I quote these words because Lord Clarendon was in every sense a man who thought carefully before expressing an opinion, and it is easy to see even in his words some suspicion of Russia. Another cause for the gradual change of public opinion that for some years past has been manifesting itself in England, is that Africa has displaced Asia in the international arena, and that over British Africa Russia casts, and can cast, no shadow, whereas other nations have been treading with heavy foot upon England's colonial toes. {293} No nation can be on bad terms with all its neighbours, as Germany will have good reason to know in the very near future, and the rising menace of German ambition synchronised with the lessening of the tension between Russia and England. The national danger for England had shifted to another zone. Twenty years ago I wrote: "It appears as if, at last, Englishmen were really beginning to understand that Russia is a sister nation, which is as great by land as England is by sea." As I write I call to mind a dinner-party, at which an ex-Cabinet Minister, obviously wishing to frighten a foreigner, somewhat pompously remarked: "You have no idea of the great power which England represents by her fleet. No other nation is a match for us." He may have been right, but the tone amused me, and I said in reply: "So much the better. It is a new argument in favour of my beloved scheme--the Anglo-Russian Alliance. Our army stands to us in the same relation as your fleet to you, and in case of need might supply your military deficiency. On the other hand, your fleet might perhaps work in union with ours. But even putting aside an offensive or defensive alliance of this kind, there is one fact which is clear--left to themselves, England and Russia, having such different weapons, cannot fight each other." If I had ventured this as a prophecy instead of an ideal how I should have been laughed at; yet it has been realised, and the British Navy and the Russian {294} Army have been united at last. No matchmaker ever had more trouble in bringing together a self-conscious youth and coy maiden than those who have fought so long and so hard to bring England and Russia together. Again, there was always that tendency on the part of England to interfere in the internal affairs of Russia. To this I have referred elsewhere. If we had started in Russia a society called "The Friends of Irish Freedom," with the names of Russian Cabinet Ministers upon the title-page, what an uproar there would have been. I have, time after time, striven to emphasise the evil done in the past to the growth of a proper understanding between the two countries by such societies as "The Friends of Russian Freedom."