oleon pattern. He began his reign, and he may yet crown his
reign, with an attempt to establish peace on a newer, broader
foundation. His religion, it would seem, is his master and not his
servant. There has been no Russian Bernhardi.

And there has been much in America, much said and much done, since the
war broke out that has surprised the world. I may confess for myself,
and I believe that I shall speak for many other Europeans in this
matter, that what we feared most in the United States was levity. We
expected mere excitement, violent fluctuations of opinion, a confused
irresponsibility, and possibly mischievous and disastrous interventions.
It is no good hiding an open secret. We judged America by the peace
headline. It is time we began to offer our apologies to America and
democracy. The result of reading endless various American newspapers and
articles, of following the actions of the American Government, of
talking to representative Americans, is to realize the existence of a
very clear, strong national mentality, a firm, self-controlled,
collective will, far more considerable in its totality than the world
has ever seen before.

We thought the United States would be sentimentally patriotic and
irresponsible, that they would behave as though the New World was,
indeed, a separate planet, and as though they had neither duties nor
brotherhood in Europe. It is quite clear, on the contrary, that the
people of the United States consider this war as their affair also, and
that they have the keenest sense of their responsibility for the general
welfare of mankind.

So that as a second chance, after the possibility of a broad handling of
the settlement by the Czar, and as a very much bigger probability, is
the insistence by America upon her right to a voice in the ultimate
settlement and an initiative from the Western Hemisphere that will lead
to a world congress. There are the two most hopeful sources of that
great proposal. It is the tradition of British national conduct to be
commonplace to the pitch of dullness, and all the stifled intelligence
of Great Britain will beat in vain against the national passion for the
ordinary. Britain, in the guise of Sir Edward Grey, will come to the
congress like a family solicitor among the Gods. What is the good of
shamming about this least heroic of Fatherlands? But Britain would
follow a lead; the family solicitor is honest and well-meaning. France
and Belgium and Italy are t