speak of
"The Political Game," and I had the feeling that it was a game played
with a virtuosity of tactics and with a metallic intensity, and the
principle of the game was to beat the other fellows. So much so that
the aim and end of politics were obscured, and that the battle was
fought not about measures but on the advantages one party would gain
over another by victory.

That is, the "Political Game" is a game of the "Ins" and "Outs" played
for parliamentary success with the habitual keenness and zest of the
American.

This is not a judgment but an impression. I do not pretend to know
anything of America. I do not think any one can know America well
unless he is an American. Those who think that America quickly yields
its secrets to the British mind simply because America speaks the
English language need the instruction of a visit to America.

America has all the individuality and character of a separate and
distinct State. To think that the United States is a sort of
Transatlantic Britain is simply to approach the United States with a
set of preconceived notions that are bound to suffer considerable
jarring. Both races have many things in common, that is obvious from
the fact of a common language, and, in a measure, from a common
descent; but they have things that are not held in common. It needs a
closer student of America than I am to go into this; I merely give my
own impression, and perhaps a superficial one at that. It may offer a
point of elucidation to those people who find themselves shocked
because English-speaking America sometimes does not act in an English
manner, or respond to English acts.

America is America first and all the time; it is as complete and as
definite in its spirits as the oldest of nations, and in its own way.
Its patriotism is intense, more intense than British patriotism (though
not more real), because by nature the American is more intense. The
vivid love of Americans for America is the same type of passion that
the Frenchman has for France.

The character of the American, as I encountered him in Washington,
Detroit, and New York--a very limited orbit--suggested differences from
the character of the Englishman. The American, as I see him, is more
simple, more puritan, and more direct than the Briton. His generosity
is a most astonishing thing. He is, as far as I can see, a genuine
lover of his brother-man, not theoretically but actively, for he is
anxious to get i