Mr. Asquith ended a speech marked by dignity, and, what
is better, by sincerity, and by anxiety that in defending himself he should not injure his country's interests, with a striking peroration, which we may sum up by quoting the concluding sentences of our own article on the Dardanelles Report, sentences in which we condemned the vindictive criticism with which Mr. Asquith and Lord Kitchener have been assailed :— " In any case, it is futile as well as ignoble to taunt men who, if they erred, erred not from any malignity of aim, or from carelessness or the desire to avoid spending themselves in the nation's cause. We would far rather thank the ' old gang' that-they did not despair of the republio than try to play towards them the part of a Shylock and get from. them every ounce of flesh that a stria and merciless rendering of their implied covenant with the nation may appear to justify."
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