There had been three French ministries in two weeks; and the trial of Madame Caillaux for the murder of Gaston Calmette, editor of the Paris _Figaro_, was monopolizing all the nation's capacity for emotion.

Colonel House saw that it would be a waste of energy to take up his mission at Paris--there was no government stable enough to make a discussion worth while.

He therefore immediately left for London.
The political situation in Great Britain was almost as confused as that in Paris.

The country was in a state approaching civil war on the question of Home Rule for Ireland; the suffragettes were threatening to dynamite the Houses of Parliament; and the eternal struggle between the Liberal and the Conservative elements was raging with unprecedented virulence.

A European war was far from everybody's mind.