Hague felicitously referred to Victoria and Wilhelmina, are strongly, almost passionately devoted to the peace ideal. The other sovereigns of Europe, the Emperor of Austria, the

King of Italy, the Queen Regent of
Spain, Oscar of Sweden and Norway,
and most of the rest are not, as a rule,
one whit more given to love of war
than their subjects. The presidents
of nearly all the republics of the
world are quite as advanced in their
ideas of peace as the peoples whose
representatives they are. When
Nicholas of Russia asked for the
Peace Conference, these sovereigns.
and presidents responded with a read-
iness and earnestness with which the
peoples hardly kept pace.

As to Laboulaye's ministers of
state, won to the ideas which he at-
tributed to peoples, if he had been at
The Hague he would have found
them there. One of the most satis-
factory and significant features of the
conference was the evidently sincere
and earnest and what, as the delibera-
tions went on, showed itself to be the
persistent wish of most of the mem-
bers to do something real toward the
promotion of a better understanding
between the nations and toward lay-
ing the foundations of a durable
peace, out of which should come ulti-
mate disarmament. There may have

ENTRANCE TO THE HOUSE IN THE WOODS. been something of policy and self

interest in this wish; there were reputations at stake, and national honor too, though of an order somewhat novel; it would have been wholly unnatural if motives of this sort had not played their part in keeping the men of the conference up to their duty. But any one who came into contact with them and watched their course from day to day as to the objects before them, as I was permitted to do to SO considerable

an extent, was forced to believe that the motives which actuated them, with exceptions, of course, were a sincere regard for the good of the world and a true desire to use the occasion before them, to the fullest extent possible, for the promotion of that good. They were representatives of the governments and peoples from which they had come; they felt deeply their responsibility to that large and growing public sentiment in all the civilized nations, which is loudly demanding durable peace and relief from the ex

ning to end; but it was true no less of a large number of the silent men who only listened, thought and voted. Hereafter, therefore, it may be expected that peoples on the one hand, and kings and ministers of state on the other, will move together in the attainment of what Laboulaye calls the blessings of peace and of labor.

It is somewhat difficult to speak of a conference which one has seen only from the outside. But the inside of a thing can often be very well judged from the outside. This is peculiarly true of assemblies of men, which in these days have no secrets. The attempt was made in the beginning to keep the proceedings of the committees and sub-committees secret. But this was found to be practically impossible. The leading speeches were, either "for substance of doctrine" or literally, in the newspapers before they were cold. Members would talk "confidentially" to their friends, and these to others.

WILHELMINA, QUEEN OF HOLLAND.

hausting burdens of incessantly growing armaments. But they were, many of them at any rate, more than this; they were representatives of themselves. They thought, spoke and acted as if the affair which they had in hand had been their own. This was distinctly true of the leaders in the deliberations, to whom was due in no small measure the admirable spirit which pervaded the conference from begin

So it came to pass that the enterprising men of the press, some of whom, in spite of the dearth of news, persisted in staying and "hunting the hard fox," to use one of Mr. Stead's phrases, succeeded in giving to the world the purport of the daily deliberations, of course with many glosses of their own. The outcome was that the secretaries of the committees were authorized to