‘Keep your temper’, from The Spectator, 8 August 1914:
‘When a nation goes to war the policy of the Government nearly always fails to carry with it the convictions of a minority. It is, of course, very rare for a Government who make war to find themselves without the support of the majority – for, as a rule, they would not even contemplate war without ascertaining the general tendency of public opinion – yet such cases have happened. It is probable that the majority were opposed to the war of George III. and Lord North against the American colonists. Even when the causa causans of a war in past history was a question of religious faith or of independence – both wonderfully binding motives – there were probably recalcitrants who said or felt strongly that their country was in the wrong.
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