At first sight this limitation seems exceedingly prejudicial to the
success of a Conference, if not actually to forbid its meeting. In gatherings of this kind absolute freedom is essential. For men who are trying to find something which has hitherto not proved discoverable rigidly to bar the search in any one quarter, and to put certain rooms in the house where the object has been lost out of bounds, is prima facie an absurdity. People may have a strong opinion that it would be utterly hopeless to find the wished-for com- promise in this or that place, but there is a whole world of• difference between saying that it is useless to look in this particular place and saying that you must not look there. All human experience, whether in searching for dropped half- sovereigns or political compromises, goes to show that the thing desired is often found in the most unlikely place,—just where people declare that it is perfectly ridiculous to waste time in looking.
