en he was in London for privileges which he would
never have thought of demanding in Berlin.

If an English ship were reported sunk, he believed it must be, despite
the government's denial. Did he go to the Germans and demand that
he might publish the rumours of what had happened to the Moltke in
the Gulf of Riga, or how many submarines Germany had really lost?
Indeed, he was unconsciously paying a compliment to British free
institutions. He expected more in England; it seemed a right to him,
as it would at home. Englishmen talked frankly to him about mistakes;
he heard all the gossip; and sometimes he concluded that England
was in a bad way. In Germany such talk was not allowed. Every
German said that the government was absolutely truthful; every
German believed all of its reports. But ask this critical American how
he would like to live under German rule, and then you found how anti-
German he was at heart. Nothing succeeds like success, and
Germany was winning and telling no one if she had any setbacks.

If there were a strike, the British Press made the most of it, for it was
big news. Pessimism is the Englishman's natural way of arousing
himself to fresh energy. It is also against habit to be demonstrative in
his effort; so it is not easy to understand how much he is doing. Then,
pessimism brought recruits; it made the Englishman say, "I've got to
put my back into it!" Muddling there was and mistakes, such as that
of the method of attack at Gallipoli; but in the midst of all this
dispiriting pessimism, no Englishman thought of anything but of
putting his back into it more and more. Lord Kitchener had said that it
was to be a long war and evidently it must be. Of course, England's
misfortune was in having the war catch her in the transition from an
old order of things to social reforms.

But if the war shows anything it is that basically English character has
not changed. She still has unconquerable, dogged persistence, and
her defects for this kind of war are not among the least admirable of
her traits to those who desire to live their own lives in their own way,
as the English-speaking people have done for five hundred years,
without having a verboten sign on every street corner.

It is still the law that when a company of infantry marches through
London it must be escorted by a policeman. This means a good deal:
that civil power is superior to military power. It is a symbol of what
Englishmen have fought for