It is an unfailing experience in war that the confidence
on one side has much more than its own intrinsic value ; it enjoys the addition of the confidence which is transferred from the other side. While the spirits of one side grow, those of the other suffer a corre- sponding diminution. That is exactly what is happening now. In the messages of the German Emperor to his troops and to the Chancellor we find a note of gloom wholly absent from the sprightly addresses in which he used to promise his men that they should be home " for Christmas " or " before the leaves fall." Now the German soldiers are treated to homilies on their duty in the " hard days " before them. One of the best-known military writers, Colonel Gtidke, has become a gloomy counsellor indeed. He admits that the British successes are real and serious, and that the German " victory " a t sea was of no value. Perhaps the most significant fact is that English newspapers are now forbidden in Germany.
