There's no fort between them; there are no fichting ships on the great lakes, ready to loose death and destruction.
It's easier to have a good understanding when different peoples speak the same language.

But there's a hint o' the way things must be done, I'm thinking, in the future.

Britain and France used tae have their quarrels.

They spoke different tongues.

But gradually they built up a gude understanding of one another, and where's the man in either country the noo that wadna laugh at you if you said there was danger they micht gae tae war?
It's harder, it may be, to promote a gude understanding when there's a different language for a barrier.