CHAPTER VIII 

 CONCLUSION 



THE discussion of international relations is 

 almost invariably tainted with the fallacy of 

 too sweeping generalization. This is as true 

 of historical as of argumentative discussion. 

 It has been copiously illustrated in the events 

 narrated in the preceding chapters. It may 

 doubtless be found illustrated by the narrative 

 itself; for the vice inheres in the very structure 

 and function of language. A crisis or a policy 

 of vital import to the English-speaking peoples 

 has more than once had its origin in some 

 jaunty judgment that Great Britain despised the 

 United States, or that Canada was enamoured 

 of annexation, or that America hated the 

 English, when in truth the emotions referred 

 to could be predicated only of some individual 

 or group in the respective nations. The editor 

 of the London Times or The Saturday Review 

 has been taken for Great Britain, Goldwin 

 Smith for Canada, and any one of a dozen 



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