Page:Great Speeches of the War.djvu/213

Rh overthrew him. The moral forces which were against Napoleon at the end of the war are against the German Emperor to-day, and will overthrow him. [Cheers.]

We have been taught to admire the perfection and the efficiency of German preparation. So far as their army is concerned that admiration is well deserved, but in every other sphere they have made every mistake which men could make, so much so that one has the feeling that the old Roman saying applies to them: "That whom the gods intend to destroy they first drive mad." [Cheers.] The mistakes have all been of one kind. They have so worshipped force that they not only did not acknowledge, but they could not understand, moral forces. They are struck with moral blindness. That is the secret of their mistakes. They have made it with Italy. They thought that Italy was bound to follow a captive at the German chariot wheels. They could not understand that they might refuse to take part in a war of naked aggression. They made the same mistake with Belgium. Their preparations for invading France had been made years ago. They always intended to go through Belgium, and they assumed that when the hour came they had only to send an ultimatum to Belgium, as they sent it, and that they would get their way. They could not understand that a small nation with an army which, compared with theirs, was so contemptible, should prefer honour to ease, should prefer freedom even to security. [Cheers.] They made the mistake, and they have paid for it. [Cheers.] And in revenge they have inflicted upon Belgium horrid cruelties which are crying aloud—and will not cry in vain—to Heaven for vengeance. [Cheers.]

They are making the same mistake to-day in the way they are trying to influence the opinion of neutral countries. They have an Embassy in America to propagate sympathy for Germany. They cannot understand that any statements, however plausible, that any inventions, however false, must be worse than useless when they are followed instantly by the knowledge of the facts, when the American people learn—as we are told—that for every Belgian soldier who has fallen three non-combatants have been killed—[Shame]—when they learn that Germany has, in sacking Louvain, in the destruction of the cathedral at Rheims, adopted methods which have not been heard of in civilized warfare for hundreds of years. That is their mistake. And they have made the same mistake with us. I do not mean that they made the mistake of supposing