and mankind was destined to see fifteen years of bloody strife, which were only to culminate on the field of Waterloo.

While Washington was not destined to see this, for he died shortly before Napoleon won his great victory on the plains of Marengo, yet we can imagine the old soldier in his retirement at Mount Vernon following with eager vision the extraordinary developments in the Old World and the rising career of the new Cæsar. Can we not imagine him in that last autumn of his life, seated on his porch in the gathering twilight, -emblematic of the dying day of his life-and silently gazing upon the Potomac, as it moved toward the sea, a symbol of the infinite mystery of Time?

It was on such an October evening a few months before he died, with the autumn leaves falling from the trees upon the green lawns of his muchloved home, that he retired to his study and wrote in a letter to a friend his last expression of opinion as to the affairs of the world, and what he thus wrote could be applied with such rare propriety to the conditions of the present hour, as expressing what would be his opinion if he were alive today, that I shall venture to quote it. He said:

The affairs of Europe have taken a most important and interesting turn. What will be the final results of the uninterrupted successes of the combined army it is not for a man at a distance of 3000 miles from the great theatre of action to predict, but he may wish, and ardently wish from principles of humanity, and for the benevolent purpose of putting a stop to the further effusion of human blood that the successful Powers may know at what point to give cessation to the sword for the purpose of negotiation. . . . My own wish is to see everything settled upon the best and surest foundation for the peace and happiness of mankind without regard to this, that, or the other nation. A more destructive sword never was drawn, at least in modern times, than this war has produced. It is time to sheathe it and give peace to mankind.

Thus spoke and still speaks the world's noblest citizen, and, notwithstanding the blackness of the present hour, to that ideal of peace mankind is steadily marching. At its head is still the great soldier, who, if "first in war," was also "first in peace"; for

the path of the Just is as a shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.

IV

THE SUBMARINE CONTROVERSY

“And pity, like a naked newborn babe,

Striding the blast, or, Heaven's cherubim, horsèd

Upon the sightless couriers of the air,

Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,

That tears shall drown the wind."

—SHAKESPEARE.

IV

THE SUBMARINE CONTROVERSY

THERE are two political organizations, which by reason of the vast influence which each exerts upon millions of intelligent beings, and their detached yet cosmopolitan character, enjoyed at the beginning of the world war an exceptional moral prestige in civilization. In the estimation of countless thousands each has failed to meet the expectations of the world in its greatest moral crisis. How far is this disappointment justified in the case of the United States?

If it has failed it is not because its people did not understand the gravity of the moral crisis, but because in its foreign relations there is no real coercive public opinion to shape its foreign policies. The Constitution, while giving to the President the initiative in foreign affairs, intended to commit the ultimate decision to the legislative branch, and yet neither the Czar nor the Kaiser has exercised more exclusive power over the foreign policy of his nation than has President Wilson, in determining, almost without Cabinet or Congress, the policy of his nation.