ng before a pair of Americans will do what an Australian
pair did in 1907, just as the United States already holds the Ladies'
Championship; and England is going to have some difficulty in recovering
her honours at court tennis. In rifle shooting America must be expected
to beat England oftener than England beats America; but the edge will be
taken off any humiliation that there might be by the fact that Britain
will have Colonial teams as good as either.

And when all this has happened, will England's position be shaken? Not
one whit! Not though the _America's_ cup never crosses the Atlantic and
though sooner or later an American college crew succeeds--as surely, for
their pluck, they deserve to succeed--in imitating the Belgians and
carrying off the Grand at Henley. There remain games and sports enough
which the United States will never take up seriously, at which if she
did she would be debarred by climatic conditions or other causes from
ever threatening British supremacy.

The glory of England lies in the fact that she "takes on" the best of
all the nations of the world at their own games. It is not the United
States only, but all her Colonies and every country of Europe that turn
to Great Britain as to their best antagonist in whatever sport they find
themselves proficient. Just now England's brow is somewhat bare of
laurels, but year in and year out Britain will continue to win the
majority of contests in her meetings with all the world; and if she lose
at times, is it not better to have rivals good enough to make her extend
herself? And is it not sufficient for her pride that she, one people,
should win--if it be only--half of all the world's honours?

Meanwhile Englishmen can afford to rejoice ungrudgingly at the new
spirit which has been born in the United States. Each year the number of
"events" in which an international contest is possible increases. The
time may not be far away when there will be almost as long a list of
Anglo-American annual contests as there is now between Oxford and
Cambridge. But it will be a very long time before the United States can
displace Great Britain from the pre-eminence which she holds--and the
wonderful character of which, I think, few Englishmen appreciate. Before
that time comes such other sweeping changes will probably have come over
the map of the world and the relations of the peoples that Britain's
displacement will have lost all significance.

And Englishmen can alw