Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/235

 1899.] Mr. Chamberlain at Leicester. [227

bottom/' continued the speaker, " the character, the main character, of the Teutonic race differs very slightly indeed from the character of the Anglo-Saxon, and the same sentiments which bring us into close sympathy with the United States of America may also be evoked to bring us into closer sympathy and alliance with the Empire of Germany. ... If the union betweeti England and America is a powerful factor in the cause of peace, a new triple alliance between the Teutonic race and the two great branches of the Anglo-Saxon race will be a still more potent influence in the future of the world. ... To me it seems to matter little whether you have an alliance which is committed to paper or whether you have an understanding which exists in the minds of the statesmen of the respective countries. An understanding, perhaps, is better than an alli- ance, which may stereotype arrangements which cannot be accepted as permanent in view of the changing circumstances from day to day."

In immediate, though possibly not very enduring, effects, the speech of which we have just indicated some of the points was one of the most comprehensively unfortunate ever delivered by any British statesman. It hurt French amour propre. The French press, even that better part of it which most strongly reprobated any insults to the Queen, was bitterly indignant at the apparently general warning conveyed in the phrase " mend their manners." This was natural, even though Mr. Chamber- lain had acknowledged in the same speech that the excesses of foreign newspapers could not be regarded as representing the Governments or the best or even preponderant feeling of the countries in which they were published. And it was particu- larly regrettable in view of the fact that on November 24 M. Delcass6, the French Foreign Minister, had, in a very moderate and straightforward speech in the Chamber of Deputies, dis- couraged the excitement caused by the searching of a French vessel by a British warship in Delagoa Bay, had repudiated any idea of offering "mediation" between England and the Boer Bepublics, and generally had endeavoured to sober the reckless aspirations of French Chauvinists.

Lord Rosebery, speaking at a non-political dinner in Edin- burgh on the following night, expressed regret that any notice should have been taken of the outrage on which Mr. Chamber- lain had dwelt with so much vehemence, and made the matter a text for some useful and pointed observations on the unwisdom of " this flouting of foreign nations," of which he gave illustra- tions from former speeches by Mr. Chamberlain and Lord Salisbury. But the public embracing of foreign nations, before their assent has been obtained, is quite equally indiscreet. Mr. Chamberlain's language about a triple alliance of Germany, the United States, and England evoked an outburst of remonstrance in the press of both the two former countries and caused much suspicion and irritation in others, all of which was absolutely

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