Even if such unpleasant incidents should recur as those to which Mr.
Roosevelt alludes, we may trust with tolerable confidence that he would
now find no "hatred" for America, or "contempt" for Canada, in the tone
of the British Press. The years which have passed since 1896 have not
only created a new feeling between England and America, but have drawn
the Empire together. In this respect--in every respect--much remains to
be done.

But at least we can say with assurance that a good beginning has been
made towards that consolidation of the English-speaking countries on
which the well-being of the world so largely depends.


POSTSCRIPT.--The notion of inevitable hostility between a constitutional
Monarchy and a Republic has been fostered by American writers in whom
one would have expected greater clearness of perception. We find Lowell,
for instance, writing in his well-known essay _On a Certain
Condescension in Foreigners_: "I never blamed her (England) for not
wishing well to democracy--how should she?" The more obvious question
is, How should not one democracy wish another well? There may have been
at the time when Lowell wrote, and there may even be to-day, a handful
of royalty-worshippers in England who regard a Republic as a vulgar,
unpicturesque form of government; but this is not a political opinion,
or even prejudice, but mere stolid snobbery. Whatever were England's
misdemeanours towards America at the time of the Civil War, they were
not prompted by any hatred of democracy.

I find the same misconception insisted on in a document much later than
Lowell's essay: a leaflet by the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, contributed