sion. One reason of this was that party
feeling in politics had been scotched. The House of Commons met as one
party. There was no longer any real Opposition, unless one counted a
small section of rabid anti-Britishers, who were incapable of learning a
lesson; and even they carped but feebly, while the rest of the House
devoted its united energies to the conduct of the country's shattered
business with the single aim of restoring normal conditions. Throughout
the country two things were tacitly admitted. That the Government in
power must presently answer for its doings to the public before ceasing
to be a Government; and that the present was no time for such business
as that of a general election.

And so we had the spectacle of a Government which had entirely lost the
confidence of the electors, a Government anathematized from the Orkneys
to Land's End, carrying on its work with a unison and a complete freedom
from opposition such as had not been known before, even by the biggest
majority or the most popular Administration which had ever sat at
Westminster. For the first time, and by no effort of our own, we
obtained the rule of an Imperial Parliament devoted to no other end than
the nation's welfare. The House of Commons witnessed many novel
spectacles at that time--such as consultations between the leading
members of the Government and the Opposition. Most of its members
learned many valuable lessons in those first weeks of the new regime. It
is to be supposed that the Surrender Riot had taught them something.

It must also be admitted that General, or, as he now was, General Baron
von Fuechter, accomplished some fine work during this same period. It has
been said that he was but consulting the safety of his Imperial master's
armed forces; but credit may safely be given the General for the
discretion and despatch he used in distributing the huge body of troops
at his command, without hitch or friction, to the various centres which
it was his plan to occupy. His was a hand of iron, but he used it to
good purpose; and the few errors of his own men were punished with an
even more crushing severity than he showed where British offences were
concerned.

The task of garrisoning those English ports with German soldiers was no
light or easy one; no task for a light or gentle hand. In carrying out
this undertaking a very little weakness, a very small display of
indecision, might easily have meant an appalling amount of bloo