THE session ended calmly, and the Ministry¹ saw no dangerous signs upon the benches where the majority sat. It was visible, however, from certain articles in the Moderate Journals, that the demands of the Jewish and Christian² financiers were increasing daily, that the patriotism³ of the banks required a civilizing⁴ expedition to Nigritia, and that the steel trusts, eager in the defence of our coasts and colonies, were crying out for armoured cruisers and still more armoured cruisers. Rumours⁶ of war began to be heard. Such rumours sprang up every year as regularly as the trade winds; serious people paid no heed⁷ to them and the government usually let them die away from their own weakness unless they grew stronger and spread. For in that case the country would be alarmed. The financiers only wanted colonial wars and the people did not want any wars at all. It loved to see its government proud and even insolent⁸, but at the least suspicion that a European war was brewing⁹, its violent emotion would quickly have reached the House. Paul Visire was not uneasy. The European situation was in his view completely reassuring¹⁰. He was only irritated by the maniacal¹¹ silence of his Minister of Foreign Affairs. That gnome¹² went to the Cabinet meetings with a portfolio¹³ bigger than himself stuffed full of papers, said nothing, refused to answer all questions, even those asked him by the respected President of the Republic, and,

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