that where there were no piece lists the advance should be 30.3 per cent. on current wages. On December 19 the strike ended and the mills re-opened.

Meanwhile the influenza epidemic continued, though towards the end of November its ravages abated. Nor was the cry for economy stilled. The public continued to be urged not to relax their efforts to save coal and light. More important still, there was a call by the National War Savings Committee for continued saving. "The development of the habit of saving has been one of the most marked features of war conditions in this country, as is evidenced by the fact that the number of holdings of Government securities has increased from 345,100 on the opening of hostilities to over 17,000,000 to-day." So wrote Sir R. M. Kindersley, the chairman of that committee, on November 16, and he announced at the same time that the issue of War Savings Certificates would be continued and the war-saving scheme would become permanent. In this connexion it may be mentioned that the collection of Red Cross pearls for which an appeal had been made earlier in the year was sold by auction on December 19, and the proceeds went, without any deduction, to the funds of the Red Cross.

As was but to be expected, Christmas was particularly merry this year. The festival was made the occasion of giving full and most appropriate scope to the universal thanksgiving and rejoicing that the darkest shadow which had ever fallen athwart the nation's fortunes had happily lifted and passed away. The weather on Christmas Day was sunny and crisp, with a seasonable touch of frost. The nation's gladness was heightened by the announcement, on December 25, of the betrothal of Princess Patricia, one of the most popular of royal ladies, and by the visit of President Wilson.

The President of the United States was the last of a number of distinguished visitors who came to the country in December. On the first of the month Londoners turned out, though heavy rain poured, to welcome M. Clemenceau, Marshal Foch, Signor Orlando, and Baron Sonnino. All four had a strikingly enthusiastic popular reception; and all were received by the Queen at Buckingham Palace and by Queen Alexandra at Marlborough House, the King being then still in France. The purpose of the visit was to prepare for the Inter-Allied Peace Preliminaries Conference which was to meet in Paris.

On the 10th the Emir Feisul, third son of the King of the Hedjaz, arrived in London for the purpose of presenting the respects of his father to the King. The Prince was entertained largely during his stay which lasted a fortnight.

Warm as was the reception given to these visitors it naturally could not compare with that accorded to Sir Douglas Haig and the commanders of the British armies on the Western Front who came home officially on December 19. At Dover, where the returning Generals landed and were greeted by cheering crowds, Sir

Douglas Haig paid a high tribute to "the wonderful men whose unequalled courage and endurance have brought us at length by victory to peace. In London the reception of the party was of a notable character. They drove through crowded streets to Buckingham Palace, where the King and Queen entertained them at luncheon. At Sir Douglas and Lady Haig's home at Kingston a torchlight procession welcomed them.

If gratitude was the predominant feeling of the crowds which witnessed the arrival of Sir Douglas Haig and his party, intense respect and admiration was the characteristic of the crowds which enthusiastically cheered President Wilson on his arrival in London on December 26. The Times remarked that the President's visit was one of the greatest events in our own and in American history." Never before had a President of the United States visited these shores; and it was only to be expected that the nation would rise to the occasion. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson stayed at Buckingham Palace as the guests of the King and Queen, both of whom were present at Charing Cross Station to welcome the visitors. On Friday evening a State banquet was given at the Palace in their honour, and in his reply to the King's toast, President Wilson declared: "The welcome which you have given me and Mrs. Wilson has been so warm, so natural, so evidently from the heart that we have been more than pleased; we have been touched by it, and I believe that I correctly interpret that welcome as embodying not only your own generous spirit towards us personally, but also as expressing for yourself and the great nation over which you preside that same feeling for my people, for the people of the United States."

On Saturday the President and Mrs. Wilson visited the City at midday, and had dinner with the Prime Minister and the Imperial War Cabinet in the evening. At the Guildhall the President was presented with an address from the City of London. Directly he appeared in the Council Chamber the President received a stirring demonstration of welcome. The proceedings in the Council Chamber were followed by a luncheon in the Egyptian Hall, and both celebrations were marked by special cordiality both on the part of the crowds in the street and of the guests at the functions.

On Sunday, December 29, President Wilson was in Carlisle, in order to visit the place where his mother had been born. From Carlisle he proceeded to Manchester, where once more, on the Monday, he was given a magnificent reception. A streamer spread across the whole of the Market Street side of the Royal Exchange conveyed to Mr. Wilson the message: "The industrial capital of England has a warm corner in its heart for you." The President was interested in a visit to the Ship Canal; he made a call at the Royal Exchange; and in the presence of a great assembly in the Free Trade Hall was presented with the freedom of Manchester. In returning thanks for the honours Mr. Wilson said, among other things: "There is a feeling of

cordial fraternity and friendship between the two great nations, and as I have gone from place to place and been made everywhere to feel the pulse of sympathy that is now beating between us, I have been led to some very serious thoughts as to what the basis of it all is. For I think you will agree with me that friendship is more than sentiment. Patriotism is not mere sentiment. It is based upon a principle that leads a man to give more than he demands. And, similarly, friendship is based not merely upon affection, but upon common service."

On the last day of the year the President returned to France. Perhaps the burden of his message to this country may be best expressed in words he uttered at Manchester, words which may also fittingly close this survey of a remarkable year in English History :

"that

"I believe," President Wilson said, men are beginning to see, not perhaps the golden age, but an age which at any rate is brightening from decade to decade, and will lead us some time to an elevation from which we can see the things for which the heart of mankind is longing."

FOREIGN AND COLONIAL HISTORY.

CHAPTER I.

FRANCE AND ITALY.

I. FRANCE.

NEVER in all its history did the French nation display greater courage or greater unanimity than during the wearisome years of the European War. And at the beginning of the year 1918, no considerable weakening of the French spirit was to be observed. It is true that since the German peace offer of December, 1916, there had been a change of attitude on the part of the Socialist Party. But the persons thus influenced formed only a small minority of the nation, and the essential unanimity and the fixed determination of the nation to pursue the war to a victorious termination were not thereby seriously impaired.

During the year 1917 the course of events had sharpened the division between the mass of the nation and the Socialist Party. At the beginning of that year it was only a minority of the Socialists who had gone into opposition. This minority had held that the German peace offer ought not to have been rejected without further consideration; and after the offer had been made they came rapidly to the position adopted by the small peace party in Great Britain, and by the Official Socialists in Italy, namely, that the war ought to be concluded on the basis of a compromise with the Central Powers. The difference of opinion thus formed was accentuated later by the revolution in Russia which was greeted much more warmly by the Socialists than by the other parties. In particular, the Socialists had been heartily in favour of the Russian and neutral proposal to hold a Peace Conference of Socialists in Stockholm, and they had bitterly resented the refusal of the French Government to allow them to proceed to that proposed Conference. Finally, the Socialist Party separated themselves from the sentiments of other Frenchmen on the question of Alsace-Lorraine. They adopted officially the much-discussed suggestion that that vexing territorial problem ought to be closed by giving the people of the two provinces the right to decide by plebiscite what their own destiny should be.

As the year proceeded the great majority of Socialists came

to adhere more or less closely to this new policy, which as already stated, had originally been advocated only by a minority. The evolution of the other parties was in the reverse direction. And after several changes of Government the Premiership fell in November to M. Georges Clemenceau. The latter statesman was famous not only in France but in all Europe for his determined character and for the strength of his foreign policy; and vigorous though the French Government had been before, it became even more determined and unyielding under his leadership. And M. Clemenceau was not only convinced of the necessity of waging the war against Germany to a decisive victory, but also deemed it essential to check, by stern measures if necessary, the spread of the pacificist movement in France. It was the assumption of office by a statesman of the character of M. Clemenceau which finally caused almost the whole of the Socialist Party to go into opposition. M. Clemenceau had appointed M. Pichon as Foreign Secretary.

A debate which took place in the Chamber of Deputies on January 11 brought out the differences of what may now be correctly called the two French parties. Several interpellations, dealing with the Government's refusal of passports to Petrograd and with the diplomatic conduct of the war generally, were addressed to the Government on that day by the Socialist deputies, M. Mayeras, M. Cachin, M. Thomas, and M. Renaudel. M. Mayeras contended that the lack of sympathy which the Government had shown to the Russian revolutionaries, and the fact that the French Government by its attitude had seemed to support those who would change the Entente's war of defence into a war of aggression, had contributed in an important manner to the deplorable prolongation of the war. M. Albert

Thomas also declared that the Allied Governments should state their war aims in concise terms, and that those terms should give no colour to the German Government's contention that the Central Powers were waging a war of defence.

In reply to these interpellations M. Pichon made a long speech. He declared that the French Government were in agreement with the war aims laid down by Mr. Lloyd George and Dr. Wilson. The French Ministry were, for instance, in agreement with Dr. Wilson's proposal that Germany should be admitted to the future Society of Nations so soon as she had abolished her military caste. In reference to the refusal of passports to Russia, the speaker averred that these could not be granted in existing circumstances because the new Government in Petrograd had torn up all its treaties and was not recognised by any of the Allied Governments nor by the United States Government. Moreover, the French Ministry must condemn the idea of an International Socialist Conference, for they could not think of "permitting this contact with the accomplices of the authors of the world calamity." It would be playing the German game for the Allies to go to Brest-Litovsk, for