My guests also listen with lively interest to Bloch’s remarks and elucidations. Of course all know about his great book, have read criticisms of it, and have had a chance to turn the leaves of the six volumes as they lie on my drawing-room table; and so they give the most eager attention to what the author himself relates regarding the establishment of his work and its results. In this exposition Bloch speaks so calmly, modestly, and to the point! It is felt that his conviction rests on scrupulously investigated facts; he is conscious in his own mind that he has gathered the simple truth and given it out in its full scope. D’Estournelles announces a visitor. To-morrow Charles Richet is coming to The Hague as D’Estournelles’s guest. This very day Richet’s latest book had reached me,—a succinct history of the peace movement. The French savant, editor of the _Revue scientifique_, is with us heart and soul; he and Frédéric Passy are members of the board of directors of the French Peace Society. It is therefore a twofold pleasure to hear that the representative of France here at The Hague is a friend of his; more than a friend, an admirer. _C’est un grand cœur, une belle intelligence_; such is D’Estournelles’s judgment on Charles Richet. May 22. Another “meeting again” (_Wiedersehen_) with an old acquaintance whom I had never seen; Charles Richet calls on us and brings us greetings from our poor Passy. He has hopes that he will get well, but none that he will come to The Hague. Richet proves to be a great enthusiast in our cause. I wanted to keep him for luncheon, but he and D’Estournelles are invited to the French ambassador’s. In the meantime we had an invitation to a luncheon given by Frau Grete Moscheles to Andrew D. White, head of the American delegation and ambassador to Berlin. The information which Dr. White gave us filled us all with the keenest satisfaction: “I am guilty of no indiscretion,” he said at dessert, “if I tell you that at the first session of the arbitration committee we shall bring forward a complete plan for an international tribunal,—and this at the command of the United States government. I cannot as yet give the details, but the fact itself will, and should, be no secret.” May 23. In spite of closed doors, Staal’s opening address is already known. An English paper has printed it. I extract the specially significant passages: The name “Peace Conference,” which has been conferred on our meeting by the instinct of the nations, anticipating the decisions of the governments, designates correctly the object of our endeavors; the “Peace Conference” cannot be unfaithful to the mission intrusted to it; it must bring forth a tangible result such as the whole world confidently expects from it.