We are exceedingly glad that Mr. Balfour pat this point
so clearly and so well. It is most important that America and the world should realise what is the undoubted fact— that the people of this country are anxious to enter into an arbitration agreement with America, not in order to save so many millions a year on shipbuilding, or as part of any move in the diplomatic game, but because of the special ties that bind us to the United States. As Lord Salisbury showed in the days of Mr. Cleveland's administration, and long before the question of naval supremacy was at issue, we have always been willing to make a fratricidal struggle between the two nations as impossible as human foresight can make it. We recognise that war between the twin branches of the English-speaking race would be civil war. On the occasion of the Olney-Pauncefote Treaty the Senate unhappily refused to do what the better minds in America desired, but it is greatly to be hoped that they will now take a wider and more liberal view.
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