38 THE ECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF THE PEACE CH.

man's buff in that party. Never could a manhave stepped into the parlour a more perfectand predestined victim to the finished accomplish-ments of the Prime Minister. The Old Worldwas tough in wickedness anyhow; the Old World'sheart of stone might blunt the sharpest blade ofthe bravest knight-errant. But this blind and deafDon Quixote was entering a cavern where theswift and glittering blade was in the hands ofthe adversary.

But if the President was not the philosopher-king,what was he ? After all he was a man who had spentmuch of his life at a University . He was by no meansa business man or an ordinary party politician, buta man of force, personality, and importance. What,then, was his temperament ?

The clue once found was illuminating. ThePresident was like a Nonconformist minister, perhapsa Presbyterian. His thought and his temperamentwere essentially theological not intellectual, with allthe strength and the weakness of that manner ofthought, feeling, and expression. It is a type ofwhich there are not now in England and Scotland suchmagnificent specimens as formerly; but this descrip-tion, nevertheless, will give the ordinary Englishmanthe distinctest impression of the President.

With this picture of him in mind, we can returnto the actual course of events. The President's pro-gramme for the World, as set forth in his speeches