to
stimulate the defensive zeal of each country by resisting any tendency
to agreement and understanding leads. It leads even so good a man as
Lord Roberts into the trap of dogmatic prophesy concerning the
intentions of a very complex heterogeneous nation of 65 million people.
Lord Roberts could not possibly tell you what his own country will do
five, ten, or fifteen years hence in such matters as Home Rule or the
Suffragists, or even the payment of doctors, but he knows exactly what a
foreign country will do in a much more serious matter. The simple truth
is, of course, that no man knows what "Germany" will do ten years hence,
any more than we can know what "England" will do. We don't even know
what England will _be_, whether Unionist or Liberal or Labour,
Socialist, Free Trade or Protectionist. All these things, like the
question of Peace and War depends upon all sorts of tendencies, drifts
and developments. At bottom, of course, since war, in Mr. Bonar Law's
fine phrase, is "never inevitable--only the failure of human wisdom," it
depends upon whether we become a little less or a little more wise. If
the former, we shall have it; if the latter, we shall not. But this
dogmatism concerning the other man's evil intentions is the very thing that
leads away from wisdom.[10] The sort of temper and ideas which it
provokes on both sides of the frontier may be gathered from just such
average gems as these plucked recently from the English press:--

Yes, we may as well face it. _War with Germany is inevitable_, and
the only question is--Shall we consult her convenience as to its
date? Shall we wait till Germany's present naval programme, which
is every year reducing our advantage, is complete? Shall we wait
till the smouldering industrial revolution, of which all these
strikes are warnings, has broken into flame? Shall we wait till
Consols are 65 and our national credit is gone? Shall we wait till
the Income Tax is 1s. 6d. in the pound? OR SHALL WE STRIKE
NOW--_finding every out-of-work a job in connection with the
guardianship of our shores_, and, with our mighty fleet, either
sinking every German ship or towing it in triumph into a British
port? _Why_ should we do it? _Because the command of the seas is
ever ours_; because our island position, our international trade
and our world-wide dominions _demand that no other nation shall
dare to challenge our