Napoleonism Without a Napoleon.

We are fighting, as the Prime Minister said, for the honor and, what with the honor is bound up always, the interest of our nation.  But we are fighting also for the whole basis of the civilization for which we stand and for which Europe stands. [Cheers.] I do not wish, any more than the Prime Minister, to inflame passion.  I only ask the House to consider one aspect.  Look at the way Belgium is being treated today.  There is a report—­if it is not true now it may be true tomorrow—­that the City of Liege is invaded by German troops and that civilians, as in the days of the Middle Ages, are fighting for their hearths and homes against trained troops.  How has that been brought about?  In a state of war, war must be waged.  But remember that this plan is not of today or of yesterday; that it has been long matured; that the Germans knew that they would have this to face; and that they were ready to take the course which they took the other day of saying to Belgium, “Destroy your independence.  Allow our troops to go through, or we will come down upon you with a might which it is impossible for you to resist.”  If we had allowed that to be done, our position as one of the great nations of the world and our honor as one of the nations of the world would in my opinion have been gone forever. [Cheers.] This is no small struggle.  It is the greatest, perhaps, that this country has ever engaged in.  It is Napoleonism once again. ["Hear, hear!”] Thank Heaven, so far as we know, there is no Napoleon.

I am not going to say anything more about the causes of the war, for I do not desire to encourage controversy on this subject.  But if I may be allowed to say so, I should like to say that I read yesterday with real pleasure an article in a paper which does not generally commend itself to me—­The Manchester Guardian. ["Hear, hear!”] In that article it still held that the war ought not to have been entered upon; but it took this view, that that was a question for history, and that now we are in it there is only one question for us, and that is to bring it to a successful issue. [Cheers.]

Sir, I have full sympathy far more than at any other time for the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary.  I can imagine nothing more terrible than that the Foreign Secretary should have a feeling that perhaps he has brought his country into an unnecessary war.  No feeling could be worse.  I can say this, and, whether we are right or wrong, the whole House agrees with it, I am sure, that that is a burden which the right honorable gentleman can carry with a good conscience, [cheers,] and that every one of us can put up unhesitatingly this prayer:  “May God defend the right.”

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