Almost everyone on the European continent, exhausted by war, and faced with the shattered institutions of their ravaged nation-states, agreed. Only the victorious British, with their old institutions more or less intact, voiced skepticism, not so much about continental unity as about their own participation in Europe’s ambitious project.
彼时欧洲大陆饱受战争折磨，民族国家制度满目疮痍，支离破碎，莫内的思想得到了一致赞成。唯有获胜的英国人——他们的旧制度或多或少完好地保存着——对此表示怀疑，但其怀疑主要不是针对大陆的统一，而是对其自身是否参与雄心勃勃的欧洲工程犹豫不决。