If General Maurice should be shown by a proper inquiry
to' have weighed hiswords insufficiently; he can expect no mercy. For that would prove that he took the rashest of all courses without verifying his facts. If, on the other .hand, he should be justified, no words could do enough honour to his rectitude and courage in risking all for a really great cause. In the latter event the Government would have to fall. But even in the uncertainty under which we write it fills us with impatience to hear people say that no alternative to the present Administration is possible. Surely, in the circumstances which General Maurice is seeking to establish, it would. be clear that any alternative would be an improvement.. upon an Administration of which one at least of the leaders had been wanting in honesty. All the talk about Mr. Asquith's schemes against the Government are moonshine. Impartial observers must' have noticed that Mr. Asquith while he has been in opposition has erred, if he can 'be said to have erred; in the restraint and indul- gence with which time after time he has helped the Government out of difficulties. If the Government fall, they will fall through their own defects or misdemeanours. They must be replaced; not by a Party Government, but by a National Government representing all the strongest smelliest ele,mentsin the .country. Of these these are plenty, and it is absurd to pretend otherwise.
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