CONCLUSION 369 



Once recovered from the shock caused by the 

 occasion and manner of the announcement, the 

 British Government and the British people were 

 the first to recognize the new situation and to 

 welcome it. The maintenance of peace and 

 amity between the English-speaking nations 

 became the goal of official and unofficial effort 

 on both sides of the ocean. With the Spanish- 

 American War came the convincing demonstra 

 tions of good feeling on the part of the British 

 for the United States. From this event dates 

 unbroken cordiality to the end of the hun 

 dred years of peace. Diplomacy, directly or 

 through arbitration, settled all the old disputes 

 that threatened tension. Progress was made 

 toward the comprehensive substitution of pa 

 cific for warlike means in dealing with all kinds 

 of controversies. Canada waxed great and 

 prosperous on the frontier of the United States, 

 and proclaimed an unmistakable purpose to 

 remain the rival rather than become in any 

 sense the appendage of the republic; Aus 

 tralia, New Zealand, South Africa developed 

 into progressive democratic commonwealths; 

 and all these powerful political societies moved 

 steadily toward closer union with the United 

 Kingdom in an earth-girdling federative em- 



