always will be to his country." On landing in New York I found a brief note from Mr. Hay: "Dear General, welcome home, and Io Triumphe!"

I made reference in my remarks already quoted to the courtesies of the British Government. There was set apart in the Foreign Office in Downing Street a series of apartments for the use of the Tribunal and those connected with it. The public sessions were held in the ambassadorial receptionroom, a large and commodious hall, well lighted and artistically decorated. Adjoining this was a consultation-room for the private sessions of the Tribunal, and connected with it was the state dining-room, where a bountiful collation was served at the daily recess of the Tribunal. Adjoining the other end of the ambassadorial hall were a number of spacious rooms devoted to the use of the agent and counsel of the United States and the British agent and counsel.

Our stay in London was at the season (September and October) when the city is practically deserted by the members of official and social life. For generations past such has been the fashion. Mr. George M. Dallas, American Minister there more than fifty years ago, in his interesting "Letters," wrote: "No city can be imagined duller than London . . . during this season, when Parliament, public functionaries, club frequenters, the Court, and fashion have all sped away as if flying from pestilence. Everything becomes insipid, languid, and listless. The resorts, the libraries, the galleries, the shows are shut up. The great thoroughfares are thinned. The crowd of equipages have vanished."

Nevertheless, the members of the Tribunal and staff were the recipients of many social attentions. They were guests at many "week-end" parties in the country, none of which were more cordial or entertaining than those of Lord Alverstone at his country-seat in Surrey. The Lord Mayor gave a banquet at Mansion House in their honor. The Goldsmith's Company, one of those unique and ancient guilds of London, also gave a

banquet in honor of the Tribunal, as a mark of appreciation especially of Lord Alverstone, who was a member of the guild. A reception and dinner of the Pilgrims of London was presided over by Field Marshal Earl Roberts. The King returned to Buckingham Palace to give audience to the Tribunal; and every official attention possible at that season was extended to it.

Amongst the members of the Tribunal, the agents, and counsel there were many exchanges of dinners, receptions, and other social courtesies, and the dullness of the season in London life was hardly felt by them. Of those individual entertainments one of the most notable was that given by Lord Strathcona and Mount Royal, the Resident Agent of the Dominion of Canada. He was a man of wealth and entertained his guests in princely style. At the age of eighty-three he was able to represent the Dominion in public affairs, and was very active and vivacious in society. The participation of old men in society is and has been a special feature of London life. It was noticed by Mr. Dallas, who refers to the wonderful readiness of the oldest and ablest men to mingle, night after night, and all night, in the light gayeties of life; and he gives a long list, among whom figured Lord Lyndhurst at 85, Brougham at 80, Lansdowne at 77, Palmerston at 75, and Baron Park at 75, who were found wherever amusement, though in the form of mere show, was to be had.

One of the most interesting of our excursions to the country was that made by Mrs. Foster and myself upon a special invitation from Sir Henry M. Stanley, who had a charming country-place in Berkshire. I had never before met Sir Henry, but we knew much of each other through mutual friends; and he sent me a message that he was not able to come to the city to see me, and begged that we would make him a visit. He was paralyzed in his lower limbs, but was strong and clear intellectually as ever and talked with me with great animation about the countries I had visited. He died some months

later. His wife, a member of the well-known Tennant family, a brilliant and interesting woman, has married again, but retains her name of Lady Stanley, a practice, I am told, not uncommon in England.

The only disagreeable feature of our stay in London was the miserable weather which attended us - rain, chilliness, cold, clouds, and little sunshine. It is a subject upon which foreign visitors to the metropolis usually descant. Hence it is a relief to hear an occasional good word for London weather. Mr. Hay, in a letter to me while he was Ambassador, wrote: "I start in a day or two for a little glimpse of African sunshine. I have not seen the orb of day for three months. I do not kick at the English weather - I rather like the warm winter, without snow. But the darkness grows tiresome after a while and the humidity affects the spirits."

President Roosevelt has been credited by the public press with the statement that the result at London was "the greatest diplomatic victory of the United States during the present generation." Secretary Hay, in one of his letters, stated that the event was "one of the greatest transactions of my life." It is not becoming in one who was a participant in the proceedings so characterized to discuss these declarations. I may say, however, without impropriety that the greatest value of the decision is not in the detailed terms of the award, but in the fact that it brought to a conclusion an irritating controversy that it removed a serious obstacle to better relations between these two neighboring countries.

The chief credit on the American side for this result is due to the President and the Secretary of State, who had the courage, against many protests and in spite of the prevailing sentiment that it would be a useless proceeding, to submit the question to a judicial tribunal. Still greater credit is due the Prime Minister of Canada, Sir Wilfrid Laurier, who, in the face of stronger opposition, consented to such a reference. While the outcome was not such as he desired, it was doubtless

a relief to him to know that this dangerous subject was removed from the arena of controversy, and with the lapse of time his people have come to recognize that he acted wisely and for the best interests of his country.

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE HAGUE PEACE CONFERENCE ITS ORGANIZATION

FOLLOWING the public announcement in 1906 that the Emperor of Russia, accepting the suggestion of the President of the United States, would convoke a second peace conference of all the nations of the world, the Imperial Chinese Minister in London, Mr. Wang, sent a memorial to the Emperor recommending my appointment as a delegate to represent the Chinese Government at the coming conference. Mr. Wang's residence in the principal Capital of Europe had led him to the conviction that his Government could not be properly represented at such a world conference without having among its delegates one more experienced in diplomatic matters and better versed in international law than any Chinese subject likely to be appointed.

The memorial of Mr. Wang was supported by a memorial from Sir Chentung Liang Cheng, the Chinese Minister in Washington, and in due time these memorials were favorably acted upon and I was appointed a delegate. This being the second time I had had conferred upon me by the Emperor of China an important trust, I esteemed the appointment one of high honor and responsibility. My commission was inscribed on a large scroll of yellow parchment, with an artistic hand-sketched dragon border, with a double text of Chinese and Manchu characters and the Imperial Seal between them - credentials much more imposing in form than those given by Western nations.

With the approval of the Chinese Government, I selected as my secretary Mr. H. R. Whitehouse, who more than twenty years before had been my private secretary in Madrid.