THE TERMS OF PEACE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—To every real student of this country in the United States the second half of your article in last week's issue entitled " The Terms of Peace" must almost seem to have been inspired. I doubt whether anything equal to it has ever been publicly said or written respecting the United States.. You have indicated so exactly the sustained effort in prepara- tion that is an absolute condition of the attainment of the great position, which I heartily join you in wishing for the American people, that it would be impossible to improve upon your presentation of the direction in which changes must be made. From the often expressed views of the Spectator on the American nation, however, I feel very sure that even you have little idea how great in degree the change must needs be. The question is," Is there any agency at work sufficient to bring about the new spirit required ? " and to this, there is no clear answer. I am not sure that the country has not already grown so strong as to be able to resist any external pressure, moral or otherwise, which might have impelled it into new ways and a new and stronger spirit. A Boston banker said to me in effect in the gloomy days of 1895, "I am an optimist as regards my country, because I see that we are so surely going from bad to worse in our politics, our judicial system, and our commercial methods, that we are entering that school of adversity which is the only one in which we can learn improvement." Has the lesson been learnt, or must the country wait till some great internal
crisis has arisen P You are unquestionably right in ascribing so much of what you deprecate in the present conditions in the United States to the twenty years of easy prosperity from 1870 to 1890. Men cannot, as you say, become great if they are always devoting themselves to " having a good time." The difficulties experienced in this war have no doubt done -something, and the improved relations with this country will also help very much in the right direction—a man whose worth has once been admitted inclining rather to be more modest and to question his own worth—bat to my mind almost every bit of the possible advantages will have been thrown away if the United States do not retain their con- quests, and so necessarily rub up against other nations and become citizens of the world. The Americans have always seemed to me to have the faults of a boy who has stayed at home with his mother and sisters, and who requires the enlarging influences of a public school. I do not write as one who has gathered his impressions from newspapers or from the Americans who visit our country, but have lived much in the United States, and have been in all parts and
mixed with the people.—I am, Sir, &c., BxpAcepo;.
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