xxviii INTRODUCTION 



dispute about Oregon in 1845, the Trent affair 

 in 1861, and the years just after the Civil War 

 (1865 to 1871), when the resentment over the 

 depredations committed by the Alabama was 

 acute. The Venezuela incident at the end of 

 1895 was a passing squall, which the English, 

 astonished at the vehemence shown over a mat 

 ter which not one Englishman in a hundred had 

 ever heard of, could not be induced to take 

 seriously. In the two former of these instances 

 there was some bellicose sentiment on both 

 sides of the Atlantic, in the two latter such a 

 sentiment existed on the American side only, 

 and few persons in England could imagine war 

 as likely to result. 



To what causes, then, do we owe it that all 

 the sources of trouble which from time to time 

 arose, some of which were for the moment 

 formidable, have so passed away that for more 

 than a generation there has been a growing 

 sense of concord and good will ? 



The cause which naturally occurs to most 

 minds is blood kinship and a common speech. 

 It is, however, easy to overrate the value of such 

 a tie. It has not prevented fierce wars between 

 communities of the same nationality. Athe 

 nians and Thebans bore to one another an un- 



