e not one of them has mentioned
it to me. The Secretary of one of them remarked, after being
invited to express himself: "It is too--too--long!" And, although I
have seen most of the Cabinet this week, not a man mentioned it to
me. People seem studiously to avoid it, lest they give offense.

I have, however, got one little satisfaction. An American--a
half-expatriated loafer who talks "art"--you know the
intellectually affected and degenerate type--screwed his courage up
and told me that he felt ashamed of his country. I remarked that I
felt sure the feeling was mutual. That, I confess, made me feel
better.

As nearly as I can make out, the highwater mark of English
good-feeling toward us in all our history was after the President's
Panama tolls courtesy. The low-water mark, since the Civil War, I
am sure, is now. The Cleveland Venezuela message came at a time of
no nervous strain and did, I think, produce no long-lasting
effect. A part of the present feeling is due to the English
conviction that we have been taken in by the Germans in the
submarine controversy, but a large part is due to the lack of
courtesy in this last Note--the manner in which it was written even
more than its matter. As regards its matter, I have often been over
what I conceive to be the main points with Sir Edward Grey--very
frankly and without the least offense. He has said: "We may have to
arbitrate these things," as he might say, "We had better take a cab
because it is raining." It is easily possible--or it was--to
discuss anything with this Government without offense. I have, in
fact, stood up before Sir Edward's fire and accused him of stealing
a large part of the earth's surface, and we were just as good
friends afterward as before. But I never drew a lawyer's indictment
of him as a land-thief: that's different.

I suppose no two peoples or governments ever quite understand one
another. Perhaps they never will. That is too much to hope for. But
when one government writes to another it ought to write (as men do)
with some reference to the personality of the other and to their
previous relations, since governments are more human than men. Of
course I don't know who wrote the Note. Hence I can talk about it
freely to you without implying criticism of anybody in part