort of constant inconstancy. Penetrate them, and -you come upon an economic and social fabric characterised -by massive stability. Nobody who bears -this in mind will be blinded by whatever chances -to be the latest sand-storm. <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">La nouvelle France</i> -was not abolished by the political manœuvre that -placed M. Doumergue at the head of the State. -It remains, and it grows stronger. This new -France means the birth into the moral order of -Europe of a fresh and strong reality. What had -been for many years a mere vision, glimmering -through banked clouds, has become a tangible and -habitable fact. The election of President Poincaré, -accepted on all sides as the token of a profound -change of spirit, has not in its results belied -the prophets. Now, beyond all doubt, deference -must be paid to the tradition which regards the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_186">186</span> -French as an instantaneous, and, so to say, hair-trigger -people. Formulæ seem to change as rapidly -as fashions; and the possibility of return to a -period of Saturday-to-Monday ministers has not -yet been banished to the limbo of the ridiculous. -Allowance must be made for the swiftness, the -genius for falling into line, the brief passions of -unanimity so “temperamental” to the Republic. -But at the end of the account the change has lost -nothing of its impressiveness. It is a true, not a -false dawn.</p> - -<p>M. Poincaré stands for many things: it is no -mere flourish of words to say that through him -France heard and obeyed the call of her past. She -deliberately reverted to her origins, and her traditional -sources of strength. The new France put -itself to school to old France. Intellect, family -tradition, gracious manners, thrift, minute industry, -a certain austere discipline of thought, and -with all that an immense cheerfulness, able to <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">ça -ira</i> itself out of any desperate pass—such was <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">la -douce France</i> of M. René Bazin and of history. -The folly must not be imputed to me of supposing -that the election of President Poincaré restored, or -will restore, that submerged world. But that is -the atmosphere evoked by his personality. The -good M. Dupont and that amiable plumpness, M. -Durand, being of the earth earthy, and of Latin -earth into the bargain, are in no danger of being -transformed into angels of light. They will wink<span class="pagenum" id="Page_187">187</span> -and chuckle as before over their dominoes and -their aperitives; they will try to anticipate each -other with the latest ambiguity of the comic paper -and the vaudeville. But they are none the less -conscious of the new orientation, and they adapt -themselves to it with a purr of satisfaction. The -lines on which reconstruction proceeds are in the -nature of things that are inevitable. Patriotism is -once more in fashion: were Hervé to revive his -brilliant dream of planting the tricolour on the -dunghill he would run some risk of being planted -there himself. It is, no doubt, unfortunate that -the national idea should in our day find expression -universally in the increasing diversion of capital -from productive industry to unproductive armaments. -Signs are not lacking that the excess, or -rather the frenzied debauch of which Europe has -in this regard been guilty, has created an impossible -situation. The so-called “strike of capital” -even indicates that the point has been reached at -which the disease must either generate its own cure, -or else kill the patient. But while your ten competitors -are arming more and more heavily, it is -foolish to stand in your shirt chanting the praises -of a millennium which obstinately refuses to arrive. -France has accepted the Three Years’ Service -Law; and it is certain that no ministry of the -near future will dare to repeal that measure. This -increase of the army by fifty per cent. is expensive: -it is a defeat for the party of reason, if you will,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_188">188</span> -and a triumph for that of violence. But it is an -act of sacrifice rendered necessary by events. Any -possibility of repeal is ruled out by the opening of -old wounds in Alsace-Lorraine. And because the -Army Act must stand, the Loan must go through. -On that point, doubt is inadmissible: <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">la nouvelle -France</i> has made up its mind. The conditions of -issue of the new Rente, its immunity or otherwise -from taxation, even its amount, are questions in -controversy. The discussion on them, so far as it -has proceeded, has been of extreme interest as an -illustration of French acumen in public finance; it -may become a text-book instance in due course, and -it might even be studied with profit by the financiers -of the new Irish Land Act. The French -Treasury has already lost by the delay, but, borrowing -in its own market, it will at all events operate -on better terms than any of the other borrowing -nations, now clamouring for admission to -it. But however details may be arranged, the fact -that there must be an issue is a thing settled. The -new France is, in short, possessed of the spirit of -sacrifice. The patriotism that is in fashion is sincere -enough to pay the piper from whom it has -called the tune.</p> - -<p>But it is in the region of ideas, rather than in -that of current policy, that we must seek for the -key to the future. It would be extravagant to say -that the mocking hatred of Christianity has been -banished, and that the vendetta against the Church<span class="pagenum" id="Page_189">189</span> -is at an end. Despite M. Briand’s famous <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">apaisement</i> -speech, despite the success of M. Poincaré’s -“national” programme, the State has not yet returned -even to a position of neutrality. But the -vivid colour of hope dominates the horizon. -Combes-ism is no longer opposed as unjust, it is -dismissed as vulgar. The boulevards may not -have shed their scepticism, but at all events they -recognise religion as one of the ideal forces that -make men good citizens and gallant soldiers. As -the army recovers its prestige there is a return to -the spirit of that strange and burning remonstrance -of Alexandre Dumas, the <span class="locked">younger—</span></p> - -<p>“Had I been Bazaine” (he wrote), “I would -have set up a statue of the Virgin in the midst of -my army on the Fifteenth of August—not because -it was <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Saint Napoleon</i> but because it was <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Sainte -Marie</i>—and I would have delivered battle against -the God whom King William carries about in his -pocket, behind whom he speaks like a ventriloquist, -and who is not the God of battles, for the -very simple reason that there is no God of battles. -I would have said to my soldiers: ‘My children, -I place the Virgin in your midst. See in her your -daughter, your betrothed, your wife, your sister, -your mother. Over there is a masked “God” who -menaces her with insult. Defend her! Honour -her feast with a victory!’ And the Germans would -have been defeated. There is, there will always -be, in the French soldier something of the Frank<span class="pagenum" id="Page_190">190</span> -of Clovis, something of the Crusader of Saint -Louis.”</p> - -<p>The essence of truth distilled in that last sentence -will more and more impose itself. If soldiers -will not fight on an empty stomach, still less will -they fight on an empty soul. A shrug, a sensualism, -an epigram, and the “lie of religion” is shattered -beyond repair: so far, so good. But with -religion there has gone the whole category of the -ideal. In a world from which all values have been -expelled, except the values of appetite, there remains -no principle of sacrifice. The only maxim -which it is capable of evolving from its own resources -is that of egotism, enlightened by prudence; -for that <em>credo</em> men will do many things, -but they will not die. Such a gospel may for a -time be expounded, and even practised, by the -noisy minorities who make laws and write books: -the anonymous shoulders of the common people -are strong enough to carry that and heavier burdens. -But the peculiar weakness of any such philosophy -is that it has only to be generally accepted -in order to become impossible. Egotism and the -pleasure-calculus will procure a brief, if not very -respectable, ecstasy for the masters, as they loll in -their carved and curtained litters, turning over -with a languid hand the latest bibelot of selfishness. -But let that point of view infect the bearers of the -litter, and they will set it down with disturbing -roughness. Morality begins where hedonism ends.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_191">191</span> -In France the evolution, whether conducted in the -personal consciousness of a master like Bourget, -or in the general mind and being, has followed the -same curve to the same issue. After Renan there -was but one refinement possible: M. Anatole -France appeared. But the signs of dissolution -have, of late, been accumulating about this specialist -in <em>patchouli</em> and paganism. For instance, he -has been translated into English. Anatomists like -M. Michaut, whose book is one of the literary -events of recent years, have made the tour of his -philosophy from Dan to Beersheba, and found all -barren. Through the <i xml:lang="es" lang="es">sociologisme</i> of writers like -Guyau, and the <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">solidarité</i> of writers like Bourgeois, -the new France has come back to the old -sanities. The experiment of the passing generation -consisted essentially in an attempt to live without -a brain or a conscience. That experiment, it -is curious to note, was pushed to its extreme by -an English-writing, French-trained Irishman, Mr. -George Moore. It has reached its Vale. A rhapsodist -in the last issue of the <i>Sociological Review</i> -bewails, but at any rate confesses, the change. It -is bad enough that “reactionary” illusions like patriotism -should be returning to honour. But when -you find University students going to Mass—— Going -on week-days. And Bergson and mysticism, -construed as a tonic of action, setting the fashion.</p> - -<p>In the field of politics, as such, the most interesting -new fact is the attitude of the Conservatives.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_192">192</span> -For a long time, in the hope of discrediting the -Republic, they made it a principle to support not -the best but the worst Republican. A gradual process, -culminating in the shock of Casablanca and -Agadir, has made manifest the hopelessness of such -merely negative action, if it could be called action. -They have come down into the arena. President -Poincaré was their first achievement. The Three -Years’ Law of the Barthou Ministry was their second. -If at the following elections the ancient -apathy and the modern <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">m’enfichisme</i>, as it is styled, -can be overcome, they will reach the third, and -that will be permanent. The five pistol-shots of -Madame Caillaux may very well prove to have -been the first effective dissipation of a slumber.</p> - -<p>The alignment of parties is, at all events, clearer -than ever before. On the one side, the Radicals -and Radical-Socialists “unified” at Pau. The -essential principle and foundation of this group -is the existence of a state of war between the friends -and enemies of the Republic. The point of view -is that of Jacobinism, but for the guillotine of purification -there has been substituted the administrative -machine. It is understood that the “eating of -curates” is the normal occupation of all adherents; -but, of course, one appetite will exceed another. -The better is the unappeasable enemy of the -merely <span class="locked">good—</span></p> - -<p><i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Un pur trouve toujours un plus pur qui l’épure.</i></p> - -<p>On the other side the new party of appeasement<span class="pagenum" id="Page_193">193</span> -of MM. Briand and Barthou. Its leaders and -members have come to it, as to every central position, -from different camps and by different routes. -Hammered upon from the outside by German aggression, -they demand domestic peace as the first -condition of national security. They ask for a -<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">république aérée et habitable</i>. They propose an -army strengthened and increased through the sacrifices -of the rich and the middle classes. It is a -synthesis of Déroulède and Millerand, of militarism -and social transformation.</p> - -<p>M. Jaurès and his integral Socialists may, of -course, be trusted to find their place among the -“pacifists.” The late Herr Bebel led the German -Social Democrats back to an acceptance of the national -idea; but not so M. Jaurès. A strategist at -once bold and astute, who has never known the responsibilities -of office, to whom <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">la patrie</i> is only a -gunmaker’s advertisement, he will almost certainly -co-operate with the reorganised <em>bloc</em>.</p> - -<p>It is for the prophets to tell us what the elections -will bring forth. For us, plain onlookers, the life -of the most interesting and logical nation in Europe -has come to a crisis, the solution of which may -notably react not only upon civilisation and humanity—those -great abstractions—but upon ourselves, -and the little parts we play in each.</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_194">194</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_SOLDIER-PRIESTS_OF_FRANCE">THE SOLDIER-PRIESTS OF FRANCE</h2> -</div> - -<p><span class="firstword">It</span> makes me a little proud to remember that -I was one of the few writers in these countries to -announce and celebrate the birth of <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">la nouvelle -France</i> long before the coming of the war. For -many years the Republic has been in ill repute in -the Catholic world. Men thought of her as the -home of Renan and scepticism, of Gambetta and -anti-clericalism, of Combes—the unspeakable -Combes—and persecution, of Anatole France and -refined sensualism, of a score of lesser writers and -plain pornography. That interpretation of her -life was never true although it had elements of -truth in it. Even in the old France there were two -strains: there was Rabelais as well as Pascal, Montaigne -as well as Bossuet, Voltaire as well as St. -Francis de Sales. There is, indeed, lodged in the -very mind and temper of France a seed of perilous -adventure. Her courage is a constant temptation -to dally with the blasphemous and the foul: her -lucidity—for vague and furtive innuendoes are -like a toothache to French style—doubles the offence -when she lapses.</p> - -<p>But on the other hand there was something peculiarly -obnoxious in the circumstance that these -attacks on France proceeded in great part from<span class="pagenum" id="Page_195">195</span> -German sources. That there were many splendid -Catholics in Germany was of course true. They -were strong enough in numbers and organisation -to have done something finer than throw themselves -into the arms of Prussianism. The failure of the -Centre Party in that regard will lie as a heavy -cloud on its future. But that German Catholics -should have lent themselves, as they did, to a systematic -denigration of France in foreign periodicals -was contemptible. The truth is that every -German in the modern period has become infected -with the superstition that he belongs to the chosen -race. Matthew Arnold—who, for the rest, did -not himself believe very luminously in God—started -in these countries the notion that the war -of 1870 was, as he called it, the judgment of Judæa -on Greece. That a Protestant God should have -thus judged a country whose old title was that of -“eldest daughter of the Church,” was an interpretation -of events peculiarly agreeable to militant -Protestants both in England and Germany. But -that Catholics should have assimilated such a view -was remarkable. It is true that French policy -played disastrously into the hands of Bismarck. -Gambetta’s error of anti-clericalism led from disintegration -to disintegration. Bismarck has left on -record statements of his reasons for embarking on -the <i xml:lang="de" lang="de">Kulturkampf</i>, which for frigid wickedness of -purpose cannot be equalled in political literature.</p> - -<p>“The laurels of Sadowa and Sedan do not satisfy<span class="pagenum" id="Page_196">196</span> -my ambitions, I have a more glorious mission, that -of making myself master of Catholicism.”</p> - -<p>“The enemy of Germany is Pontifical Rome. -That is the danger which menaces the relations of -Germany and France. If France identifies herself -with Rome she constitutes herself by that fact alone -the sworn enemy of Germany.”</p> - -<p>France made her mistakes, but before the war -she had begun to correct and cancel them. The -gradual return to fair play from the midnight -bigotry of Combes to the policy of appeasement -of M. Briand, and the execution of that policy by -M. Poincaré was very marked in all its stages. -And in the measure in which that correction of -old mistakes and tyrannies is made, not only in -France but under every other Allied Flag, will -the coming victory repay the blood that is buying -it. But that German Catholics should have held -up their country before the world as a shining -model, and France as an abandoned and degenerate -nation, is a thing intelligible only to those who -know the vanity and self-exaltation of the modern -German. While they were thus fabling, who -really spoke for Germany in the ear of the world? -These are the Germans. Schopenhauer with his -scientific pessimism, truer indeed and nobler than -any light philosophy of pleasure, but profoundly -anti-Christian. Treitschke, who taught that the -State is above all moral laws. A line of theologians -from Strauss to Harnack and his contemporaries,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_197">197</span> -who claimed to have shredded into mere -rags of myth the historical beginning of the Christian -faith and fold. Nietzsche, who “transcended -morality” for the individual as Treitschke had -done for the State, and preached pride, pleasure -and domination as the cardinal virtues. Nietzsche -who <span class="locked">wrote—</span></p> - -<p>“They have said to you: Happy are the peaceful! -but I say to you: Happy are the warriors, for -they shall be called not the sons of Jehovah, but -the sons of Odin, who is greater than Jehovah!”</p> - -<p>Who else stood for German thought? Haeckel, -whose <cite>Riddle of the Universe</cite> carried its vulgar -“omniscience” of materialism in sixpenny editions -all round the world. And the Catholic spokesmen -of such a people cried out to Heaven against the -country of Coppée and de Mun, of Bazin, Barrès, -Bourget, Ferdinand Brunetière and all the noblest -voices of our time. One trivial touch is worth -adding to the picture. The Catholic Committee -of Action in France has established a fact, which, -indeed, was already known, namely, that great -numbers of the obscene books which disgrace some -bookstalls in Paris are normally printed in French -in Budapest, Vienna and certain German cities.</p> - -<p>Such was the contrast between the two peoples. -The sins of France were in process of amendment. -The corruptions of thought for which she was responsible -had this mitigating quality: that they -were such as destroy only those who practise them.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_198">198</span> -And the true France, devoted to the establishment -of a régime of world-peace, held out hospitable -hands to every ideal of gracious import in science, -religion and literature, wherever it arose. The -essential sin of Prussia, on the contrary, was, that, -worshipping only force, she planned the subjugation -of all Europe. The goal of domination at -which she aimed could be reached only through -an ocean of blood. She willed war, she willed -murder, and to prepare her way she sought to impose -on the world a picture in which she appeared -as a Knight of the Holy Ghost “in shining armour,” -and all the other non-Germanic nations as -robber-empires, degenerates, incompetents.</p> - -<p>These words of introduction were necessary in -view of the systematic libelling of France which -goes on in certain obscure papers, and which proceeds, -as all the world knows, chiefly from German -organisations in the United States. But the purpose -of this article is not controversial, but positive. -It is concerned merely to give a random glimpse -of the heroism with which at this moment in the -trenches, the camps, and the hospitals the priests -of France are serving the tricolour of the transfigured -Republic.</p> - -<p>A literature on the subject is already in existence. -The book of the Abbé Klein, well known -for his luminous study of the United States, has -been translated into English: for that reason, and -also because it is less rich in detail, I do not draw<span class="pagenum" id="Page_199">199</span> -on it. The pictures of war which follow are derived -mainly from a collection of soldiers’ letters, -edited by Ernest Daudet, from <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Les Soutanes sous -la Mitraille</i>, by the Abbé René Gaell, <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">prêtre-infirmier</i>, -and from <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Le Clergé, Les Catholiques, et la -Guerre</i>, by Gabriel Langlois, with a preface by -Mgr. Herscher, Archbishop of Laodicea.</p> - -<p>Priests and ecclesiastical students are serving in -the armies of the Republic in many capacities. -Some are chaplains, regularly attached to the -army ambulances and hospitals: the old virus of -anti-clericalism was still active enough to delay -their nomination till the eleventh hour. Others -are doing the same work, but as volunteers under -a scheme inaugurated by the late Comte de Mun. -Still others are employed as stretcher-bearers or -hospital attendants. The balance, the great majority, -are fighting side by side with their fellow-citizens -as plain soldiers of the Army of Liberation. -This inclusion of priests in the ranks is -peculiar to France. It dates from the adoption -of the Two Years’ Law, when, on the shortening -of the term of military service, all exemptions -were suppressed. It is hardly to be denied that -the measure was inspired less by logic than by -malice. But in actual working out it has recoiled -singularly on those who saw in it a lever for the -disintegration of the Church. The soldier-priests -have been the little leaven that has leavened the -whole mass.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_200">200</span></p> - -<p>It is impossible to estimate the total number -engaged under all these heads. We do know that -there are not less than twenty thousand occupied -in the care of the wounded, and that sixty thousand -is a conservative total estimate. They are sown -through every corps of the Grand Army, and their -influence would seem to be as great with the -<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">gamin</i> and the <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">gouailleur</i> of Paris as with the -simplest peasant of Brittany or Alsace.</p> - -<p>The first picture that seizes the imagination is -the return of the soldier-priests from all the ends -of the earth to give their answer to the crime of -Prussia. From foreign universities, from Constantinople, -Jerusalem, Madagascar, the Americas, -from Ireland itself they came, trooping at -the sound of the bugle of defence. It is, of course, -foolish to suppose that all, or most of them, had -been driven into enforced exile: most of them -were voluntarily engaged in teaching or missionary -work, but some were, in the truest and saddest -sense, exiles. What matter! Their mother France -had sinned, but her sins were as snow against the -scarlet brutality of Prussia. M. Bompard, the -French Ambassador at Constantinople, gives in -his official report a vivid picture of the priests -of every Order eagerly imploring facilities—almost -quarrelling in their ardour—to return to -France and the flag without a moment’s delay.</p> - -<p>“If I live for a hundred years,” writes the Archbishop -of Laodicea, “I shall never forget the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_201">201</span> -spectacle I witnessed at the station of Fribourg -(Switzerland) during the days of mobilisation.... -I saw a great crowd of compatriots who, with -shouts of ‘France for ever!’ ‘Switzerland for ever!’ -were streaming into the last train. Among them -I noticed many young men wearing soutanes or -other ecclesiastical costume. When I learned that -they were expelled religious I could not forbear -expressing to them my gratitude and enthusiasm. -I shall never forget the generous eagerness with -which they were flying to the help of France. -They declared themselves ready to do their -duty, their whole duty. A sympathetic crowd -surrounded them, cheering heartily. I shall always -have before my eyes that picture of waving -handkerchiefs, of young manly faces, radiant with -faith and hope. The mobilisation appeared to me -in all its beauty ‘symbolised by a sword surmounted -by a cross.’”</p> - -<p>So they returned, and, once in the field, their -record is almost monotonous in its heroism. Mgr. -Herscher truly describes the collection of incidents -and letters assembled by M. Langlois as a “breviary -of patriotism.” You find in it a cloud of witnesses -testifying to the fashion in which, with the -first roar of the guns, religion came back to honour.</p> - -<p>“There are neither pagans nor sceptics here,” -writes one young soldier. “Everybody is glad, if -he has five minutes, to spend them before the altar. -Before the war many were ashamed to be seen<span class="pagenum" id="Page_202">202</span> -kneeling or making the sign of the Cross; you find -no one like that now.”</p> - -<p>“The cannon,” says another, “is a good converter.” -“Nothing gives you the feeling of absolute -dependence on God so well as twenty-four -hours in the trenches.” “If my friends saw me -now,” runs the confession of a Parisian, “they -would certainly not recognize me, me the mocker -who believed in nothing. I am transformed.” The -chief anxiety of those who have strayed, and come -back, is to let their people at home know that they -died in the faith of Christ. “Tell my wife, father, -to teach the little one her prayers. That is the best -of all!” runs a typical last message.</p> - -<p>“I do not fear death,” writes a fatally wounded -boy of twenty-two. “I have seen it and see it too -close this moment: there is nothing horrid about it, -for it leads to happiness.”</p> - -<p>The Abbé Morette, who served in 1870, is, in -this war, an army chaplain. He gives graphic and -touching pictures of the re-awakening.</p> - -<p>“When we are fortunate enough to be able to -set up our field chapel, or to celebrate Mass and -Benediction in some church half-destroyed by the -enemy, it is a curious spectacle to see the officers -mingled indifferently with their men ‘waiting their -turn.’ No favour is shown to the commissioned -ranks—one chaplain hears the confession, the other -gives Holy Communion. Sometimes when danger -is reported too near one gives Communion that<span class="pagenum" id="Page_203">203</span> -evening... by way of <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">viaticum</i>. Sometimes -when the order to advance comes unexpectedly we -have to give absolution <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">en bloc</i> to a whole company -... on condition of subsequent confession -later when the recipient returns... if he does -return!”</p> - -<p>It is the same with the enemy’s wounded. The -Abbé, not without a gleam of humour, shows himself -acting as interpreter between a French Lutheran -minister, who did not know German, and -German wounded of his denomination. “The -most scrupulous theologian might perhaps find in -my exhortations certain grammatical faults, but -not, I think, any capital error of dogma.”</p> - -<p>Assuredly it is long years since, in the fair plains -of France, Mass was celebrated in such settings of -beauty and terror. This is how a Montmartrois -attended it in a village <span class="locked">church—</span></p> - -<p>“I was returning with the rest of a fatigue party -from digging potatoes for the company.... With -the clay still on my hands I managed to work my -way into a place beside my lieutenant, a commandant, -a sergeant, and some comrades. The elevation -had been reached.... And then in the choir -the fresh, clear voices of young girls intoned the -canticle: ‘Mary, Queen of France, protect us!’ -My nerves could not bear the tension, and then -... well, I hid my face in my képi.</p> - -<p>“They sang very prettily, the little country -maidens, and the three canticles to Joan of Arc<span class="pagenum" id="Page_204">204</span> -(which I did not know!) were ‘the right thing in -the right place.’... I offered a prayer of thanks -to the good God for having protected me against -all dangers.</p> - -<p>“The poor old priest... Mass finished, turned -round in front of the altar and said to us in a -strangled voice: ‘And now, valiant soldiers,... -go to victory!’”</p> - -<p>Or they pray in the open.</p> - -<p>“Imagine a very beautiful valley, planted with -great trees all yellowing with autumn, horses tied -to every trunk, huts of every kind, shape, and style, -soldiers of all arms: the whole forming a picture -of incomparable dignity.</p> - -<p>“The altar was set up against two giant oaks. -There were more than a thousand soldiers present, -including the Staff, generals, colonels and commandants.”</p> - -<p>And this is how Cardinal Lucon celebrated -his Christmas Mass in a cellar in bombarded -<span class="locked">Rheims—</span></p> - -<p>“I shall never forget that Christmas night. The -altar was supported on champagne-cases, and each -person assisting had a champagne-case for a seat. -There were present refugees who have nowhere -else to sleep, citizens taking refuge from the shells, -and at least 800 soldiers and officers of all grades. -The hymns were sung by a group of fifty soldiers. -They sang all our popular hymns.... It was very<span class="pagenum" id="Page_205">205</span> -impressive; we seemed to have returned to the -Catacombs.”</p> - -<p>The Abbé Félicien Laroutzet, second-lieutenant -in the 144th of the Line, paints us still another -Mass with a brush steeped in even stranger colours. -He had been permitted to say Mass for the first -time for a <span class="locked">month—</span></p> - -<p>“Hardly had I finished the Elevation than a -German shell hit the tower just above the choir, -and plunged the church in darkness. Then a second. -It was to be feared that a third would enter -by the windows and shatter the altar to fragments. -During the Communion the third shell arrived. -Almost complete darkness ensued, but the altar, -the curé, and myself went untouched. I finished -Communion as quickly as possible, and we escaped.”</p> - -<p>This famous encounter, he adds, secured his -promotion to the grade of second-lieutenant.</p> - -<p>And so on, and so on. All behind the front; -with shells, friendly and hostile, whistling in a -perpetual criss-cross overhead, on improvised altars; -with every idle vanity shrivelled under the -scrutiny of death, the soldiers of France assist -humbly at the supreme sacrifice. As the celebrant -raises for adoration the Host, transubstantiated -from bread to the Body of Christ, the buglers lift -their instruments, and a fanfare of spiritual triumph -cleaves through the thunder of the guns. -The <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Ave Maria</i> and the <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">Stabat Mater</i>, chanted<span class="pagenum" id="Page_206">206</span> -in stout soldier voices, are followed by the <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Marseillaise</i>. -Thus does France, returned to her origins, -repel the invader of her peaceful land, the -ravager of homes, the profaner of churches.</p> - -<p>When we come to the priest-combatants, the -<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">curés sac-au-dos</i>, the record is one of stainless and -noble heroism. As Mgr. Herscher says, it would -be necessary to invent a new language in order to -characterise justly what have become deeds of -every day. It is not in “clerical” newspapers that -the courage of the soldier-priest is enshrined, but in -the columns of the <i>Journal Officiel</i>. The Legion -of Honour and the Military Medal have been -awarded in numerous instances, and citations in -the Orders of the Day have been still more frequent.</p> - -<p>Thus Corporal de Gironde, of the 81st of the -Line, receives the Military Medal for extraordinarily -daring patrol work. He is a Jesuit. The -Dominican Corporal Jaméguy rallies, within fifty -yards of the German trenches, a party of five unwounded -and eight wounded men who had been -cut off, and leads them all into safety the next -day under a vicious fire. The Abbé Boravalle -<span class="locked">writes—</span></p> - -<p>“After a very hot day our commandant announced -that he was making recommendations in -our company for promotion to the rank of corporal. -Of four recommended, three were priests: I am -proud to be one of them.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_207">207</span></p> - -<p>Incidents of devoted heroism, in which there -is a swift counterchange between the rôle of soldier -and that of priest, are almost innumerable: certainly -no selection can convey a just notion of their -abundance. Let me quote the words of a writer -in the <cite>Journal de Genève</cite>, the chief organ of Swiss -<span class="locked">Protestantism—</span></p> - -<p>“Observe that there is not a list of those who -have fallen on the field of honour or who are cited -in the Order of the Day of the Army in which you -will not find priests. Such a one carried the flag -into action; another, recommended for the Legion -of Honour, was killed that very day; a third, seeing -his company waver—he was a lieutenant—leaped -to their head shouting, ‘I am a priest. I -do not fear death! Forward! He recovered the -position, but fell riddled with bullets.</p> - -<p>“Or we read such stories as this: After the battle, -amongst the wounded and agonising, a soldier -not so badly wounded as the rest dragged himself -to an erect position and cried out to the dying: ‘I -am a priest. Receive absolution!’ And he blessed -them with his mutilated hand.”</p> - -<p>Take again the testimony of M. Frédéric Masson, -a great writer, but no <span class="locked">Catholic—</span></p> - -<p>“What Frenchmen were the first to march? -Who gave the example, who went to death instantly -and without a murmur, who merited the -epaulettes and the crosses? The priests.</p> - -<p>“There they are with their knapsacks on their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_208">208</span> -backs, and soon the knapsacks will be off by order -of our generals. In this supreme peril we need -officers. And many, for many are being killed. -You will see the priests in command of sections, -companies—who knows if you will not see them in -command of regiments if there are any priests left! -There they are all the braver because it is their -duty to be tender: <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">beati milites</i>, and if they are a -little short in military instruction, which is easily -acquired, one recalls the saying of Bonaparte to -Subry—they have what is not to be acquired: contempt -for death, for they are priests and they -believe.”</p> - -<p>The superior education of the <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">prêtre-soldat</i>, as -compared with the majority of his comrades, gives -to his narrative letters a special value. A seminarist -describes a night surprise on a German sentry -<span class="locked">post—</span></p> - -<p>“I crawl through the mud, stopping for five -minutes every three or four yards... reach the -edge of the canal and drop quietly in.... I advance -very slowly, the sentry is not more than ten -paces away. But suddenly my teeth begin to chatter, -and I am unable, for all my efforts, to keep -my jaws quiet. Fear? No, cold!... I am obliged -to take my handkerchief and tie it round my -head as if I had the toothache....”</p> - -<p>He surprises the sentry, chokes him into insensibility, -trusses him up, and crawls back to his men. -The reconnaissance completed they return to their<span class="pagenum" id="Page_209">209</span> -lair in a little wood. They are troubled about the -fate of the sentry.</p> - -<p>“My sergeant, my two soldiers, and myself recite -a decade of the Rosary for him. One of the soldiers -refused at first to pray for a Boche. It was -necessary to explain a whole heap of theological -matters to him on charity in time of war. He at -last consented on condition that we should say two -other decades for our own dear soldiers.... I do -not dare to say that I find pleasure in the work I -have to do. But when I think of our poor France, -and of the crimes of these barbarians: if you knew -what they have done!”</p> - -<p>So runs the record. Everywhere you find the -priest first in danger, and in abnegation, confessing -his comrades in the trenches, then heading their -bayonet-charge; after the battle, his rifle laid aside, -he is whispering consolation into the ear of some -poor broken enemy, Pole or German, launched -against civilisation by the bloodthirsty megalomania -of a Prussian Emperor.</p> - -<p>I cannot close this paper of random instances -without transcribing in full the story of Sister Julie -of Gerbeviller. This is how her name stands in -the <cite xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Journal Officiel</cite>—</p> - -<p>“By order of the Minister of War to be Chevalier -of the Legion of Honour: Mme. Amélie -Rigard, in religion Sister Julie, nurse at the field -hospital of Gerbeviller.”</p> - -<p>Appointed by her Superior to this hospital, she<span class="pagenum" id="Page_210">210</span> -remained at her post during an incessant bombardment -in charge of a thousand wounded. She -fed and cared for them, and saved them, by the -calm authority of her manner, from being put to -death during the German occupation. Can one -read without a thrill of pride and admiration this -glorious salute paid by soldiers of France to the -heroic nun?</p> - -<p>On the recapture of Gerbeviller a squadron of -<i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">chasseurs</i> halts before the hospital.... The captain -asks to see Sister Julie.</p> - -<p>“Sister, will you do us a favour? Permit me -to parade my soldiers before you.”</p> - -<p>Prevailing with difficulty over her modesty, the -captain has his way. Turning to his squadron, he -orders the “Portez lance!”</p> - -<p>“Comrades, you remember when we checked -the Germans here on August 25th. We saw in -this direction huge flames rising up into the -heavens. You see what these flames meant....</p> - -<p>“Well in the middle of this evacuated village, -under the shells and bullets, even after the retreat -of our heroic infantry who—one against ten—had -held the bridge so long, a woman remained here -at the post of charity attending to the wounded, -lavishing her care on all. It was Sister Julie.</p> - -<p>“The President of the Republic has hung on her -breast the Cross of the brave. Salute it!”</p> - -<p>So, with swords and lances at the salute, the -squadron swept on to battle.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_211">211</span></p> - -<p>It is a noble and touching episode, worthy of -France, and there were many such as Sister Julie -in the dark days of retreat. Innumerable, patient, -fearless women tended the poilu back to health, -won the whole nation to the height of resolution -and confidence from which it now so confidently -confronts the future.</p> - -<p>These books are a rich, even an inexhaustible -repository of Catholic heroism. It will be a pity, -and a grave loss to the literature of the war, if -they are not made available for English readers. -France has long enough been judged for her sins; -it is time that there was some celebration of her -virtues. She has been long enough condemned on -a bill of indictment drafted by her enemies, and -would-be conquerors: it is time that we listened -to her speaking for herself. Nor in praising -France do I, or do my fellow-writers, think it -necessary to blacken German Catholicism. Simple, -misled, unfree units of the Central Powers are -dying all over Europe at the bidding of two disastrous -Emperors: these plain soldiers, obeying the -call of patriotism and deprived of any true vision -of things, are dying in good faith, in our good -Faith, and dying well. But over all the leaders of -German Catholicism lies the red cloud of blood -with which the statecraft of their country has -enveloped the world. When they burned Louvain, -the barbarians lit a fire which is not easily -to be put out.</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_212">212</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="THE_GOSPEL_OF_THE_DEVIL">THE GOSPEL OF THE DEVIL</h2> -</div> - -<h3>I.—<span class="smcap">Bismarck</span></h3> - -<p><span class="firstword">What</span> is the Devil’s Gospel? I take it that the -three main articles are violence, intellect, and a -certain malign splendour of domination. If that -is the formula of the Courts of Hell, it is certainly -the formula of Prussianism.</p> - -<p>There is here no question of mere instinctive -egotism. We are in presence of an Evangel of -Conquest, fully worked out, and completely conscious -of itself. Later in this series we shall have -an opportunity of examining the wild work of -some of the Berlin theorists of blackguardism. -But before there was a theory, there was a fact. -In the world of action Prussia had thrown up two -huge mountain-peaks of achievement: Frederick -the Great, so grossly flattered by Carlyle, and Bismarck. -Between them yawns that Valley of Purification -to which Jena marks the entrance. For -that interregnum of humility Prussia is truly great: -your heart beats with Körner, with Fichte, even -with the cloudy Hegel. But two generations later -the type is once more master: Frederick, reincarnated, -calls himself Otto Eduarde Leopold Bismarck -Schönhausen. He is the modern Wotan to -whom Germany has built her altars.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_213">213</span></p> - -<p>In that curious non-moral mode of writing history -for which that German “moralist,” Carlyle, -was chiefly responsible Bismarck was a “great -man.” He changed the map of Europe. He stole -Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark; euchred Austria -out of her share of the spoils; and taking, as -his raw materials, the old free German States, the -blood of France, and the imbecile bluff of Napoleon, -he produced Modern Germany. Let us observe -the light of idealism in which he worked. It -is not literature, or imagination, or mere phrase-spinning -to say that Bismarck made cruelty his -sacrament. I am anxious to make this study as -objective and free from prejudice as possible. It -is Bismarck who speaks for himself in <span class="locked">1849—</span></p> - -<p>“It is desirable and necessary to improve the -social and political condition of Germany; this, -however, cannot be brought about by resolutions, -and votes of majorities or speeches of individuals, -but by <em>blood and iron</em>.”</p> - -<p>If this was Bismarck’s own guiding star, there -were others who recognised it as clearly as himself. -When the list of a suggested new Cabinet -was presented to Frederick William IV in just -that year, 1849, he drew a thick line through Bismarck’s -name and wrote opposite it in the <span class="locked">margin—</span></p> - -<p>“Red-hot reactionary. Likes the smell of blood. -May be employed later on.”</p> - -<p>When employed later on—in France—he did<span class="pagenum" id="Page_214">214</span> -not belie the nostril diagnosis. I quote from -Hoche’s <cite>Bismarck Intime</cite>—</p> - -<p>“Apropos of the burnt villages and the peasants -who were burnt, Bismarck remarked that the -smell from the villages was ‘like the smell of roast -onions.’ Favre remarked to Bismarck that ladies -were to be seen strolling on the boulevards, and -pretty, healthy children were playing around. -‘You surprise me,’ said Bismarck; ‘I thought you -had already eaten all the children.’</p> - -<p>“Favre complained to Bismarck that his soldiers -had fired on a hospital, <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">L’Hospice des Quinze-Vingts</i>: -‘Why not?’ he replied. ‘The French -fired on our soldiers who were vigorous and -strong.’”</p> - -<p>The Prussia, to whose tradition he succeeded, -lives in the irony or indignant protest of the great -humanists. I cite but two. “War,” said Mirabeau, -“is the national industry of Prussia.” And -Mr. Frederic Harrison, in a superb essay, published -when Germany was hammering at the gates -of Paris in 1870–71, drew out a sound digest of -<span class="locked">title—</span></p> - -<p>“Prussia is the sole European kingdom which -has been built up province by province on the -battlefield, cemented stone by stone in blood. Its -kings have been soldiers; sometimes generals, -sometimes drill-sergeants, but ever soldiers; its -people are a drilled nation of soldiers on furlough; -its sovereign is simply commander-in-chief; its<span class="pagenum" id="Page_215">215</span> -aristocracy are officers of the staff; its capital is a -camp.”</p> - -<p>He went on to characterise in words that bite -deeper since Liége, Louvain, and <span class="locked">Antwerp—</span></p> - -<p>“Unhappily the gospel of the sword has sunk -deeper into the entire Prussian people than any -other in Europe. The social system being that of -an army, and each citizen drilled man by man, -there is no sign of national conscience in the matter. -And this servile temper, begotten by this -eternal drill, inclines a whole nation to repeat as -if by word of command, and perhaps to believe, -the convenient sophisms which the chief of its staff -puts into their mouths.”</p> - -<p>His central belief was that power consists in bullying. -Had he thought things over he might, -perhaps, have noticed that it costs more strength to -lift a man up than to knock him down. He chose -the other way. His spiritual successors tell you -that the meaning of the black, red, and white of -the German tricolour is: “Through night and blood -to the light.” Germany had legitimate ambitions. -There are ways of influencing the world that do -not involve war: it was not powder, or bayonets, or -even howitzers that laid Europe in intellectual -bondage to Kant. Bismarck chose the formula of -“Blood and Iron.” What it cost he himself will -tell us, speaking out of the shadows and desolation -of old age. The quotation is from Busch, his less -discreet <span class="locked">Boswell—</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_216">216</span></p> - -<p>“‘There is no doubt, however,’ said Bismarck, -‘that I have caused unhappiness to great numbers. -But for me three great wars would not have taken -place. Eighty thousand men would not have been -killed, and would not now be mourned by parents, -brothers, sisters, and widows.’ ‘And sweethearts,’ -I added somewhat prosaically and inconsiderately. -‘And sweethearts,’ he repeated. ‘I have settled that -with God, however. But I have had little, if any, -pleasure from all that I have done, while on the -contrary, I have had a great deal of worry, anxiety, -and trouble.’”</p> - -<p>He sought power, and, in seeking it, he had little -regard for scraps of paper. Frederick the Great -had taught him that, if a ruler is sometimes bound -to sacrifice his life, he is often bound to sacrifice his -honour to the greatness of the State. Maturely, -coldly, with ashes fallen over all the flames of passion, -he tells us in his <i>Reflections and Reminiscences</i> -how he forced on the Franco-German War. -There are versions of the story more vivid and so -far more vile. The Ems telegram has arrived. -Bismarck is dining with von Moltke and Roon, -and all three fail to find anything resembling war -in it. But the Prince has a <span class="locked">“conviction”—</span></p> - -<p>“Under this conviction I made use of the royal -authorisation communicated to me through Abeken, -to publish the contents of the telegram; and -in the presence of my two guests I reduced the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_217">217</span> -telegram by striking out words, but without adding -or altering....</p> - -<p>“The difference in the effect of the abbreviated -text of the Ems telegram as compared with that -produced by the original was not the result of -stronger words but of the form which made this -announcement seem decisive, <em>while Abeken’s version -would only have been regarded as a fragment -of a negotiation still pending, and to be continued -at Berlin</em>.</p> - -<p>“After I had read out the concentrated edition -to my two guests, Moltke remarked: ‘Now it has -a different ring; it sounded before like a parley; -now it is like a flourish in answer to a challenge.’”</p> - -<p>Bismarck then explained what he would do with -his “concentrated edition.”</p> - -<p>“This explanation brought in the two generals -a revulsion to a more joyous mood, the liveliness -of which surprised me. They had suddenly recovered -their pleasure in eating and drinking, and -spoke in a more cheerful vein. Roon said: ‘Our -God of old lives still, and will not let us perish in -disgrace.’ Moltke so far relinquished his passive -equanimity that, glancing up joyously towards the -ceiling, and abandoning his usual punctiliousness -of speech, he smote his hand upon his breast and -said: ‘If I may but live to lead our armies in such -a war, then the devil may come directly afterwards -and fetch away the “old carcase.”’”</p> - -<p>If the God of Roon, the God of falsified telegrams,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_218">218</span> -was the same God with whom Bismarck -“settled matters” regarding his eighty thousand -slain, that strange compact of reconciliation is -readily intelligible. Otherwise, no!</p> - -<p>If Bismarck made cruelty his sacrament, in the -gross, he was far from neglecting details. No -torch lit a village in France, no finger pulled a -trigger against non-combatants, that was not sped -by his counsel. I first read his words in Belgium -as the stories of Liége, and Visé, and Aerschot, and -Louvain poured <span class="locked">in—</span></p> - -<p>“True strategy consists in hitting your enemy -and hitting him hard. Above all, you must inflict -on the inhabitants of invaded towns the maximum -of suffering, so that they may become sick of the -struggle, and may bring pressure to bear on their -government to discontinue it. You must leave the -people through whom you march only their eyes -to weep with.</p> - -<p>“In every case the principle which guided our -general was that war must be made terrible to the -civil population so that it may sue for peace.”</p> - -<p>And when Favre, coming out from the heroic -defence of Paris, appealed to him in name of that -“brotherhood which binds the brave of all the -earth,” the Wotan of modern Germany <span class="locked">replied—</span></p> - -<p>“‘You speak of your resistance! You are proud -of your resistance. Well, let me tell you, if M. -Trochu were a German general, I would shoot -him this evening. You have not the right—do you<span class="pagenum" id="Page_219">219</span> -understand?—in the face of God, in the face of -humanity, for mere military vainglory, to expose -to the horrors of famine a city of two millions.... -Do not speak of your resistance, it is criminal!’”</p> - -<p>Abeken, who was called “Bismarck’s Pen,” -wrote of his <span class="locked">chief—</span></p> - -<p>“Goethe’s saying, ‘Faithful to one aim, even on -a crooked road,’ suits him well.”</p> - -<p>Such was the founder of the German Empire, -and such the methods by which he founded it.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_220">220</span></p> -</div> - -<h3>II.—<span class="smcap">Nietzsche</span></h3> - -<p><span class="firstword">It</span> is in no way surprising to find defenders of -the calamitous prophet of Hohenzollernism active -to prove that he meant this fine thing, and that, -and did not mean blood and domination. The -truth is that only too many English writers allowed -themselves to be tarred with the Nietzschean brush. -They made him a cult, a boom, a pinnacle of superior -vision. Now that the Moloch, whose high -priests were beyond all others Nietzsche and Houston -Stewart Chamberlain, is exacting his awful -tribute, the worshippers, once so self-confident, -begin to fear a little for their own reputations. For -the issue of this war is to kill Prussianism, not only -in Germany, but in the whole life and philosophy -of Europe. The universal watchword is: “Never -again!”</p> - -<p>The vogue of the Supermaniacs is, perhaps, best -explained by the curious lack of seriousness in dealing -with ideas which is characteristic of the English -mind in its worst periods. Great journals -flatter the Harnacks and the Euckens and the rest -in their attempt to deny all authenticity to the -“scraps of paper” on which Christian belief is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_221">221</span> -founded, and wonder, in the next column, why -people are not going to church. Professor Cramb—who, -by the way, is painfully German in his -“anti-German” book—touches upon this inexplicable -unreality of English thought. He suggests -that it has counted for much in producing in -Germany that professorial contempt which one -finds, especially, in a writer like Treitschke. When -your Prussian says: “Fill me a bath of blood!” he -means blood. When your English critic reads it, -he says, too often: “What a vivid image!”</p> - -<p>Of the “deep damnation” which lies at the heart -of the Nietzschean philosophy no doubt is admissible. -It is idle to say that he contradicted himself -at twenty turns, and that especially he hated the -professors and raked them with the shrapnel of his -irony. It is the way of supermen to hate other -supermen. It is the badge of the tribe. Of all his -writings Germany took and absorbed just as much -as fitted in with her mood of domination and Empire. -Hauptmann—another of the flattered renegades—told -us the other day that if you open the -knapsack of a German soldier you will probably -find in it a copy of <i>Thus Spake Zarathustra</i>. -Nietzsche was angry with the professors only because -they preferred obscure, and he preferred -lucid brutality. Not since Lucifer was so much -light used to dark ends. Not since Diana was great -in Ephesus were such beautiful images cast or -carven in the service of a false worship. He made<span class="pagenum" id="Page_222">222</span> -German dance, as before him, only Heine had -done.</p> - -<p>“I have the idea,” he wrote, “that with <em>Zarathustra</em> -I have brought the German language to -its point of perfection.”</p> - -<p>The boast is probably true. The devil was always -a good stylist, and it is not inappropriate that -when his gospel is at its worst, his prose should be -at its best. We may charitably assume that those -whom he led off the plain paths of life into his -foul and blood-bathed jungles, were taken captive, -not by his message, but by his music.</p> - -<p>What then was his creed, or rather his vision? -For he was the mystagogue of Prussianism, who -chanted but never explained. As in the case of -Bismarck, I propose to exclude as far as possible -anything written <i xml:lang="la" lang="la">ad hoc</i>, or since the war. My -first witness is Alfred Fouillée, the doyen of French -philosophy, Whose <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">Nietzsche et l’Immoralisme</i> -appeared in 1902 (the unfamiliarity of Fouillée’s -name is a biting satire on our leaders of <span class="locked">thought)—</span></p> - -<p>“If the Vandals had read a course in Hegelian -metaphysics, they would have held the same language -as Nietzsche.”</p> - -<p>The popular instinct which named the Prussians -the Huns was thus long anticipated by the greatest -Platonist in Europe.</p> - -<div class="tb">* * * * *</div> - -<p>To Nietzsche the whole motive behind life is -a sort of metaphysical symbol which he calls the<span class="pagenum" id="Page_223">223</span> -Will-to-Power. The whole task of life is to impose -your power on others <i xml:lang="de" lang="de">an andern Macht auslassen</i>. -With what aim? To evolve the Superman. -But in this struggle of all against all we -must, in a world divided into nations and classes, -struggle for the victory of some nation and some -fashion of government. For Prussia, and for an -aristocracy more scientifically cruel than the world -has ever known. And what is the first step -towards this Elysium? War, and again war. -War, with the formula of the Assassins for its -<span class="locked">formula—</span></p> - -<p>“Nothing is true, everything is permitted.”</p> - -<div class="tb">* * * * *</div> - -<p>It is idle to remind us that Nietzsche touched -life at other points, and that in his flaming incoherence -you will find contradictions of this vision. -For it was this vision of Attila, and no other, that -conquered the imagination of Prussia. She desired -all Europe for an Empire, and after that the -seas, and at last the world. It needed but one further -step in this mysticism of the madhouse to decree -divine honours to the Kaiser.</p> - -<p>Now let Nietzsche speak for himself. Thus -spake Zarathustra on the morality of <span class="locked">war—</span></p> - -<p>“You shall love peace as a means to new wars, -and a short peace better than a long....</p> - -<p>“I do not counsel you labour, I do not counsel -you peace, but victory. Let your labour be a conflict, -and your peace a victory....</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_224">224</span></p> - -<p>“It was said of old that a good cause sanctifies -war; but I say to you that a good war sanctifies -any cause.”</p> - -<p>As to what he meant by a “good” war he leaves -us in no doubt. He meant simply a war in which -a victorious Prussia would slay and burn without -measure and without pity.</p> - -<p>“My brothers, I place above you this new Table -of the Law: Be hard!”</p> - -<div class="tb">* * * * *</div> - -<p>Zarathustra washes, with shame, his hands, because -they have aided someone who was suffering. -“Nay, I labour to cleanse my very soul” of the -sin of pity, he adds.</p> - -<p>“I dream,” he cries, “of an association of men -who would be whole and complete, who would -know no compromise, and who would give themselves -the name of destroyers....”</p> - -<p>In memorial verses on the death of a friend, -killed in France in 1870, he <span class="locked">writes—</span></p> - -<p>“Even in the hour of death he ordered men, -and he ordered them to destroy.”</p> - -<p>The three cardinal virtues of the warrior are -“pleasure, pride and the instinct of domination.”</p> - -<p>“If I am convinced”—he means, plainly, “Since -I am convinced”—he writes, “that harshness, cruelty, -trickery, audacity, and the mood of battle -tend to augment the vitality of man, I shall say -Yes! to evil, and sin....”</p> - -<p>And lest any of his defenders should seek to explain<span class="pagenum" id="Page_225">225</span> -away this very coherent doctrine as “poetry,” -let it be remembered that this was a man who had -seen war, much of the war of 1870. During its -actual progress he wrote deliberately a Satanic -pæan from which he never <span class="locked">receded—</span></p> - -<p>“On the one hand they (the Democrats) conjure -up systems of European equilibrium; on the -other hand, they do their best to deprive absolute -sovereigns of the right to declare war.... They -feel it incumbent on them to weaken the monarchical -instinct of the masses, and do weaken it by -propagating amongst them the liberal and optimistic -conception of the world which has its roots -in the doctrines of French rationalism and the -Revolution; that is, in a philosophy altogether foreign -to the German spirit, a Latin platitude, devoid -of any metaphysical meaning.”</p> - -<p>We “must have war, and war again.”</p> - -<p>“It will not, therefore, be thought that I do ill -when I raise here the pæan of war. The resonance -of its silver bow is terrible. It comes to us sombre -as night; nevertheless, Apollo accompanies, Apollo -the rightful leader of states, the god who purifies -them.... Let us say it then; war is necessary -to the state, as the slave is to society.”</p> - -<div class="tb">* * * * *</div> - -<p>This transition leads us without a break on to -some amiable views regarding the internal organization -of states. To Nietzsche the mass of humanity -is a sweating <span class="locked">negligibility—</span></p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_226">226</span></p> - -<p>“The misery of those who live by labour must -be made yet more rigorous, in order that a very -few Olympian men may create a world of art.” -(Unnecessary to say that the son of the Pastor of -Naumburg was to have a life membership of -Olympus.) “At their expense, by the artifice of -unpaid labour, the privileged classes should be relieved -from the struggle for life, and given such -new conditions that they can create, and satisfy a -new order of needs.... And if it is true to say -that the Greeks were destroyed by slavery, this -other affirmation is most certainly even truer; for -lack of slavery, we are perishing.”</p> - -<p>The reader can but be astonished at the modesty -of the slightly impecunious professor from Basel. -Why did he not call himself a god? Why a mere -superman?</p> - -<p>On the subject of God and gods, however, he -had views of his own. Just as Fichte used to say -to his philosophical students at a certain point in -the course: “To-morrow, gentlemen, I will proceed -to create God!” so Nietzsche was never tired -of repeating: “I have killed God!” His argument -is very <span class="locked">simple—</span></p> - -<p>“If there did exist gods, how could I bear -not to be a god? Consequently, there are no -gods.”</p> - -<p>As to that special mode of worship called Christianity, -upon which all justice, love, pity, and help -of our neighbours, is in the tradition of Europe,<span class="pagenum" id="Page_227">227</span> -immovably based, he is unable to speak with even -a colour of sanity.</p> - -<p>“The Christian concept of God—God as the -deity of the sick, God as spider, God as spirit—is -one of the most corrupt concepts of God that -have ever been attained on earth.” Christianity -and alcohol are “the two great instruments of corruption.”</p> - -<p>That he said, “You are going among women. -Do not forget your whip!” I do not regard as -essential to his philosophy. Most men have said -angry things about women at one time or other. -But it does happen that the position of women is -more abject in Germany than anywhere else in -Europe. And it does happen that Nietzsche also -<span class="locked">said—</span></p> - -<p>“For man, happiness lies in the formula, I desire. -For woman, in the formula, he desires.”</p> - -<p>And also “man is to be reared for war, woman -for the recreation of the warrior. All the rest -is folly.”</p> - -<p>Did Hauptmann’s Germans, one wonders, whip -out their new knapsack Bibles and run over this -text before they entered Aerschot and Louvain?</p> - -<p>In his practical ethics he works out the theory -of the Ems telegram and the Berlin Press <span class="locked">Bureau—</span></p> - -<p>“In point of fact it matters greatly to what end -one lies, whether one preserves or destroys by -means of falsehood.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_228">228</span></p> - -<p>It would be a simple weariness to multiply passages -in greater abundance. They are all of the -same texture, for, despite incoherence and contradictions, -they all come from the same centre of -corruption, the Will-to-Power. It is a long-drawn-out -Metaphysics of Bullying, nothing less and -nothing more.</p> - -<p>One has only to think of the soil into which seed -like this was dropped in order to understand the -harvest of desolation that the swords are now reaping. -Think of Prussia, flattered by all the world—even -by Matthew Arnold—into regarding herself -as the chosen of the Lord. Think of the unearned -prosperity brought by the French tribute, -of the raw egotism, the coarse insolence bred by -it. Think of how the old Germanic racial chauvinism -was nourished by the theories of Gobineau -as freshened by the appalling Chamberlain. Think -of how French intellect has been boycotted in England -and America for thirty years, while troops -of translators, critics and publishers ran round canvassing -first-class reputations for fourth-rate German -scholars. Think of the tawdry pretensions of -Berlin, of the infinite vulgarity of the Alley and -Column of Victory.</p> - -<div class="tb">* * * * *</div> - -<p>Is it to be wondered at that a creed like -Nietzsche’s, let loose in such a world, has succeeded? -Reading it, Krupp feels himself a veritable -knight of the Holy Ghost. Kaiser Wilhelm’s<span class="pagenum" id="Page_229">229</span> -brow grows heavy with the growing cares -of the superman. Buccaneer Bernhardi cries out: -“My lust for blood is philosophised.” The diplomats -join in in chorus: “Remember Bismarck! -Since France and England both want peace, let -us either lie or bully them into war!”</p> - -<p>Nietzsche said of himself: “I am a fatality!” -He was. Three years before this war was thought -of, in attempting to define Nietzscheanism in an -introduction to Halévy’s <cite>Life</cite>, I wrote as opening -words: “The duel between Nietzsche and Civilisation -is over....”</p> - -<p>I was wrong; it is not over. But between Prussianism -and Civilisation it is that this epical war -is joined; there is not room on earth for the two.</p> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_230">230</span></p> -</div> - -<h3>III.—<span class="smcap">Treitschke and the Professors</span></h3> - -<p><span class="firstword">I confess</span> that I am weary of these German -Professors. Having deposed God—by stern decree -of their theological Press Bureau—they felt -that a gap had been created, and volunteered to -fill it. But as a substitute divinity the Herr Professor -falls a little short of perfect accomplishment. -I have sat under or come in contact with a few -truly great men among them, like Windleband of -Heidelberg, and Pastor of Innsbruck. But the -Haeckels, the Harnacks, the Euckens, and the rest -mistook their trade when they went in for omniscience. -These drill-sergeants of metaphysics -understand everything except reality. The “fog -of war,” of which one had heard so much, was as -nothing to the fog of peace into which they had -plunged Germany and Europe.</p> - -<p>You must remember the nature of the system of -which they are the mature, show products. In a -German university it is unusual for a student to -take a degree. Our own institutions are appalling -enough, in all conscience; but there is, at least, a -sort of scheduled, educational mediocrity to which -even athletic demigods must attain. And there is<span class="pagenum" id="Page_231">231</span> -not the least doubt that, in the intervals of neglecting -their work, our college men do, in the mass, -enter by subtle ways into the mysterious and honourable -art of being gentlemen. In a German -university you do not find any uniform, general -life on which everybody can draw. The caste system—on -which all Prussia is founded—manifests -itself very soon. Either you clip off your friends’ -ears in duels, keep dogs, abjure learning, and absorb -beer for two or three years, or else you set out -to be a Herr Doktor. By steadily accumulating -notes, and grimly avoiding fresh air, you arrive at -the moment when you can order a visiting card -with this wizard-title on it. Then, wearing a nimbus -of adulation, you pass on to be a <i xml:lang="de" lang="de">Privat Dozent</i>, -and ultimately a Herr Professor. Everybody’s -hat is off to you; you meet with no real criticism -or free thrust of thought.</p> - -<p>Add to this the fact that German is a singularly -difficult language in which to tell the truth -plainly, even if you should desire to do so. Two -or three writers, like Schiller, Schopenhauer, and -Nietzsche, have contrived the miracle; but the -general impression inflicted on the Latin mind by -German literature is that of inadequately cooked -plum-duff. One understands a great Socialist like -Otto Effertz turning in his third book from German -to French with the observation: “Formerly -I wrote in a provincial dialect. I now experiment -in a European language.” A brilliant lady of my<span class="pagenum" id="Page_232">232</span> -acquaintance, who suffered fools more or less -gladly at Marburg and Bonn, is of opinion that -the Prussian reaches his most exquisite moment -of lyricism when, at Christmas or Easter, he ties -a bow of blue ribbon on a sausage, and presents -it to his beloved. This is a disputable view; but -it does indicate certain inadequacies in the German -apparatus of expression which really exist.</p> - -<p>Imagine, then, your Herr Professor, thus fed on -gross flattery, inducted into the most rigid caste -system in Europe, mentally imprisoned in a language -in which it is easier to say Yes! and No! -together to any question than to say either separately: -turn him loose on German history, give -him a Kaiser and a Court audience who demand -adulation, give him, further, a set of prosperous -bandits like Frederick the Great and fruitful liars -like Bismarck to work on, and you get Treitschke. -I have looked more or less carefully through eight -large volumes of his history and essays. In one -sentence you find jingoism, in the next egotism. -For my part, I have been unable to find much else. -I gather from Dr. Max Lenz and other biographers -that this renegade Saxon was at one time -or other blind, deaf, and honest. Whether he was -all three simultaneously, or in what permutations -he worked, I do not know, and one is very far -from gibing at human suffering. But when an -invalid sets up as a Prophet of Bullydom, when a -feeble creature, saved from collapse only by human<span class="pagenum" id="Page_233">233</span> -affection, goes about to blaspheme all the intimate -sanctities of civilisation, one feels justified in -summoning him to the bar of his own Darwinism. -Among modern nations Prussia has had the strange -experience of having a Gospel of Relentless Force -preached to her by invalids and degenerates. Her -metaphysic has been dictated from a hospital -ward.</p> - -<p>The one thing you find in Treitschke, reverberating -through page after page, is the doctrine of -a Chosen People. He used his learning, which -was not inconsiderable, his prestige, and his influence -to keep hammering into Prussia the belief -that she was the chosen race, the seed of the superman, -the predestined ruler of Western civilisation. -He preached the ruthless supremacy of the State, -and the sacrifice to military power of all humane -activities. He regarded Holland, Belgium, Denmark, -Luxemburg as fragments of Germany that -had been temporarily broken off, and must be recovered. -He taught those whom he influenced -to dream of a Vandal Empire, straddled across all -Europe from Dunkirk to Belgrade. Domination, -domination, and again domination: that is the message -of Treitschke. Were he alive he would have -rejoiced blatantly at the tearing up of the “scrap -of paper” which stood for nothing except the conscience -of Europe and the integrity of Belgium.</p> - -<p>I understand that we are to have solemn and -careful studies of his works issued in English. A<span class="pagenum" id="Page_234">234</span> -great deal of his detailed historical research is probably -of high value. But it would be just as well -if critics realised that, for the future, when a -German corrupter like Treitschke is translated, -he comes not to judge, but to be judged. He -preached the Gospel of the Devil, the gospel of -domination, cruelty, and planned barbarism. -Whatever intellectual prestige he came to acquire -will no more save him than brilliancy will save -Lucifer.</p> - -<hr /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum" id="Page_235">235</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="TRADE_OR_HONOUR">TRADE OR HONOUR?</h2> -</div> - -<p><span class="firstword">A democracy</span>, which, for its own defence, has -deprived itself of free speech is a dangerous paradox. -The position is not merely abnormal; it is -so abnormal that the path of return to normality -is to the average citizen unimaginable. Since war -is the supplanting of reason by violence it is natural -that it should swallow up Liberalism which is -precisely the opposite. All values are turned inside -out. Killing becomes a solemn duty. Lying -is holy on condition that it deceives the enemy to -his death. Men must approve their manhood by -handing themselves over soul and body to others, -their military superiors. Criticism, and the individual -mind, accept engulfment in a world of patterned -conduct, salutes, absolutism. All that corruption -of the essence of life comes with war as its -inseparable shadow, and the rankness of the Prussian -offence is not merely to have foregone honour, -and broken treaties and sown untimely death -throughout the world, but also to have compelled -civilisation to debase itself in order to preserve -itself. So, at least, must it strike a Liberal.</p> - -<p>We have bowed to the whole process of retrogression -imposed on us. With bitterness of spirit -we have seen unnecessary arbitrariness added to<span class="pagenum" id="Page_236">236</span> -what was necessary, added by methods as contemptible -as were ever used in furtherance of the -old political and economic tyrannies before the -war. Now we have the right to call a halt. The -rich, reckless clamourers who in these days are -almost the monopolists of free speech have already -achieved some deterioration of the ideal for which -the people of the Allied countries took up the -challenge of war. We may assume that the Allied -Governments are better custodians of the -democratic faith, but there is always danger, in -times of stress, from those whom one may call the -terrorists of “patriotism.” Protest has become an -obligation. Nobody who has watched latest developments -can fail to be alarmed by their manifest -tendency. That tendency may be summarised in -one ignoble sentence. An attempt is being made -to transform what began as a war for honour into -a war for trade. Powerful intriguers of unbounded -assurance are sedulous behind the backs -of the fighting men, scheming to run up new flags -in the place of the old. The inscription “Justice” -is to be hauled down, and “Markets” is to be -hoisted in its stead. In pursuance of that new -object the powerful innovators are ready to extend -far beyond their natural term the torture and -agony which are now the sole realities of Europe. -They are willing, for the accomplishment of it, -to ordain that the blood of better men shall drip -indefinitely into the cistern of Gehenna. And since<span class="pagenum" id="Page_237">237</span> -it is the bellowers and gamblers at home and not -the silent trench-fellows of death at the front that -exercise most influence on national policy, it is to -be feared that the former may prevail. Assuredly -protest is a matter of obligation.</p> - -<p>This is no argument, or faint-hearted appeal, -for a premature or inconclusive peace. Truly the -scourge of war is more terrible, more Apocalyptic -in its horror, than even the most active imagination -could have pictured. When the time comes to -write down in every country a plain record of it, -with its wounds and weariness, and flesh-stabbing, -and bone-pulverising, and lunacies, and rats and -lice and maggots, and all the crawling festerment -of battle-fields, two landmarks in human progress -will be reached. The world will for the first time -understand the nobility, beyond all phrase, of soldiers, -and it will understand also the foulness, beyond -all phrase, of those who compel them into -war. In these days God help the militarists! -There will be no need to organise a peace movement; -it will organise itself in all democratic countries, -spontaneous and irresistible as a prime force -of nature. It will still be necessary to arm against -those who linger in the blood-mists of autocracy, -just as civilised men provide against tigers and -murderers and syphilis. But God help those who -go preaching to mutilated veterans and stricken -homes the gospel that war is a normal incident of -the intercourse between nations, and an ennobling<span class="pagenum" id="Page_238">238</span> -thing to be cultivated for its own sake! That by -the way. Such is modern war, and knowing it to -be such, there is not a man or woman of the Allied -peoples, in uniform or out of it, but is ready to -go through with it day after day and, if need be, -year after year until the anti-human evangel of -Berlin is down in the mud. That resolution, so -unmistakable, is the supreme answer of democracy -to the whole race of blood-and-ironmongers. -They loved war, praised war, planned war; we -loathed it, believed so little that a modern state -would loose it on the world as even to neglect advisable -precautions. And now the peace-workers -have the war-workers by the throat, and are humbling -them in their own picked arena. Despite -Nietzsche and Bernhardi and the rest, democracy -does not so soften men that they will not die for -their ideals. They will do more than die, they will -conquer.</p> - -<p>So much is liminal; it lies across the threshold -of any temple of peace that can be imagined. Until -the objects for which the Allies went into the -war are achieved it must go on, and we mean it to -go on, regardless of any waste of life or substance. -But there is another proposition just as basal -against the ignoring of which the writer of this -article enters his protest. No statesman has the -right to change, behind the backs of the fighting -men, the aim and purpose of the war. No government -has a mandate to substitute markets for justice.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_239">239</span> -The necessary blood must be spent, it will -spend itself freely and without question. But the -diplomatist who lavishes one life in excess, in order -to achieve objects other than that for which -peaceful citizens transformed themselves into soldiers, -is a criminal against civilisation. There are -many, very many, men in the New Army who -believe that no war merely for trade can be justifiable -or other than an abomination. If another -Power launches war in the name of trade, your -resistance is a very different matter: it is the answer -of a higher to a lower morality. It must -succeed in order precisely to punish those who are -willing to make war solely for trade.</p> - -<p>Is the fear well founded that powerful men are -in fact working behind the stages to bring about -such a transformation as has been indicated? Is -it merely fancy that discovers the assiduous and -not over-clean finger of predatory finance in certain -pies that are now on the menu? If so, Liberalism -cannot too soon awaken. The New Army -attested to die, if need be, for the public law of -Europe: there was no mention of tariffs in the -bond.</p> - -<p>It will be obvious that I am not here speaking -of co-operation and co-ordination, economic as -well as military, between the Allies for the speeding -on of victory. That exists, and has existed in -greater or less measure since the beginning; whatever -strengthens it is plainly sound and desirable.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_240">240</span> -What is spoken of is the attempt to encumber -purely military issues with a whole new economic -programme, and to make the length of the war -turn as much on the latter as on the former. It -is time for somebody to say quite brutally that this -is a struggle to destroy Prussian militarism, not to -establish British Protectionism. To this last we -may come, but blood and more especially the blood -of men enrolled on another appeal, must not be -the argument of the innovators. Nor is it suggested -that the influence of economic on military -resources should be overlooked. The economic -factor has indeed proved to be far less decisive, -or far less rapidly decisive, than many forecasters -of events had anticipated, and for two very valid -reasons. For one thing the enemy has at his command -the whole centre of Europe, a vast geographical -<em>bloc</em> interknit in almost all its parts by -an uninterrupted system of intercourse which so -far remains intact. For another the operation of -the economic motive turns on the assumption of a -minimum standard of life below which man will -not consent to fall, willingly or at all. In normal -times of peace this is rigid, and any serious depression -of it will produce widespread commotion and -revolt. But in war, when the struggle is or is -conceived to be for national existence, belligerent -peoples will agree to the lopping away of luxury -after luxury and conventional necessary after conventional -necessary. For a considerable part of<span class="pagenum" id="Page_241">241</span> -the process they find the society in which they live -actually stronger and not weaker. Even when the -weakening pinch comes it is countered by a spirit -of sacrifice, altogether abnormal and not easily to -be measured. So long as the army has a rag to -its back, a crust of bread, and a cartridge, economic -exhaustion is not complete. The end will -probably come sooner, and defeat will be accepted -out of calculation before it is accepted out of sheer -necessity. What is much more probable is that a -military decision will have been obtained at a much -earlier stage, but with all this said there remains -a perfectly clear distinction between assigning -their due rôle to economic conditions on the one -hand, and transforming an honour-war into a trade-war -on the other hand.</p> - -<p>The worst sin of those who desire or seem to -desire such a change is that of effecting a deterioration -of the moral ideal of the Allies. This is no -affair of fine words but of abiding realities. Either -this is on our part a war into which we were forced -by aggressive militarism—come to overt baseness -in the Prussian breach of faith with Belgium and -assault on peaceful France, and the Austrian blow -of destruction at Serbia—or else it is a mere struggle -for domination between greedy Powers. If it -were the latter it would be wise to say no more of -the antithesis between barbarism and civilisation. -It would be wise to finish the nightmare of blood -as well as we could, to pouch the spoils, and be<span class="pagenum" id="Page_242">242</span> -silent. But since it is the former we must resist -any debasement of purpose. Since it is a war for -the ending of militarism it must include in its ultimate -historical sweep the liberation of all peoples -who desire liberation, even the Germans. So long -as it continues unwarped from its original intention -that hope may be fulfilled. Not only is a -<i xml:lang="la" lang="la">locus pœnitentiæ</i> left for the democracy which must -one day arise even in Prussia, but much more is -involved. An opportunity is given for that immediate -repudiation of a government by a people -which in the past has always taken the form of a -revolution. Nobody is able to say dogmatically -that there is any prospect of such a development -within the Central Powers, and nobody is able to -say dogmatically that there is not: we are not allowed -to know. It is the habit of those countries -to surround their frontiers with a wall of brass. -We do catch, through the species of man like Liebknecht -and Haase, certain rumblings and rumours -of discontent, but cannot even guess at their significance. -When certain writers profess to find the -solidarity in crime of the whole body of the Germanic -populations established by the absence of -protest against notorious outrages they show little -acquaintance with the condition of public opinion -in these countries. Prussian militarism and intellectualism -begin by lying to and mentally debauching -their own citizens. Every German newspaper -has represented the Zeppelin raids as successful<span class="pagenum" id="Page_243">243</span> -attacks on purely military and naval establishments, -any other damage being incidental and not -designed. Till the end of the war the average -ignorant peasant and mechanic will have heard no -other story than that the <i>Lusitania</i> was a war-ship -treacherously disguised. One has only to read the -German White Book on Belgium, as translated by -Professor Morgan, to understand the sort of scientific -denigration of that little people that has been -invoked to justify so much of the tale of Louvain -and Aerschot and the rest as has been allowed to -penetrate to the masses. Penny editions of the -Bryce Report do not circulate under either Habsburgs -or Hohenzollerns. If fragments of the truth -do find a surreptitious way in, the police are there -to see that natural indignation shall not express -itself. We gather from Liebknecht that the official -shepherding of opinion in this regard goes as far -as penal servitude and even capital punishment. -The actual state of mind of a democratic remnant -that may exist is, therefore, to us a clasped and -sealed book.</p> - -<p>But we do know by the mere inner light of our -own principles a great deal that is relevant. The -decree of democracy to a whole nation, however -bedevilled and misled, can never be one of unconditional -destruction. It is not our message to the -Germans. So long as their populations identify -themselves with the policy of their present miscreant -governments they must share their fate.<span class="pagenum" id="Page_244">244</span> -Defeat and, after defeat, outlawry will be their -portion. That outlawry will continue until the -historical crime of 1914 is purged by chastisement. -But the moment the first internal fissure appears -a new order has begun. A Germany that has -punished her own crowned and helmeted criminals -will come before Europe in a very different guise -from one that has naturally adopted them. The -breaking away of Austria from Prussia—an unnatural -alliance—will fix for us a very wide gulf -between Austrian and Prussian. There have been -wars in which the greatest internal changes took -place without influencing the course of the conflict. -The fall of Napoleon III did not bring the -struggle of 1870 to an end. But the fall of Wilhelm -II would undoubtedly bring this war to an -end. If the Teutonic masses desire an early peace, -and an early re-entry into the fabric of civilisation, -they have but to destroy the false gods they adored. -The diplomatist of the old pattern will tell us that -these are fantastic suggestions. But the truth is -that nothing could seem to our awakened eyes half -as fantastic as the old diplomacy, with its suave -blindness and sham omniscience. The new diplomacy -should help to release imprisoned forces. -The inner disruption of the Central Alliance is -never very far from practical politics. When the -full toll of blood and disillusionment, exacted by -Hohenzollernism, comes to be realised, strange -births may issue into being. So many men have<span class="pagenum" id="Page_245">245</span> -died for liberty that we have no right to disbelieve -in any of its possibilities. And so long as we adhere, -as we must adhere, with a loyalty even meticulous, -to the true cause and first spirit of the -Allies, no such possibility is ruled out.</p> - -<p>But consent to the substitution of “trade” for -“honour” as our device, and mark the malign transformation. -Some of our less well-inspired publicists -have already done something to communicate -to the <em>bloc</em> of enemy countries a unity which -does not inhere in its nature. Things breaking up -from within may be held together by pressure from -without, and such pressure has been in some measure -supplied by those to whom reference is made. -By steadily ignoring every impulse of disintegration, -racial, economic and moral, they have plastered -over although they have not sealed up the -structural cracks. The new programme, if adopted, -will, however, go far to harden the plaster into -cement. The spokesmen of Prussianism will be -presented with a complete triumph over any faint -voice of civilisation that may still be lifted within -the enemy realms. They will say quite legitimately: -“Our opponents babbled of honour, and moral -ideas. We said that that was all hypocrisy, and -that their real aim was to isolate, impoverish, and -if possible destroy the whole Germanic race. -Who now is right? The shopkeepers’ programme -has now been openly proclaimed. The struggle -of the Germanies is now a struggle for the mere<span class="pagenum" id="Page_246">246</span> -right to exist. What have you to say now in reply -to the Kaiser’s resolve to arm every man and boy -and woman, aye, and every cat and dog in the -Fatherland before submitting to extinction?”</p> - -<p>In truth there would be nothing to say. Our -ideal would have fallen in the common mud, the -last hope of humanity would have perished, and -the war must be indefinitely prolonged. If you -have driven an enemy into a corner and hold your -bayonet pointed at his breast; if he asks on what -terms you will accept his surrender and your answer -is that in that case he will be not bayoneted -but hanged, you must expect resistance <i xml:lang="fr" lang="fr">à outrance</i>. -It will become an affair not of courage but of mere -sanity. Whatever the divagations of their statesmanship, -the Allies will, of course, win. The nations, -however stampeded, will not sacrifice the -least element of their unity, and the armies, to -whatever new deflection their inspiration be submitted, -will fight their unwavering way to victory. -But it will be a victory tainted with ambiguous -and selfish ends. History will write of us that we -began nobly, but that our purpose corrupted. The -Great War for freedom will not, indeed, have been -waged in vain; that is already decided: but it will -have but half kept its promises. Blood and iron -will have been once more established as the veritable -masters of men, and nothing will open before -the world save a vista of new wars.</p> - -<div class="chapter"><div class="transnote"> -<h2 class="nobreak p1" id="Transcribers_Notes">Transcriber’s Notes</h2> - -<p>Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made -consistent when a predominant preference was found -in the original book; otherwise they were not changed.</p> - -<p>Simple typographical errors were corrected; unbalanced -quotation marks were remedied when the change was -obvious, and otherwise left unbalanced.</p> - -<p>Two unclosed parentheses were silently corrected.</p> - -<p>In the original book, multi-section chapter headings -(with Roman Numerals) included repetitions of -the chapter title. 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