* * * * The once persistent question. "Are we
down-hearted?" seems to have dropped, temporarily at least, out of the English- man's vocabulary. But it has not necessarily become irrelevant. An observant and experienced visitor to this country told me this week that he found people generally a little under a shadovV1 —rather depressed. It may be so. If so, there are causes. 1 suggested one myself—the inescapable consciousness of the possibility of a Third World War. But I doulzt if that is the chief thing. The weather certainly accounts for something. We do like a little sunlight now and then, and it is a long time since there has been any worth seeing ; the absence of it has more effect on the spirit than is always realised. And then there is the weight of taxation. Most people take it philosophically; in the sense that they don't go through life moaning about it. ' but as a discouragement to effort, and a discouragement in ai more general sense, it has a considerable and distinctly depressing effect. However much the toll may be recognised as inevitable, no one can be wildly exhilarated at.the idea of earning £1 when he knows that at the best he can only keep just over half of it; and in many cases a good deal less. Downhearted? No. But just a little below par.
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