odwill. We must not be unduly discouraged
if some of these ideals prove impossible of realisation, for it would be
childish to suppose that when the great war is over the nations will at
once convert their swords into ploughshares and proclaim for the first time
in history the sway of Right over Might. But it is obvious that in a world
which has long ceased to be merely European, the European Powers cannot
long continue with impunity such internecine strife, and that unless some
real shape and substance can be given to the Concert of Europe--so long and
so justly a byword among all thinking men--our continent (and with it these
islands) will inevitably forfeit the leadership which has hitherto been
theirs and surrender the direction of the world's affairs into the hands of
the extra-European powers. It will be remembered that Sir Edward Grey, in
a last despairing effort to preserve peace,[1] broached the idea of "some
more definite rapprochement between the Powers," and though admittedly
"hitherto too Utopian to form the subject of definite proposals," it may
be hoped that the enormous difficulty of the task will not deter him from
pleading before the future Congress the outraged cause of international
goodwill.

[Footnote 1: White Paper, No. 101.]

CHAPTER VIII

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF THE WAR

"And the economic ravages of war are also much greater with civilised
nations than with barbarians. A war nowadays may have stern, fearful
consequences, especially through the destruction of the ingenious credit
system."--TREITSCHKE.

"Those who have fallen have consecrated deaths. They have taken their part
in the making of a new Europe, a new world. I can see signs of its coming
in the glare of the battlefield. The people will gain more by this struggle
in all lands than they comprehend at the present moment.... A great flood
of luxury and of sloth which had submerged the land is receding, and a new
Britain is appearing. We can see for the first time the fundamental things
that matter in life and that have been obscured from our vision by the
tropical growth of prosperity."--MR.D. LLOYD GEORGE.

It is obvious that a great war must profoundly disturb every side of the
national life of the peoples taking part in it, and that these disturbances
must react upon neutral States. The exact character and extent of these
changes, however, are by no means easy to understand, and the present
chapter does not pretend to