do have a consciousness of English history and of our common
origin and some sense of the inevitable destiny of the great
English-speaking race--so that, when we have come to sharp corners
in the road, I have known that whatever happen we must travel in
the right general direction--have known that no temporary
difference must be allowed to assume a permanent quality. I have
thought several times that we had passed the worst possible place,
and then a still worse one would appear. It does look now as if we
had faced most of the worst difficulties that can come, but I am
not sure what Congress may do or provoke. If we outlast Congress,
we shall be safe. Now to come through this enormous war even with
no worse feeling than already exists between the two
countries--that'll be a big thing to have done. But it's work like
the work of the English fleet. Nobody can prove that Jellicoe has
been a great admiral. Yet the fleet has done the whole job more
successfully than if it had had sea-fights and lost a part of their
ships.

Our Note has left a great deal of bad feeling--suppressed, but
existent. A part of it was inevitable and (I'd say) even necessary.
But we put in a lot of things that seem to me to be merely
disputatious, and we didn't write it in the best form. It
corresponds to what you once called _suburban_: do you remember?
Not thoroughbred. But we'll get over even that, especially if the
Administration and the courts continue to bring the Germans to book
who are insulting our dignity and destroying our property and
killing Americans. If we can satisfactorily settle the _Lusitania_
trouble, the whole outlook will be very good.

Your mother and I are hearing much interesting political talk. We
dined last night with Mr. Bonar Law. Sir Edward Carson was there.
To-day we lunched with Lady P.--the other side, you see. There are
fundamental differences continually arising. They thought a few
weeks ago that they had the Prime Minister's scalp. He proved too
nimble for them. Now one person after another says to you:
"Kitchener doesn't deserve the reverence the people give him." More
and more folks say he's hard to work with--is domineering and
selfish. Nobody seems really to know him; and there are some signs
that there may be a row about him.