But no
matter. When he gets up and makes a row he will be told that he is
premature, until Sir Edward Grey is in a position to announce in the icy
cold and impressive tones of omniscience and omnipotence and perfect
wisdom that the deed is irrevocably done and only the formal
ratification of the people is required. We have been through all that
before, and we shall go through it again unless we start out immediately
to be unpleasant.
I hope nobody will get the impression that I think we are a nation of
angels under a Government of earthy and primeval creatures. I do not. We
are not in a Christian mood, and we don't want to be in a Christian
mood. When last week a foolish schoolmaster took advantage of his august
position to advocate Christianity at the end of the war, we frightened
the life out of him, and he had to say that he had been "woefully
misunderstood." In spite of this, the nation, being cut off from direct
communication with foreign autocracy and reaction, is in my view very
likely to be less unwise than the Government at the supreme crisis. And
even if it isn't, even at the worst, it is and should be the master and
not the slave of the Government.
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