He did not know there were physical laws and economic laws, quantities and reactions that all humanity voting _nemine contradicente_ cannot vote away, and that are disobeyed only at the price of destruction.

He did not know there are moral laws that cannot be bent by any force of glamour, or are bent only to fly back with vindictive violence.

In the face of shrapnel or the Judgment Day, it was evident to Redwood that this man would have sheltered behind some curiously dodged vote of the House of Commons.
What most concerned his mind now was not the powers that held the fastness away there to the south, not defeat and death, but the effect of these things upon his Majority, the cardinal reality in his life.

He had to defeat the Giants or go under.

He was by no means absolutely despairful.