crificed some of its greatest ideals on the
altar of national righteousness. War must have been a bitter draught for
Lloyd George. Your social programme will be checked for many years. But
if the Conservatives attempt to spoil the Irish settlement, that will be
worse than anything else. It will mean confusion for you at home and
loss of reputation abroad."

I spoke of what I had heard on this subject from Irish-Americans, and
they confirmed everything recorded in my former article. The three great
things, outside of increasing opportunities for intercourse, which have
drawn modern America toward England, they told me, are the social
legislation of the Liberal Party, the triumph of home rule, and
England's keeping her word to Belgium. By these three things, I was
assured, the old animosities against England have been destroyed, and a
spirit of enthusiasm for English ideals has been born among Americans.

I should like to say that, while many American women love England for
the beauty and repose of her social life, and most eloquently base their
affection on the assertion that blood is thicker than water, the men of
America are sometimes inclined, and not unnaturally, to disapprove of
this pleasing sentimentalism. I now begin to perceive that the men of
America are not jealous of England's social life, but anxious to put
their friendship on a more substantial foundation.

Liberalism not only uplifts democracy; it establishes England in the
affection of all vital democracies. If the Conservatives, so liberal and
charming in their private lives, combine with the Liberals after this
hideous war to reconstruct our national life and to consolidate the
empire, how great will be the harvest reaped by our children!

It is in the high and lofty name of civilization that the American
people are anxious to make friends with the people of Great Britain. We
have both got something to live for greater than patriotism and
imperialism, greater because it includes them both.

II.

Irish-American Feeling

Until I came to America I had not the least idea of the depth of hatred
which has existed among Irish-Americans toward England. Nothing that I
ever encountered in Ireland itself is comparable with this transatlantic
fury of unforgiving hate.

An Irishman who had held very high office in America, a well-educated, a
kindly, and a judicious man, told me that when war with Germany was in
the air he could not prevent himself from ha