Page:The golden book of King Edward VII.djvu/39

THE GOLDEN BOOK OF a friendly rivalry in the fields of commerce and industrial development; and that in the future, as in the past, England and France may be regarded as the champions and pioneers of peaceful progress and civilisation, and as the homes of all that is best and noblest in literature, art and science.

A Divine Providence has designed that France should be our near neighbour, an I hope, always our dear friend. There are no two countries in the world whose mutual prosperity is more dependent on each other. There may have been misunderstandings and causes of dissension in the past, but all such differences are, I believe, happily removed and forgotten 34