es John Crondall want the offer declined?"

"Oh, he hadn't time to explain to me; but he said something about its
being necessary for the new Britain to prove herself, first; our own
unity and strength. 'We must prove our own Imperial British alliance
first,' he said."

"I see; yes, I think I see that. But it is great news, as you say--great
news."

How much John Crondall's view had to do with the Government's decision
will never be known, but we know that England's deeply grateful Message
pointed out that, in the opinion of his Majesty's Imperial Government,
the most desirable basis for an alliance between two great nations was
one of equality and mutual respect. While in the present case there
could be nothing lacking in the affection and esteem in which Great
Britain held the United States, yet the equality could hardly be held
proven while the former Power was still at war with a nation which had
invaded its territory. The Message expressed very feelingly the deep
sense of grateful appreciation which animated his Majesty's Imperial
Government and the British people, which would render unforgettable in
this country the generous magnanimity of the American nation. And,
finally, the Message expressed the hope, which was certainly felt by the
entire public, that those happier circumstances which should equalize
the footing of the two nations in the matter of an alliance would
speedily come about.

To my thinking, our official records contain no document more moving or
more worthy of a great nation than that Message, which, as has so
frequently been pointed out, was in actual truth a Message from the
people of one nation to the people of another nation--from the heart of
one country to the heart of another country. The Message of thanks, no
less than the generous offer itself, was an assertion of blood-kinship,
an appeal to first principles, a revelation of the underlying racial and
traditional tie which binds two great peoples together through and
beneath the whole stiff robe of artificial differences which separated
them upon the surface and in the world's eyes.

The offer stands for all time a monument to the frank generosity and
humanity of the American people. And in the hearts of both peoples there
is, in my belief, another monument to certain sturdy qualities which
have gone to the making and cementing of the British Empire. The shape
that monument takes is remembrance of the Message in which that kindly
off