they led the German
Government into a false reckoning as to what this country would do under
certain circumstances, and so encouraged Germany into taking up an
irreconcilable attitude in the crisis of July, 1914.

Whatever Germany expected must, however, for the present, remain a
matter of conjecture. Schiemann's comment on the above letter leaves no
doubt that he expected Lord Haldane[197] to resign. "When one remembers
that Lord Haldane belonged to the inner circle of the Cabinet, and was
therefore privy to all the secret moves of Sir Edward Grey, it is hard
to believe in the sincerity of the sentiments expressed in this letter.
Besides, he did not resign like three other members of the Cabinet (Lord
Morley, Burns and Charles Trevelyan) when Sir Edward's foul play lay
open to the world on August 4th."

[Footnote 197: Lord Haldane seems to have injured his reputation both in
Great Britain and Germany. Professor Oncken designates him: "the
one-time friend of Germany, the decoy-bird of the British cabinet."
_Vide_ "Deutschland und der Weltkrieg," p. 561.]

The most regrettable side of the whole incident is that the resignation
of the above gentlemen has been proclaimed by innumerable German writers
as proof of Sir Edward Grey's double dealing, and proof that Britain is
waging an unjust war. Still, it may console these gentlemen to know that
the nation which wages war on women and children acclaims them to-day
"all honourable men," and doubtless without the Shakespearian
intonation.

By reason of the above incidents, and more of a similar nature, Germans
accuse the late Liberal Government with perfidy of the basest kind. The
author is not in the least inclined to admit the charge, but thinks,
rather, that the Government in question--individually and
collectively--was astonishingly ignorant of European conditions and
problems, especially those prevailing in the Germanic Empires.

To what a degree Germany was obsessed by the idea that Britain was
trying to strangle her by an encircling policy, is apparent in a
diplomatic document quoted by Professor Oncken. Its author's name is not
given, and it was doubtless a secret report sent to the German Foreign
Office in 1912; its freedom from bias is also questionable. Moreover, it
is probable that it belongs to the same category of documents as those
quoted in the French Yellow Book--reports intended to exercise due
influence on the mind of the Emperor.

"French diplomacy is