And apart from the supposition that the man is about to be tried for his offences against society at large—­in which case it is a flouting of justice to publish evidence against him in a newspaper beforehand—­apart from all that, how in God’s name is His city to be rebuilt by raking in waste-heaps for more hate-stuff?  The wretched man is beaten, abdicated, exiled, sick, probably out of his mind, if he ever had one.  Is it an English habit to revile the fallen and impotent?  It has not been so hitherto, and the newspaper which proposes to enrich itself by making most of us ashamed of our nationality is doing us a bad service and, I hope, itself a worse.

But while such things go on, far from the City of God being rebuilt, the ruins of it will sink deeper into the morass, until we all go down to the devil together.  And if we are to be as the Evangelists of Ill-Will desire us, the sooner that happens the better.  As an alternative to this disgusting but deserved consummation I call attention to the Quaker Eirenicon.

I love and respect the Quakers as Christians after the doctrine of Christ.  I have known many, and never a bad one among them, never one that was not sound at heart and sweet in nature.  As well as their social quality there is to be considered their political.  I don’t hesitate to say that their Corporation holds in its grasp the salvation of the world through their Master and mine.  I go further, and don’t hesitate to say that had the Quaker religion been this country’s, not only should we not have made war, but Germany would not have provoked it.  Had Europe at large been Quaker, war would have been eliminated long ago from the catalogue of national crimes; for to a Quaker war is what cannibalism is to all men, and love, apparently to some men, an unthinkable offence against the sanctity of the body.  That body, they say, is a possible tabernacle for the Spirit of Christ.  If you believe that, all the rest follows.  If you do not, you will continue to read the Morning Boast.

THE END

  PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY
  WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED
  LONDON AND BECCLES

Transcriber’s Note.

The following words were originally printed with an oe ligature, regrettably not provided in the ASCII character set: 

Boeotia, Boeotian, Ipomoea, Eoioe, OEnoe, OEno.