In England, Cecil Rhodes, with his great dream of drawing together all portions of the British race, devoted his fortune to making Oxford the mold where all its leaders of thought and action should be shaped; and Joseph Chamberlain and other English leaders talked freely and enthusiastically of an alliance between Great Britain and the United States as the surest foundation for world peace.
It need not be supposed, however, that these international amenities meant that the United States was to be allowed to have its own way in the world.

The friendliness of Great Britain was indeed sincere.
Engaged between 1899 and 1901 in the Boer War, she appreciated ever more strongly the need for the friendship of the United States, and she looked with cordial approbation upon the development of Secretary Hay's policy in China.

The British, however, like the Americans, are legalistically inclined, and disputes between the two nations are likely to be maintained to the limit of the law.

The advantage of this legal mindedness is that there has always been a disposition in both peoples to submit to judicial award when ordinary negotiations have reached a deadlock.

But the real affection for each other which underlay the eternal bickerings of the two nations had as yet not revealed itself to the American consciousness.