[110] In the year of boom to June 1920, on a total trade of $13,350 millions, the excess of exports over imports was $2870 millions. In the year, partly one of depression, to June 1921, on a total trade of $10,150 millions, the excess of exports was $2860 millions. CHAPTER VII THE REVISION OF THE TREATY AND THE SETTLEMENT OF EUROPE The deeper and the fouler the bogs into which Mr. Lloyd George leads us, the more credit is his for getting us out. He leads us in to satisfy our desires; he leads us out to save our souls. He hands us down the primrose path and puts out the bonfire just in time. Who, ever before, enjoyed the best of heaven and hell as we do? In England, opinion has nearly completed its swing, and the Prime Minister is making ready to win a General Election on Forbidding Germany to Pay, Employment for Every one, and a Happier Europe for All. Why not, indeed? But this Faustus of ours shakes too quickly his kaleidoscope of halos and hell–fire, for me to depict the hues as they melt into one another. I shall do better to construct an independent solution, which is _possible_ in the sense that nothing but a change in the popular will is necessary to achieve it, hoping to influence this will a little, but leaving it to those, whose business it is, to gage the moment at which it will be safe to embroider such patterns on a political banner. If I look back two years and read again what I wrote then, I see that perils which were ahead are now passed safely. The patience of the common people of Europe and the stability of its institutions have survived the worst shocks they will receive. Two years ago the Treaty, which outraged Justice, Mercy, and Wisdom, represented the momentary will of the victorious countries. Would the victims be patient? Or would they be driven by despair and privation to shake Society’s foundations? We have the answer now. They have been patient. Nothing very much has happened, except pain and injury to individuals. The communities of Europe are settling down to a new equilibrium. We are almost ready to turn our minds from the avoidance of calamity to the renewal of health.