From ‘A National Government‘, The Spectator, 22 May 1915:
We are not going to say anything about the mistakes of the past. They are not merely dead. They are buried. We have got to think only of the future. It is obvious that the construction of a National Government, however ideal in appearance, will be a mockery unless that Government are prepared to face the new situation in a new spirit. Without that we might just as well have gone on with the old Government. The nation will be mocked if things are to go on just as before, and will never forgive the men who have mocked it. Unless the new Cabinet can awaken the nation, or, rather, can utilize the energy of the awakened nation—for it is awake, though its eyes are still dim and its purpose uncertain—and can obtain that national concentration in regard to which there has as yet only been talk but no action, we shall be witnessing nothing better than a solemn political farce.
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