for various sanitary and educational purposes, and he largely
increased the sum allocated to national insurance. In order to
obtain the necessary funds he proposed to establish a national
system of valuation for local taxation, separating site from im-
provement values; he increased the income tax and supertax,
and took a million from the sinking fund. The proposals, though
welcomed by Radicals and Labour men, were not popular with
many of his own party; and he had to give up an extra penny
on the income tax, and postpone the operation of most of his
increased grants for a year; and even so, he only escaped defeat
on an Opposition amendment by 303 to 265 votes.
During 1913 and the first seven months of 1914 the King and Queen strengthened their hold on the loyalty of their subjects by popular progresses through the Potteries in April, Royal and through Lanes, in July 1913, through the Midlands in ^visit's. June, and through the Lowlands of Scotland in July 1914. They also took the occasion of the marriage of their cousin Prince Ernest Augustus of Cumberland to the Kaiser's daughter to pay a courteous visit in May 1913 to Berlin, where they were courteously received. Of more political importance was the State visit of President Poincare to Lon- don, in the following June, as the King's guest. The cordiality of the official welcome was reflected in the enthusiasm of the people in the streets. In April 1914, the King and Queen, accom- panied by the Foreign Minister, paid a return visit to Paris, where they were welcomed with similar enthusiasm by President and people. It was felt in both countries that by these mutual visits the system of friendly cooperation between France and England had received a fresh ratification.
Uneasiness as to the national defences in view of the naval preparations and restless diplomacy of Germany gave a con- siderable impetus during 1913 to Lord Roberts' ffoterts campaign for universal military service. In spite of his and Na- advanced age he addressed great meetings in large tionaiDe- p rov i nc i a l towns at Bristol in Feb., at Wolverhamp- ton in March, at Leeds in April, and at Glasgow in May being everywhere received with respect and even enthu- siasm. But no party, as a party, was prepared to take up his cause, which received little support from the organized workers; and the Government, by the mouth of Col. Seely, the War Minister, denounced compulsory service as " a political and military disaster." They pinned their faith to the Territorial Force, which Lord Haldane had created. The reluctance of many patriotic men to aid Lord Roberts' movement was due to a fear lest compulsory service should divert effort and money from the navy, the principal defensive force of Great Britain. In introduc- ing the navy estimates for 1913, which involved an increase of over a million, Mr. Churchill, the First Lord of the Admiralty, threw out a suggestion that the Powers who were building ships in competition with each other might all take " a naval holiday " for a year; but the idea met with no response.
In spite of this lack of response, the Chancellor of the Ex- chequer, in an interview published Jan. i 1914, called loudly fora . reconsideration of the expenditure on armaments. A
Naval and ,
Military large section of the Liberal party, whose spokesman Prepara- was sir John Brunner, chairman of the National Liberal Federation, strongly supported Mr. Lloyd George. But neither in the Cabinet, nor with the nation at large, did this view prevail. Sir Edward Grey said at Manchester on Feb. 3, that to reduce the British naval programme would be staking too much on a gambling chance. The navy estimates introduced in March by Mr. Winston Churchill were the largest on record, amounting to 51,550,000; and yet they were at- tacked by Lord Charles Beresford and by the Unionists gener- ally, with considerable public support, as insufficient. On the army estimates, which also showed a slight increase, Col. Seely declared that the British army was much better trained and was much more formidable as a fighting machine than any con- tinental army, and that the Expeditionary Force was absolutely ready. The power and readiness of the fleet were shown by a great review and test mobilization, on a scale never seen before, at Spithead in the third week of July.
III. THE WAR PERIOD
The murder of the Archduke Francis Ferdinand at Sarajevo on June 28 horrified public opinion in Great Britain, and led to the expression, in Parliament and elsewhere, of much sympathy for the aged Emperor Francis Joseph. But B ^"th comparatively few Englishmen realized that the crime crisis. might start a general conflagration in Europe; and the weeks which elapsed before Austria made any overt move encour- aged the belief that the effects would be isolated and localized. Even the drastic and peremptory ultimatum addressed by Austria to Serbia on July 23 failed to impress the public with a due sense of its gravity, absorbed as they were in the Buckingham Palace Conference of July 21-4, in the Dublin shooting affray of July 26, and in the apparent imminence of civil war in Ireland. It was only in the very last days of July that Austria's rejection of Serbia's conciliatory reply and her immediate declaration of war, followed rapidly by the Russian and German mobilizations, and by the evidence of French resolve to rally to France's ally Russia, aroused the British people to the fact that a great European war was impending. Even then the general expectation was that Great Britain would not be involved in it. On July 27 Sir Edward Grey gave Parliament an account of his anxious and earnest endeavours to bring the Powers together and avert hostilities. On July 30 the Prime Minister announced that the Government were doing their best to "circumscribe the area of possible conflict." At last on July 31 Mr. Asquith postponed the Irish Amending bill and all controversial business, announced that the issues of peace and war were hanging in the balance, and that it was of vital importance that Great Britain should present a united front. Mr. Bonar Law expressed his full agreement, stating that he spoke for Ulstermen as well as for Unionists.
The implications of the entente with France and of the sub- sequent understanding with Russia were not generally grasped even yet. Serbia had few sympathizers in England, the brutal murders of King Alexander and his Queen having Division never been forgotten. Germany's apparent reasonable- opinion. ness in the Balkan negotiations had lulled for the time public and even ministerial suspicions of her designs. Some leading journals, and notably The Times, did yeoman's work in insisting on the necessity, even from the most selfish point of view, of Britain standing by France. The principal Liberal journals, however, notably the Daily News and Manchester Guardian, protested vehemently against any departure from neutrality. The Cabinet were as divided as the public, the bulk of the more Radical mem- bers pronouncing for neutrality, while Sir E. Grey, supported by the Prime Minister and others, insisted on British obligations to France. In consequence Sir E. Grey could not give, on July 3 1 , the promise to cooperate with France for which M. Cambon, the French ambassador, asked; nor could the King respond in anything except friendly generalities to an earnest appeal from the French President. But on Saturday Aug. i, the day on which Germany declared war on France, there was a hurried summons of such members of the Unionist Opposition as could be collected at the week's end, and as a result Attitude. of their meeting Mr. Bonar Law wrote on the Sunday to the Prime Minister as follows:
" Lord Lansdowne and I feel it our duty to inform you that in our opinion, as well as in that of all the colleagues whom we have been able to consult, it would be fatal to the honour and security of the United Kingdom to hesitate in supporting France and Russia at the present juncture; and we offer our unhesitating support to the Government in any measures they may consider necessary for that object."
This, the natural outcome of the patriotic support which, in spite of acute domestic differences, the Opposition had through- out afforded to the foreign policy of Sir E. Grey, im- mensely strengthened the stalwarts in the Cabinet: and the evasion by Germany of Sir E. Grey's demand , ol
that she should respect the neutrality of Belgium helped Aug. 3. them still more. Accordingly, on Monday Aug. 3 the Foreign Minister was in a position to make a speech of vast historic moment, inviting the House of Commons to act up to the obli-
