“In all this miserable business,” said the writer, “which has cost us the loss of a considerable portion of our merchant fleet and more than p. 47fifty thousand civilian lives, there is just one consolation to be found.  It lies in the fact that our temporary conqueror is a Power which is not strong enough to reap the fruits of her victory.  Had we endured this humiliation at the hands of any of the first-class Powers it would certainly have entailed the loss of all our Crown Colonies and tropical possessions, besides the payment of a huge indemnity.  We were absolutely at the feet of our conqueror and had no possible alternative but to submit to her terms, however onerous.  Norland has had the good sense to understand that she must not abuse her temporary advantage, and has been generous in her dealings.  In the grip of any other Power we should have ceased to exist as an Empire.

“Even now we are not out of the wood.  Some one may maliciously pick a quarrel with us before we get our house in order, and use the easy weapon which has been demonstrated.  It is to meet such a contingency that the Government has rushed enormous stores of food at the public expense into the country.  In a very few months the new harvest will have appeared.  On the whole we can face the immediate future without undue depression, though there remain some causes for anxiety.  These will no doubt be energetically handled by this new and efficient Government, which has taken the place of those discredited politicians who led us into a war without having foreseen how helpless we were against an obvious form of attack.

p. 48“Already the lines of our reconstruction are evident.  The first and most important is that our