I spoke with Lord K., of B——­ & Co., concerning the loss of his eldest son, as I had known Lord K. for many years.  The manner, the gesture, the speech, in response, were all one, and brief; just an indication of sacrifice that had to be made for the Empire; and that sacrifice had only just begun; deaths in the family just honorable incidents in the life of the Empire.

You see crutches and broken heads in London, but you will see no mourning.

“Yes,” said Lord C. to me, “the average income tax in England is now doubled until it is one eighth, or about 12 1/2 per cent, but my friends in the banking world have to pay an increasing supertax.  I know many who must now give one quarter of their income to the government.  They not only do it gladly, but expect it will be a half next year, and they will contribute that just as gladly.”

From the top to the bottom in the Empire, all that is asked at the present time is a protected food and clothing supply, and everything else can go into “the cauldron of war.”

“Did you ever see anything like it?” said an American banker in London to me.  “Are n’t these people wonderful?  Did you ever see such resolution, such steady work, such sacrifices, such unity of empire?”

It was indeed worth a winter’s trip across the ocean to see it.

Although the newspapers complained of the censorship, there was only one general complaint from the people in the British press.  They wanted to know what the regulations were, or were to be, concerning self-defense when the Germans arrive in the country.  Should a citizen without uniform take up arms against the invaders?  Had he a right individually to shoot a German invader?  Was the old rule that an Englishman’s home is his castle, and that he has the right to defend it, now superseded by any rules of international warfare?

Some independent people of note were declaiming in the public prints that any German invader of England was a thief and a robber and that any weapons might be used to attack the invaders; and that there was no rule of warfare that could prevent an Englishman defending his home by any weapons against any foreign invaders.

Nevertheless the spirit of the people was, even under invasion, to respect law and order and rules of warfare, and be guided by the government as to all forms of individual or collective defenses.  They simply wanted the rules promulgated.

The English are reconciled to Zeppelin raids from Germany, and rather expect them.  But there is yet no unanimity in preparation or action.  The Rothschilds have put four feet of sand on the roof of their building, but the amount of their gold in store must be incomparably less than that in the Bank of England, where no precautions are visible.