imilar influential
groups, and he always appealed for mutual good-will between the two
children of the same British mother. In fact he earned a more generous
recognition there than in Canada or in Great Britain. Harvard and
Princeton, Yale and Johns Hopkins conferred their highest honour on the
representative of our national University, and acknowledged that it was
not a mere international compliment but a real recognition of a scholar
who had made lasting contributions to the cause of higher learning and
human progress. He was also elected Chairman of the Board of Trustees of
the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Holding an
almost unique place among the College Presidents on this Continent, his
words reached influential audiences and carried great weight. His first
visit to the United States was in 1896, during the first year of his
incumbency at McGill for the purpose of addressing the Phi Beta Kappa
Alumni of New York, and he chose for his theme 'The Relations of the
English-speaking Peoples.' It was the time of the Venezuela incident
when there was imminent danger of misunderstanding between Britain and
America. His plea for friendship is of special interest to us to-day
when there is a highly organised propaganda for stirring up strife
between the two nations, a propaganda that is causing real anxiety to
the spiritual descendants of Britain in Canada and New England. In these
chaotic days we do well to heed and herald his message on that occasion.
'It is well-nigh inconceivable,' he said, 'that in this age of the
world's progress the two representatives of Anglo-Saxon civilization
will ever enter on a fratricidal struggle to decide which shall be the
greater.... The best guarantees for the continuance of mutual good-will
are surely to be found in that of which I know we are all equally
proud--community of race, language, literature, religion and
institutions, together with the glorious traditions of a common
history.... A racial federation between Britain and America would
probably prove a potent factor in hastening the era of general
disarmament.... The authority, more fortunate even than President
Monroe, will lay impossible, and then it will be seen that every man who
by rash action or hasty word makes the preservation of peace difficult
has committed a crime not only against his own country but against
civilization itself.' That last sentence obviously referred to President
Cleveland. I was a