A teutonised Europe would be a calamity which none can face with equanimity. For four long years we averted this calamity, and all the efforts of France and England would be in vain if the idle strident rhetoric of Mr Lloyd George were permitted to separate us from our friends. The position of France to-day is delicate indeed. The Germans, impertinent and ambitious, are the favourites of Mr Lloyd George. Ever since the signing of the peace they have been allowed to do what they like. France's powerful allies, England and America, have made no attempt to exact from Germany the reparations which she was pledged to afford. The disarmament of the Huns is a farce, as it was in Napoleon's time, and there is nothing between Germany and France but an artificial boundary. Moreover, France suffered far more deeply in the war than any of the combatants. Her northern provinces were devastated; her factories were destroyed by the Germans, who feared her rivalry in time of peace; and Mr Lloyd George, to the natural distress of France, has spoken at times of Germany with tenderness in his voice. Not content with befriending Germany, our governors have reproached France with militarism, with idleness, with a disinclination to be taxed. But they have not offered to restore her ruined provinces, and they have taken care that Germany should still be protected from the carrying out of the articles of the Treaty.

Neither England nor America can congratulate herself on the policy which they have both pursued towards France. They have forgotten too soon that at the outset France stood almost alone between them and disaster. If it is true that England lost no time in sending out her Expeditionary Force, and bent all her energies to the prosecution of the America, whose stake was as great, came late into the war and went early out of the peace. Nor has she shown any more sympathy with France in her subsequent distress than has England. It is not unnatural, therefore, that France should regard America with irritation, and that America, when her self-satisfaction gives her time to think, should repay France with the dislike which is always inspired by the consciousness of wrong-doing. All those who are interested in the relations which exist between France and America should read Mr Owen Wister's

The

Neighbours Henceforth' (London: Macmillan & Co.) That the two countries should have been friends as well as allies was almost impossible. Americans are apt to consider Europe a sort of idiot child, whom the sons of the West can just tolerate out of the generosity of their hearts. The French may be forgiven if they thought their visitors a trifle crude. Nor were particular causes of offence lacking. The Americans were of opinion that, as they had come over to save Europe, all things should have been made

easy for them. They looked for bouquets, and they were confronted with high prices, which made them very angry. The French, on the other hand, raged furiously against those who thought it no wrong to collect souvenirs." There is a house in France of the sixteenth century—to give but one instance-which, until the Americans came, had never lost a key. In a single day the house was stripped of keys. Is it strange that the French, knowing nothing of this familiar habit of the Americans, should have bitterly resented their theft? Again, it was difficult for the French, unused to what Mr Wister describes admirably as "uplifters," to endure the priggish counsel and interference of these philanthropists, as any one will acknowledge who reads Mr Wister's witty chapter entitled "Uplift." But these stumbling-blocks on either side are small enough. real obstacle to a quick and rational friendship was and is the native immodesty of the Americans. It was hard for men who had been fighting for nearly four years, who had borne with resignation the heaviest losses of life and land, to be told lightly that they were being "saved" by the Americans. It is harder still, now that the war is over, to hear that America came to the rescue of France "after England failed." This boastfulness, which has afflicted us for four years, is sufficient to break the steadiest friendship, and France, and England too, may be easily forgiven if they have

The

resented it with bitterness. We know on this side of the Atlantic precisely what the services are which the Americans rendered us. We have no desire either to underrate them or to overrate them. Only we do not wish to abase ourselves before others when we know what work we have done ourselves and what grave sacrifices we have made.

However, nothing but good should be done by Mr Owen Wister's temperate statement, even if the politicians of his country are as obtuse as ours. He has painted a moving picture of the devastated areas, and he has shown to us the spirit of courage in which the French are meeting their own disasters and the lack of sympathy of the others. He asks you to put yourself in her place, and thus tells the story of her recent experience: "One fourteenth of her territory devastated, four million men lost in killed, maimed, and wounded, a frontier renounced for a broken promise; the German damages awarded her by the court whittled down under British pressure while the German fleet is safe in the British pocket; her demand at Washington to increase her own greatly-reduced sea-power skilfully distorted by the press. Her naval plan was held up to the world as an enormity, when, in fact, after the cobwebs of misrepresentation had been brushed away, what she asked was very close indeed to what Mr Hughes proposed." In spite of Mr Wister's optimism, we cannot expect much

help for France from the American Government. Her best hope for the future lies in the speedy disappearance of Mr Lloyd George from public life.

We had written so much when the glad tidings came that the Coalition was at an end. The malign eloquence of Mr Lloyd George, the tortuous apology of Mr Austen Chamberlain, were shown to be but the prelude to a happy resignation. We can do no more for the moment than express our profound relief. A burden has been taken from our backs which it was becoming impossible to bear. The retirement of Mr Lloyd George means, at any rate for the moment, a return to clean politics and an end of trickery. We may at last look our Allies in the face without the fear of encountering their suspicion. We may cherish a hope that England's pledged word may once more be accepted as something better than an evasion. The country needs nothing more than a period of calm and

security. It is tired of diplomatic circuses and the performances of a Welsh magician. In the craft of politics there is no room for wizards. With so great a cunning has Mr Lloyd George drawn a feather over the eyes of Lord Balfour and Mr Chamberlain that these eminent politicians still profess to believe that in handing over Ireland to murder and anarchy they have done no violence to the principle of Unionism. That kind of selfdeception is now impossible. Henceforth we shall have a chance of knowing what is happening at home and abroad; an end will, we hope, be put to wild adventures in Palestine and elsewhere; and a belated attempt may be made at last to cure the world of the wounds which were dealt it in the war. So we take farewell of Mr Lloyd George "with tears of humble gratitude," to use Southey's words, and we devoutly pray that we may never again entrust the safety of our Empire to hands, fumbling and perilous, such as his.

Mount Saint Gabriel

PEEKSKILL-ON-THE-HUDSON, N. Y.

Boarding School for Girls Under the charge of the Sisters of St. Mary. New fireproof building beautifully situated. For catalogues address The Sister Superior. NEW YORK MILITARY ACADEMY

CORNWALL ON HUDSON, N. Y.

A famous preparatory school
with a magnificent equipment
and an ideal location.

FOR CATALOGUE WRITE TO THE PRINCIPAL

MOUNT PLEASANT SCHOOLS

For over one hundred years a happy school home for boys of 12 years and over. Practical military training. College and business preparation. Physical training and athletic sports. Address, Charles Frederick Brusie, P. O. Box 550, Ossining-on-the-Hudson, New York.

Learn Languages

Private and Class instruction in all modern languages, English included. Skilled native teachers. Reasonable tuition. Day and Evening Classes. Enroll at a

BERLITZ SCHOOL

In New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, Detroit, Chicago, etc. HOME STUDY COURSE

for out of town students. Write for particulars to New York Berlitz School, 30 West 34th St.

FERRY HALL, LAKE FOREST, ILL.

On Lake Michigan, 28 miles from Chicago. Founded 1869.

College preparatory, general high school and advanced courses.

Special instruction in music, expression, art, domestic science.

For catalogue address,

MISS ELOISE R. TREMAIN, Principal.

ST. CLARE'S SCHOOL

For a limited number of little girls. Individual care and teaching. Beautiful grounds. In charge of Episcopal Sisters (College graduates). Address

THE MOTHER SUPERIOR
Fairlawn, Noroton Hill, Stamford, Conn.

SEVERN SCHOOL

A country boarding school for boys. Ideal location on Severn River near Annapolis. Prepares for College, West Point and Annapolis. Exceptionally thorough work given and demanded. Students taught how to study. Water Limited sports and all athletics. to fifty. Catalogue.

ROLLAND M. TEEL, Ph.B., Principal,
Boone, Md.