Sir Alfred Hopkinson

“ Assume even that no new war does break out again actually, dare any nation neglect to keep up its naval and military armaments on a scale far greater than before? How is the burden to be met when every penny that can be raised as revenue will be needed to meet the charge on our gigantic debt and the necessary claims for carrying on Government, to say nothing of improving the conditions of life? We cannot, nor can other nations, go on using up capital and borrowing indefinitely. ”

“ As a necessary condition for reconstruction comes the need for Peace, peace real and lasting, and peace all round. There may be times when the nation or the individual needs the bracing stimulus, if not of war, at least of competition and of conflict in the realm of thought and in the realm of action; times when old institutions, old creeds, old systems, old customs, are fiercely attacked and vigorously defended. The storm clears the air, and the struggle ends in the survival of the fittest. ”

“ Rightly shall we think first of our own land of Britain with all the dominions that form the Empire built up by the labour and the valour of its sons and called by its name, united now by the closer bonds of common efforts, common sacrifices and common resolves, loyal to one throne, the symbol of its unity, cherishing one record of heroic deeds, the example and the inspiration for the generations to come ”

“ Again the question will be asked, What will emerge from this struggle, this untold bloodshed, these bitter losses and widespread destruction, what will be the harvest that this "red rain" will make to grow, what Church will spring from the blood of the martyred youth—a great multitude which no man can number? Again we may answer, as after the war half a century ago, so short in its duration, and so limited in its extent as compared with the World War of to-day, "For the victors Union, for the vanquished Regeneration." Who will the victors be? ”

“ The "recoil" of the British again and again after being pressed back is the striking feature in their history. The spring is not easily wound up, but it has enormous power, and the events of to-day show that it has not lost its elasticity. But how much more might have been accomplished, how much loss and suffering prevented, had knowledge awakened more interest and a prophetic imagination guided and inspired action directed to a definite goal, had we set our ideals clearly before us and carefully thought out the steps to be taken one by one towards their realisation! ”

“ Even as we sow the seeds for a fruitful harvest of good, the arch-enemy may be sowing the tares. On the other hand, to cease from work and from struggle, either through fear or slackness or weariness, or even from that pacific temperament which shrinks from contest of any kind, may have results almost equally fatal. That other prayer of the Greek poet is for us also. "But I ask that the god will never relax that struggle which is for the State's true welfare"—"the contest in which citizen vies with citizen who shall best serve the State." ”

“ Unless a nation, like an individual, have some purpose, some ideal, some motive which lies outside of and beyond self-interest and self-aggrandisement, war must continue on the face of this earth until the day when the last and strongest man shall look out upon a world that has been depopulated in its pursuit of a false ideal.—NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER.
Paramount in importance above everything else is the establishment and maintenance of peace between nations. ”

“ To have watched the action of the electorate during the last fifty years leads to the conclusion that in spite of apparent vacillations it has been characterised by good sense and good feeling, and that its judgment, so far as conditions from time to time permitted of its true expression, has been sound. To go about the country now and see what earnest and useful work is being quietly done, what loss and suffering bravely borne, confirms and renews the trust in our fellow-countrymen which might be shaken if we listened only to the utterances in the Press and in Parliament. ”

“ The moral downfall of Germany, and the material losses which she will suffer whatever the other results of the War may be, are not simply due either to autocracy or to the domination of an aristocratic class, or to deficiencies in art—the power to make things well—or in thought—the power to plan a course of action clearly—but to the absence of a "just will." The regeneration of Germany means the substitution of a just for an unjust will, not simply the spread of democratic ideals, desirable though these may be, nor the substitution of democratic for autocratic or aristocratic government. ”

“ But this War has not been a war of Empire against Empire, of Nation only against Nation. It has been waged by the alliance of the people all over the world who believe in justice, in a law which says, "Thou shalt not, because thou hast the power and the will to thine own advantage, use that power to dominate others and exercise that will regardless of their rights." ”

“ Undoubtedly the will of the people must prevail, but the exercise of that will should depend on and be the result of their own deliberate judgment. Whether what is done is a blessing or curse depends not on whether it is the act of an autocrat, of an aristocracy, or of a democracy, but on the character of the act and the spirit which prompts it. A great audience in London recently heard the true position summed up in few words—I quote Dr. Campbell Morgan from memory—"It is said we want to make the world safe for democracy. What we really need is to make democracy safe for the world." ”

“ The House of Commons does not now exercise its influence as it ought, to check extravagance, and probably the more widely the electorate is extended, as already said, the less will the House of Commons care to exercise rigid control in favour of economy. It is always an easy way of getting popularity to be what is called "generous" when dealing with other people's money. Everyone who looks after the public interest by trying to prevent expenditure, whether national or local, which is not imperatively called for, is styled mean and narrow-minded, and his task is a thankless one. ”

“ Every day that the War lasts forces on us more clearly the fact that Science, not only natural science—physics and chemistry—but also the scientific organisation of the State as an instrument of war, has so developed the means of destruction as either to blot out humanity or to leave the greater part of mankind in abject and bitter slavery to the powers that can wield most effectively the instruments of death and of torture, if war between the leading nations breaks out again after an interval of seeming peace. ”

“ To maintain a real peace based on goodwill, we want to get rid of the jealous spirit which regards the prosperity of one nation as an injury to others. "The economic and financial strength of this country is founded upon the welfare not merely of the British people, but practically of all countries." "Commerce is not a war. It will be found that wealth increases simultaneously in industrious nations." "We must not even forget that a poverty-stricken Germany and Austria would react on the whole world." ”

“ It would, of course, be affectation to suggest that our object in the War is now simply a chivalrous desire to protect the weak or maintain justice. We now know that it is also to preserve our own existence as a nation, and that it would be better for us and our children that Britain should be sunk beneath the sea than that Germany should achieve a complete victory. ”

“ Anyhow the open recognition of party claims publicly recognised is infinitely better, as Burke urged, and history from his day to ours proves, than backstairs influence or merely personal ties, and still more than using official position as a tribute to wealth, and the advantages which wealth can confer on those who do it homage. It is the system which is to blame, not the men to be condemned. Those who denounce the members of a Government most fiercely would be only too happy to accept an invitation to meet them at dinner. ”

“ It is well plainly to recognise that if democracy is to be a blessing instead of a curse there are three conditions necessary to control and guide its action. First, with the consciousness of power there must be a deep sense of responsibility. Secondly, with freedom of action there must be a law-abiding spirit, a habit of obedience to those laws of action which control the arbitrary changeful will of the moment. ”

“ The whole idea that the progress and extension of the trade and industry of one country is an injury to another is radically false. A spirit of jealousy, regarding the prosperity of others as involving injury to ourselves, is a curse to the individual, to the class, or to the nation which is imbued with it. ”

“ Tell a man or boy—more than once—that you trust him, and he will probably take it—and not without a warrant—that you don't, that in fact you have grave doubts but do not wholly despair. The phrase might be taboo on the platform to raise cheap cheers but silently recognised in the Cabinet as a guide in action. How much better would it have been all through the War, and how much better now, if there were no concealment, except when information given might assist the enemy, if we knew at once even when things went wrong! ”

“ It is not enough that there should be a just rule in which they acquiesce, but it is they themselves who should act—through agents, no doubt—and learn the habit of forming right judgments and acting justly. To deny him a share in political life—that is, in deciding the action of the State to which he belongs—is to deprive a man of one of those "activities of the soul which constitute happiness," to take from him one of the things that makes a full life for those who really live among their fellows. ”

“ Strange voices are already heard among us; some seem like echoes of the German spirit we are fighting to exorcise, others of that anarchic spirit still more fatal that makes a lawless democracy the most deadly foe of liberty and ordered progress. If we in our turn make self-interest, regardless of the rights of others, our guide, find in hatred, envy and jealousy our stimulus to action, victory will confer no lasting blessing and the end of this War will bring no real peace. ”

“ The work must be completed thoroughly; but that task once accomplished, to continue war, whether open or veiled, either to satisfy national hatred and the mere wish for vengeance, or, still more, in the desire of gain, would be to become—to use George Herbert's words—"parcel devils in damnation" with those who have driven or beguiled Germany to crime against humanity and to her own undoing. It is but too easy for heroic effort and firm determination to defend the right, to be corrupted either by a spirit of insolence or greed. ”

“ Like any other metaphor, that of rebuilding a city as compared with the action of a state, of a nation, after a time of change and trouble, is misleading if pressed too far. Progress for a nation must rather be the growth and development of a living organism adapting itself to new conditions or altered environment. We should "lop the moulder'd branch away," amputate the diseased tissue, as the true Conservative policy, and tend and foster the healthy growths with utmost care, as the true method for the Liberal who aims at improvement and fuller life. ”

“ To the question coming from within the Church, a voice might answer from the outer galilee, "Is not what is wrong with the Church—like what is wrong with most of us—thinking, perhaps talking, too much of itself, considering what figure it makes in the world, rather than in self-forgetful devotion giving itself to the work set before it, to delivering some message in which it intensely believes as necessary for mankind?" ”