The Ringing of Bells

The declaration of war by the British Government united all classes, parties, and factions. Even the Irish Nationalists, so long accustomed to strife, hastened to join in the attack on belligerent Germany. ¹ So, too, the embittered suffragettes called off their struggle when confronted by the larger conflict. ² With no Walpole to tell the excited throngs that the ringing of bells must be followed by the wringing of hands, the news of the war was cheered by eager, enthusiastic crowds. Waiting to hear of the war, they were full of “a breathless hope rather than a breathless apprehension, a hope that the monotony of life was going to be broken.” ³ Britain, like the other nations, “slithered over the brink into the boiling cauldron of war without any trace of apprehension or dismay.” ⁴ All ills were forgotten, all evils dissolved in the fraternity of common hatred. ⁵ In John Bunyan's phrase, “Passion will have all things now.”