image is graven on every single piece of current coin in England, that her army is the Queen's army,' that her great court of justice is the Queen's Bench,' that the ships which represent the power and the prestige of England are the Queen's ships,' and that in every public ceremony throughout the Empire the memory of the great and venerable Queen who has presided for sixty years over its development is evoked.

"The friends of France recognise with pleasure that the Frenchman is chivalrous, that he possesses in a marked degree respect for old age. What then has happened that he should no longer show the veneration and sympathy Frenchmen have hitherto always shown, for our aged Queen, who herself has always shown such sympathy and affection for France?

"It has been stated that the attacks in question were not directed against the Queen personally, but against the country which she governs. I can assure the writers and caricaturists who so think, that the Prince of Wales and every other Englishman who loves France, have been deeply wounded by these attacks, which seem to them nothing but foul outrages on the personality of an honoured and venerated lady."

This letter, which was widely quoted, had the desired effect and no further caricatures of the Queen appeared.

The next step in the progress of the Anglo-French movement was the invitation to the Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom to meet in 1900 in Paris, but the invitation, its acceptance, and realisation are a chapter of history by themselves in which the British Chambers of Commerce have their place as those who first appreciated the political bearing of Anglo-French friendship.

CHAPTER XVI

THE DAWN OF BETTER FEELING

Ar the Belfast meeting, in September, 1899, of the Association of Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom, I informed Sir Stafford (afterwards Lord) Northcote, the president, of my proposal, as chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in Paris, to invite the Association to hold their autumn session the following year in Paris. As I was not sure of obtaining a favourable majority on the Board of the British Chamber, which would be partially renewed in February, Sir Stafford's public statement on the subject had to be framed in a vague form which would not pledge the British Chamber and leave it open to the French Chamber of Commerce in Paris to give the invitation, if need be. As I had the French Government behind me, I had no doubt its influence would be used to procure an invitation from the French Chamber, should its intervention be necessary. Sir Stafford, therefore, confined himself to stating that he thought it "very probable that next year an invitation would be extended to the association to hold its autumnal gathering at Paris. In regard to it nothing formal could be done at that meeting, but great interest in the proposed visit was being taken by the Paris Chamber."

As the invitation could only be formally accepted at the spring meeting in March, I had six months before me to spread such necessary feeling among the

chambers of commerce in the United Kingdom, among the members of the British Chamber in Paris, and among the public generally, as would make the giving and the acceptance of the invitation the natural consequence of a state of public opinion and commend it to the Foreign Offices of the two countries.

As regards our Ambassador, Sir Edmund Monson, I met with no response, and I believe that at that time our Foreign Office did not believe it possible to determine any more friendly current of French public opinion towards England or any change in the deepseated British distrust of French policy as regards what we considered vital interests for us.

During the autumn little progress was made beyond concerting joint efforts.

In the January issue of the Revue de Paris, M. Ernest Lavisse, member of the French Academy, the distinguished French historian, made a first move on the French side.

"Il y a quelques années," he wrote, " si l'on cherchait dans le monde les causes des conflits possibles, on trouvait l'Alsace, la rivalité de l'Angleterre et de la Russie en Perse et en Extrême-Orient, celle de la Russie et de l'Autriche dans les Balkans, les luttes des nationalités balkaniques, celles des races de la monarchie austro-hongroise; à quoi s'est ajouté plus récemment le développement de la politique extérieure des Etats-Unis. Un conflit entre la France et l'Angleterre paraissait impossible. Aujourdhui cette éventualité semble la plus redoutable de celles qui menacent la paix du monde. Entre les deux pays, une hostilité, qui pourtant n'a pas de raisons graves, devient de plus en plus aiguë; si l'on n'y prend garde, ce sera bientôt une haine aveugle.

"Personne en France, si ce n'est une très petite bande de fous, ne souhaite une guerre avec l'Angleterre. Tout ce que ce pays compte de gens éclairés répugne à l'idée d'une si criminelle et barbare folie. Mais il est certain que des sentiments d'antipathie nationale qui sommeillaient dans la masse

se réveillent, et voici que les gens sensés sont réduits à considérer comme possible la folie barbare et criminelle.”

I had written to Mr. W. L. Courtney, editor of the Fortnightly Review, pretty fully on the movement I proposed to engineer. On December 16, 1899, he replied acknowledging receipt of an article I had sent him on the subject and adding: "The subject is precisely one in which I feel great interest myself, and which I would be glad to champion in the English Press."

As the January number was already made up, the article, however, could only appear in February, which it did in the place of honour. Its title, "A Lance for the French," described its object, and what I said, though obvious and commonplace to those who lived in France or who were otherwise in contact with French people, seemed novel to those for whom France was merely a mischievous and wicked country, which was everywhere thwarting good old England in her righteous endeavour to lay the heathen world under her enlightened control. It reads like ancient history

now.

I sent the friendly references to the article in the French papers to Mr. Courtney, who wrote me in reply at the end of the month an interesting letter which shows what British preoccupations were.

The reference in it to the distinguished "enfant terrible," as Sir H. Campbell-Bannerman afterwards called him, shows what a conspicuous part he played in his country's destinies at the beginning of the new century.

"I have looked with interest," said Mr. Courtney, "at the papers you have sent me with reference to your article. I

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intend to try and follow it up with another article so as to keep the matter going. I do not think, so far as I am any judge, that there is any desire to force a quarrel on France, but there is a very general impression in England that France intends to force a quarrel on us as soon as the Exhibition is off her hands. A great deal of this is mere newspaper gossip, I am aware, but some of it I am persuaded is due to Mr. Chamberlain's supposed hostility to France and the French."

Down to the very day when my invitation was on the agenda of the March meeting of the Associated Chambers it was viewed with distrust. Even on the board of the British Chamber of Commerce most of the directors thought the scheme too ambitious. Several openly opposed it, and predicted a disaster which would do more harm than good in view of the anti-English spirit then prevailing. However, I had a few quixotic friends ready to follow me in the wild adventure :-Mr. Thomas Hounsfield, the vicepresident, Mr. (now Sir) J. G. Pilter, his brother-inlaw, Mr. E. G. Connell, the then senior partner of Edmund Potter & Co., of Manchester-one of the finest types of Anglo-Scotsmen I have ever known, generous and romantic, an artist in his tastes and a gentleman in the noblest sense of the term-and that grand old Englishmen Sir Edward Blount. When the board decided that no pecuniary obligation could be undertaken by the Chamber and I took over the whole responsibility, these four gentlemen immediately offered to share the expense with me. Other donors followed, among them Sir John Blundell Maple and Mr. Thomas Blackwell. In a short time the fund was large enough to meet all emergencies.

To return to the March meeting of the association, Mr. Harper, vice-president, who presided in the