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periodical, at the same period was the beginning of a more reasonable attitude in Great Britain toward France, and that my article in the Fortnightly to some extent influenced the Association of the Chambers of Commerce of the United Kingdom in accepting my proposal to entertain them, as president of the British Chamber of Commerce in Paris, if they would come over and hold their autumn meeting there, and show the French that the British nation a nation of shop- keepers, and we are not ashamed of it entertained none of those antipathetic feelings toward the French with which a too bellicose press seemed to credit the British nation. I pointed out the danger of doing nothing, of standing by and letting a small minority drag the two nations into a conflict. In spite of warn- ings, dissuasion, and poohpoohings by the stormbirds of Pall Mall and Fleet Street, I got a unanimous response, and the meeting that was held in the autumn of the same year was the largest meeting of the Association of Chambers of Commerce ever held, and the reception given by the French to them showed that they appre- ciated the full force and importance of this unwonted and spontaneous action of the representatives of the business world of the United Kingdom. Every French minister of state, even the president of the republic himself, gave me practically carte blanche to draw up the scheme of their entertainment, and those who came over from Great Britain there were 800 of them went home to tell their fellow-citizens in every part of the kingdom that the French and the British peoples meant to be friends, and that, so far as seeing any manifestations of hostility toward them in France, they had received nothing but the warmest and kindest expressions of sympathy, in spite of the Boer war then raging, about which every English newspaper was daily culling irritating comments by the French press.
That was how the business men of Great Britain started the movement which has since been so successful. When six months later I proposed a treaty of arbitration to stimulate and consolidate the better feeling, I knew the response I should get from the business men of both countries. It is one of the most extra- ordinary features of the Anglo-French movement that the London press was not aware of the real situation, whereas the English provincial press, better informed by the delegates who had come to Paris to the great meeting I have referred to, knew first-hand better. Hence it is that this movement from start to finish has been enthusiastically backed by the English provincial press and by the Paris press, the French provincial press, like the London press, having been less well informed.
To tell the history of the Anglo-French arbitration movement is another story, which I may be able to tell some other time. All that space allows here is to say why and how business men in Great Britain are taking such a direct and practical interest in a movement which was so recently thought to belong to the field of philosophical speculation and dreamy idealism. I have explained why ; and now I will say a few words about how.
All the chambers of commerce of the United Kingdom have now pledged themselves to arbitration. All the chambers of commerce of France have done the same. These chambers of commerce have not only pledged themselves, they have used their necessarily practical influence in enlisting in this cause municipal counsels and trade unions, thus bringing into the movement employers and employed, capital and labor, and above all, the moving political forces which produce a more direct influence on the opinion of a nation's representatives in parliament. This combined influence in both countries was so overwhelming that the British and French governments could not for one moment hesitate to take action when the time came. They took action in direct response to the work I have described. This was done on May n, after a question had been put in the House of Commons by my friend, Mr. Ernest Beckett, which elicited so friendly a response from the prime minister that the following day the French ambassador called on Lord Lansdowne and asked him if he was prepared to enter into negotiations.
That question was as follows : " Has the prime minister given consideration to the numerous resolutions which have been passed by the chambers of com-
