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Show WUM By THE RT. HON. AUGUSTINE BIRRELL WHEN first asked to write something for this book it seemed a pitiful task to sit down and string together a few phrases about a crime, so heinous, so horrifying, and perpetrated under our eyes, as this attempted murder of peaceful and prosperous Belgium. We saw the crime committed and mean to avenge it or disappear. To shed ink over such an episode is hardly apposite-not pens but pikes is the motto of to-day. And yet who would not do anything he could to assuage so great a grief and to compassionate so excruciating a sorrow P The other day in Ireland whilst arranging for the temporary occupation of Belgian refugees of a commodious, sturdily built, and happily half-empty country house with a spacious mediaeval-looking refectory, large and airy dormitories and a private chapel, in a word, aworkhouse, I noticed, standing by and hearkening to our talk, an aged but still bright-eyed pauper leaning over his pitch-fork. Recognising in him the legitimist of the establishment, the Bourbon of the workhouse, I expressed to him the hope that he would extend a kindly welcome to these poor exiles for a few days, whilst other arrangements were being made for their accommodation. The old man replied with eagerness, and with that splendid command of the English language which belongs almost exclusively to the Irish poor, that he was only waiting to rise to the level of a great opportunity. It would therefore seem as if there were a part for all of us-and if it be but a small part, we yet must do it, whilst deploring its littleness. Belgium had hardly entered into the fullness of her inheritance when this great trouble befell her. In trade and commerce, in industrial life she had indeed already made for herself a great name. She had a Black Country almost fit to compare with our own. Her iron and flax had made her feared in Birmingham and necessary to Belfast, and wherever cheap contracts, honourably performed, are held in reverence, there the name of Belgium stood high in men's regard. A thrifty, practical people, fully abreast with all the troublesome problems of peace we knew them to be, but in other afi'airs appertaining more to the realm of taste and spirit, Belgium was also fast forging ahead, vying with France and altogether eclipsing Germany. Poets, artists, novelists, philosophers, and theologians, as well as scholars and mathematicians, were carving for Belgium a foremost place among the nations. One cannot but wonder what will be the effect of this catastrophe upon the genius of Flanders. Blood and tears are powerful ingredients in the manufacture of manhood, and it may well be that in due time those who come after this blood-stained age will be able to see in the masterpieces of the new Flemish art and literature some traces of the heroic resolve and fierce determination to bear cruel misfortune we have witnessed with so much admiration. W ,__.___ 121 MM |
