ch English and French knights had met
in a more coloured age, in a battle that was rather a tournament. It was
a league of all knights for the remains of all knighthood, of all
brotherhood in arms or in arts, against that which is and has been
radically unknightly and radically unbrotherly from the beginning. Much
was to happen after--murder and flaming folly and madness in earth and
sea and sky; but all men knew in their hearts that the third Prussian
thrust had failed, and Christendom was delivered once more. The empire
of blood and iron rolled slowly back towards the darkness of the
northern forests; and the great nations of the West went forward; where
side by side as after a long lover's quarrel, went the ensigns of St.
Denys and St. George.

_NOTE ON THE WORD "ENGLISH"_

_The words "England" and "English" as used here require a word of
explanation, if only to anticipate the ire of the inevitable Scot. To
begin with, the word "British" involves a similar awkwardness. I have
tried to use it in the one or two cases that referred to such things as
military glory and unity: though I am sure I have failed of full
consistency in so complex a matter. The difficulty is that this sense of
glory and unity, which should certainly cover the Scotch, should also
cover the Irish. And while it is fairly safe to call a Scotsman a North
Briton (despite the just protest of Stevenson), it is very unsafe indeed
to call an Irishman a West Briton. But there is a deeper difficulty. I
can assure the Scot that I say "England," not because I deny Scottish
nationality, but because I affirm it. And I can say, further, that I
could not here include Scots in the thesis, simply because I could not
include them in the condemnation. This book is a study, not of a disease
but rather of a weakness, which has only been predominant in the
predominant partner. It would not be true, for instance, to say either
of Ireland or Scotland that the populace lacked a religion; but I do
think that British policy as a whole has suffered from the English lack
of one, with its inevitable result of plutocracy and class contempt_.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Crimes of England, by G.K. Chesterton

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRIMES OF ENGLAND ***

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