VENEZUELA AND AFTER 323 



force in the harbor. And when, finally, in the 

 treaty of peace the United States, with misgiv 

 ings and reluctance, took over from Spain her 

 Far Eastern dominions, a cordial chorus of 

 British approval greeted the assumption by the 

 great English-speaking democracy of so consid 

 erable a share in the white man s imperialistic 

 burden. 



The effect on American opinion of these gen 

 eral and emphatic manifestations of sympathy 

 and support was revolutionary. The springs 

 of hostility to Britain that had been running full 

 volume for a decade dried up to futile and un 

 noted tricklings. Mere exuberance of strength 

 and spirit had accounted for much of this hostil 

 ity, and the fighting with Spain had diverted this 

 particular current. An uneasy sense of slighted 

 vanity of inadequate recognition of America s 

 physical and moral greatness was soothed to 

 rest by the generous British approval of the 

 correctness of American motives in declaring 

 war on Spain, and by the warm welcome to the 

 republic at its entry into the larger world-pol 

 itics. If British cordiality in 1898 had been 

 based exclusively on shrewd calculation of self- 

 interest, it could not have been more precisely 

 opportune. In the following year the South 



