When the hour of war came she used Austria, used the old fighting alliance and tried to use the new idea of English neutrality.

That is to say, she used the rope, the razor, and the well.
But it was either by accident or by individual diplomatic skill that England at the end of the three years even had her own hands free to help in frustrating the German plot.

The mass of the English people had no notion of such a plot; and indeed regarded the occasional suggestion of it as absurd.

Nor did even the people who knew best know very much better.

Thanks and even apologies are doubtless due to those who in the deepest lull of our sleeping partnership with Prussia saw her not as a partner but a potential enemy; such men as Mr.Blatchford, Mr.Bart Kennedy, or the late Emil Reich.