He was strongly in favour of peace – that is to say, he liked his wars to be fought at a distance and, if possible, in the name of God

Whatever his political convictions may have been, the Englishman of the ’70s and ’80s was something of a Liberal at heart. He believed in freedom, free trade, progress and the Seventh Commandment. He also believed in reform. He was strongly in favour of peace – that is to say, he liked his wars to be fought at a distance and, if possible, in the name of God. 

G. Dangerfield, The strange death of liberal England (1936), 22