Transcriber's notes: Original spelling retained, original copyrightinformation retained, linked table of contents added by transcriber
Preface
Author's Foreword
Illustrations
England's Effort
Letter I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII.
Volume II
England's Effort
Letters To An American Friend
Spring-time in the North Sea—Snow on a British Battleship.
The War On All Fronts
England's Effort
Letters To An American Friend
By Mrs. Humphry Ward
With A Preface By Joseph H. Choate
Illustrated
New York Charles Scribner's Sons 1918
Copyright, 1916, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
Preface
HAS ENGLAND DONE ALL SHE COULD?
That is the question which Mrs. Ward, replying to some doubts andqueries of an American friend, has undertaken to answer in this seriesof letters, and every one who reads them will admit that her answer isas complete and triumphant as it is thrilling. Nobody but a woman, anEnglishwoman of warm heart, strong brain, and vivid power ofobservation, could possibly have written these letters which reflect thevery soul of England since this wicked and cruel war began. She hasunfolded and interpreted to us, as no one else, I think, has evenattempted to do, the development and absolute transformation of Englishmen and women, which, has enabled them, living and dying, to secure fortheir proud nation under God that "new birth of freedom" which Lincolnat Gettysburg prophesied for his own countrymen. Really the cause is thesame, to secure the selfsame thing, "that government of the people, bythe people, and for the people may not perish from the earth";—and ifany American wishes to know how this has been accomplished, he must readthese letters, which were written expressly for our enlightenment.
Mrs. Ward had marvellous qualifications for this patriotic task. Thegranddaughter of Doctor Arnold and the niece of Matthew Arnold, fromchildhood up she has been as deeply interested in politics and in publicaffairs as she has been in literature, by which she has attained suchworld-wide fame, and next to English politics, in American politics andAmerican opinion. She has been a staunch believer in the greatness ofAmerica's future, and has maintained close friendship with leaders ofpublic thought on both sides of the water. Her only son is a member ofParliament, and is fighting in the war, just as all the able-bodied menshe knows are doing.
She has received from the English government special opportunities ofseeing what England has been doin