resent writer concluded the last paragraph with
this statement: "By no means the least significant of recent changes is
the development of cordial relations with England; and it seems now
that the course of world politics is destined to lead to the further
reknitting together of the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race
in bonds of peace and international sympathy, in a union not cemented
by any formal alliance, but based on community of interests and of
aims, a union that will constitute the highest guarantee of the
political stability and moral progress of the world."

The United States has very naturally had closer contact with England
than with any other European power. This has been due to the fact that
England was the mother country, that after independence was established
a large part of our trade continued to be with the British Isles, that
our northern boundary touches British territory for nearly four
thousand miles, and that the British navy and mercantile marine have
dominated the Atlantic Ocean which has been our chief highway of
intercourse with other nations. Having had more points of contact we
have had more disputes with England than with any other nation. Some
writers have half jocularly attributed this latter fact to our common
language. The Englishman reads our books, papers, and magazines, and
knows what we think of him, while we read what he writes about us, and
in neither case is the resulting impression flattering to the national
pride.

Any one who takes the trouble to read what was written in England about
America and the Americans between 1820 and 1850 will wonder how war was
avoided. A large number of English travellers came to the United
States during this period and published books about us when they got
home. The books were bad enough in themselves, but the great English
periodicals, the _Edinburgh Review_, _Blackwood's_, the _British
Review_, and the _Quarterly_, quoted at length the most objectionable
passages from these writers and made malicious attacks on Americans and
American institutions. American men were described as "turbulent
citizens, abandoned Christians, inconstant husbands, unnatural fathers,
and treacherous friends." Our soldiers and sailors were charged with
cowardice in the War of 1812. It was stated that "in the southern
parts of the Union the rites of our holy faith are almost never
practised. . . . Three and a half millions enjoy no means of religious