What are we to believe? One thing is pretty certain, and that is that the British public, though so patient “a hass,” may kick at last and refuse to take “rations” of thistles, while the German Hog is fed on carrots and corn. To quote from a well-reasoned article in a morning contemporary: “The blind and fatal shears of promiscuous prohibition cut off the just and the unjust together. They are, moreover, a most disturbing element in trade, and are reducing our merchants to despair.” True! And if the “disturbing element” is not promptly checked, we may look out for storms! “TE DEUM LAUDAMUS” THE GREAT THANKSGIVING (_Published in the “Pall-Mall Gazette”_) It is time we gave thanks--indeed, it is more than time! Perhaps, had we seen more clearly into the future we might have given thanks long before this--thanks for our kinship with America--for the ties of blood, of language, of tradition, memory, and association which have made us, as some say, “cousins,” but as we prefer to believe, brothers--brothers in heart and soul, as we are to-day brothers-in-arms. Let it be admitted that we have not always quite understood each other. Small rancours, petty jealousies, trifling differences have arisen casually from time to time between the people of a great Empire and the people of a great Republic, which seem now but the merest gossamer cobwebs spun by the ever-working spiders of rumour and mischief, easily brushed away at a touch. The trumpet blast of a noble Cause has brought to our side our youngest comrade, alive with energy, passion, and enthusiasm, expressing in every attitude Tennyson’s eloquent lines:-- “I wake to the higher aims Of a land that has lost for a little her lust of gold And love of a peace that was full of wrongs and shames Horrible, hateful, monstrous, not to be told, And I hail once more the banner of battle, unroll’d!” * * * * *