results. God has blessed our arms with unexpected good fortune. For myself, having studied this matter with some attention, I could not have hoped that at this stage of the war circumstances would have been so favourable to the Allied cause. [Cheers.] We must look to the solid foundations, to our real sources of strength, and even if the battle now proceeding were to prove as disastrous as it appears likely to prove triumphant, and even if other battles were to come, evil in fortune and sinister in consequences, still the British Empire, if its resolution does not fail, can finally settle the matter as it chooses. [Cheers.]
So far as the Navy is concerned, we cannot fight while the enemy remains in port. We hope a decision at sea will be a feature of this war. Our men, who are spending a tireless vigil, hope they will have a chance to settle the question with the German Fleet, and if they do not come out and fight they will be dug out like rats in a hole. [Cheers.] Under the shield of our Navy you can raise an army in this country which will settle the war within six or seven months. We can without difficulty, without boasting, without indulging in speculation, undoubtedly put into the field 25 Army Corps, comprising a million men, who, for their personal quality, understanding of the quarrel, spontaneous and voluntary energy, and initiative will not find their counterpart in the Armies of Europe. [Cheers.] There is no reserve of manhood, there is no reserve of vital energy, on the side of our enemies which can prevent that million of men from turning the scale in our favour. [Cheers.] In my opinion, it is only a question of time and Britain holding firm. It is only a question of how much blood is to be shed, and the more men we can send the less the slaughter will be. [Cheers.] As to the causes of the war, you have but to cast your minds back to 1860, from which time can be traced successive acts of violence on the part of Germany. There have been three recent occasions on which Europe has been on the verge of war, but it was averted by the patience and self-restraint of France. The late Lord Salisbury was forced to the conclusion that it was impossible to maintain a foreign policy based upon association with Germany. Germany began the building of a great navy for our undoing. Every detail of the German scheme proved that it was meant for us—for our exclusive benefit. [Laughter.] You recollect the Agadir crisis. The war would have happened then if the Chancellor of the Exchequer had not gone to the Mansion House and made
