THE AMERICAN MONTHLY REVIEW OF REVIEWS.
it could be the strenuous and militant personality who is so often caricatured as playing the part of Orlando Furioso in American politics. The Presidential message was earnest, lucid, and practical, but it erred,-if at all,-on the side of caution, and carefully abstained from revealing any of the characteristic fire-flashes which often illuminate the utterances of the American President. The event of the conference, however, regarded as a field for the serious discussion of international policy by international statesmen, was the address by Secretary Root upon the American sentiment of humanity.
Mr. Root was followed by Mr. Hughes, the Governor of New York State, who received as warm a welcome as any other person on the platform, Mr. Carnegie and Mr. Root not excepted. The opening meeting was closed by an address by Mr. Carnegie, who was the central and most picturesque figure of the conference. Mr. Carnegie arrived at New York fresh from his glorification or apotheosis at the dedication of the Carnegie Institute at Pittsburg, and he was received with the enthusiasm and respect properly due to one who has displayed so keen an interest in the promotion of international peace. Mr. Carnegie has a humorous gift of speech. His sympathetic spirit overflows with compassion for those martyred mortals who have been doomed by fate to own millions. This is no doubt a serious matter for him. As in the days of the ancient myth, when the vulture which fed upon the vitals of Prometheus found it impossible to consume the ever-renewed substance of the Titan's body, so Mr. Carnegie, after making the most desperate efforts to disembarrass himself of his millions, has only been able to succeed in distributing the interest upon his fortune. We are therefore periodically asked to pity the sorrows of a poor millionaire who has made the one failure of his life in his attempt to disembarrass himself of his millions, but who, with that solitary exception, is ever pleased with the world and all the things that are therein. The indomitable and insatiable activity of the boy born seventy years ago in Dunfermline cannot rest content with merely American financial strifes. Andrew, like Alexander, pines for fresh worlds to conquer, and he finds a wide and spacious field of battle lying before him in the campaign for international peace.
The conference was remarkable not only on account of the presence of delegates from all parts of the United States, but also for the
presence of distinguished guests whom Mr Carnegie had invited to attend the opening the Carnegie Institute and who also were ii vited to the meeting of the peace conference Baron d'Estournelles de Constant was thr most conspicuous of the foreign guests. Hi co-operated loyally with Lord Pauncefot, and Mr. Holls at the Hague Conference ir 1899 in elaborating the high internationa court of arbitration. It was he who declare, that it was the duty of mutual powers to us their best efforts to fight the outbreak of war and it was he, more than any other man, with the doubtful exception of King Edward VII., who deserves the credit of having brought about the Anglo-French entente cordiale. He is a member of the Hague high court and one of the French delegates at the approaching Hague Conference. He was, therefore, obliged to speak with considerable reserve, but his geniality, his humor, and his mastery of the English language made him a very welcome speaker at all the meetings. Count Apponyi, of Hungary, was detained at Budapest by his ministerial duties. Otherwise Americans would have had an opportunity of hearing once more the most finished of European orators addressing them in their own tongue with an ease and mastery little short of marvelous. Of Mr. Carnegie's German guests, few put in appearance at the con ference.
Of the other distinguished foreigners, Mr. Maarten Maartens, the well-known Dutch novelist, astonished every one, himself most of all, by the fluency and force with which he spoke in public. Sir Robert Cranston, ex-Provost of Edinburgh, a bellicose Scot, whose breast was starred with many medals won in African wars, was a picturesque addition to the group of peace men and a reminder, when one was needed, that the conference was by no means composed of old pacifists who are out of touch with the patriotic sympathies and sentiments of the majority of the population. Sir Robert Ball, the astronomer, always a welcome speaker, based his advocacy of peace upon the scientific doctrine of evolution.  Mr. W. J. Bryan made the witty retort that he had always believed that peace rested upon the principle that all men were made in the image of God and that he was glad to know that it was equally soundly based upon the doctrine that war had originally descended from the ape.
The proceedings of the conference were brought to a close by the adoption of a series of resolutions which Mr. Carnegie was asked
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