128 THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE ch,

of the atmosphere which momentarily surrounds him.The Prime Minister's natural instincts, as they so oftenare, were right and reasonable. He himself did notbelieve in hanging the Kaiser or in the wisdomor the possibility of a great indemnity. On the22nd of November he and Mr. Bonar Law issuedtheir Election Manifesto. It contains no allusionof any kind either to the one or to the other, but,speaking, rather, of Disarmament and the League ofNations , concludes that "our first task must be toconclude a just and lasting peace, and so to establishthe foundations of a new Europe that occasion forfurther wars may be for ever averted." In hisspeech at Wolverhampton on the eve of theDissolution (November 24), there is no word ofReparation or Indemnity. On the following dayat Glasgow, Mr. Bonar Law would promise nothing." We are going to the Conference," he said, c< asone of a number of allies, and you cannot expect amember of the Government, whatever he may think,to state in public before he goes into that Confer-ence, what line he is going to take in regard toany particular question." But a few days later atNewcastle (November 29) the Prime Minister waswarming to his work : " When Germany defeatedFrance she made France pay. That is the principlewhich she herself has established. There is absolutelyno doubt about the principle, and that is the principlewe should proceed upon—that Germany must pay