se who did well in the war and invested in war loans and
the like. But their currency depreciated to such an extent that what
would have been an income equivalent to 1,000 pounds a year had Germany
won, became in Germany 80 pounds a year, and in Austria only 7 pounds
or 8 pounds. They have to work nowadays. So have all the old moneyed
class. And even in France and Italy incomes have been reduced by
one-half and two-thirds. England is fortunate no doubt; but in another
sense she is unfortunate. We cannot exactly afford so many idle hands;
nor can we afford the number of empty minds that England has to-day.
And more time and trouble is being given to the education of children
who will not do anything for England than to the education of the
middle and working classes. The teachers generally are very
enthusiastic for their profession and their work. Like the journalists
they would make for real values, but they are obstructed by forces
which prove too great for them.

The remedy which is generally propounded is "revolution," and
revolution of a kind is bound to come. It is difficult to believe in
the suggestion of Chesterton, "Our wrath come after Russia's wrath, and
our wrath prove the worst." It may not be wrath but it will be change.
A few men on Clydeside and a few in South Wales are of the dangerous
stuff, but most people in Great Britain are passive to a fault. A
great economic change brought about by business depression is more
probable than a stampede to the barricades.

Strangely enough, all winter, spring, and summer of 1921 the "cost of
living" decreased in England. No doubt, if England resolved to live on
European food instead of colonial food, and if she could get that food
in sufficient quantities, and if she could import all the goods she
requires, the "cost of living" would still go down for quite an
appreciable time. Down also would go the pound, and eventually
up--very rapidly up--would go the cost of living.

The position of the pound is in any case against nature. Money and the
cost of materials tend like water to find a common level. The majestic
pound is standing up on end like the waters of the Red Sea to let the
Israelites pass over dry-shod out of Egypt. When they get to the other
side down will come the pound.

There is besides the economic element of revolution a political one
also. If England follows her parliamentary institutions and does not
suspend them as Czecho-Slovakia