occurred to them that the United
States was other than a friendly nation--barely by one degree of kinship
farther removed than one of Great Britain's larger colonies.

And this is the first great obstacle that stands in the way of a proper
understanding between the peoples--not merely the fact that the American
nation is so far from having any affection for Great Britain, but the
fact that the two peoples regard each other so differently that neither
understands, or is other than reluctant to believe in, the attitude of
the other. For the benefit of the English reader, rather than the
American, it may be well to explain this at some length.

* * * * *

The essential fact is that America, New York or Washington, has been in
the past, and still is in only a slightly less degree, much farther from
London than London is from New York or Washington. This is true
historically and commercially--and geographically, in everything except
the mere matter of miles. The American for generations looked at the
world through London, whereas when the Englishman turned his vision to
New York almost the whole world intervened.

Geographically, the nearest soil to the United States is British soil.
Along the whole northern border of the country lies the Dominion of
Canada, without, for a distance of some two thousand miles, any visible
line of demarcation, so that the American may walk upon the prairie and
not know at what moment his foot passes from his own soil to the soil of
Great Britain. One of the chief lines of railway from New York to
Chicago passes for half its length over Canadian ground; the effect
being precisely as if the Englishman to go from London to Birmingham
were to run for half the distance over a corner of France. A large
proportion of the produce of the wheat-fields of the North-western
States, of Minnesota and the two Dakotas, finds its way to New York over
the Canadian Pacific Railway and from New York is shipped, probably in
British bottoms, to Liverpool. When the American sails outward from New
York or other eastern port, if he goes north he arrives only at
Newfoundland or Nova Scotia; if he puts out to southward, the first land
that he finds is the Bermudas. If he makes for Europe, it is generally
at Liverpool or Southampton that he disembarks. On his very threshold in
all directions, lies land over which floats the Union Jack and the same
flag flies over half the vessels in the