of the grave crisis which was now inevitable in European
affairs, a crisis in which the fate, not only of Britain, but of the
whole Western world, would probably be involved, the Ministry felt it
impossible to remain in office without the hearty and unequivocal
support of both Houses--a support which the two adverse votes in
Lords and Commons had made it hopeless to look for as those Houses
were at present constituted.

He had therefore to inform the House that, after consultation with
his colleagues, he had decided to place the resignations of the
Ministry in the hands of his Majesty,[1] and appeal to the country on
the plain issue of Intervention or Non-intervention. Under the
circumstances, there was nothing else to be done. The deplorable
crisis which immediately followed was the logical consequence of the
inherently vicious system of party government.

While the fate of the world was practically trembling in the balance,
Europe, armed to the teeth in readiness for the Titanic struggle that
a few weeks would now see shaking the world, was amused by the
spectacle of what was really the most powerful nation on earth losing
its head amidst the excitement of a general election, and frittering
away on the petty issues of party strife the energies that should
have been devoted with single-hearted unanimity to preparation for
the conflict whose issue would involve its very existence.

For a month the nations held their hand, why, no one exactly knew,
except, perhaps, two men who were now in daily consultation in a
country house in Yorkshire. It may have been that the final
preparations were not yet complete, or that the combatants were
taking a brief breathing-space before entering the arena, or that
Europe was waiting to see the decision of Britain at the
ballot-boxes, or possibly the French fleet of war-balloons was not
quite ready to take the air,--any of these reasons might have been
sufficient to explain the strange calm before the storm; but
meanwhile the British nation was busy listening to the conflicting
eloquence of partisan orators from a thousand platforms throughout
the land, and trying to make up its mind whether it should return a
Conservative or a Radical Ministry to power.

In the end, Mr. Balfour came back with a solid hundred majority
behind him, and at once set to work to, if possible, make up for lost
time. The moment of Fate had, however, gone by for ever. During the
precious days that had been