in an
inevitable war, but it would be due to human folly. [Cheers.] It is due
to human folly and to human wickedness [cheers], but neither the folly
nor the wickedness is here. [Cheers.] What other course was open to us?
It is quite true, as the Foreign Secretary explained to the House the
other day, that we were under no formal obligations to take part in such
a struggle. But every member in this House knows that the entente meant
this in the minds of this Government and of every other Government, that
if any of the three powers were attacked aggressively the others would
be expected to step in and to give their aid. ["Hear, hear!"] The
question, therefore, to my mind was this: Was this war in any way
provoked by those who will now be our allies? No one who has read the
"White Paper" can hesitate to answer that question. I am not going to go
into it even as fully as the Prime Minister has done; but I would remind
the House of this, that in this "White Paper" is contained a statement
made by the German Ambassador, I think at Vienna, that Russia was not in
a condition and could not go to war. And in the same letter are found
these words: "As for Germany, she knew very well what she was about in
backing up Austria-Hungary in this matter." Now, every one for years has
known that the key to peace or war lay in Berlin, and at this crisis no
one doubts that Berlin, if it had chosen, could have prevented this
terrible conflict. [Cheers.] I am afraid that the miscalculation which
was made about Russia was made also about us. The dispatch which the
right honorable gentleman referred to is a dispatch of a nature which I
believe would not have been addressed to Great Britain if it had been
believed that our hands were free and that we held the position which we
had always held before the entente. That, at least, is my belief.

Napoleonism Without a Napoleon.

We are fighting, as the Prime Minister said, for the honor and, what
with the honor is bound up always, the interest of our nation. But we
are fighting also for the whole basis of the civilization for which we
stand and for which Europe stands. [Cheers.] I do not wish, any more
than the Prime Minister, to inflame passion. I only ask the House to
consider one aspect. Look at the way Belgium is being treated today.
There is a report--if it is not true now it may be true tomorrow--that
the City of Liege is invaded by German troops and that civilians, as in
the days of the Midd