THE DRAMA OF 365 DAYS
him. It is her right, her natural right, and the part she has taken in this war has proved it.
AND . . . AFTER?
Such is the drama of the war as I have seen it.
How far it has gone, when it will close and the
curtain fall on it none of us can say. With five
millions already dead, twice as many wounded,
one kingdom in ruins, another desolate from
disease, the larger part of Europe under arms,
civil life paralysed, social existence overshadowed
by a mourning that enters into nearly every
household; with a war still in progress compared
with which all other wars sink into insignificance;
with a public debt which Pitt, Fox, and Burke
(who thought £240,000,000 frightful) would have
considered certain to sink the ship of State; with
taxation such as our fathers never conceived
possible—what will be our condition when this
hideous war comes to an end?
It is dangerous to prophesy, but, as far as we can judge, the least of the results will be that we shall all be poorer; that great fortunes will have diminished and vast enterprises disappeared; that what remains of our savings will have a different value; that some of us who thought we had earned our rest will have to go on working; that the industrial classes will have a time
