venture to say you will have poured out unavailingly, because too late, the men who are wanted now and who must be again, if you hope to secure a prompt and satisfactory peace. [Cheers.] I say that our supreme object being a quick and decisive peace, the only means that can bring it about are quick and decisive successes, and these can only be obtained by more men being sent to the front. [Cheers.]
Let me take another point. We must take all the chances of war. Suppose we get a defeat! I can perceive, and I am happy to perceive that dead silence greets that hypothesis, no one here will believe it possible; but if people don't believe it to be possible, they must take care to make it impossible. You cannot with a small Army fight those millions of brave and skillful men and avert the danger of defeat. Suppose defeat were to happen? Has any man in this hall ever realized what it would mean to this country? I do not suppose we would be annexed to Prussia, but I am certain of this, a defeat would mean the annihilation of the British Empire, and it would mean the reduction of Great Britain to be a subservient State, with an Army limited by agreement, with a Navy limited by agreement, a country which had once been a great country living as a province on sufferance. I ask. Would anybody in this hall care to survive that moment? [Cries of "No."] Then, if you don't care to survive it, you must provide against it. [Cheers.] Scotsmen, if I read my countrymen's character aright, do not like to leave anything to chance in their business. They are supposed to be almost too cautious, because of that national characteristic; but they are not then surely going to leave the whole issue of the safety and future of this Empire to chance. Are they not when they leave this hall to-night going as far as they can to guarantee that our fates and fortunes shall not be left to chance? [Cheers.] Well, I hope it is so. I cannot believe that it will be otherwise. I am quite certain that the men of Glasgow, the men of Scotland, ay, and the men of England, too, have only got to realize what the position really is, and I can state from the bottom of my heart that I have not overstated it to-night. They have only got to realize what the position is, and there will be no difficulty about recruiting. I daresay that I have failed to bring it home to you, but had I the tongue of men or of angels I could say no more than I have to bring home to your hearts and consciences the nature of the crisis in which we are involved at this moment.
