QUOTATIONS IN WAR TIME

Gisborne Times, Volume XLVIII, Issue 4579, 7 June 1917, Page 3

QUOTATIONS IN WAR TIME

PITT AND BURKE

English newspapers are making a practice of using quotations from the speeches cf statesmen in times oi foimer wars, and applying tlioni to present circumstances. It is recalled that in 1803 Pitt said: ‘‘Me ought to have a due sense of the magnitude of tho danger with which wc are threatened; we ought to meet-it in the temper of mind which produces ■just confidence, which neither dispiso nor dreads the enemy; and while, on the one hand we accurately estmate the danger with winch we are threatened at this awful crisis, we must recollect on the other hand what it is wo have at stake, what it is we have to- contend for. It is for ou.r property, it is for our liberty, it is for our independence, nay, for our istence ns a nation; it is for our c'-.ai-acter, it is for our very name as Englishmen-; it is for everything dear to man on this side of tho graved’ Edmund Burke is thus quoted- 1 owe to this country my labour, wk eh js my all; and I owe to it ten times more industry, if ton times more I can exert. After all, I shall be an unprofitable servant. Public calamity is a mighty leveller; and there are occasions when any, even the slightest, chance of -doing good must be laid hold on, even by the most inconsiderable person.”