alienate our cousins in Holland, not to speak of the far larger German Commonwealth of fifty millions? The whole of that vast mass of Teutons will be against us in a war with the Transvaal. Probably they will remain neutral, but it is possible to buy victory too dear. No doubt we can overpower the little Dutch Republic in time, as Napoleon crushed Hofer in the Tyrol, or as Russia is now treating Finland. But I ask, will this policy help the cause of national arbitration which Lord Pauncefote inaugurated at the Hague? Would the moral influence of our country be enhanced by setting the example of refusing arbitration because the Transvaal is not regarded as a sovereign State ?

I grant that Great Britain must be the paramount power in South Africa. We cannot treat the Transvaal as on a level with France and Germany; but surely it is not beyond the wit of man to devise some kind of court, which can at least offer suggestions for settlement.

Let me say, in conclusion, I do not seek to excuse President Krüger ; he is obstinate and reactionary, and is a true reflection of the antiquated ideas which dominate the burghers of the Transvaal. The Outlanders have real grievances, and the attitude of the Boers has often been irritating to free-born Britons. Mr. Chamberlain's last Despatch is not unreasonable, if read apart from his speeches. Let us go on urging those claims, and avoid irritating language. It is only a question of time till this matter settles itself. A little kindly feeling would wonderfully smooth the way for settlement. "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."

But the die was practically cast then, as the Boer ultimatum was launched about this time, and after that all negotiation was impossible. It now seems as though Krüger and Steyn had then made up their minds to fight, believing that with the aid of the Cape Colony Dutch they could expel us from South Africa.

They counted on a force, including the Cape Dutch, of 80,000 or 90,000 men, all mounted, and far more mobile than our infantry. They had accumulated an enormous store of munitions of war, and as our garrisons in South Africa were but small when their ultimatum was launched, their calculations were not so unreasonable. Besides, they were undoubtedly under the impression that Germany would in some way make a diversion in their favour. Altogether the outlook was very bad at the beginning of the war, and we need not wonder that misfortune after misfortune marked its earlier stages.

My visit to America on this occasion was different from all the others. It was mainly for a religious object, and I was brought more into contact with its religious life than on any other occasion.

From New York I went to Philadelphia to attend a banquet

given by the Historic Society of that city to the foreign delegates to the Convention. We were treated with the greatest hospitality, as is the invariable rule in America, and very interesting and most kindly speeches were made as became the "city of brotherly love," founded by William Penn and his Quaker associates. I had the opportunity of speaking on the essential unity of the AngloSaxon race, our common ancestry and our common faith. Indeed, it is true that I have often felt in the United States that Protestant Nonconformists are more at home there than in England. They inhale an atmosphere which is practically universal in America, but confined to half the population in England. It is, in fact, almost identical with the religious atmosphere of Scotland. Absolute religious equality obtains, not merely political, but social. There is no stigma such as is implied in the words "Dissenter," Nonconformist," as used in England. There is no State Church, with its assumption of superiority, and no proselytizing by means of social attractions. Religion stands on its own footing a matter of individual conviction, and a refreshing manliness and independence characterize the best life of America.

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I never fully realized till I attended the Alliance meetings in Washington how identical were the Presbyterian Churches all over the world (and the same applies to the other Protestant denominations). Whether British, Canadian, Australian or American delegates spoke, they were of one family. The speech, the very accent was the same. The habits of thought, the modes of expression, the slight doctrinal variations, the grand moral and spiritual unityall bespoke the product of one common life, moulding them into oneness. This of course did not apply in the same degree to the Continental delegates, but they were in a small minority. Our President, Dr. Marshall Lang (now Principal of Aberdeen University), filled the chair with dignity. Our meetings were held in the church which Abraham Lincoln attended to the day of his death, and his pew was marked by a dark line of colour.

I found the meetings very interesting-not so much for the subjects discussed, which were sometimes rather trite, as for the opportunity of forming friendships with men of real worth and wide experience. I got an excellent opportunity of addressing the Alliance on the spread of sacerdotal doctrine in England, and found our American friends comparatively ignorant of the subject. They did not regard it as a real danger in America. The Episcopal Church has a certain leaven of it both in the United States

and Canada, but it is not taken seriously by the laity, and but a small section of the American people (though a wealthy and influential one) belong to that Church. The vast mass of the Protestant population of America correspond with the Scotch and Irish Presbyterians and the English Nonconformists. A most interesting paper, read by Dr. Roberts, one of the secretaries of the Alliance, gave us an estimate of the religious composition of the Colonial population, which numbered three millions on the attainment of independence. He put the Presbyterians at 900,000, mostly of Scotch or Scotch-Irish descent; the English Puritans at 600,000; and the French and Dutch Huguenots at 400,000. The colonial population and their descendants formed the staple of the American people until the Irish famine in 1847 sent large numbers of poor Irish Catholics across the Atlantic. The German emigrants began to pour in about twenty years later, and in the last twenty years a vast number of Italians, Poles, Hungarians and Russians—many of these Jews. America can no longer be spoken of as a homogeneous, Protestant, Anglo-Saxon country. Yet the original impress remains far more strongly than might be expected. The literature of the country is still markedly Puritan; also the better part of the secular press, and the influence of the pulpit and religious press is enormous. The dominant ruling class in the United States is the offspring of the old colonial stock from which almost all the Presidents are taken. The great industrial enterprises are chiefly in their hands, and, above all, the atmosphere of thought is generated by them. That atmosphere envelopes the European emigrant from the time he lands; the common school forms his children into American citizens; and in spite of the great intermixture of race and language, a real continuity exists between the Pilgrim Fathers and the great body of the American people to-day. The Englishmen regarded with reverence in America to-day are Cromwell, Hampden, Milton, Bunyan, Penn and Robinson. Their spiritual ancestors are Calvin and Knox, Baxter and Howe, Wesley and Whitefield. You cannot visit their churches without feeling the throbbing of the same life, and even the large Roman Catholic population that pours into America gets wonderfully liberalized, and a large proportion of its descendants ultimately passes into the Protestant communions. The genius of America is most unfavourable to priestly pretensions, and I find that the closest observers in that country, men like Dr. Josiah Strong, were more afraid of the wild immoral heresies