Assuredly, when the time comes, all these things--and many more--will be remembered. And the dawn of the Unknown To-morrow will, I feel assured, bring with it many astounding and drastic changes. William Le Queux. Devonshire Club, S.W. _April 1915._ BRITAIN'S DEADLY PERIL CHAPTER I THE PERIL OF "MUDDLING THROUGH" Has Britain, in the course of her long history, ever been prepared for a great war? I do not believe she has; she certainly was not ready last August, when the Kaiser launched his thunderbolt upon the world. Perhaps, paradoxical as it may seem, this perpetual unreadiness may be, in a sense, part of Britain's strength. We are a people slow of speech, and slow to anger. It takes much--very much--to rouse the British nation to put forth its full strength. "Beware of the wrath of the man slow to anger" is a useful working maxim, and it may be that the difficulty of arousing England is, in some degree, a measure of her terrible power once she is awakened. Twice or thrice, at least, within living memory we have been caught all unready when a great crisis burst upon us--in the Crimea, in South Africa, and now in the greatest world-conflict ever seen. Hitherto, thanks to the amazing genius for improvisation which is characteristic of our race, we have "muddled through" somehow, often sorely smitten, sorely checked, but roused by reverses to further and greater efforts. The bulldog tenacity that has ever been our salvation has been aroused in time, and we have passed successfully through ordeals which might have broken the spirit and crushed the resistance of nations whose mental and physical fibre was less high and less enduring. We have "muddled through" in the past: shall we "muddle through" again? It is the merest truism--patent to all the world--that when Germany declared war, we were quite unready for a contest. For years the nation had turned a deaf ear to all warnings. The noble efforts of the late Lord Roberts, who gave the last years of his illustrious life--despite disappointments, and the rebuffs of people in high places who ought to have known--nay, who did know--that his words were literally true, passed unheeded.