ns of my colleagues, the letter itself
would be too late to do much good. Please let me know what
you think on this subject.

Yours sincerely,
ARTHUR JAMES BALFOUR.

I never blamed him. He was in the midst of a good deal of
difficulty with his Education Bill. Certainly there can
be no obligation on the Leader of the English House of Commons
to do anything that he is not sure is for the interests of
his own country, or his own party, for the sake of benefitting
a foreign country, still less for the sake of affecting its
politics. Indeed, I suppose Mr. Balfour would have utterly
and very rightfully disclaimed any idea of writing such a
letter, unless he thought what was proposed would benefit
England. When I went back to London, an offer was made me
later to arrange another interview with Mr. Balfour, and
see if something else could not be devised. This I declined.
I thought I had gone as far as I properly could, with a due
sense of my own dignity. The exigency at home had pretty
much passed by.

A day or two after I got to Paris, after I had seen M. Fougirot,
I cabled my colleague, Mr. Lodge, at St. Louis, where the
delegates to the convention to nominate a President were then
gathering, stating my hope that our convention would insert
in its platform a declaration of the purpose of the Republican
Party to obtain, in concert with other nations, the restoration
of silver as a legal tender in company with gold, and that
I had reason to feel sure that such a plan could be accomplished.
This cable reached St. Louis on the morning the convention
assembled. I do not know how much influence it had, or whether
it had any, in causing the insertion of that plank in the
platform. Such a plank was inserted. In my opinion it saved
the Presidential election, and, in my opinion, in saving the
Presidential election, it saved the country from the incalculable
evil of the free coinage of silver.

After I came home, at the next winter's session, I told the
story of what I had done, to a caucus of the Republican Senators.
A Committee was thereupon appointed by John Sherman, President
of the Caucus, to devise proper means for keeping the pledge
of the National platform and establishing international bimetallism
in concurrence with other nations. The Committee consisted
of Messrs. Wolcott, Hoar, Chandler, Carter and Gear. They
reported the Act of March 3, 1897, authorizing a commission
to visit Europe for that purpos