428 THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR.

the coercion of the other great English-speaking Powerbeyond the Atlantic.

British neutrality was of a distinctly benevolent order where American interests were concerned. A notable instance of this was the refusal to allow Admiral Camara's squadron to obtaincoal at PortSaid for its proposed voyage to theEast. This refusal wasnominally the act of Egypt, but to all such matters the Khedive's Government necessarily spoke only as the mouthpiece of Great Britain. This friendlyaction on our part, following upon the refusal to "twist the lion's tail" was, on the whole, a recommendation to popular favour for an American politician. Now all this waschanged. In the first weeks of the war the opinion of Continental Europe was distinctly and unanimously on the side of Spain. It was even said that the Cabinets of severalEuropeancountries were disposed to organise a new concert of the Powers with a view to such another joint intervention as had been put in force against both Turkey and Greece when Crete was disturbed by serious insurrection. Cuba,it was ~1 U.S. TORPEDO EOAT "DUP0.NT."

said, would be treated as another Crete in the Western seas, and an indirect way would thus be found for upholding the claims of Spain and stopping the aggressive projects of the United States. At alaterperiod of the war more than oneof the Powers declaredthat no such project' was ever entertained. But it is, nevertheless, all but certain that it was at least proposed,and that the great obstacle to its taking formal shape was the refusal of England to give any countenance to the suggestion, and the probability,amounting almost to a certainty, that if any group of the Continental Powers tried to use their navies in a joint demonstration on behalf of Spain, the immediate result wouldbe the mobilisationof the British navy to prevent join the other Powers in any act savouring of hostility to theUnited States, produced a complete change of feeling in America. Practical advantage was taken of this welcome state of things to arrange a conference for the friendly settlement of all outstanding causes of possible dispute. There was even some talk of a permanent Anglo-American alliance. But it had to be recognised that such a combination hardly came within the range of practical diplomacy. Great Britain,with world-wide interestsin some of which the United States have no part, could not expecther American cousins to pledge themselves in advance to actively aid her in all the quarrelsarising from the clash of ambitions and the current of events on all the far-spread