h would be likely to earn for the movement
the hostility of Germany, or of the officers in command of the German
forces in England. Our language took on a new and special meaning in
the columns of the newspapers, where reports of our campaign were
concerned. Such adjectives as "social," "moral," and the like were made
to cover quite special meanings, as applied to the organization of _The
Citizens_. So ably was all this done, that the German authorities
regarded the whole movement as social and domestic, with a direct
bearing upon the General Election, perhaps, but none whatever upon
international politics or Anglo-German relations.

In Elberfeld's ponderous history we are given the text of a despatch to
the Kaiser in which General Baron von Fuechter assured his Imperial
master that any interference with _The Citizens_ and their meetings
would be gratuitous and impolitic:

"Their aims being purely social and domestic, and those of a
quasi-religious Friendly Society, resembling something between their
'Band of Hope' and their 'Antediluvian Buffaloes.' The English have a
passion for this kind of child's play, and are absurdly impatient of
official surveillance. Their incorrigible sentimentality is soothed by
such movements as those of the Canadian preachers and _The Citizens_;
but even the rudiments of discipline or efficient cooerdination are
lacking among them. Combination against us would be impossible for them,
for this is a country of individualists, among whom the matter of
obligations to the State is absolutely not recognized. There is no trace
of military feeling among the people, and in my opinion the invasion
might safely have been attempted five, if not ten years, before it was.
The absence of any note of resentment in their newspapers against our
occupation has been quite marked since their preoccupation with the
Canadian preachers and _The Citizens_. The people accept it in the most
matter-of-course manner, and are already entirely absorbed once more in
their own affairs, and even in their sports. British courage and
independence have been no more than a myth for many years past--a bubble
which your Majesty's triumphantly successful policy has burst for ever."

Another important feature, alike of our campaign and the pilgrimage of
the preachers, was their positively non-party and non-sectarian
character. John Crondall had been firm upon this point from the
beginning. I remember his saying at the first meeti