The belief in the military invincibility of Germany men- tioned
above has unfortunately during the last few weeks been greatly increased by our bogy-mongers here. Small States are naturally timid, and it is asking almost too much of human nature to expect that they will join us when we ourselves are screaming that we are a beaten and ruined nation. If you have got to choose a partner, you are much more inclined to take a man, however disagreeable, who tells you that he is certain to succeed in his business and to make your fortune, than a man who is shouting out that he is going into the Bankruptcy Court. Critical readers will perhaps be inclined to say that the well-informed Ministers of neutral States are not likely to be misled by the hysterics of the Daily Hail, but unfortunately they are very likely to be so misled. When German agents declare that the greatest popular newspaper in England, and, in a lesser degree, the greatest newspaper in the world, have, as they will put it, flung up the sponge, neutral statesmen will begin to think that they ought to take np the attitude of waiting and seeing.
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