"A WINDING HORN TO ROUSE OLD PANIC."
LTO TIM 'EDITOR OF TIIE " SMICIATOR."J
SIR,—Conegitution Papers, the ably edited organ of the British Constitution Association, prints in its issue of
April 15th the following striking passage from Mr. George Meredith's novel, " Beauchamp's Career." Though your readers may think it not altogether applicable to the present crisis, they cannot but be interested by so brilliant a piece of Political diagnosis :-
"We could row and ride and fish and shoot, and breed largely : vre were athletes with a fine history and a full purse But where wore our armed men? where our great artillery P where our proved captains, to resist a sudden sharp trial of the national mettle ? Where was the first line of England's defence, her havy P Those wore questions, and Ministers wore called upon tO answer them. Tho Press answered them boldly with tba appalling statement that we had no navy and no army We were in fact as naked to the Imperial foe as the merely painted Britons. This being apprelAncied, by the aid of our own shortness of figures and the agitated images of the red-breached only waiting the signal to jump and be at us, there ensued a curious exhibition that would be termed, in simple language, writing to the newspapers, for it took the outward form of letters : in reality, it was the deliberate saddling of our ancient nightmare of Invasion, putting the postilliou on her, and trotting her along the high- road with a winding horn to rouse old Panic. . . . . Then, lest she should have been taken too seriously, the Press, which had kindled, proceeded to extinguish her with the formidable engines called loading articles, which fling fire or water, as the occasion may require Things were not so bad. Panic, however, sent up a plaintive whine. What country had anything like our treasures to defend ?—countless riches, beautiful women, an inviolate soil ? True, and it must be done. Ministers were authoritatively summoned to set to work immediately. They replied that they had boon at work all the time, and were at work now. They could assure the country, that though they flourished no trumpets, they positively guaranteed the safety of our virgins and coffers. Then the people, rather ashamed, abused the Press for unreasonably disturbing them. The Press attacked old Panic and stripped her naked. Panic, with a desolate scream, arraigned the parliamentary Oppo- sition for having inflated her to serve base party purposes. The Opposition challenged the allegations of Government, pointed to the trimness of army and navy during its term of office, and proclaimed itself watch-dog of the country, which is at all events an office of a kind The People coughed like a man of two minds, doubting whether he has been divinely inspired or has cut a ridiculous figure. The Press interpreted the cough as a warning to Government ; and Government launched a big ship with hurrahs, and ordered the recruiting-sergeant to be seen conspicuously. And thus we obtained -a moderate reinforce- ment of our arms. It was not arrived at by connivance all round, though there was a look of it. Certainly it did not come of
accident, though there was a look of that as well The
taxpayer is the key of our ingenuity. He pays his dues ; he will not pay the additional penny or two wanted of him, that we may be a step or two ahead of the day we live in, unless he is frightened. But scarcely anything less than the wild alarm of a tocsin will frighten him. Consequently the tocsin has to be sounded; and the effect is woeful past measure: his hugging of his army, his kneeling on the shore to his navy, his implorations of his yeomanry [1909 Territorials] and his hedges, are sad to note. His bursts of pot-valiancy (the male fide of the maiden Panic within his bosom) are awful to his friends."
The editor of Constitution Papers adds the following foot- note to his quotation :— "As we have borrowed so freely from Mr. Meredith's comedy it may be well to add a wise word from a letter addressed by him in, proprid persona to the Emergency Conference, which met in Loudon on February 16, 1903: Germany, once foremost among the nations for intellectual achievements, now spouts Pan- Germanism over Europe, and seeks to command the North Sea. For our part, we have only to take the warning they give us, and be armed, stationed, and alert. That is the way to preserve the peace. For Pan-Germanism challenges many foes ; and a Power ambitious to be preponderant in a great Navy as well as a great Army will find its adversary within, besides those that press around it. A slumbering England will offer it the chance it craves before the inevitable financial strain brings it to the ground. A watchful England may look on calmly for that certain issue."
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