there are many people who have not the time or inclination to follow up
special questions fully, but may be glad of a summary, and that a mere
sketch-plan of the whole ground to be covered, filled in here and there
in more detail, may have its use as a kind of bird's-eye view by which
the relations of a number of subjects to each other and the general
character of each may be seen.

For convenience of treatment and as an aid to memory the various
problems to be discussed are arranged under three heads; following the
old Victorian watchwords of the party which claimed to be
progressive--Peace, Retrenchment, Reform.

The policy once indicated by these terms may in many cases have been
discarded, and no doubt they were often used in a sense very different
from that in which they must serve in our classification. "Peace" and
"Retrenchment" have been used to cover a policy which by reducing the
Navy would have left us naked to our enemies and a prey to starvation
within a few months from the outbreak of war; "Reform" to denote changes
which pedantry or envy may urge, but which could lead to no useful
practical result. In spite of this, the three words do in fact, like
the words Liberty, Equality, Fraternity--whatever crimes may have been
committed in their name--indicate and express three ideas that we must
have definitely before us in considering what the lines of
reconstruction ought to be.

The spirit--the tone of mind in which the work of reconstruction is
approached--will count for much. First of all, it is essential to have
hope--a real expectation not only that by strenuous effort and wise
foresight the country will meet and overcome the trials which are
inevitable, and the perils which threaten after as well as during the