these are the principal speeches i have made within the last four years. they have been chosen and collected with the idea of presenting a consistent and simultaneous view of the general field of british politics in an hour of fateful decision. i have exercised full freedom in compression and in verbal correction necessary to make them easier to read. facts and figures have been, where necessary, revised, ephemeral matter eliminated, and epithets here and there reconsidered. but opinions and arguments are unaltered; they are hereby confirmed, and i press them earnestly and insistently upon the public.

we approach what is not merely a party crisis but a national climacteric. never did [viii]a great people enter upon a period of trial and choice with more sincere and disinterested desire to know the truth and to do justice in their generation. i believe they will succeed.

winston s. churchill.

33 eccleston square.

october 26, 1909.