The King’s visits to the Continent are treated in no friendly spirit by the “Dictionary of National Biography,” which even goes out of its way to belittle the part which he played in public work abroad as at home. Speaking of his visits to Paris, the writer says: “Political principles counted for little in his social intercourse ... a modest estimate was set on his political acumen when in informal talk he travelled beyond safe generalities.” But perhaps no word of a serious writer on history, or biography, which is, or should be, history, by whomsoever that word may have been inspired, ever more swiftly received material contradiction than the following: “An irresponsible suggestion at a private party in Paris that the _entente_ ought to be converted into a military alliance met with no response.” The response is loud enough to-day in the dunes of Flanders, on the Vistula, in the Carpathians, and in the Dardanelles. When King Edward travelled he was carrying out the practice of the great foreign statesmen who were wont to take their holidays, or at any rate part of it, at some foreign watering-place like Gastein, Marienbad, Carlsbad or Homburg, where the Prime Ministers of the various countries met and exchanged views. That was the habit of the mighty Bismarck himself. Our own statesmen neglected this until the late Lord Salisbury undertook his famous journey through Europe in order to become acquainted and confer with the ministers of foreign Powers. This abstinence on the part of the English leaders undoubtedly placed them at a disadvantage when the great international questions were discussed. Men like Bismarck and Andrassy had travelled over one another’s minds, and each knew exactly how best to tackle the other. Our men went to a conference primed with technicalities which are apt to become ineptitudes when the personal factor is excluded. King Edward relied greatly on that personal factor, and he obtained a more intimate knowledge of the ruling men in France, Germany, Austria and Italy, not to speak of lesser Powers, than was possessed by any other English statesman. In connection with the charge of want of political acumen and indifference to books upon which so much stress has been laid, a very eminent French statesman, who knew the King well and had many opportunities of judging him, writes to me as follows: