Some of our readers, though, we admit, a very minute
minority. have reproached us with the indifference or callousness with which they allege we last week and on other occasions treated the serious blows that have fallen on the- country. Apparently our corre- spondents wish us to assume an attitude of dismal foreboding. If this is so, all we can say is that they had better give up reading the Spectator. If they want a newspaper which in times of sen- sational difficulty will put its tail hard between its legs and run into a corner and howl, they must go elsewhere. Those are happy who can take an active share in national defence. Those who cannot can at least abstain from worrying the men in the fighting line by .their lamentations. Here is the test. Ask any man at the front whether he likes to hear that the people at home have-a smile on their faces, or are turning down the corners of their mouths and making the maximum of fuss and complaint over every national difficulty, and we have not the slightest doubt what the answer will be. If we cannot do anything else, we can at any rate let our soldiers and sailors know that we are perfectly content to leave our fate in their hands, for we know that they will pull us through.
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