xLvi LAST DAYS 317 



rather astonished the world with his book, The 

 Great Illusion, aiming to show that the victor 

 in war had nothing to gain by victory. Lord 

 Avebury writes : " Angell is going to America to 

 Organise peace associations. I could not quite 

 understand how or in what capacity." Never- 

 theless it is likely that we may see a trace of Mr. 

 Angell's influence in an article to which Lord 

 Avebury makes reference on April 7 : " The 

 Times has a letter of mine on Private Property 

 at Sea in time of War, and the Post has inserted 

 an article I drew up for a German paper on the 

 Tripoli and Balkan Wars, in which I maintain 

 that the aggressors, though apparently victorious, 

 will gain nothing by the wars," 



On April 12 they had a few people — ^the last 

 guests he entertained at High Elms. " Lady 

 Sligo and Lady Isabel Brown, Mr. and Lady M. 

 Watney, and Hirst " — ^the last, the editor of the 

 Economist, a zealous fellow- worker. On the 14th 

 he writes : " They all went except Goodhart." 

 [This was Mr. A. M. Goodhart, the Eton Master, 

 who had arrived the day before the others.] " I 

 was laid up with enlarged heart, but was able to 

 go down and see them all a little, one by one." 

 On the 15th they motored up to Grosvenor Street, 

 but he had to return to bed as soon as he arrived 

 there, and reports himself as " still very feeble — 

 reading and doing proofs." 



His account of himself on the 30th is brighter : 

 " My 79th birthday. A baddish morning, but 

 was able to get down after luncheon. Many of 

 the family came, and I had many kind letters 

 and telegrams." 



