“Saint James’s Square,
“Friday afternoon
“My Dear W. W.:
“Send the Fleet to Peking before Japan gets in, or forfeit all claim to thinking Imperially.
“Yours, in haste,
“S. H.”
Mr. Williams’ mind as it now reverted to China was a complex of many things. Listening to that name of ill omen on the lips of the member for Blackhampton, listening to the burning scorn of his words, the prime minister suddenly remembered the giants of his youth. Above all, he remembered Gladstone’s power of carrying not only the House, but the country with him on a live issue.
This young man Endor, out of date as he was, a rather tragic anachronism in that cénacle sprawling, dozing and sneering around him, was a voice from the past. He had not the ear of the House it was true. The simple fact was, the House no longer possessed an ear; it had no longer the power to react to style or tradition. Demosthenes himself could not have pierced these professional hardbakes, who ran the country on the lines of their trade-unions. The British House of Commons was now the most soulless and vulgar of all assemblies; the U. P. had castrated it; but the prime minister, at any rate, was still able to recognize the divine fire.
Moreover, the flame burning in the heart of this young man, John Endor, set him thinking.
XXX
THE thoughts of Slippery Sam were after this fashion.
“H. means war with China. And he has already said in my private ear, ‘If you don’t do my bidding I shall have you out and put in somebody who will.’ Now I, Wilberforce Williams, who am quite frank with myself, though with nobody else, do not want war with China. It will be an unjust war. It will be an ill-timed war, because money is still pretty ‘tight,’ and war itself is still out of fashion. Moreover, it may lead ultimately—[Mr. Williams was a far-sighted man]—to trouble with Japan and possibly, I don’t say probably, to war with the United States. Nor do I think this Chinese business can ever be popular. Hartz says his newspapers and his cinemas shall make it popular. Well, it is only too true, that in that line he can do anything ... all the same ... this may be ... I don’t say it is ... the psychological moment for the much trodden worm to begin to turn.