cts. Though
passionately idealistic in many respects, I realise that the
_Facts_ of life are in cruel but deadly opposition to the
_Ideals_ of life, and that while the Ideal remains a dream the
cruel Fact remains the reality.

This pseudo-philosophy arises from my having read Arnold
Bennett's article in to-day's _Daily News_, and also from a
perusal of Hudson's "Herbert Spencer." Bennett is just an
idealist, but in dealing with those cruel realities of which I
have spoken, he seems to me a child. Any attempt to dissociate
the acts of the German Government from the views of the German
people--in other words to assume that a great part of the latter
want peace--is absurd. Look at France in 1870. When the Second
Empire was overthrown and the Third Republic set up in its place,
did the Republicans seek peace? No, they proceeded to prosecute
the war to the utmost and tried to drive the invader off the soil
of France. And even if in this war a succession of defeats should
overthrow the German Kaiser and his Government, do you think the
Germans would submit forthwith, and throw themselves on the mercy
of the Allies? No, they will fight to the last man, woman and
child to prevent the Rhine being crossed. So we should realise
that, for our own safety's sake, we must reduce the German
military forces to a position of helplessness--in fact, utterly
destroy them, if we are to have any settlement. It is Germany or
ourselves; and till one or the other is up or down, the war will
go on.

To crush the Germans we must put every ounce into the struggle.
Are we doing so? I cannot think it when I see Parliament taking
such a disgraceful line on the question of drink. Small wonder
that Lloyd George exclaims, "What an ignoble spectacle the House
of Commons presents now!" I had thought the British Parliament to
be a great and potent institution. Now I think it is a
convocation of old apple women. What we want is a Cromwell or a
Napoleon to knock together the heads of political parties and
declare, "No more drink." What will history say when it is
recorded that in the midst of this great struggle the British
people refused to give up the drink that was poisoning their
lives and hindering the work of the nation, and that the
influence of a few brewers and