[The following article was requested by the Editor of the "North
American Review," as one of a number, by several persons, dealing
with the question of a formal political connection, proposed by
Mr. Andrew Carnegie, between the United States and the British
Empire, for the advancement of the general interests of the
English-speaking peoples. The projects advocated by previous
writers embraced: 1, a federate union; 2, a merely naval union or
alliance; or, 3, a defensive alliance of a kind frequent in
political history.]

The words "kinship" and "alliance" express two radically distinct
ideas, and rest, for both the privileges and the obligations involved
in them, upon foundations essentially different. The former represents
a natural relation, the latter one purely conventional,--even though
it may result from the feelings, the mutual interests, and the sense
of incumbent duty attendant upon the other. In its very etymology,
accordingly, is found implied that sense of constraint, of an
artificial bond, that may prove a source, not only of strength, but of
irksomeness as well. Its analogue in our social conditions is the
marriage tie,--the strongest, doubtless, of all bonds when it realizes
in the particular case the supreme affection of which our human nature
is capable; but likewise, as daily experience shows, the most fretting
when, through original mistake or unworthy motive, love fails, and
obligation alone remains.

Personally, I am happy to believe that the gradual but, as I think,
unmistakable growth of mutual kindly feelings between Great Britain
and the United States during these latter years--and of which the