I found the Chancellor very agitated. His Excellency at once began a harangue, which lasted for about twenty minutes. He said that the step taken by His Majesty's government was terrible to a degree; just for a word -"neutrality," a word which in war had so often been disregarded—just for a scrap of paper, Great Britain was going to make war on a kindred nation who desired nothing better than to be friends with her.-Sir Edward Goschen (August, 1914).

England will never consent that France shall abrogate the power of annulling at her pleasure, and under the pretence of a natural right of which she makes herself the only judge, the political system of Europe, established by solemn treaties and guaranteed by the consent of all the Powers. -William Pitt (1793).

In 1879, when foreign affairs were much before the public, I suggested to a publisher a series of books dealing quite shortly and clearly with the political history and constitution of the chief states of Europe from 1815. I designed them for popular instruction, thinking it of great importance that people in general should know what they were talking about when they spoke of France or Russia.

The result of my attempt was to convince me that our ignorance of the last sixty years is colossal.-Mandell Creighton.

There are some at the present moment who are raising a cry for democratic control of foreign policy. It is not power of control that the British democracy lacks in respect of foreign policy; its sovereignty is equally supreme in all departments of state. What it lacks is interest and knowledge.-J. F. Hearnshaw.

I cannot agree that nothing less than an immediate attack upon the honour and interest of this nation can authorise us to interpose in defence of weaker states and in stopping the enterprises of an ambitious neighbour. Whenever that narrow, selfish policy has prevailed in our counsels we have constantly experienced the fatal effects of it. By suffering our natural enemies to oppress the Powers less able than we are to make a resistance, we have permitted them to increase their strength; we have lost the most favourable opportunities of opposing them with success; and found ourselves at last obliged to run every hazard in making that cause our own in which we were not

wise enough to take part while the expense and danger might have been supported by others.-Chatham.

The forces of the world do not threaten; they operate. -Woodrow Wilson.

Upon 1st April [1861] Seward [the Secretary of State] sent to Lincoln "Some Thoughts for the President's Consideration." In this paper, after deploring what he described as the lack of any policy so far, and defining, in a way that does not matter, his attitude as to the forts in the south, he proceeded thus: "I would demand explanations from Great Britain and Russia and send agents into Canada, Mexico and Central America, to raise a vigorous spirit of independence on this continent against European intervention, and, if satisfactory explanations are not received from Spain and France, would convene Congress and declare war against them." In other words, Seward would seek to end all domestic dissensions by suddenly creating out of nothing a dazzling foreign policy. . . . In his brief reply Lincoln made no reference to Seward's amazing programme.--Lord Charnwood.

CHAPTER VII.

F

MAZZINI AND NATIONALITY.

EW men in modern history who have devoted their lives to political causes have left a memory so luminous and so fragrant as did Giuseppe Mazzini. There could not have been for him, living when he did and in the country which was his, a nobler aim than that which from his early years he set himself to promote. The union of the Italian people into a nation was assuredly worthy of the efforts of any idealist. It would be exaggeration to say that the man was as great as the cause, since no individual could be. Yet there is a sense in which in this instance such an assertion would almost be true. Mazzini was the very soul of the Italian national movement, the inspiring force of the triad celebrated in George Meredith's stanza

"Who blew the breath of life into her frame,

Cavour, Mazzini, Garibaldi: three:

Her Brain, her Soul, her Sword; and set her free From ruinous discords with one lustrous aim.”

And of these, the aims of the second were higher than have yet been realised. Italy can honour Cavour and Garibaldi for what they did for her; in honouring Mazzini she is reminded of things still to do. He burns on, an undimmed light. When the first Italian Parliament met, Mazzini exclaimed: "We have made Italy; it is now necessary to make the Italians." He saw regenerated Italy becoming "at one bound the missionary of a religion of progress and fraternity far greater and vaster than that she gave to humanity in the past."

How fine the man was in himself we can discern from his writings, and still more vividly from the impressions of many who came under his singularly quickening influ