On the same day that the Duma was meeting under
such happy auspices in Russia, Sir Edward Grey, as Foreign Secretary, presided at a political dinner given to the very important deputation of Russian publicists and men of letters who are at present our guests, and who have delighted all who have had the honour of corning into personal contact with them, not only by their charm of manner, but their wide and sympathetic outlook. Even when our Governments were at variance it was a social commonplace that if we quarrelled in the mass, no Englishman and Russian could ever be half-an-hour together without becoming the best of friends. The Russians seem to have a natural genius for friendship of the best kind. They are not flatterers, they do not give, to get, esteem, but seem to have born in them the power to put themselves and other people entirely at their ease.
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