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168
THE FUTURE OF ENGLAND
CH.

danger of a common hostility directed against us, to stand apart any more.

Therefore, we are seeking our own safety, and that of the world, both inside and outside Europe. First, in supporting the Concert of Europe, we have tried to lay the foundations of a true federation of Christendom. Failing that genuine concord, still so far from the minds of men, we have done our best to foster the growth of judicial arbitration, so that the coherent and comprehensible voice of the law may prevail in the babel of disagreeing diplomacies. In default of arbitration in its turn, we have begun to establish, by general agreements, our separate peace and concord with the individual powers. In further default of such a process, and as we approached reluctantly the realm of sheer force, we have indicated our side and our sympathies as between the alliances dividing Christendom. Fifthly, since this, too, would not be enough, in that danger zone where argument dies away and only might flourishes, we have initiated the reorganisation of our armaments, remembering that, of all the gods and goddesses, only one never lays aside her spear and shield and helmet. It is the goddess of wisdom.

And next, as though all else may fail us in Europe, force and argument and morality alike, we have striven, and shall strive, to mobilise the outer world in succour. We are providing oversea conduits and safety-valves for the superheated