hom he has
joined with you in swearing to protect?" There was no resisting that
Our own interest might leave us cold; we might even be sceptical of our
danger. But we were put on our honour, and every man in the House with
the instincts of a gentleman was swept away by that appeal as by a
flood.

"WHY ISN'T THE HOUSE CHEERING?"

Then came our Prime Minister's passionate, fiery, yet dignified and even
exalted denunciation of the proposal of Germany that we should trade
with her in our neutrality by committing treachery to France and
Belgium--("To accept your infamous offer would be to cover the glorious
name of England with undying shame"); then the announcement of the
ultimatum sent by Great Britain to Germany demanding an assurance that
the neutrality of Belgium should be respected; and finally that speech
of John Redmond's, which, spoken on the very top of the crisis that had
threatened to bring a fratricidal war into Ireland, has been, perhaps,
the most thrilling and dramatic utterance yet produced by the war. "I
tell the Government they may take every British soldier out of Ireland
to meet the enemy of the Empire. Ireland's sons will take care of
Ireland. The Catholics of the South will stand shoulder to shoulder
with their Protestant fellow-countrymen of the North to fight the common
foe."

It was another appeal to the gentlemen in the British nation, and in
one moment it swept the bitter waters of the Home Rule crisis out of
all sight and memory. I have heard a Cabinet Minister say that, as he
listened to Redmond's speech, he was surprised at the silence with which
it was received. "Why isn't the House cheering?" he had asked himself.
But all at once he had felt his eyes swimming and his throat tightening,
and then he had understood.

THE NIGHT OF OUR ULTIMATUM

Our nation knew everything now, and had made her choice, yet the twelve
hours' interval between noon and midnight of August 4 were perhaps the
gravest moments in her modern history. I am tempted, not without some
misgivings, but with the confidence of a good intention, to trespass so
far on personal information as to lift the curtain on a private scene in
the tremendous tragic drama.

The place is a room in the Prime Minister's house in Downing Street. The
Prime Minister himself and three of the principal members of his Cabinet
are waiting there for the reply to the ultimatum which they sent to
Germany at noon. The time for the reply ex