ULTIMATE POLITICS. 



THE three letters which are here printed were not written in their 

 original form for publication. Mr. E. W. Thomson was good 

 enough to send me a copy of his book, " When Lincoln Died," and 

 accompanied the gift with the letter which, with some revision for 

 the press, appears first in the series. I replied, and showed the cor- 

 respondence to a professional soldier of high rank, who has had 

 special opportunities of learning the point of view of the authorities 

 who are charged with responsibility for Imperial defence in its 

 widest aspects. In returning the letters this officer added the brief 

 note which is printed third in order. Later the idea of publishing 

 these letters was broached and all three agreed that they should 

 appear in the Queen's Quarterly ; the soldier, however, held that he 

 should remain anonymous. 



C. Frederick Hamilton. 



I. 



Ottawa, May 20, 1909. 

 My Dear Hamilton, — 



With this I send you a copy of my book of verse, " When Lin- 

 coln Died, &c.", of which a Canadian edition will appear in the fall 

 as " The Many-mansioned House." You will see that it consists 

 largely of pieces somewhat political in bearing. Collectively these 

 disclose a variety of pan-Anglican sentiments — some peculiarly 

 Canadian, some British or " Imperialistic," some " American." Such 

 is my innocence, or lack of imagination, that I did not conceive this 

 inclusiveness could offend any reasonable being, until some not un- 

 friendly Canadian critics had chidden it. They intimate a certain 

 displeasure that a Canadian should discourse sympathetically of 

 " Yankee " persons or views. But that was precisely what I hoped 

 to be applauded for! As I want you to read the book with full 

 understanding of its main purpose, let me explain this. 



Just as " Peter Ottawa " is an attempt to reconcile various Cana- 

 dian sentiments that are often imagined to be inconsistent, so the 

 whole book, insofar as political, is an attempt to reconcile various 

 English sentiments which are frequently supposed to exclude one 

 another. I use " English " here in the pan-Anglican sense, as de- 

 noting all English-speaking folk. Cannot one love Abraham Lin- 



