This is a criticam moment, m'dears, in the history of the country we all love so well; indeed, it is a time of danger, or doubt and difficulty for all the world. And for this evil there is only one cure--a great and ennobling patriotism which will stimulate the citizens of every nation into serving their own country bravely and selflessly, and will inspire every country throughout the world to encourage and to be of help to its neighbour.

Above all, it is imperative that England shall stand firm in the midst of this world of gloom and of doubt. For three hundred years and more all the nations have looked upon England as a small boy does on his big brother--sometimes with anger, sometimes with enmity, even with envy, but always with a certain sense of hero-worship. Spain straddled the world like a Colossus till the roll of Drake's drum sounded her death-knell; the shadow of Bonaparte darkened all Europe till a little one-armed sailor with a copybook maxim knocked out the keystone of the bogey-man's edifice of power; Germany's irresistable might, marshalled for the destruction of her rivals, was broken by the Old Bills of 'Frenches' contemptible little army'!

But England, m'dears, has a chink in her armour, an Achilles heel into which Fate will plant a poisoned dart one day. It is her strength as well as her weakness--the thing that beat the Kaiser as well as that which may presently rend the Union Jack to shreds. England's foreign friends are wont to say to her: 'You English, you must always have your grumble. In war it was your plum-and-apple jam; in peace it is your Government. And now when the world is staggering, will you just go on grumbling and waiting for things to come right in the end? Because that way lies ruin for England,' they say, 'and ruin for England would be a deadly blow for the rest of the world.' But remember, my friends, that there is still one thing which in this terrible and grave crisis can and will save our beloved country from utter collapse. It is the romance of patriotism. The sailor may forget the sea, the wooer may forget his love, but is there a Frenchman to this day who does not thrill at the sound of the name of Napolean, or an American whose eyes do not flash when he listens to the 'Star-Spangled Banner'? And, believe me, that there is no Briton worthy of the name whose heart fails to beat a little faster while he hears around him, or joins in intoning, the lusty strains of 'God Save our King'!

Other nations are apt to say that there is very little real patriotism in England; that her peoples are nothing but a community of huckstering shopkeepers whose only thought is for their tills. In answer to this lying statement I would ask this question: 'Who were those who marched singing and jesting into the inferno of Flanders mud in 1914?' Were they mere money-grubbers? And was it the worship of Mammon that caused the glorious names of Ramillies or Blenheim, of Corunna, Trafalgar or Rorke's Drift and a score of others--names now almost illegible through the dust of ages--to be recorded on the tattered regimental banners which hang in St. Paul's Cathedral or at Windsor?

Abroad one often hears the remark--'As safe as the Bank of England.' Is not that the finest tribute that could be paid to the patriotism of our people to the trustworthiness and reliability which characterize our race? Wherever you may go you will find that English credit stands high. Even to-day, when England is fighting a grim battle to uphold her financial predominance in the world, her commercial good name has never once been questioned.

Facing the greatest crisis in her history--one which is in many ways more strenuous than that of 1914--Britain astounds the emotional Frenchman and the stern German by her sang-froid, by making light of what she calls unncessary fuss, and by declaring that everything will come out all right in the end. That is her usual attitude. Her patriotism during this crisis takes the same form of fearlessness as it did whenever she was called to arms, of reluctance to talk heroics, of indulging neither in lamentations nor in boastful tirades, only in an occasional grumble before turning resolutely to the task of reconstruction.

So far so good. But in this world of intedependent relationships and interwoven commerce, credit, m'dears, and international trust are essential to the safety of every country. And I am afraid that your apparent indifference to the imminence of the peril, your casual grumbles and scornful pooh-poohs are shaking foreign confidence in Britain, and engendering the fear that such an easy-going nation as you are will never have the energy to pull through so serious a crisis as the present one appears to be.

The time has come, my friends, for your patriotism to take on a new form: that of showing a more determined, aye, a graver face to the world, and of indicating by word as well as by action that Britain is able to stand firm and erect even in her present trouble. Paris, New York, Berlin, are all of them watching you anxiously. On their impressions of you much of Britain's immediate prosperity depends. World credit is a thing which rests entirely on that elusive factor--confidence. So now I ask you is this not the time for John Bull to take off his coat and give the whole world proof of his ability to face trouble?

It is no use just indulging in a drowsy grumble; the citizens of Pompeii doubtless grumbled when they were first warned that their city was threatened by a volcanic eruption, for excavations have proved that they were taken wholly unaware. England to-day is far more seriously threatened than they were. Then why should we not give to the rest of the world proof of what we know well in our heart of hearts: that our country is well able to take care of herself and ready to meet her troubles and to face hard facts? Not only is this attitude vital to our own existence, but to the safety and comfort of the whole world. For if England falls she would not go down alone, but would drag half the world with her in a Titanic collapse. Never truer than to-day were the words of the poet:

'Who stands if England fall?
Who dies if England live?'

And yet, side by side with the sublime romance of true patriotism--and what I have said applies to other countries as well as to England--there is the danger of fanatical enthusiasm. Patriotism in its best and truest sense means putting the interests of one's country before one's own, doing one's utmost to make its name synonymous with peace, justice, courtesy and power, and upholding its dignity before all other nations. It is not, and never was, a sort of excuse for trumpet-blowing and sabre-rattling; it does not condone that awful and inexcusable thing--war. But of this more anon. Faith! I cannot bear even to breathe the words of romance and patriotism in connexion with that hideous blot on your civilization of to-day.