The following is the expression of the thought of many of our humble people at home, who are neither “jingoes” nor yet impatient judges of others.  The Journal from which the extract is taken represents not the wealthy nor ambitious part of society, but that of the middle class of people, dependent on their own efforts for their daily bread, among whom we often find much good sense:—­“Some persons are humiliated for the sins and mistakes they see in other people.  As for themselves, their one thought is ’If my advice had been taken the country would never have been in this pass!’ This is the expression of an utterly un-Christian self-conceit.  Others, again, take delight in recording the sins of the nation.  That our ideals have been dimmed, that a low order of public morality has been openly defended in the highest places, and that the reckoning has come to us we fully believe.  Yet it is possible to judge the heart of our people far too harshly.  It is a sound heart when all is said and done.  We fix our eyes upon the great and wealthy offenders; but it must be remembered that the British people are not wealthy.  The number of rich men is small.  Most of us, in fact, are very poor.  Even those who may be called well off depend on the continuance of health and opportunity for their incomes.  The vast majority of those who believe that our cause is righteous are not exultant jingoes, neither are they millionaires.  They are care-worn toilers, hard-worked fathers and mothers of children.  They have in many cases given sons and brothers and husbands to our ranks; their hearts are aching with passionate sorrow for the dead.  Many more are enduring the racking agony of suspense.  Multitudes, besides, spend their lives in a hard fight to keep the wolf from the door.  Already they are pinched, and they know that in the months ahead their poverty will be deeper.  Yet they have no thought of surrender.  They do not even complain, but give what they can from their scanty means to succour those who are touched still more nearly.  It is quite possible to slander a nation when one simply intends to tell it plain truths.  The British nation, we are inclined to believe, is a great deal better and sounder than many of its shrillest censors of the moment.  And, for our part, we find among our patient, brave, and silent people great seed-beds of trust and hope."[39]

These are noble words, because words of faith—­worthy of the Roman, Varro—­to whom his fellow-citizens presented a public tribute of gratitude because “he had not despaired of his country in a dark and troubled time.”

It can hardly be supposed that I underrate the horrors of war.  I have imagination enough and sympathy enough to follow almost as if I beheld it with my eyes, the great tragedy which has been unfolded in South Africa.  The spirit of Jingoism is an epidemic of which I await the passing away more earnestly than we do that of any other plague.  I deprecate, as I have always done, and as strongly as anyone can