r it is
necessary to test the assumptions underlying it and to inquire how far they
really correspond to the facts.

Sec.1. _Democracy and Peace._--First of all, the main assumption made by
Englishmen who advocate the democratisation of foreign policy is that
international peace would thereby be assured. True, the extension of the
democratic principle is to many men an end in itself, quite apart from the
question whether it tends to peace. But great masses of men are not moved
to make political demands merely by theoretical considerations; it is the
pressure of definite and imminent evils which arouses them to action. In
the case of England the demand for greater democratic control in the sphere
of foreign policy arose in large measure from the sudden realisation, in
the late summer of 1911, at the time of the so-called Agadir crisis, that
war between this country and Germany was a possibility with which English
statesmen and the English people had to reckon. We had felt the breath
of war actually on our cheek, and a large section of English sentiment
revolted from it. A demand was raised for a democratic policy of peace.
Three years later, on August 3, 1914, when Parliament met to decide the
happiness or sufferings of the quarter of the human race comprised in the
British Empire, the same demand was voiced in a series of speeches which
accurately expressed the belief that peace was the policy of the people,
while war was the secret aim of their rulers. Mr. T. Edmund Harvey, M.P.,
spoke as follows:

"I am convinced that this war, for the great masses of the countries of
Europe, and not for our own country alone, is no people's war. It is a war
that has been made ... by men in high places, by diplomatists working in
secret, by bureaucrats who are out of touch with the peoples of the world,
who are the remnant of an older evil civilisation which is disappearing by
gradual and peaceful methods."

Mr. Ponsonby, M.P., spoke in the same sense:

"I trust that, even though it may be late, the Foreign Secretary will use
every endeavour to the very last moment, disregarding the tone of messages
and the manner of Ambassadors, but looking to the great central interests
of humanity and civilisation to keep this country in a state of peace."

Democracy means peace;--can we accept this assumption? Contrasts are
sometimes illuminating, and it may be well to turn from the Parliamentary
debate of August 3 to an article written sixt