of commercial ambition in Germany has figured as a danger to _us_, our
far greater commercial ambitions have not only figured as a danger to
Germany, but, in conjunction with our alliance with France and Russia,
her ancient foes, may well have led to a state of positive panic among
her people? And if, as the Allies would doubtless say, there was really
no need for any such panic, the situation was obviously sufficiently
grave to be easily made use of by a military class for its own ends, or
by an armaments ring or a clique of financiers for theirs. Indeed, it
would be interesting to know what enormous profits Kruppism (to use H.G.
Wells' expressive term) _has_ already made out of this world-madness.
Nor can it be denied that the commercial interest in England, if not
deliberately intending to provoke war with Germany, has not been at all
sorry to seize this opportunity of laying a rival Power low--if only in
order to snatch the said rival's trade. That, indeed, the daily Press
reveals only too clearly.

From all this the danger of class-domination emerges more and more into
relief. In Prussia the old Feudal caste remains--in a decadent state,
certainly, but perhaps for that very reason more arrogant, more vulgar,
and less conscious of any _noblesse oblige_ than even before. By itself,
however, and if unsupported by the commercial class, it would probably
have done little harm. In Britain the Feudal caste has ceased to be
exclusively military, and has become blended with the commercial class.
The British aristocracy now consists largely or chiefly of retired
grocers and brewers. Commercialism here has become more confessedly
dominant than in Germany, and whereas there the commercial class may
_support_ the military in its ambitions, here the commercial class
_uses_ the military as a matter of course and for its own ends. We have
become a Nation of Shopkeepers having our own revolvers and machine-guns
behind the counter.