motives which induced the best of our youth to offer their lives for
their country's cause.

Before the War it was a lack of "Trust in the people" which contributed
to our unprepared condition. How much nearer would victory have
been--possibly, indeed, there would have been no war--if our Government
and leading men had, instead of carping at the great man who had true
insight, stated plainly and calmly that great perils were threatened,
that it was necessary to set our house in order, to make military
training more general, to use all available knowledge in making ready
the machinery which would be necessary in case war was thrust upon us
suddenly! It was not "the people" who were responsible for the fact that
the storm found us so unprepared. They would not have resented being
told the truth, and asked to act accordingly. Even a candidate for
Parliament may sometimes say what he really thinks, and yet not repel
the electors, as witness one who, being asked long ago what was his view
about "one man one vote," answered, "It is a good question for a school
debating society. Let us talk about something important. Our first need
is a strong navy; without that we should be starving, perhaps eating
each other, or submitting to the most degrading terms, within a few
months of the outbreak of war, and the second is the increased
production of food at home to make us more self-supporting in time of
need. Let us think of these things." He was elected by the votes of the
artizans and agricultural labourers in a constituency where at the
election before there had been a great majority for the opposing
candidate, though he had no personal influence, had spent nothing in
"nursing the constituency," and refused to give pledges or act as a
delegate to register the instructions of any caucus. He died,
politically, without abjuring his faith. It was not the electors who
hastened his decease.