Belgium offered a stormy scene politically just after the war. Great changes occurred both in the status of the nation in Europe, and in its internal organization. The Treaty of Versailles formally recognized the abrogation of the neutrality of Belgium which King Albert had proclaimed at the end of the war; it declared that the old neutrality treaties of 1839 "no longer conform to the requirements of the situation," and would be replaced by other treaties. The first result of this abrogation was a close alliance, political, economic, and military, with France. Though natural enough, the means by which it was established and the extent to which it was carried aroused great resentment in certain quarters. Universal manhood was supplemented, under the law of April 15, 1920, by universal woman suffrage in communal elections, while partial woman suffrage was established in parliamentary elections. Concessions were made to the Flemish agitators. New social-welfare legislation was passed. Feeling ran higher than before the war between the very conservative Catholic Party on one side and the Socialists and Liberals on the other, the two latter soon gaining the ascendancy. Great social discontent prevailed, and at times the throne seemed in danger. On all this, on the Luxembourg question, and on the question of relations with Holland, Whitlock's diary throws much light. Particularly valuable is his evidence upon the systematic machinations of the French, and upon the King's essential liberalism in politics and economics. Albert had little patience with the reactionaries of the Quartier Léopold.

January 10, 1920.---I have at last procured The Twilight of the Souls,(1) and am reading it. A most depressing book; all the small souls are insane, as the author is; and as the reader must inevitably become if the series keeps on. It is terrible, with this weather; always this black, melancholy rain. I have dictated my speech for the Verhaeren (2) celebration.

January 12, 1920.---Finished The Twilight of the Souls. It is a remarkable book, exceedingly well written, but not so great as Small Souls. It is like a madhouse---and Couperus evidently changed his plan midway; found that he couldn't make his family interesting enough if he kept them in that state of bourgeois stupidity and dullness that characterized them in Small Souls.

January 13, 1920.---Working on that speech about Verhaeren. What a waste of time, and what a bore! My life is wasted in such nonsense.

Goldschmidt here yesterday to say that he will take $200,000 for his house. But what of it? Washington will never buy it. We are hopelessly, hopelessly provincial, and there is absolutely nothing to be done about it, absolutely nothing. For instance, what a ridiculous position America cuts in the eyes of the world today! Peace signed at Paris Saturday by all the world save us, and we are too awkward, too green to know what to do, or how to act. It is all too sickening and humiliating, just as it is when I think of the British Embassy, of the Spanish, of the Italian, and then think of us here in this house, which is for sale, so that we are mere tenants at sufferance, liable and likely to be turned out on the street at any minute.

January 15, 1920.---This morning, at 10:30, to the Palace, where the diplomatic corps were presented to the Shah of Persia. We were all in frock coats.

The King of Kings and Lord of Heaven is a small, round, fat boy, who waddles when he walks, and will one of these fine days burst, so fat is he from overeating. He was in a frock coat, wide trousers, and a black astrachan fez, yet not undignified on his small feet in ugly Parisian shoes. He was surrounded by a suite of dark, gloomy, hairy Persians, likewise in frock coats and astrachan fezes, who look like rug merchants in Fifth Avenue up at 47th Street. We formed a circle, and Mahmoud Khan presented us as the Sun of Heaven passed along. Seen rather closely, he is not unpleasant; has beautiful brown eyes with long lashes, and a rather winning smile. His dark face is unhealthy and wholly sensual, his small weak mouth almost lost in the rolls of fat. He spoke in correct French, but was at a loss as to what to say. To me he spoke of the President and asked after his health, and said that he had a great desire to visit America, and hoped to do so. I told him that we should be delighted, and we passed on.

January 30, 1920.---It was clear this afternoon, and Dr. Heger had provided me with an object for my promenade by sending me a letter written to him by the archivist of the City of Brussels telling where Wellington lived from April to June in 1815. 1 had read in the Creevey Papers of his having seen the Duke in his house overlooking the Parc Royale, and wished to know the house. It is on the rue Royale, No. 50 as the houses are numbered now, next door to the old Hôtel de France. I went and looked at it, and I could imagine the old Duke looking out the window and beckoning to Creevey as he passed. Then I went on to the rue des Cendres, No. 8, where the Duchess of Richmond lived and gave the ball on the night before Waterloo. The house is now a convent.

Coming back I stopped in to see Hymans. Nothing new in the affairs of the Grand Duchy railways. Hymans had gone with the King to meet the French, the other day when Poincaré decorated the cities of Dixmude, Ypres, and so on---ridiculous French cabotinage, as the King well knows!---and they had talked over their relations. Millerand was there. But the French wouldn't cede a point. I spoke of the French campaign that is being carried on here, with such success.

Saw Villalobar on coming out. He said that it was to be regretted that America was allowing herself to be embroiled with England over the Irish question. I agreed, but every one is crazy in America now; the Senate the craziest of all; it is too sickening for words.

February 14, 1920.---Today's newspapers report Lansing's resignation. He has disagreed and quarreled with the President---isn't the first to do so---and the whole correspondence, I judge, is given out to the press in the good old American manner of washing all dirty linen in public. Who his successor will be no one knows. The place is hardly desirable, here in the twilight of an unpopular Administration. But at any rate, Lansing is done for.

Hoover has published a statement in which he sets forth his political principles, which are liberal and I think sound. But as he has made the mistake, fatal from the political standpoint, of saying that he is not sure as to which of the two parties he will support, he has no doubt disposed of his presidential chances, or if not, the old politicians of both parties will promptly dispose of them for him. And so, exit Hoover.

Robert Underwood Johnson has been appointed Ambassador to Rome! Well, I'm glad for his sake, for he wanted it, but he will have a hard time, for he doesn't agree with the President's views on Italy and Yugoslavia.

Sunday, February 15, 1920.---This afternoon I saw Hymans, and had a long talk with him about the Dutch-Belgian treaty, and so on, in order to enlighten Washington, and about the recognition of the Grand Duchy by the Belgians, Washington having complained that we were not notified promptly.

Home, and Villiers came. We chatted awhile. He was shocked by the President's almost brutal letter to Lansing. Indeed every one sympathizes with Lansing. Another big blunder by the President, which any ward politician---were the President to heed his advice---could have prevented his making. What a twilight!

February 17, 1920.---One is amazed and distressed by the actions of the President. ------- has a theory that is rather convincing. When we were at Washington, we had ample evidences that there was ill-feeling between Mrs. Wilson and Margaret on the one hand and Mrs. Lansing on the other. Mrs. Lansing did not conceal her dislike of them, did not invite Margaret to dinner when the King was there, and so on. Mrs. Lansing, in a word, looks down from a superior social height on Mrs. Wilson and Margaret. –------'s theory is that during the President's illness, Mrs. Wilson and Margaret did not overlook the opportunity and intensified his feeling against Lansing. It seems very likely. Cherchez la femme!

It is sickening, and what is worse, the President by his stubbornness on the Adriatic question---though he is right---seems ready to plunge the world into chaos, and to ruin our relations with England. The London Times is very much concerned, though admitting that the President is right. And here we are with De Valera, the so-called "President" of the so-called Irish "Republic," going about America, received and coddled everywhere by Governors, mayors, Congressmen, and what not...; and then there are our shipments of arms to Ireland, and the slight administered to Lord Grey, the greatest man in England, whom the President allowed to depart without seeing him---incredible ill manners! And all this, and more, dragging us into trouble.

February 20, 1920.---This evening after ten, Thwaits(3) called to say good-bye. He has been all over Belgium, renewing acquaintances that he made when he was here with the C.R.B. He was sad and disillusioned. "They have forgotten all that America ever did," he said, "and now hate us as much as the French." He gave me many instances. He is quite right; I have more and more noticed it, talked of it indeed, this afternoon, with Lemonnier, whom I met on the avenue. Much of it is due to the fact that the Belgian press is merely an echo of the French press, and much to the exchange---the rate being still about $1 = 14 francs. The feeling against President Wilson is especially bitter; they are impatient over his opposition to the Adriatic settlement, and generally blame him, and America in general, with all their woes. Grosjean was in to see me, and was much disturbed, and Herring has been in to discuss the advisability of preparing some articles for the press.

February 24, 1920.---There is much poverty in Brussels---we have so many cripples; such a pathetic girl came this morning to ask help; she had not eaten all day, and her brother, who lost both legs in the war, has only five francs a day from the Government, and has three children. The girl sews from 8 A.M. to 8 P.M., and is paid two francs a day!

February 26, 1920.---The nasty article that Hearst wrote and signed and published in his newspapers about the King has finally reached Belgium and is published today in several newspapers with caustic comment ....

This afternoon Nell and I, with the Thomases, went to the Monnaie to attend the matinée given by Pavlova and her company for the benefit of Russian sufferers .... There was great excitement and speculation as to the identity of the generous and modest individual who gave one hundred thousand francs for a seat---No. 22. Meeting DePage between acts, I talked to him about it, and he said, "That is humbug." A few minutes later, in Mme. Hyman's box,... DePage came in and I told her to ask about the wonderfully generous unknown. Then DePage told us that he himself had seat No. 22, and that he had given one hundred thousand francs to the Russian charity, not of course of his own money, but of the American Red Cross funds left with him for distribution among Belgian poor by Van Schaick when he left! Mme. Hymans, I thought, felt somewhat embarrassed, and tried to explain that the money would be used to buy medicine for sick Russians, but old DePage said no, they were going to lend the money. To whom? she asked. Oh, they would give it to the Russian Minister here, Nellidow! They asked me if I thought it was all right; but I said that I knew nothing about it, and expressed no opinions.

It makes me indignant, however, for there is DePage, getting credit for what is American generosity, to say nothing of diverting one hundred thousand francs from its uses. And as for giving it to Nellidow---well, precious little of the money will reach Russia, for Nellidow represents less than nothing, not even the Bolsheviks.

What fools we Americans are, and what easy gulls! The millions and millions, not of francs but of dollars, that have been wasted by our Red Cross in Europe since we came into the war!

March 1, 1920.---I am much depressed. The President's stubbornness, as revealed in his letter to Simmons, and his reckless slaps, right and left, at France, at Italy, at England, at Japan, are amazing. One stands aghast, wondering what blunder he will make next. He was a year and a half ago the most popular man in the world, hailed everywhere as a veritable Messiah; now he is cordially detested everywhere, and all because of his astounding tactlessness. He has been mostly right in everything, but has ruined himself and his own cause, and almost his country, by his stubbornness and by tactless blunders that a common ward-heeler would know better than to commit.

Sunday, March 14, 1920.---The Kapp counter-revolution in Germany entirely bloodless; the old junkers in power, of course, and the Kaiser doubtless packing his trunks to go back. The dispatches speak of General von Lüttwitz as having taken command of the army. Is it our old von Lüttwitz of Brussels?

This afternoon, walking on the avenue Louise to the Bois, met Francqui and his wife. Francqui lively and amusing as ever; of the revolution at Berlin said, "That will not last." Anxious to know about Hoover's chances for the Presidency; had just been to London, and seen Davis, who he said didn't like Hoover at all. Walked to the Bois then; returning, met ----, and turned about, walked back to the Bois with him, and then we came back home together and walked up and down the boulevard until teatime.

He said that a prominent Socialist, Vandervelde, I presumed, had seen a prominent boche Socialist, who had told him that if elections were held in Germany the Conservatives would carry them, for the left wing was no longer popular. --- thought the Germans would now create many difficulties for the Allies, but that the Germans could not do anything in a military way.

I got him on to the Luxembourg question. He had returned yesterday from Paris; had seen Millerand Saturday, and had a long talk, but to no conclusion .... While de Margerie(4) was discussing the disposition of the Grand Duchy railways with [the government] here, and Gaffier(5) discussing it with Millerand at Paris, the French Government behind their backs entered into a contract, and effected a settlement with the Grand Ducal Government. The first information that this had been done was when the Grand Ducal Government informed the Belgian Government, and said that it, the Grand Ducal Government, had been forced by the French Government to do so. ---- was very angry, and had reproached Millerand. The French wished to negotiate a military convention with Belgium for mutual defence, and so on, before settling the affair of the railways, but ----, very wisely, will not consent to that. There is no doubt that the French, who, as ------ admitted today, are very imperialistic, are trying to secure complete domination in Belgium.(6) While the de Margeries and the whole train at the French Embassy have been straining everywhere to keep up the social whirl, and splashing champagne and perfume over every Belgian they can see, this skullduggery has been going on. The de Margerie social campaign is mere camouflage, or a kind of barrage.

He spoke of the President's letter to Simmons,(7) and said that while it was true enough---that is, what he said of French imperialism---he never should have said it; for the head of a state to say such a thing of a friendly Power was unheard of. He had, indeed, much to say of the President, none of it unkindly said at all, and, as I felt, all of it quite well justified and true; still it was embarrassing, and I told him that he mustn't expect me to criticise my revered sovereign. He said that the feeling against the President at Paris was extremely bitter.

March 15, 1920.---Went this afternoon to see Hymans to ask about the treaties of 1839, or the revision of them. The job is nearly finished, and Hymans is to lay the result before the Committee on Foreign Affairs this week.

The report from Berlin is that the Revolution is over, and that the old government and the revolutionists have come to an accord.

Sunday, March 21, 1920.---Well, the treaty fails, and as a fitting indignity with which to cover their despicable work, the Senators adopted an amendment expressing sympathy with Ireland! It fills me with shame for my country; I have today a sensation I never knew before, that is, that my country is disgraced. It is all sad, sad, and humiliating. The Senators, that is, the Lodge group, are to blame, and the President by his stubbornness and lack of tact has not helped matters any. The Senate never sank so low before. They make us look like a nation of welchers and rotters. Ah me!

Well, it was a day of fine weather. Nell and I went to Woluwe with the dogs this morning, and this afternoon were compelled to go to the Palais des Académies to hear General Castelnau's conference on "The day of the French soldier." Everybody there; the King and Prince Léopold in a box, the King looking bored and sleepy; the Cardinal presiding. For an hour and a half Castelnau blew and boasted about the French---with some soft soap for the Belgians, and never a word for the British, to say nothing of the Americans. I was grateful that he did not abuse us. But such rot one never heard. How the French can go on and on boasting of their own prowess and merits and glory is beyond me, but they can, and the Belgians love them. The French propaganda is being swallowed whole by the Belgians, and if it goes on Belgium will be all but annexed.

April 5, 1920.---The strike of the tramcar men goes on, the third in a year despite large advances in wages. It is amazing how docile the people are; the poor have been compelled to walk now for these two holidays, and the city authorities make no effort to get the cars running. With us, in America, there would be strikebreakers, police, and riots, here there is nothing. . . --- In addition there is a strike of the newspaper carriers, so that we have no journals; some of the taxi drivers are striking too. The city is quiet and calm, rather pleasant, indeed, without the screeching, rattling trams, and as for the newspapers, that is no loss; I should be content if they never published them again, especially these Brussels papers which are miserable rags. The strikers do not hurt us who have motors; the poor, the labourers, and so on, are the ones who suffer, as usual.

April 6, 1920.---The Irish situation is most deplorable. That unspeakable fakir, de Valera, is spreading all sorts of lies all over America, and our people are swallowing them as gudgeons gulp down bait. Terror reigns in Ireland. The Sinn Feiners are murdering to their heart's content, and the British Government, probably not very tactful in its dealing with the murderers, it is true, doesn't even take the trouble to explain the Irish situation to Americans.

The French have occupied four Rhine towns; probably a mistake.(8) Millerand has put out a statement expressing the hope that the American troops will advance as well; but if I know my America, the result of this action there will be a public demand, not that the troops advance, but they be withdrawn altogether and brought home. The President was not very diplomatic when he said that France had become militarist, but he was right.

April 9, 1920.---Hymans sent for me at noon. He wished to tell me about the action of his Government in the matter of the military movement of the French in the Ruhr. He had gone to Bruges to stop over Easter. There, on the 4th, they brought him a dispatch from Millerand saying that the French had desired or wished to occupy Frankfort, and so on. He comes back to Brussels ....

The King was in Paris, and only returned yesterday morning; there were the reviews, and so on, so that the Crown Council could not be held until yesterday at five. It was then decided that, while adhering to its former opinion, the Belgian Government as an evidence of its friendship for France, and to maintain the solidarity of the Allies, would participate in the movement. They will send a battalion, but impose a condition to the effect that the troops be withdrawn as soon as the Germans evacuate. I went to see Villiers, this afternoon; he had the same information.

Sunday, April 11, 1920.---The newspaper lull of the strained relations between France and England brought about by Lloyd George's disapproval of France's advance in the valley of the Ruhr. The Times strongly criticises Lloyd George. It seems to me that he is quite right. The French military party advanced without notifying its Allies, and now the Paris newspapers whimper and whine because the Allies don't stand together! There is great applause for Belgium. Maurice de Waliffe, who wrote a very nasty article in La Dernière Heure about America last week, has today an equally nasty article about England.

April 12, 1920.---Excellent article in L'Étoile today; the only newspaper, except Le Peuple, that sees through the French manoeuvre. The French have agreed to settle the question of the railways in the Grand Duchy, and the matter is referred to a commission of experts. The price Belgium is to pay is a military alliance, which France is eager for, and I suspect that this joining by Belgium in the adventure of the valley of the Ruhr is but a payment on account. Poor Belgium! France will have her ere long, has her now, in fact. It was a mistake on England's part to insist on Belgium's agreeing to be neutral in return for English guarantees; Belgium was thereby led to declare her independence and has fallen into France's arms. It is not unlikely that Holland deliberately arranged the scare as to Belgium's attacking her in order to frighten England, and the French by their very clever propaganda first destroyed the feeling for America in Belgium, and then set to work to tear down England. And they have succeeded.

April 15, 1920.---Villalobat here to tea. He was very eager to hear what I thought of the action of Belgium in making what amounts to a military alliance with France, and in assuming an attitude toward England that is almost hostile. I frankly told him .... He said that he had seen Delacroix, who was opposed to the movement, as was the King, who I knew would be. Vandervelde was also opposed, had dodged the Cabinet meeting. Villalobar said that the French were using the Belgians for their own ends, and, ere long, would drop them. He said, "The longer I live, the more I hate the French."

April 17, 1920.---Met Van Vredenbergh,(9) who had kindly sent me all his notes on the Dutch treaty. He told me that he was sick over the Belgian-French alliance, but that there was nothing to be done. He said, in confidence, that de Margerie had been telling the Belgian politicians that France was Belgium's only hope, that it was no good turning toward England; that in two years England would be in the midst of a social revolution, that Ireland would secede, that America would be an avowed enemy of England, that Egypt would be lost to the British Empire, and that India would revolt! And this de Margerie...! The French positively have the delusion that they are to become once more the leading military power in the world!

Meanwhile a Cabinet crisis is blowing up here. No one gives the present government a long life.

April 19, 1920. -----is home from Monte Carlo. He is half sick over the result of the French propaganda in Belgium; says that the plan of France is plainly to annex Belgium, and when that is done, he says, he will not continue to live in Belgium. He says that de Margerie has bought up all the journalists in Belgium by a generous distribution of the lower grades of the Legion of Honour. He had told Villiers long ago that England should send over here several miles of ribbon, but Villiers had said: "No, we don't do that."

April 23, 1920.---Ethelbert Frederick, connected with the Liquidation Commission, here to see me to try to prevent the bankers at New York calling the fifty million dollar loan of the Belgian Government. Francqui has gone to America to negotiate the extension of credit. Should he not succeed, it would bring about much bad feeling here, where so much already exist

April 24, 1920.---After many denials, it is announced as though officially today that the King and Queen are to visit Brazil this summer ....

Sent a cablegram to Washington this morning to try to facilitate Francqui's mission; he goes to have the loan of fifty million dollars renewed. The bankers threaten to call it in June. If they do, they will precipitate a panic.

Villiers in to see me at 6:30, and stopped an hour gossiping. He said that Curzon had called Moncheur(10) in and had wanted his head; Moncheur was deeply humiliated, and Curzon can be terrible! Moncheur said that Belgium's excuse (for joining France in the Ruhr) was that England had notified her through her Ambassador at Brussels of her disapproval of France's action in occupying Frankfort. Villiers at last sees de Margerie as he is; said "he is a bad colleague" He wishes to be seen as much as possible in public with me, so as to show solidarity of England and America.

Sunday, April 25, 1920.---Gustave Henri in town yesterday, making a conference and having a great banquet in his honour. Vive la France! Vive la Belgique---but above all, and all together, Vive la France! Poor Belgium has gone mad over her French alliance; such passionate love between nations was never seen before on this planet; a mad unreasoning infatuation ....

Just now this commission of experts, jointly composed of French and Belgians, to settle the Luxembourg railway question is something new.(11) The commission provides that, within fifteen days after it becomes apparent that a solution of the question is to be reached, Belgium is to sign a military alliance with France .... Belgium now hates America and England, and has gone mad over the one country of her former Allies that never did anything for her. To the north lies Holland whom she hates also, and to the east, Germany---whom, of course and with every one, she hates. And one day when... Belgium wakes up?

April 30, 1920.---I had a talk at noon with Hymans about the removal of our dead in Belgium. Washington has sent me another urgent telegram about this matter. The Belgian Government is not keen on giving permission to dig up all the bodies of fallen soldiers, for if they allow us to do it, they fear that France and England, and eventually, Germany, will wish to do the same thing, and this would mean exhuming half a million bodies in the midst of reconstruction.

I am being deviled to death by requests from Americans for invitations to the Garden Party which is to be given the 15th of May. They all think they are entitled to them as "American citizens." Our democracy is a fearful and wonderful thing! It is most embarrassing indeed. I can't ask the court to invite all the Americans who are seeing the sights in Brussels, and I can't pick and choose among them, and if I don't ask for them, they will go home and start a congressional inquiry as to why American citizens are not assured their rights abroad.

May 1, 1920.---The town quiet, and no revolution, as some of the neurotics feared. Parades of "workingmen," though when they work is a mystery---but no trouble anywhere. In France, however, several strikes have been declared. The attitude of labour everywhere throughout the war has been contemptible. The workers took advantage of the world's agony to demand increased wages, they worked in safety, far away from the noise of battle or the range of gun, and are called heroes by the blatherskite politicians for having "won the war."

May 4, 1920.---I have had an inquiry from Washington about the report to the effect that the French and Belgians have made, at Copenhagen, an agreement with Litvinoff as to an exchange of prisoners, and have promised not to interfere with the Soviet Government or to oppose it in a military sense. Villalobar came to see me and showed me a dispatch that he had sent to the Foreign Office reporting what de Ramack had told him, namely that the French representative at Copenhagen who was to act for both governments had made some sort of agreement, but that they, the Belgians, didn't as yet know just what they were bound to! Also he showed me a dispatch giving an account of poor old Moncheur's painful interview with Sir Eyre Crowe. I attached my report. Curzon also wanted Hyman's head at San Remo, and refused for the present a military alliance.

May 8, 1920.---American dispatches state that Hoover has failed to carry his own state of California in the primaries, Hiram Johnson having soundly defeated him. This, I take it, is the end of Hoover's candidature. It is as I predicted. I knew in the beginning, when he didn't know what party he belonged to, that he would not go far. It takes experience and knowledge of a sort that Hoover does not possess to succeed in politics. It is, in its way, to be regretted. He is an excellent man, while Johnson is an ignorant and dangerous demagogue, whose election would be a national calamity. But Hoover is not an ideal man, either as candidate or President; for one thing he is not Sahib, and as for the political game, into which he so lightly entered, he has now learned that the old politicians have mastered tricks, not only of an evil, but of a not unworthy kind, that he never dreamed of.

May 12, 1920.---Dear old Mr. Howells is dead. I read the announcement in the Daily Mail and the Paris New York Herald a few minutes ago. He was eighty-three, full of years and honours, and all that, and yet it is sad to feel that he is no longer of this world. He was my first literary hero, and filled all the firmament of my world when I was a young man. He was very kind to me; took an interest in my writings, and encouraged me; and gave me constantly the finest kind of praise in his writings. In 1902 I made a pilgrimage to Kittery to see him; it was a great moment in my life when I met him. Afterwards we corresponded, and I saw him often in New York, the last time when we were home in 1915-16. The admiration and the love I had for him increased with the years; he was so good, so kind, so right-minded, so full of humour. He was, in fiction, a pioneer, as I said in my paper before the Institute in 1915. If there was something lacking, after all, in his work, it was only that which is lacking in all American literary work; our best always falls a little short of the best English fiction or English poetry, or English essays, or English literature of any kind. I don't know why it is or why it should be---but we are somehow thinner, and we don't go down deep enough. Emotion or tradition, or experience, or atmosphere, or ripe scholarship---something, whatever it is, is lacking. I am sometimes prone to think that Howells's talent, cultivated in England, would have become a finer thing. But it was fine as it was, and beautiful, and he did a great work, and was deservedly the greatest figure in our literary world these later years. There is no one to take his place---not one. There is no literature in America any more; the waves of democracy are swamping it, with all the culture and refinement of the elect. But he, with his deep human sympathies, would have been the first to say that any art that was for the elect alone was no art at all, and perhaps he was right. I shall cable John Howells my sympathy. I have lost a master and a friend! Ah me! It is the end of an epoch.

Villiers is quite mad over the extraordinary honour of having a Duke in his house. He asked Nell and Nicholson and me to attend a reception in his honour---in His Grace's honour---on Monday evening, Lady Villiers explaining at the time that they were to give a little dinner on that evening preceding the reception, and that she couldn't ask us to dinner because they had asked a Belgian official (Hymans as it transpired), and that if an Ambassador were invited, he would have second place, which would send Rutland to the third place at table. "And one couldn't simply ask a Duke to take third place, my dear, could one?"

However, when Monday night came, we decided not to go, preferring to stop at home since it was Nicholson's last night here. Now we are glad that we did not go, for we have learned that on Sunday night the Villiers gave a great dinner and had the de Margeries. And it hasn't been a fortnight since Villiers came to me and asked me, because of de Margerie's machinations and French propaganda generally, and because of the feeling of the French and Belgians just then against the English, to be seen with him on several public occasions, so as to show the solidarity and good feeling between England and America! At that time he was most bitter against de Margerie, and I reminded him that I had warned him as to what de Margerie was doing months ago.

May 15, 1920.---A lovely day for the Queen's Garden Party at the summer palace at Laeken. We drove out at two. There was an enormous crush in the greenhouses. The circle was rather hurriedly formed, with much crowding and pushing, and we presented Mrs. Morgan, Mrs. Mitchell, Mrs. Dodd, and Miss Morgan. I had secured invitations for Will Irwin and his wife, but in the crowd they were not able to get up in time for the presentations. I presented them later as we were going to the buffet at tea-time. The orangerie was very pretty with the long tables opened and the lackeys in red livery, and great, stiff masses of mauve flowers.

Delacroix has told me that he had just had a cablegram from Francqui in New York, saying that he feared that he would be unable to receive an extension of the fifty million dollar loan. I promised to telegraph the Government at Washington, though I knew that would do no good, for what little government is left at Washington is a poor thing, and never will do anything. The King spoke to me about it, too; he was much concerned. He spoke to Nell and me several times, as did the Queen, and the Duke of Brabant. He, the Duke, said he hoped to go to Brazil. It was very hot in the greenhouses, and very cool when we came out. It is said that six thousand were at the party, though I doubt that. I think that two thousand would be a better figure.

Sunday, May 16, 1920. ---- ------------- and Major Ord here to luncheon, and I went with him to the train afterward. He gave a gloomy view of things at Washington. The department wholly disorganized; no one to fill the vacancies; Frank Polk deeply disappointed at not having been made Secretary; Colby(12) wholly ignorant of his duties, and generally incompetent; with nothing of a foreign policy; Irish politicians all-powerful.

As to the President, he would never be well. His stroke had permanently affected part of his brain, so that he is exceedingly irritable, which he said had accounted for the Lansing incident, though Lansing and the President had never fully agreed, Lansing having been against the League. I was right, too, in supposing that the jealousy between Mrs. Wilson and Margaret on the one hand, and Mrs. Lansing on the other, had helped to bring about the situation.

He was interesting as to Lord Grey,(13) and the reasons why he was not received by the President. ---- says that it was due wholly to the Major Crawfurd-Stuart incident. The President, very angry, was determined that Crawfurd-Stuart should go; Lord Grey was as stubborn, and would not be moved, and hence the regrettable situation. Sir William Tyrrell told ------- that it was one of Lord Grey's qualities never to desert or abandon a subordinate. In keeping Crawfurd-Stuart, after having been informed that he was persona non grata, Lord Grey was technically wrong, but the President was wrong in the larger view of the case, in allowing such a petty feeling and such an insignificant thing to affect his attitude toward such a man as Lord Grey, on such a mission, from such a nation as England. had crossed with Lord Grey, and had been consulted by him as to his famous letter; had indeed, he said .... written parts of it...; he said that Grey in leaving America was not in the least influenced by the President's treatment of him, or by the Crawfurd-Stuart incident, but that he returned to England solely for the purpose of publishing his letter in the interest of better Anglo-American relations and the peace of the world. What a pity that the President could not have been big enough, or well enough, to take advantage of the great opportunity that England offered him! was most discouraging as to conditions at home. There is no understanding of foreign relations, especially at Washington; Canada's advances have been ignored, both by the President and by Lansing, and all the politicians about Washington treat the Irish question lightly, and as shameless demagogues. Provincialism, ignorance, indifference, everywhere as to foreign relations.

This evening another invitation from the Villiers, asking me to dine there Saturday evening, the 22nd. We have a dinner here that evening for the Whitehouses, and so have to decline, and Nell is writing Lady Villiers. It is rather embarrassing.

May 17, 1920.---This afternoon Nell and I went for a walk, and after tea, to a great reception given by Villalobar in his new house, this being the birthday of his king. A great crowd. While there Markovitch, the Serbian Minister, came up and told me that his government had bestowed upon me the Grand Order of St. somebody, anyway, their big decoration. With the exception of England and Germany, this is the only country that has thanked me for representing its interests here during the war.

May 18, 1920.---Tea this afternoon; a Dr. -----, a woman physician and health officer from Iowa here. She looked very healthy herself, but as naïve and simple as a child. Told me that she had become very much interested in a young man at her hotel, a sort of runner, guide or courier; he had lost all in the war, father and mother killed by Germans before his eyes, house burned down, and so on; the usual story such people tell to American greenhorns who arrive here; he had shown her the sights, and she had insisted on his going to luncheon with her, for she thought that he was hungry; he had protested against sitting at table with her, but she had insisted, had provided a huge dinner, given him fifty francs, and taken him to the cinema!

She saw by my expression what I thought of this, and asked if she had done right; I disliked to trouble such confiding innocence, but told her as delicately as I could that such things were not done here. "Why not?" she asked. I explained as well as I could. "It is all right in Iowa," she said. "But Europe is not Iowa," I replied.

May 19, 1920.---Pierrepont B. Noyes, American Rhineland Commissioner, here. A good-looking chap, with whom I had some talk about the French occupation of towns on the right bank of the Rhine. His Belgian colleague had at first been opposed, but later changed his opinion---under instructions, no doubt, from Brussels. He said what every intelligent person knows, that Foch was trying to rule France with his ideas of military power, and that this move was simply to see how far they could go. He thought that Lloyd George had effectually put an end to any further nonsense of this sort.

May 20, 1920.---Professor Sorley(14) of Edinburgh has asked me to go to Scotland some time this summer or autumn to make speeches for the Scottish-American Union. I shall try to go, as he says it is for the purpose of strengthening the ties between England, or Great Britain, and America, and I should do anything to forward that cause.

May 21, 1920.---Professor Sedgwick, of Boston, who so ably represents us at the Royal Institute meeting, here to call.

William C. Eno of Washington, the traffic man, here to tea.

After tea, I took Eno down to call on Max, the Burgomaster, who wished to have Eno's ideas on regulating traffic in Brussels, a city that needs regulating in that respect more than anything in the world. I had tried, in a discreet way, to do something a year ago; had procured all of Eno's writings on the subject for Max, and, indeed, it was all my suggestion that Eno come. He told Max a lot, and left documents, and so on, but I don't think anything will come of it.

May 22, 1920.---Nell and I went down the rue Royale to see the exposition of Ernest Marneff, the Liége painter. It was a revelation; I have not been so charmed or impressed by painting in a long time. The painter was there, a thin, lank, cadaverous man of middle age, in black, with long, lank hair, moustache and imperial, very silent and strange and shy, with burning eyes, and a sad expression. The paintings are all of women, of Spanish types, mostly, with high colouring, and a quality that is intellectual, so far as the painting goes.

Sunday, May 23, 1920.---This afternoon I went again to see Marneff's pictures; ---I can't keep away from them; they haunt me, with a kind of troubling fascination. Had a long talk with Marneff. He told me of all his disillusions, his sorrow over life, which he finds hideous and disappointing. He cannot bear, for instance, the hour of twilight; no more can I, and we talked long about it its mystery, its sadness, its terror. The title of the picture I had chosen for myself is "The Shades of the Night Falling on Life," and it is full of that very sentiment. He considers it the best of his works.

The newspapers today publish dispatches from Washington announcing the adoption of the resolution declaring peace with Germany, and the Paris edition of the Chicago Tribune had an enormous headline: "Peace now up to Wilson!" Indeed! How very interesting! In all the foul annals of filthy party politics in America no deed so nasty, so dirty, as this is recorded. The party politicians during Buchanan's administration, described by Walt Whitman, were no lower than these. For more than a year, with a world in agony, and civilization tottering, these pot-house ruffians have kept the world in suspense, over a treaty that all other nations on the earth have approved and ratified, because they fear the vote of pro-Germans, pro-Irish, pro-Bolsheviki, and pro-traitors in the land, and now have crowned their infamy by voting to accept all the advantages that the treaty offers, while refusing to accept any of the responsibilities it entails. They have disgraced themselves, if that be possible, and have tried to sully the honour of the nation. The treaty, to be sure, is far from perfect, and the President has not been wholly wise or tactful in his actions, but he has been wholly right in his purpose and ideal. They, these wretched conquerors, deserve to be hanged as traitors.

May 25, 1920.---General Gorgas and General Noble(15) with their wives here to luncheon. Gorgas, a little white-haired fellow, very dull to all appearances.

Hymans sent in the agreement entered into by the Belgians with Litvinoff. It is to all intents, just as I wired the Department. Also a favourable response to our request for permission to exhume the bodies of American soldiers. I am glad to have this, because the sentimental at home are raising a great howl, though I have no sympathy with their demand and the demand of the undertakers that the bodies be taken home.

Colby, the new Secretary of State, has sent what he no doubt considers a clever reply to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs; which had asked his opinions as to the propriety of recognizing the so-called Irish Republic. He would better have told them to mind their own business.

May 26, 1920.---This afternoon to the Palais des Nations to hear Hyman's speech to the Chamber announcing that the Government had broken off negotiations with Holland because of Holland's claim to sovereignty over the Wieligen Pass.(16) Hymans made a good speech and has a grand case, for Holland's claim in this respect is preposterous. The Chamber, after the usual row and display of Latin emotion, sustained him.

May 27, 1920.---At five, took Gorgas to the Palace to present him to the King. Gorgas is going to the Congo to stamp out yellow fever .... The audience was an event because of Gorgas's complete lack of manner and because of his provincial ignorance. To begin with, he speaks with an ugly Southern drawl, swallows half his words, and mumbles abominably, so that the king could not understand what he was saying, and was constantly appealing to me, with an expression of pain: "What did he say?" It was only with great difficulty that I could understand Gorgas's Alabama English myself. At the end of a quarter of an hour, Gorgas turned to me and said:

"Well, Mr. Ambassador, I reckon that we'd better be going."

I nudged him viciously, said, "Sh! His Majesty will indicate when it is time for us to go," and somehow saved the situation.

There we sat, Gorgas with one leg cocked on his knee, presenting the sole of a large boot to the King, and the time dragged by. The king asked him very intelligent questions about yellow fever, and Gorgas replied well enough. His Majesty was very much interested when Gorgas said that he thought that tropical Africa could be made habitable for white folks by proper sanitary measures, and asked Gorgas to give him a report on the subject after his visit to East Africa.

His Majesty arose after half an hour, and we left, and outside Gorgas laughed at what he considered the ceremony, though it had all been very simple. My own judgment of Gorgas, aside from his evident and incurable provincialism is that he is an overrated man. He was very dull, though among germs and microbes he may cut more of a figure.

The papers are full of ridicule for poor Deschanel,(17) because he fell out of his sleeper. A President has no right to be sick, or to be the subject of a minor accident. His career is doubtless finished by this stupid accident.

One of Renkin's men in to see me about the transfer of the American Red Cross fund and equipment in Flanders to the Belgian Government. Oddly enough, in talking with the King this afternoon I mentioned the fact that an American was here with $60,000 to give to charity; and that I had suggested using it for the relief of destitution in the devastated regions. The King had smiled, and suggested Epstein, of the American Red Cross as the one to advise, saying that Epstein knew more about the subject than any one.

J. P. Morgan, the press dispatches say, has offered his London residence to the Government as a gift, the house to be used as an American Embassy. Lodge told me in Washington last October that Morgan had offered to give his London house for this purpose, but that the prejudice in America was so strong against our making any sort of adequate showing in foreign relations that he, Lodge, did not dare even to bring the matter before the Senate.

The matter interests me because I have been trying to induce the Government to buy this house, which we occupy from month to month as tenants at sufferance, liable to be turned into the street any morning, and not a house to be had in all Brussels. An item in a general revenue act for $200,000 or $250,000 was passed by the Senate, and in House Committee cut to $125,000, and there it rests. The provincialism in America, compounded with arrant demagogy, and Anti-Saloon League puerility, is simply nauseating and there is no hope; the country will never change, never grow up. There is a kind of perverted snobbishness in America that is hopeless; as Englishmen are proud of being seen in the company of a Duke, so Americans are proud of being seen in the company of a ragamuffin, because they think that that proves to the world that they are not snobbish.

May 28, 1920.----Sunday is Memorial Day, and it is to be extensively observed in France. Nothing has been arranged for Belgium, beyond laying flowers and placing flags on the graves of American soldiers in Belgium. There are about two thousand buried here, mostly in Flanders, some near Poperinghe, and about nine hundred in a cemetery near Wareghem. Some sort of ceremony has been arranged for that place and they wish me to speak, but Wareghem is a village fifty miles from Brussels, near Courtrai, and there will be no one there to hear my speech if I go. I don't know what to do; I don't like to make a hard journey of one hundred miles in a day for nothing.

The President, I am glad to see, has vetoed the House resolution for a separate peace with Germany, saying quite rightly that to sign it would be to dishonour our nation and render useless the sacrifices of our soldiers and our people. What an utterly sickening and discouraging spectacle that rotten Congress of ours presents to the world!

May 31, 1920.---Old Frederic Harrison has a splendid if severe article on us in the Fortnightly Review. All he says, alas, is too true, and there are rebukes which our almost dishonoured country may take to heart. He says that after Wilson had forced on Europe an utopian peace, America refused to ratify it, and withdrew from European affairs in all practical ways, but continues to interfere in Ireland, and so on. It is all too true!

Cablegram from Washington in reply to mine, saying that we may be represented at Spa and at the financial conference at Brussels; they are not sure, yet, but I am to engage hotel accommodations provisionally. What a mess things at Washington are in, to be sure!

June 2, 1920.---The Guaranty Trust of New York has renewed the Belgian loan of $50,000,000, which matures this July 1st. The new loan is at 97-1/4, repayable in twenty-five years at 115, and is to draw 7-1/2 per cent interest.

June 3, 1920.---The other day I had the visit from Mrs. William Brown Meloney, a nervous, competent, advanced little woman who is editor of Butterick publications in New York. She told me that since prohibition went into effect in America the circulation of their magazines had increased 600 per cent. She explained, enthusiastically, that instead of sitting in "saloons" drinking beer, the American people are now stopping at home poring over the fiction that appears in the Butterick publications, Everybody's, and so forth. She thinks it a great advance.

"But do you think," I asked her, "that people are any better for reading the fictions in your magazine than they would be for drinking beer?"

June 4, 1920.---Telegraphed Colby to see if the appropriation for the purchase of an Embassy here could possibly be passed. The owner threatens to advertise this house for sale, and if it is sold we should be in the street, as there are no houses to be had for rent. And it would be humiliating for the American Embassy to be plastered over with signs "For Sale," though no one in America would care for that, national pride being extinct in America.

I have finished the revision of my book on Belgium. It has been a terrible, nerve-racking task. It would have been easier to write another book.

June 5, 1920.---Returned from my morning walk in the Park with the dogs, to find Van Vredenbergh, the Dutch Minister, waiting to see me. He is quite disturbed over the action of the Belgians in breaking off over the Wieligen question.

"Do you know why we will not yield on that point?" he said.

"Yes," I replied; "because you are Dutch."

We had much talk of this whole situation, which he deplores, and he left me a long memorandum explaining the reasons of the Dutch Government for its attitude. I told him delicately, that the Wieligen was as much of a liability as it was an asset to them; claiming sovereignty over it, they were obliged to protect it, which they had not done during the war, for its neutrality had been most flagrantly violated by the Germans who had used it for four years as the very door to their U-boat base at Zeebrugge, without one protest having been made by the Dutch. He replied that the Belgian Government had not wished them to protect its neutrality, and had asked the Dutch Government not to mine the pass. This was news to me, wholly inexplicable.

But he had more interesting news to relate. He was quite bitter against the French, who he says are trying to embroil Belgium and Holland, and Belgium and England, and are now trying to blackmail Holland; that was the word he used, blackmail. I asked him how, and he said that early in the war when Germany was meeting with successes everywhere, the Germans had had permission of the Dutch Government to bring into Germany, through Holland, some straw.

"Straw?" I asked.

"Well," he replied, "straw and some foodstuffs."

The Germans had given their word of honour that the straw and the foodstuffs were not for the use of the army, and pressed the Dutch very hard. The Dutch Government found it hard to resist the pressure, and finally yielded, saying that as they allowed food to pass through Holland to the Belgian civil population, so it might, consistently with its neutrality, allow food to go through to the German population. At any rate, it consented. Now, says Van Vredenbergh, the French, by some means, have secured at Berlin the correspondence between the Dutch and the Germans, and are threatening to publish it if the Dutch do not yield on the Wieligen point in their negotiations with the Belgians. He fears that England will press the Dutch Government also.

Sunday, June 6, 1920.---Well, we'll buy no Embassy; a telegram from Colby this morning announcing that Congress had adjourned without making the appropriation. There were objections, he says. Of course, there are always objections in Congress to do anything decently, or in order, or with a sense of national pride. There is absolutely no hope of America's ever making a proper or dignified representation abroad; or of its taking diplomatic or foreign relations seriously.

And now, what are we to do? Out of the four embassies here, out of the five, counting the Nuncio, we are the only one without a house, and among the Legations, Spain, Holland and China, own their own premises. There are no houses to be had for love or money, and when May hears that there is no chance of selling this house to our Government, he will promptly sell it to some of the numerous Baron Zeeps(18) who are waiting to buy it. And we shall have to go to a hotel, or take some inadequate, undignified house, and install the chancelleries in offices downtown, like a shop, or go home. It is all most humiliating.

June 7, 1920.---[Major] Todd [of the Red Cross] came to tea, as did Griswold Knox. We had a long talk about affairs at home---the conduct of Congress, the Irish agitation, Johnson's candidature for President, and so on, and the actions of the Irish-Americans, German-Americans, and other kinds of Americans. I suggested that we who had only English or Scotch blood in our blood, (I have 3/4 English, 1/4 Scotch, and no Irish or German, thank the lord) and would not qualify for membership in any of their organizations, and hence would have no influence at Washington or in Congress, and didn't belong to the Anti-Saloon League, should organize a society of American-Americans, and try to command some respect at least. I remarked that I had seen in the Times the other day that twelve Americans had been naturalized as British citizens, and Knox said:

"I'd be afraid that they wouldn't have me."

He said, too, solemnly, that he was at last reduced to the point where he had to admit that he was ashamed of being an American.

If it is not quite that bad, it is indeed most disturbing. The dispatches from home are worse and worse. This wild man Johnson, "Hell-Roaring Hiram," they call him, with his bawling and flourishing and violent aggressiveness; De Valera and his ilk, the Senators, all of them, with their "investigations," their pompous arrogance, their Pussyfooters and their tyranny, and all the noise, fury, and sound in the land---all this presents America in a disreputable light. The New York Herald (Paris edition) today reports hundreds of Americans arriving in France full of disgust with their country. Their interviews are in the papers, and it is saddening to think in what a light all this presents us in Europe ....

Baron Coppée has been arrested and is confined to the St.-Gilles prison, charged with treason---trafficking with the boche.

We are in the depths of despair as to getting a house---there is literally nothing to be had in Brussels; and we don't know what to do, or where to turn. I am tempted to chuck the whole business!

June 8, 1920.---This is the twenty-fifth anniversary of our marriage, our silver wedding, and the sun has shone all day long, as indeed, in most ways it has for the most part shone all my married life. But we haven't been able to celebrate it as we should like to do, for General Peyton C. March is visiting Brussels today; and I have had to devote the day to him.

Walker D. Hines was here, and then came March, with aides, and I have been with him since. We lunched with the King at the Palace; I on His Majesty's right, March on his left, the Duke of Brabant sitting across from the King, with Hines on his right ....

March makes at first a most unfavourable impression; a thin, gawky man of fifty-four, unsoldierly in appearance, and wearing an outlandish uniform. He will have none of the Sam Browne belt, which is so smart, but prefers a thin, narrow, cheap strap of light yellow. His tunic is tight, with stingy little pockets, and is very short, showing a great bag of trousers where they hang down behind. It is, indeed, his taste or lack of it, and his prejudices and provincialism which are responsible for the total lack of style and smartness in the uniforms worn by our officers during the war ....

But he is a pleasant and most intelligent man, and I enjoyed talking with him. We were in agreement on all points save uniforms, and I did not, of course, bring up that subject. He is a great admirer of Newton Baker, and has great loyalty, which is so rare, and I liked him for that. I told him that in ultimate history Baker would have the credit due him as a great war minister, and he thought the same.

He was very interesting and discouraging as to conditions at home. Prohibition fanatics are establishing a tyranny in the land. The agents of enforcement rummage through sleeping cars, going through the berths even in which the women are sleeping, and private grudges and vengeances are gratified by denunciations. It is almost what we had here under the German occupation. March leaves tomorrow for Coblentz.

June 9, 1920.--- De Margerie was here after tea... to inform me that the Council of Ambassadors at Paris has decided, at the request of the Polish and Czech representatives, to invite the King of the Belgians to arbitrate the question of the Czechs, and he, as doyen of the corps here, had been instructed to ascertain whether, if invited, his Majesty would agree to act. De Margerie was communicating this fact to the ambassadors of England, Italy, and America, and to the Japanese minister.

The Spa Conference is set now for the 6th July, but may be postponed again.

I forgot to record yesterday that our dear old Cardinal Mercier remembered that yesterday was our Silver Wedding and sent us a telegram with his blessing from Malines. I have written to him, to try to tell him how touched and pleased and honoured we are. He is a prince and a great man, and I am proud of his friendship.

June 10, 1920.---A walk in the park this morning, then at one o'clock to lunch .... Leischman was there, and we had much talk of the Convention. Hell-Roaring Hiram seems to be leading, and if he is nominated and elected, we shall have a hell-roaring time in America.

Sunday, June 13, 1920.---The great news of the day is that Warren Harding has been nominated for President. Thomas drove out here this afternoon to bring it to me. I am of course most pleased, for while it is not my party that has nominated him, I know him and like him well. And then it will delight Marshall.(19) I wrote out cablegrams to Harding and to Marshall, and Thomas took them in to send for me.

Harding's nomination pleases me for many reasons; among others, because Hell-Roaring Hiram Johnson has been defeated. Inasmuch as the Republican nominee in all probability will be elected, Johnson's nomination would have been a national and an international calamity ....

Harding is a good man, and a man of common sense. He is in no sense brilliant, but we have had enough of brilliant genius in the White House, after Roosevelt and Wilson. Indeed, I am more and more under the opinion that for President we need not so much a brilliant man as solid, mediocre men, provided that they have good sense, sound and careful judgment, and good manner. All these Harding has. He is of the lineage and apostolic succession of all the Presidents that Ohio has given to America, of the same mould as Hayes, Garfield, McKinley, Taft. He is no more advanced, no more radical than they, and is more honest than McKinley, not so much of a hypocrite and poser, but human, and attractive personally.

Also, exit Hoover. He has learned a lesson. He has fizzled out just as I thought he would. The constant and sickening adulation of the C.R.B. long ago turned his head, and he thought that with Hugh Gibson and Charlotte and Vernon Kellogg and others of the young civilians of the C.R.B. he could go to America and pick up the Presidency. Of course, the old politicians of both parties ask no greater favour than to upset such, to them, impertinent calculations. Politics is a métier, and a profound and difficult one, and it is no child's play for such as the boys of the C.R.B.

Indeed, this nomination of Harding is the best proof of it. As long ago as the winter of 1915-16, when I crossed with him on the Rotterdam, Colonel House told me that Harding's nomination was likely, and was curious to know what I knew and thought of him then. And last spring Senator Saulsbury told me that Harding would be the next President. Marshall was full of it too, when I was at home last autumn. The old guard in the Senate had long ago, I fancy, decided on it.

June 14, 1920.---The Republicans have nominated Governor Coolidge of Massachusetts for Vice-President. He is an excellent man, from all accounts; he put down the policemen's strike in fine style. It is a strong ticket. And the platform leaves the nominee free to do as he pleases on the League of Nations issue.

June 17, 1920.---The Paris edition of the New York Herald has an alarming dispatch from New York or Washington saying that the Single Taxers are to hold a convention at Chicago and nominate me for President, and Carrie Chapman Catt for Vice-President! One never knows what fools reformers can make of themselves---or of others! It is too ridiculous, and I have telegraphed Newton Baker to say that I will not accept any such nomination.

June 26, 1920.---The newspapers are rather full of the Democratic Convention at San Francisco, but since the only papers we have are the Paris editions of the New York Herald, and the Chicago Tribune, both dishonest and contemptible sheets, that picture everything to the disadvantage of the President, one knows very little of what is going on. I depend on the London Times---incidentally the best newspaper in the world---and its dispatches say that all is confusion, and the President's intentions a mystery. He appears to be infatuated with Colby, whom he is pushing to the front, and has sent him to San Francisco to represent him, a piece of extraordinary folly, as it seems to me. Only yesterday Colby was a Republican, and his efforts to boss a Democratic Convention should be, and doubtless will be, resented. The President would have done much better to send Newton Baker, or Colonel House, but he seems to have withdrawn his confidence from these old friends.

June 29, 1920.---I had much talk with ------, and got from him the story of the Hythe and Boulogne conferences, concerning which Washington had asked information. At Hythe, Lloyd George and Millerand had agreed on a sharp note to the Germans concerning disarmament, refusing to allow the boches to have an army of 200,000 men, fixing the number at 100,000, but permitting them to increase their local police. They were also to threaten occupation of the Ruhr district if the Germans did not execute the military clauses of the treaty. As to indemnities, they agreed that France should have 55 per cent and England 25 per cent, and made a secret agreement agreeing to give Serbia 6 per cent. This left only 14 per cent for Belgium, Italy, and the rest. Learning of this, the Belgians and Italians at Boulogne made a great row, and threatened to leave the conference. Thereupon Lloyd George said that the arrangement did not contemplate a percentage, but a proportion, an arrangement as he said to Millerand, "between ourselves." However, France would not admit this---there has been a lot in the newspapers about it---and insisted that it was a percentage of 55 per cent of the whole indemnity that she was entitled to, and not that she was to be indemnified in the proportion of 11 to 5 with England. Finally the whole question was referred to the financial experts, who are working on it now, and will report to the conference that is to be held here on the 2nd of July.

------- and his entire staff are working hard in preparation for the event. There is much to do, small hotel space, and questions of etiquette, procedure, entertainment, and so on. The Government has taken over the whole of the Palace Hotel. Lloyd George will stop there, and Curzon will be the guest of the King at the Palace. Thus Villiers is relieved. The delegations will be very large---60 and 70 for France and England, and so on in diminishing numbers for the smaller nations. America of course will not be represented, our senatorial statesmen having withdrawn from all world responsibility, in the name of non-interference in foreign affairs, while nevertheless trying to regulate the conduct of all other people, and constantly insulting England about Ireland.

------- asked me to do something to induce the President to comply with the decision of the Supreme Council to have the meeting of the Assembly held in Brussels in November. He gave me a note on the subject. Should the President refuse, the Belgians would be furious.

July 2, 1920.---This evening to the Palace to the dinner given by Their Majesties to the delegates who are here for the conference of the Supreme Council. There were present all the great, and near-great of the earth---Lloyd George, Lord Curzon, Millerand, Foch, and a host of others, their satellites and attendant secretaries, all the Belgian ministers, Max, and the Ambassadors and Ministers of the Allied powers at Brussels. It was a brilliant gathering, there in one of the long drawing-rooms of the Palace, all red curtains and gold in the style of the Empire, and nearly all the delegates brave in grand cordons and decorations. I had a moment's chat before we went out to dinner with Lloyd George, who is most distinguished, with his fine head, long locks of white hair, ruddy, smiling Welsh face, and bright eyes, and short, twisted little grey moustache. He is very alert and capable, and quite charming in conversation. He thanked me for what I had done for England during the war, as did Curzon. He, Curzon, is lame, and walks with a cane; he asked me to sit down with him on a divan, saying that his leg hurt him, and we chatted there. He is a man of great dignity, but I did not notice any evidence of the conceit or hauteur that so many ascribe to him. I met too Field-Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, a tall slender man, very pleasant, and full of humour, and Sir Reginald Tower, British High Commissioner at Danzig, who had been reading my book on Belgium and said nice things about it.

At the cry "Le Roi!" we took our places, and the King and the Queen came in with the Duke of Brabant, and their suite, the only women, besides Her Majesty, being Countess Elisabeth D'Oultremont. The royal party passed down the long line, with a word for each one of us. The King spoke to me of his recent trip to Savoy, where he had been mountain climbing, and the Queen said that she had been playing golf again, and I could tell her that Penell was enthusiastic about her progress. It was long and tedious, this ceremony, and we were late in going out to dinner. After dinner, when we had returned to the drawing-room, we stood about and drank our coffee---which was cold tea---and I talked with Sir Henry Wilson. He asked after the President, of whom he always spoke as "my cousin," and we got on the subject of generals. He said that there had been good generals in the late war---he named Pétain, Pershing and Haig, good soldiers, strong, courageous, enduring men; "but the greatest of all, the one great soldier, the man who did it, is that little fellow over there," and bending his tall form he pointed to Marshal Foch, who in his blue-grey uniform, with the seven stars on his sleeve, was talking to some one already.

And so we talked, he wondering why Pershing had not been a candidate for President; I could not tell him why, unless it was that he didn't care, and hadn't taken the pains to be a candidate. I told him that every war we had had, except this war, had produced a President, which surprised him. He spoke too of Leonard Wood, who, he thought, was indicated as one to come over for the war. He was most interesting in his discussion of the qualities that are necessary in a general, and speaking of the extreme difficulty in choosing one, said: "And even if he has all the qualifications, one never knows whether or not the chap is able to sleep---that is a prime requisite."

Afterwards I had a chat with Marshal Foch, and then with Millerand, who is a "bon-papa," a fat little Frenchman who looks like a grocer. Near by the Queen was talking at length with Lloyd George, who looked at me, smiled, and presently, when Her Majesty turned away to speak with some one else, came toward me, and we had a long talk. He was much interested in the Presidential campaign; had seen Colonel House, and talked most intelligently of American politics. "Harding," he said, "is another McKinley."

He said that House had not seen the President since they were together at Paris; he talked of the President's isolation---"the wife and Grayson, the family doctor," he said. Somehow we got to talking about Golden Rule Jones, and I told him of the funeral, and of the incident of Jenny Bell's singing the Welsh hymn. "Why!" he said, "Jenny Bell! That was Jenny Williams! I know her well; she was of my little town! And when I get home I shall tell them of it!"

Some one called him away, and the King, standing alone, and as it were, stranded high and dry, half beckoned to me, and I joined him ....

And then he went over to talk to the Japs.

And so on, until the evening wore away, and as we were going out, Lloyd George joined us, and began humming the hymn that Jenny Williams Bell sang at Sam Jones's funeral.

We are not represented at the Conference, which is humiliating. I suppose that if the Government at Washington had known that I had been invited even to dinner, they would have instructed me to the effect that if I went, I was not to say anything.

The Conference has been wrangling all day over the question of the indemnities; that is, over the division of the spoils.

July 6, 1920.---Before dinner Baron Beyens told me that Cox had been nominated at San Francisco. I am glad, for I am fond of Jim Cox; he is my friend, and has been three times Governor of my State, and a good Governor. It is a strange coincidence that both candidates for the Presidency should come from Ohio, and both be newspaper editors. They are about equal in merit, Cox being perhaps the abler, certainly the more liberal of the two, while Harding is more showy, and looks the part a little better. I think that he will defeat Jim. If I were home I should vote for Jim Cox, however, and think that he would make the better President.

Sunday, July 11, 1920.--- To -----'s place in the country for luncheon .... At luncheon there was much talk about the King, mostly critical, with praise of Léopold II, and comparisons to the disadvantage of Albert. This is a phenomenon to be noted everywhere in Belgium these days. There is a kind of renaissance of Léopold II, a cult of him, much written and much said in his praise and honour, and at the same time a constant disparagement of the present King. It is due partly to the present King's manner, his timidity, and so on, but chiefly to human nature. I try to combat it all I can, but of course I can do nothing.

The Conference at Spa drags on; I believe that they have settled the disarmament question. Herr Stinnes has made an arrogant and insolent speech, which shows that the boche is not in the least changed. I really cannot read about the Conference without a feeling of alarm that America is not represented there. There are, it is true, two Americans there, Boyden and Bain (it sounds like the name of a vaudeville song-and-dance team) of the Reparations Commission, who, it seems, represent us "unofficially." We receive and have to decode messages for them every day; messages from some one---I don't know exactly who---in Washington, full of advice to the Allies! It is preposterous and disgusting and humiliating ....

First we stood aside from the war for three years, and made money; then we came in, did an enormous amount of blowing and bragging and blustering (disgusting if it hadn't served to scare the boches); then we forced on the world a bad peace; then disavowed our own representatives, and stood aside again and let the world burn up.

July 13, 1920.---Jules Destrée has sadly disturbed the famous Franco-Belgian alliance and loan pact by a speech at a luncheon at Paris. Among other elements of the French effort to annex or all but annex Belgium, and as a part of the intensive French propaganda that has been carried on here, dinners have been organized, one at Brussels, then one at Paris. At these dinners much wine, much good cheer, profuse eloquence, mutual admiration, "la Brabançonne" and "la Marseillaise," Vive la France, Vive la Belgique, but chiefly Vive la France---enough to give one nausea. But the other day Destrée spoke a few rough, rude, premeditated words, and shocked every one. There were protests, and so on, and the newspapers today give the incident the space such a situation deserves; some of them say that Destrée put his foot in the platter, but none of them can deny that he spoke a word of truth in season. It was high time, for the Francophiles in Belgium had grown perfectly maudlin and disgusting. This, it is to be hoped, marks the beginning of the ebb tide in that flood of bathos and perfervid emotion.

The Villiers were here after tea today. It is sad to think of them going. It is a kind of tragedy; like a little death. They feel it, too, deeply; are in fact quite cut up over it. The Viscountess, speaking of it the other night, said that she was going to ask the Queen to speak to Curzon and have Villiers kept here. Yesterday he came in to see me, saying that she had been to Laeken but that nothing could be done; the Queen had spoken already, indeed, to Curzon when he was visiting at the Palace last week and Curzon would do nothing; said that there should have been a change many months ago because of the loss of prestige of England, and of France's highly successful campaign here. The truth is, of course, that poor Villiers is old, and entirely too much of a gentleman to compete with a man like de Margerie.

July 14, 1920.---The Conference at Spa has been indefinitely adjourned, the Germans refusing to come to terms on coal. Whether the meetings will be resumed or not, no one knows, though many expect them to be on Friday. What an absurdity! Eighteen months since the armistice, and a year since the treaty was signed, and they are still talking about it! This afternoon, taking tea at Dame Adelaide's, I met Sobanski,(20) just back from Spa. He said that they all regretted the absence of the Americans. It is indeed too bad. If we were there, the boches would probably not be so cocky.

July 19, 1920.---Dean McClenahan of Princeton called at noon, and came back to tea. He spent several days here in the winter of 1915, and we became friends. Congressman Linthicum of Maryland and his wife also called.

McClenahan, who is not narrow, or bigoted, or puritanical, says that Prohibition is working wonders in America; that in many places the prisons have been closed. If this is so, it proves nothing except that the prisons are only for the poor ....

The Queen telephoned herself from Laeken to Nell this afternoon to ask me to go there tomorrow afternoon to play golf, at five o'clock, saying that I was to bring my evening clothes, and, with Nell, who was to come later, stop for dinner.

July 20, 1920.---At 4:30 I drove to Laeken and there was received by the Countess Elisabeth d'Oultremont, who led the way to the familiar red Empire drawing-room, where the tea table was set out. Her Majesty had left word that I was not to wait, but to have tea served at once, and the Countess had just poured me a cup when the Queen came in. She was dressed in a simple white frock, white shoes, and wore a white canvas hat, against the sun. She sat down and had her tea, and then we went out to play. The six holes that Penell has designed in the great park were naturally in better condition than when I played with Her Majesty last winter; there are no flags on the green, and no cups to putt into, not even holes cut for that purpose. Her Majesty said that she had given orders to have the holes cut, but that it hadn't been done; "I don't know why," she said, with an odd, amusing helplessness, and we commented, as every one does nowadays, on the worthlessness of servants, and the impossibility of getting any work done, deciding that it was the fatigue of the war.

"I'm that way myself," I said, "I can't bear to do anything I should do---too lazy for words."

She looked up eagerly, and said:

"So am I; I am just like that."

We played the six holes; she playing better than most women do when they begin, but, of course, it wasn't golf. We had a lackey to carry our bags, and I made Her Majesty's tees for her, and gave her hints now and then, and we looked for lost balls in the long grass, and laughed, and enjoyed the sun and the fine air, and when we had played the six holes, we played them once again, and had a great time. She is a perfect dear, so simple, so feminine, and so pretty.

Dinner was to be at 7:30, so at seven we went back to the Palace, and I was shown upstairs to an extensive suite of apartments where I found my valise. I bathed, and dressed, and going down at 7:30 found Nell sitting with the King in the red salon. The King was in evening dress, which he wears rather uncomfortably. I imagine, possibly preferring the uniforms in which he looks much better.

We had time for a little chat, for the Queen was late .... The King talked about his trip to the Savoy Alps, and about his mountain climbing, of which he is fond. "It changes one's thoughts," he said. "It is better than talking politics, and going to the ceremonies, and listening to discourse, and looking at fat cattle." We talked about the Matterhorn, and about Edward Whymper, and so on ....

And then the Queen comes in, and the King in his fond way, his admiration of her is so patent, joked her about having kept us waiting, and she appealed to me to say that I had been late too, and we went out to dinner, without ceremony. It was the simple dinner one has just with the family at the Palace, and the table was confined to the King and Queen and us. Their Majesties sat side by side, as they used to do before the war. Nell on the King's left, and I on the Queen's right. I had the Princess on my right, and spoke once or twice to her, but she nearly died of embarrassment each time that I addressed her, and so I thought it kinder to let her alone.

When we went back to the drawing-room, I overheard the Queen whisper to the King: "The photographs," and he exclaimed, "Oh, yes!" and then from a table he took two large flat boxes, and gave them us; one was his photograph, in a silver frame with a crown above it, and the inscription: "To the great and faithful friend of Belgium and excellent companion of our visit to the United States, Albert." The other, framed in the same way, was of Her Majesty, and inscribed "To my dear Mr. and Mrs. Brand Whitlock, in true friendship, Elizabeth."

As we lighted our cigars we went outdoors, on to the terrace... There on the benches we sat down, and smoked our cigars, and talked.

July 21, 1920.---The Belgian national holiday, and the usual Te Deum .... At two o'clock this afternoon, with Armour to Ste.-Gudule. There was the usual splendid show; the diplomatic corps in uniform and decorations, the Belgian ministers in their uniforms too, and the four places for the Socialist Ministers vacant, and the judges in their red robes, and the long procession of priests, and the bugles, and the drums, and the royal family coming in ....

Speaking, by the way of Vandervelde, neither he nor any other of the four Socialist Ministers was at the Te Deum today; their four chairs beside the altar were conspicuously empty. And I noticed that during the prayer, when we all knelt, Hymans, Max, and Goethe d'Alvielle all stood erect.

July 22, 1920.---In reading the newspapers this evening, I learn that the Resolute won yesterday's race; and that the President has called the first meeting of the Assembly of the League of Nations to meet at Geneva, in November. This despite the unanimous vote of the Executive Council at the meeting last spring, asking him to call this meeting at Brussels. Hymans had expressed fears to me that he would not heed this vote, but would ignore Brussels, and that, if he did, it would produce much bad feeling here. I so notified Washington. The holding of the meeting of the Assembly here would in no way have affected the choice of Geneva as the seat of the League of Nations, and would greatly have consoled the Belgians. But the President is curiously stubborn and wanting so often in political tact. It is this fact that is partly responsible for our not being in the League today. Well, now for a storm of abuse in the Belgian press!

July 24, 1920.---Harding's speech of acceptance is in the newspapers, full of a politician's platitudes. He talks much of "Americanism," whatever that is, and in fact, takes a wholly provincial view of the world crisis, worthy of Marion, Ohio. The ignorance of our public in general regarding world affairs, is perfectly appalling. They know no more even of geography than a Belgian schoolboy. Worst of all, Harding in his last speech, at least, scuttles the League of Nations, and offers not one single ray of hope for the future. I fancy Cox will not do much better.

Meanwhile there is every prospect of Europe being plunged again into war, complemented, and rendered more horrible this time, by Socialist revolution. The Bolsheviki are advancing on Warsaw, and while, following Lloyd George's belated counsel, the Poles have asked for an armistice---this two days ago---there is no reply as yet, so far as I can learn from the papers tonight, and the Reds advance. The Allies have sent a mission in which we find Jusserand to Warsaw, and may send munitions, but today's dispatches say that the German Government will not permit the munitions to be shipped across Germany. If the Red advance is not stopped---and the Allies can send no troops, for the workingmen are all tainted with Socialism---they will effect a junction with the boche; and then, the deluge! The outlook is really black, and there is an anguish of apprehension all over Europe.

Sunday, July 25, 1920.---The news today is that the Bolsheviki have accepted the proposal of the Poles for an armistice. This gives some breathing space; but even if peace is concluded between the Bolsheviki and the Poles, that may mean---since Poland is conquered ---that she will merely be an open door for the Bolsheviki to come West. This sacrifice of Poland is another of the fruits of the imperialistic policy of the victory---drunk French, for it is they who incited the Poles to attack the Bolsheviki, in order to pull out of the mire the chestnuts of the French holders of Russian shares. However, speculation and comment are useless; the world is passing through a revolution, of which the war was but a chapter.

The fields today were lovely; all yellow with harvest, which the peasants are already gathering.

July 26, 1920.-----We had for dinner General John F. O'Ryan of the New York National Guard, and his wife and his aides, Captain somebody or other and his wife. O'Ryan is a bright little Irishman, or American of Irish extraction, who nevertheless quite properly sympathizes with England. He served with the English on the front, and knows and likes them very well. He told several delightful stories of his happy relations with them.

July 27, 1920.---Last night we dined, I suppose for the last time, with the Villiers. Though nothing was said of the coming parting, everybody felt it, and there was an atmosphere of vague sadness, the sensation of jamais plus. The dinner was given for Sir George Grahame, Sir Francis's successor, and there were present, besides Grahame and us, the Hymans, Count and Countess Sobanski, the Clarks, and a new secretary whose name I don't know. Grahame is a giant, a head taller than I, a simple, frank, ruddy chap of forty-six, not in any sense visibly brilliant, but solid and substantial and pleasing on first impression. He is a bachelor, which will make the Embassy perhaps less attractive. We shall miss the Villiers. We have been friends with them, and they are gentlefolk. Lady Villiers is bright and amusing, and I dislike to lose her society. They will retire to the country in England, and we shall see them no more. They are sad at leaving, and they will miss the worldly pomp of the ambassadorial rank.

July 28, 1920.---To the Cinquantenaire this morning with the dogs. The Parc Léopold has become intolerable in its neglect, dirty and littered, the pond covered with green scum.

This afternoon occurred grave events. At four o'clock I turned into the rue Ducale, on my way to Desamblancx's,(21) when I saw an enormous crowd assembled at the rue de la Loi, near the Ministries. The crowd was dense, and filled the rue de la Loi from kerb to kerb as far as the place de la Nation, before the Parliament House. There were banners and bawling orators, and a squadron of policemen on horseback stretched across the street, with drawn sabres, calmly sitting their splendid horses and holding back the mob. For mob it was---a veritable scene of revolution. I looked on a moment and learned that the manifestation had been organized by the Anciens Combattants, who were there to force the Chamber, then sitting, to pass the bill providing a bonus for them---the same sort of grab proposed in America. I went on to Desamblancx's, talked with him a while about the binding of some books, and as I came away, passed by the same crowd. It was an ugly sight; the men composing it for the most part young, with rather vapid, grinning faces, except those who were haranguing little groups, and these all had the hard expression of fanatics, with gleaming eyes. They were all speaking Flemish.

I came home to tea, and, still uneasy about the demonstration, returned with Armour to the scene. He said, as we turned into the rue Ducale, and saw the mob, that the scene recalled to him all that he had witnessed in Petrograd in the early days of the Russian revolution. The crowd was smaller than when I saw it earlier, and the mounted gendarmes had slowly pushed it back to the rue Ducale, leaving the rue de la Loi and the place de la Nation clear. The Park was closed, its gates guarded by policemen. The space in front of the Palace was clear, mounted gendarmes forbidding access to it. That was all we saw. On our way back to the Embassy we met Guy d'Oultrernont, who laughingly said that all the Deputies had run away.

Later I learned that the Chamber, having had under discussion a new measure providing for the creation of a fund to be used to relieve the necessities of ex-soldiers, the organization of ex-soldiers had objected, demanding that any money voted by Parliament be divided equally among the discharged soldiers without distinction. A "manifestation" had been called, and the crowd gathered. Max went out to meet them, argued with them, asked them to withdraw and so on. This they agreed to do provided he withdrew his police, which he had the inconceivable stupidity to consent to do. The police were withdrawn, Max was cheered, and the ex-soldiers went away. Half an hour later they returned, three or four thousand of them, and there now being no police, rushed, shouting and brandishing sticks and banners, on the Palais de la Nation, entered the Salle des Pas Perdus, easily scattered the few guards there, smashed glass to their hearts' content, rushed up the stairways and burst into the Chamber where the Deputies were sitting. President Brunet declared that the Chamber would not sit under such menace, and scenes of wild disorder followed, the rioters trying to mount the tribune, planting their banners on the President's dais, engaging in fisticuffs with certain deputies, and at last sitting down in the deputies' seats and lighting their pipes! After an hour of scuffling and fighting and all sorts of disgraceful scenes, the rioters were somehow induced to leave the Chamber.

It is said that it is partly due to a plot of the Flemish activists, and I shouldn't wonder if that were true. The approaches to all the public places are patroled by mounted policemen tonight.

At Desamblancx, this afternoon, we were discussing social progress as it reveals itself under the reign of the disciple of Karl Marx and in the diocese of the Maison du Peuple.

The old bookbinder, in his long white linen blouse, told his story with sadness in his face and voice. He employs about a dozen men. The oldest has been with him for forty-eight years, and is now a grandfather; the youngest in point of service has been with him seventeen. He, in that long workman's blouse, works with them. He pays the union rate of wages, always has. He has always interested himself in their affairs, helped them in their troubles---sickness, debt, whenever a baby was born, and so on. On New Year's day they always come to wish him "a good a happy New Year." The Feast of the Assumption, August 15th, is also the birthday of Desemblancx's wife, and because of this, every year he closed down his shop, gave every one of his employes a week's holiday with full pay, and in addition "a free pass" that is, a ticket on the railway, good for five days and allowing the holder to travel where and when and as often as he pleases. Every year the day after the birthday, the men sent Desemblancx a letter to thank him for this. He preserved all these letters in his safe; the relations between him and his men were of the best; he was friends with all of them.

Last year they wrote him no letter. He asked Jef, the oldest---he of the forty-eight years' service---why this was; Jef, much embarrassed, said that there was "opposition," that some one from the Maison du Peuple had explained that it was silly for them to do this; that he, Desamblancx, was a "patron," a bourgeois, that he had exploited them, and so on.

The old man was and is deeply hurt. The joy has gone out of his little shop. The men come no more to wish him "a good and happy New Year." He has discontinued the week's holiday, the "a free pass," and all that.

August 3, 1920.---Had only a short walk this afternoon, here in the park in the Place, Mlle. ----joining us by accident. She is bright and talkative .... She spoke of the Senate; said that the Government was composed of orators, that everybody was criticizing the King, and that there would be a Republic in Belgium, of which Vandervelde hoped to be president, and so on. I told her that it was a shame that people should criticize the King, a shame and an injustice, with which she agreed.

The Lawrences in to tea, and then we went to the British Embassy. Met Sobanski there, who said that the news from Poland is better; he had been to Paris, had seen Foch, who was greatly comforted and reassured him, saying that matters were now arranged so that Warsaw could not be taken. He said that the Belgian Government two or three days ago had refused to allow munitions to be shipped through Belgium to Poland; that he had seen Delacroix and had spoken sharply to him, saying that there were but two countries that had refused Poland the right of way for her ammunitions---Belgium and Germany; that finally, on the advice of the French Government, Belgium had yielded and given the desired permission.

August 5, 1920.---I went over to see Villalobar, just back from England and the funeral of the Empress Eugénie, and full of the scandalous conduct of the Prince Napoléon and the Princess Clementine ....

The Duke of Alba, and all the Spanish relatives and members of the Empress' family, had been met at the railway station and told not to come to Farnborough, where Prince Napoléon and the Princess Clementine had installed themselves, and were accordingly very much injured. Villalobar, though invited---the only one in whose favour an exception had been made---refused to go, and the King of Spain himself took up the quarrel, and after the funeral refused, as did King George and Queen Mary, to go to Farnborough to Luncheon. At the gathering of the family, all the Spanish grandees kissed Aline, the maid of the late Empress, who had been with her for fifty-two years, whereas Prince Napoléon and Princess Clementine only nodded coldly to her. This further outraged the Spaniards ....

After the ceremony one of the Spaniards said to Villalobar: "We are going to bury the Empire."

And Villalobar replied: "It has been buried long ago."

We talked much about Villiers' going, and so came to de Margerie's efforts against Villiers, and Villalobar said:

"I was able to do de Margerie a great deal of harm in England. He will never be ambassador at London."

Villalobar brought me kind messages from King George, who had been reading my book on Belgium and liked it.

Warsaw is expected to fall next Monday. And then?

August 13, 1920.---A pleasant time last evening at our dinner---the ----s, the Sloanes, and Totten, consul-general at large; much talk with Sloane and then with Mr. ------ after dinner .... As to the League of Nations, and the treaty, Mr. --- said that the treaty might easily have been confirmed if the President had employed the slightest tact with the Senate. But the President had flouted and insulted the Senators in every way. For instance, directly the President returned to Washington from Paris, he received the visit, quite casual, of an Englishman, who said to him:

"Mr. President, do you not anticipate trouble with the Senators over Shantung?"

"Yes," replied the President, "I do, just as soon as the Senators find out where Shantung is. At present they think it is a county in Ireland."

Clever as this was, it and other remarks like it were disastrous in their effect on the Senate. But even so, the treaty could have been confirmed if it had not been for the President's trip to the West, the most idiotic thing, Mr. ----- said, imaginable, since no election was in progress and there was no way in which the people, even if convinced, could influence the Senate against its will.

Mr. -------- had written a letter of advice to the President, suggesting that he enter into no conflict with the Senate; that instead of making his own personality and his own deeds the issue, he make the Allied cause the issue, so that if the Senators hit any one, they would hit the Allies; that he lay the treaty before the Senate with the simple remark that it was a compromise, the best that could be obtained in the circumstances and that then he allow the Democratic Senators to secure the best settlement they could, and then lay the result before the Allies, placing the responsibility for the amendments or reservations on the Senators. The Allies would have accepted it and we should have had peace today. He showed the letter to Gregory and to Baker, and to one other---I forget whom ---and they approved it, all of them. It was then sent to the White House, but Mrs. Wilson did not allow it to reach the President, or, if she did, no answer ever came.

Mr. ----- told me that Davis is to resign; he goes home on the 18th, to take two months' leave, and will then resign. Mrs. Davis wishes him to go back to London to say good-bye, and he may do so, but at any rate he will be out in October. His reason for resigning is his lack of means. He took the place (as Lansing told me last autumn) intending to spend his principal as an advertisement. He will go to New York and practice law.

Sloane and I talked of Howells, of Academy matters (he said that my election was due to my novels as much as anything, which I could not believe, but he insisted that it was so; that Howells had used that argument), of Sloane's book on Napoleon, and of the French propaganda in Belgium, of which he had a thorough knowledge. I spoke too of the decay of the English language in America, and he asked me to write a paper on the subject, which I may do if I have time and strength ....

I had my morning walk with the dogs in the Parc Léopold, and then we had the -------s to luncheon. Afterward we talked---about Hoover for one thing. Mr. ----- said that Hoover had maintained---as he constantly does---a bureau of publicity; in fact had turned the C.R.B. into that kind of agency. But the young civilians who composed that organization were mere babes, of course, at the game of politics. Hoover had announced that he would support that party which would do the most for the League of Nations, and then had asked Mr. ------'s advice, saying---and I could just hear him saying it!---that he didn't wish the nomination, and shrank from it, and so on. To which Mr. ----- replied: "Hoover, in the first place, stop talking that way. For six months you have been putting out statements on all matters of public interest with a view to obtaining the nomination, and nobody believes you when you say that you don't want it." Then he advised him to keep still, and to rest on his statement, but Hoover announced that he would be a Republican, and that eliminated him from Democratic consideration. At Chicago he, or his managers---who were the merest tyros in politics---allowed him to go into the Chicago convention with only five votes, which was ridiculous. Then, when Harding was named, and announced his entire opposition to the League of Nations, Hoover at once agreed to support him! It is rumoured that Hoover is to be Secretary of State, and Mr. ------ says that some such trade may have been made by Hoover and Harding.

Tonight we dined at the palace at Laeken. Their Majesties, Prince Léopold, Prince Charles, the Princess Marie-José, that is the whole family, were there; and besides, the -----s and Nell and I . .. . After dinner the Queen set Mr. ------ to talking on Bolshevism, and the King and I drew up our chairs and listened, while Nell and Mrs. ----- sat on a sofa in a corner, talking in low tones, and in the great salon outside, the others played with a little black cocker spaniel puppy which Prince Charles had just brought from England with him. The Prince had been talking to Nell about the puppy and she had said that she would like to see it; so, after dinner it was brought in, a little mite of glossy black fur, with a great bow of pink ribbon, reposing on a silken cushion, and borne in on a silver salver, quite royally. We had all admired it and discussed it, and petted it, and then His Royal Highness had taken off its bow and fastened it to the puppy's tail, and so teased it, until, as we were settled to hear Mr. ------- talk about the Bolsheviks, the puppy had rushed in, and begun biting the Queen's ankles, and then the King had sternly ordered His Royal Highness to take it out and send it away. Thus, exit poor cocker---and the Queen saying: "He was biting my feet."

And Mr. ------ in his soft voice resumed his monologue. We put in a word now and then, the King, the Queen, or I, and got to talking after a while about the present situation. I said that the sensible thing and the only thing to do now was to make peace, any kind of peace, with the Bolsheviki, and to help build up Germany anew, and to this the King heartily agreed, and so did Mr. -------

As to the situation at home, the King, expressing his regret that the treaty had not been ratified, asked Mr. ----- if he thought the treaty would eventually be ratified or not, and Mr. ------ said that he thought it would. Then we talked of the unfortunate quarrel between the Senate and the President (for which, by the way, Mr. ----- considers the President responsible though he did not say precisely that before their Majesties) and I said that it was to be regretted that we had not the parliamentary form of government; and I added that we should have some sort of brief amendment to the Constitution, the effect of which would be to require the President to choose his Cabinet from the Congress, and to be able at all times to command a majority there, or, on a vote of no confidence, to call in the leader of the opposition to form a new government, the deplorable fact being that under our present system, we had now had for three years a government crisis. And then Mr. told this interesting tale: In 1916 the President had decided that, if he were defeated, he would take the following steps: (1) Ask Marshall to resign the Vice-Presidency, or appoint him to a judgeship; then (2) have Lansing resign; then (3) appoint Hughes Secretary of State, and (4) resign himself. This would have made Hughes President during the interim between the elections and the inauguration on March 4th. On election night, when they all thought that Hughes was successful, Gregory was... examining the law as to what steps, what notice, would be necessary for the President to take and give in convening the Senate in extraordinary session to confirm Hughes' nomination. If this was indicated in 1916, how much more in 1918, when the Democrats lost the Congressional elections!

Sunday, August 15, 1920.---After a walk with the dogs in the Parc Léopold, Nell and I drove to Francqui's place in the country near Overyssche, for luncheon. The Wieners, father, son and daughter, were there. We had luncheon al fresco on a wind-swept terrace...

We came home, and at 5:30 the Boy Scouts from America, who have been in London attending the "Jamboree" there and later went to France, came marching by, escorted by Belgian Boy Scouts of both kinds, Catholic and non-Catholic (to my relief!), and halted in the rue Luxembourg. Their officers and leaders had come to serenade us, and I made them a little speech from the balcony of the Embassy. They are a company of fine lads.

This evening dined with us .... We had a long and most interesting talk in the drawing-room after dinner; he was full of gossip, and in good form, and told me so much that I can't remember half of it, and am too tired to set it all down even were I able to recall it. I told him of the chagrin that I felt at Lord Grey's not having been received, and he said that it.. . began at a dinner given at Washington .... Crawfurd-Stuart was at the dinner, and said something derogatory, either to the President or to Mrs. Wilson, I forget which; (my head is in such a whirl these days, and I am so weary and Mr. told me so much, that I can't remember it all). This statement of Crawfurd-Stuart was repeated and got to the ears of Mrs. Wilson; orders came from the White House, and the matter was under investigation by Lansing, when he left for Paris. The matter was turned over to Frank Polk, who, said, decided that it wasn't worth making a row over and so dropped it (though Lansing told me that it had been agreed that Crawfurd-Stuart should remain until the departure of Lord Reading, who was leaving soon). Reading, ------ said, advised Lord Grey to take Crawfurd-Stuart with him when he went to Washington, without telling him of Crawfurd-Stuart's scrape, and Lord Grey did so, innocent of giving any offence. On Crawfurd-Stuart's reappearance there, the demand for his recall was repeated, but this time a new story was told; it was said that Crawfurd-Stuart had said at the dinner that Mrs. Wilson could not get into society at Washington, and had to go to Paris to achieve that end. Lord Grey said that he would not condemn Crawfurd-Stuart without a hearing; Lansing sent for the hostess, who refused to testify; then Lord Grey asked Lansing to have Admiral Grayson meet with him and Lansing at the Department; and a fortnight passed before Grayson would come. Then, instead of offering any proof of what Crawfurd-Stuart had said, Grayson maintained that the mere fact that Crawfurd-Stuart was persona non grata was sufficient, but Lord Grey did not admit this. He... said that as he had not been received, and was not going to be received .by the President, he had no standing there, and was about to return to England anyhow, so that he would not send Crawfurd-Stuart home, but allow him to stop there until he, Grey, went. It was Mrs. Wilson's influence, then..., that kept Lord Grey, the most distinguished statesman in the English-speaking world, cooling his heels in Washington all those months ....

Grey had gone with three heads on his programme: (1) he was going to force Lloyd George's hand on the Irish question, and arrange a most liberal settlement of the Irish question; (2) he was to agree that in naval matters England would not build against America; that war between England and America was unthinkable, and that if America were to build a large navy, it would be assumed that it was against Japan or some other country, and that if England were to increase her navy, it would be assumed that it was against Germany or some other country, and (3) he was to make satisfactory arrangements for America to ratify the treaty, with any reservations desired, and enter the League of Nations. And all this great good impossible because of Mrs. Wilson's caprice!

Sunday, August 29, 1920.---This afternoon to Vilvorde, where on the wide canal, the sculling finals in the Olympic games were held. Nell and the Thomases went with me. The Thomases are excellent in all such matters, of unfailing kindness---gave up a week-end trip to Aix, for instance, to accompany me to Antwerp yesterday. Col. Thomas has a fine sense of duty.

Well, the boat races were superb, and most exciting, and the Americans won everything. The first race, singles, between Kelly, American, and Beresford, English, was won by Kelly, and half an hour later he pulled in the two-oar boat and with Costello, won that. The great race was between the English and American eights; the English crew were the Leander, made up of the best oarsmen of Oxford and Cambridge; the American was the Annapolis crew, a splendid set of youngsters, each twenty-one, each weighing one hundred and eighty pounds, each among the first twenty-five in his classes, each six feet tall.

It was most exciting. We were on the royal barge; the afternoon was fine; the canal banks black with people, its sparkling waters enlivened by little motor boats, punts, sculls, all sorts of craft, with brilliant colour, in costumes, flags and trimming. Kelly's match with Beresford was beautiful, he winning by half a length, and then sitting calmly in his boat, his green silk cap pulled over his eyes, while Beresford almost collapsed in agony---what a strain on the heart it must be!---and leaned forward, his good English face twisted by pain. We gave him a cheer, and Kelly, speaking a few words to him, pulling up to the landing stage, got out of his shell and disappeared somewhere. It was so Anglo-Saxon, far different from those who won the next event. This was the finals for shells with two oarsmen and a coxswain, each man pulling an oar. The Americans and English had not participated in this event; it was rowed by French, Italian and Swiss crews. The race was between the French and the Italians, and at the finish, the Italians pulled ahead, and won; and as their shell glided past our barge the stroke, a long, brown-skinned Italian, with a brightly coloured kerchief tied about his wavy black locks, waved his hand in a graceful gesture of triumph and when the shell had stopped they all fell akissing each other!

Kelly was in the next race, and he won easily, with his partner Costello, and Kirby brought them on to the barge to be congratulated by me, and we posed for the cinematograph operators. A fine big strapping fellow, Kelly---and to win two such events in an afternoon!

But the race between the English and Americans was the great event of the day. Far off up the canal they start; a gun is fired, the telephone jingles; after a few seconds-seconds that seem like minutes---we see two specks on the water; then the far-off flash of the sculls; they come on---the crews become distinguishable---the English are ahead!

Several Englishmen are standing at my side---yes, the English are ahead! We watch in the silence; then beside the English shell the sculls flash---and I knew that they were done. And then rowing like a piece of beautiful machinery, though it was so much more beautiful than any machinery, so human it was, so graceful, so rythmic, like poetry, our lads come on, and amid the outburst of cheering, they forge ahead, their long shell glides before us a length ahead of the Leanders---the pistol shot cracks, and the band somewhere is playing the "Star-Spangled Banner." The Englishmen all congratulate me, and it is a lively moment.

The Leander crew crumpled up, some fell forward, some back, in the agony of the effort to get their breath, and in the pain, I suppose, of the overtaxed heart. Our lads give them a cheer, and they pull slowly back, and as they pass the Englishmen and I shout, "Well rowed, Leander!"

Kirby had the crew, our crew, come aboard the barge, bearing their long sculls, their bodies, like those of Greek gods, glistening with perspiration, and I congratulated them all and they gave me the navy cheer---and the cinematographs were worked industriously.

And we come home for tea, very proud Americans.

August 30, 1920.---A day of bright sun, but a cold wind-late autumnal weather, in fact.

Myra and Norman, back from Italy this morning, were here to luncheon, and immediately afterwards Nell and I with the Thomases to Antwerp, to see the distribution of prizes by the King, or to be seen, rather. We had a broken spring when nearly to Antwerp, but repaired it with a clamp, and arrived at the Stadium just in time. The stands were crowded, and the participants in the games grouped under their flags on the green sward, waiting. A tribune had been erected in the arena for the royal party. We had entered our box in the stands, where there were several dear colleagues, when General Sage appeared and said that I was desired to come down, and so with Thomas, joined the Americans as though I were an athlete myself. We were there when the King arrived, with Prince Léopold and Prince Charles, and his suite, amid the blare of trumpets and a clamour of welcome, and troops presenting arms, and the flags of all the nations dipped to him as he passed---all save the American flag. Of course, we must always on all occasions, in all conceivable circumstances, do things differently, and we have a rule that forbids the dipping of our flag. So it stood stark and conspicuous, and ill-manneredly erect while all the others were gracefully inclined by their bearers in greeting to the King.

I felt conspicuous myself, but the King saw me, and beckoned me to his tribune, and gave me a chair at his side, between him and the Prince Charles---it was the Prince's chair, indeed, that he gave me ... . Across the Stadium a choir was bravely hymning, interminably hymning, its choruses.

"I find it very disagreeable," was the King's comment. "But it seems that all official ceremonies must last two hours. If there are no speeches, then there are choirs."

And a man appeared before the tribune unfolding a long MS.

"Is he going to make a speech?" exclaimed the King, in alarm.

But it was not a discourse, but the list of winners that the man held in his hand, and he began to read off the names of the winners. Three Boy Scouts, very seriously, marched up bearing the prizes, first, second and third, in each class, with a little statuette, a bronze Victory, to accompany the medal of the first prize; the names were called, the winners came up; the King gave the first, the Prince. Léopold the second, the Prince Charles the third. Prince Charles, standing beside me, in his naval cadet uniform, didn't do it to suit the King, who scolded him and the Prince blushed---and then whispered to me.

"What do I say, 'Best congratulations'? Is that all right?"

I assured him that it was perfect, and he greeted each of the contestants thereafter with "Best congratulations."

September 1, 1920.---A call from Heineman; who agrees if necessary to buy this house and rent it to us .... I went to the Musée to see the Van Eyck, which, of course, like all big things, grows on me.

Coming back, past the Palace, I saw the flag was down. I was a little sad. Their Majesties sailed today, from Zeebrugge, on the Sao Paula, for Brazil---from Zeebrugge rather than from Antwerp because the King would not pass through Dutch waters to leave his own realm.

September 4, 1920.---The weather is dull, and there has been a mist all day. To the Parc this morning with the dogs, and the rest of the day working on dispatches---a heavy task, and no help. The "Department," as it always styles itself (the Department "thinks," and "feels," and "regrets," and "opines"; and no doubt loves and hates, and hopes and fears, and blushes, and turns pale; but it has bad manners, writes impolitely, issues orders to Ambassadors and Ministers in the terms employed by train dispatchers in addressing conductors and engine drivers---far other than the polite notes written by the British Foreign Office or the French or Spanish Governments to their agents. I had occasion once to show Villalobar an order I had received, and looking up in surprise, he said: "Do they address you like that?")---the Department, then, to close this long parenthesis, has lately a perfect mania for reports on everything, reports that are never read, and certainly never acted on, when they are received in Washington. There must be some one there who has too much zeal---like ---------, who, by reporting his "impression" that the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg feared that it was to be annexed by Belgium, has kept me busy for a month proving that it is not to be annexed.

September 15, 1920.---To the Parc Léopold as usual with the dogs, and this afternoon to see Delacroix. We had a long talk, and I got a lot of news from him. He, for instance, has been asked by Van Vredenbergh to go to The Hague and have a talk with Van Karnebeek,(22) in the hope of settling the points of differences between Holland and Belgium. Don't go, I advised him, unless you are certain that you can bring something back with you. He said that he would not. He had, he said, put forward three points as indicating what he desired the Dutch to do: (1) To put a stop to the official encouragement given by the Dutch Government to Flemish activists and traitors now finding asylum in Holland; (2) To settle the Weiligen Question on a basis assuring the exercise of Belgian sovereignty over the pass; and (3) To form a military accord with Belgium. If, he said, he could be assured that he could have the first two, he would go to The Hague. He was to have an interview with Van Vredenbergh within the hour to tell him this. He was very hopeful that the business would be in a fair way of settlement within a few days. He said that he desired the military accord in order to counterbalance the accord with France.

The Brussels newspapers, all licking the boots of the French in their Francomania, have been saying, in imitation of the French, that the military accord is but the prelude to an alliance, and that the next step is an economic accord. Delacroix said that there was no chance of that; he had talked about it with Millerand, and Millerand had said that he was favourable, had talked of commissions to study the question and so on, and so on, but---Delacroix shrugged his shoulders, made a moue and shook his head cynically, sceptically. France is wedded to high protection, he said, and Belgium is a free-trade nation, and they could not agree on that subject.

I have been working in every spare moment on dispatches concerning Hyman's resignation, the Luxembourg question, the Weiligen, and now the Franco-Belgian accord.

September 20, 1920.---Fifty years ago today the Italians took Rome. What a great spiritual movement was the Risorgimento! What names: Cavour, Mazzini, Garibaldi! Germany, organized at the same time, is in ruins, and if Italy is as wise, and has such vision, as I think she is, and has, her spirituality will bear her through this present crisis of Marxian materialism. The world of vision, of belief, of idealism, in short civilization, has been at war with two evils, both made in Germany, Militarism and Socialism; the one is defeated and lies broken, the other fights on.

September 24, 1920.---This morning at the Foreign Office, where Delacroix was giving a reception to the delegates to the Financial Conference. A motley company of all nations, types, and colours, and it is rather amusing to think of them blithely proceeding to settle and regulate the affairs of this mad world, vainly and idly babbling about conditions the force of which they do not in the least understand.

Millerand has been elected President of the French Republic. Delacroix told me tonight, by the way, that he isn't going to The Hague; the Dutch will not yield a point.

October 11, 1920.---A woman, Mrs. ------, called, a hard-visaged, efficient, positive, direct, manly woman, a professional lecturer, who squared away at me with this:

"I wish your opinion as to the influence of the Vatican on the Centre Party in Belgium."

"Oh, madam!" I cried, aghast, "please don't ask me indiscreet things like that! For me, a diplomat, to answer---"

And she jumped up and popped out of the room---and I have another enemy loose in the world!

October 12, 1920.---John Spargo here at six, and we had a good long talk. He is now, since the war, wholly unsettled in his beliefs, which is, perhaps, not a bad sign. Much talk of President Wilson and the great tragedy of his fall. Spargo had advised him not to go to Paris, but to send a bi-partisan commission, of which Taft, Elihu Root, and Lodge, and perhaps Roosevelt, should have been members. The President had thought it absurd to send Lodge, and Spargo had said, "You must placate him now, or fight him afterwards." The conversation he reported was most interesting; he was then just back from Italy, where Wilson was a demi-god, and he told him that when they saw a gentleman in frock coat and high hat, they would be disillusioned; that when he spoke of his ideals, they---Clemenceau, Lloyd George, et al.---would listen politely, and that Clemenceau would then say, "And now, gentlemen, let's get to business." And he told the President that the half-truths he had been proclaiming were valuable in war. "Half-truths!" exclaimed the President. "What half-truths?" "Why, for one, the right of self-determination. It is good to disintegrate an enemy, Austria, for example, with that doctrine---but we don't want it applied to our countries." We had much talk about John Burns, and---oh, many things.

October 20, 1920.---This evening dined at the British Embassy to meet Arthur Balfour,(23) who is here attending the meeting of the Council of the League of Nations. The other guests were Delacroix, Francqui, Max, Villalobar, Sir Eric Drummond. Balfour I found charming---tall, distinguished with his mass of white hair and closely cropped little white moustache, his low collar, his smile, his courtesy; he had a pair of large tortoise-shell glasses, which he is always taking off and putting on again. We talked a lot, he and I, but of little things, and said nothing worth recording. He is hale and hearty at seventy-two, looks sixty, and if he can will play a round of golf with me on Sunday.

The campaign at home is making its own progress with something more than the usual vulgarity and blackguardism of our politics. Just now the sensation of the day is the incident that has arisen over Harding's statement, as reported, to the effect that a representative of the French Government had informed him that the French were ready to accept reservations and have America enter the League, which seems to be the position that Harding, after much vacillation, has definitely assumed. This has caused the President to write him a letter asking if he is correctly reported, and, of course, making much of the implied indiscretion. Cox is making much of the incident, but one has the impression that he is slinging too much mud to cut a respectable Presidential figure. The incident will have no effect in America, because indiscretions in foreign relations there are not understood as such, and amenities and courtesies in politics not wanted or even understood.

October 21, 1920.---At two o'clock to the Palais des Nations for the funeral of General Leman. I, of course, in the humiliation and degradation of evening clothes, in the sunlight of midday, feeling if not looking like a grocer on state occasions .... There were great masses of chrysanthemums, and wreaths, one from us, but no priests or religious services, for Leman was an atheist. The entire corps were there---except the Nuncio---and the judges in their red robes, and a long line of priests. And we stood there gossiping. Finally Marshal Pétain of France entered, in a simple blue tunic, with only one decoration, the military medal, but on his sleeves the all-sufficient stars of a Marshal of France. He is a big plump figure; his face bland and blond, without a line, and a fair, drooping moustache.

Sunday, October 24, 1920.---This morning, according to an arrangement of a week ago, I picked up Mr. Balfour at the Palace Hotel, and we drove to Ravenstein for a round of golf. The weather was ideal, warm and sunny, with a little---just a little---autumn haze. Unfortunately we had time for only nine holes, for Mr. Balfour had a session of the Council of the League of Nations this afternoon, and an engagement for luncheon, so that we had to come in at one. However, it was all very delightful; we had a lot of splendid talk, too much, as a matter of fact, for good golf, though I didn't play half badly. The picture I retain in mind of Mr. Balfour is one already familiar from the photographs and cartoons---the white hair, the low, broad white collar, the long legs, the tall distinguished figure stooped over the ball. He plays a good game, is vigorous and alert---at seventy-two! He was indeed like a boy out of school, after a whole week shut up in close, fusty rooms with that Council. Yesterday they held a long wrangling session in the rooms of M. Léon Bourgeois,(24) who was suffering from a chill. He appeared, said Mr. Balfour, wrapped up in a great ulster, with a great scarf muffling his neck, and, with what Mr. Balfour called the over-elaborate politeness of the French, asked him if he might put on his hat! Mr. Baifour said that he was tempted to reply, "Yes, if you don't mind my taking off my coat." The discussion yesterday was over the language to be used in the international court. The French, still smarting because the Treaty of Versailles was written in English and French, are determined that French shall be the only language used before the court; Mr. Balfour had combated the idea on behalf of England and because of America, and hopes to win the point.

This week has been crowded with official functions, in honour of the League of Nations, and though we have no representative, Nell and I have been asked to all of them save Delacroix's dinner last night. Delacroix is quite literal; no representative, no dinner. It is all most fatiguing; Mr. Balfour was speaking today of the difficulty of lunching and dining out daily, and of working meanwhile. I told him my experience, years ago, with Harry Lauder, who came to Toledo when I was mayor, and brought his band of Highland pipers to the town hall to play for me. The local Burns club, wishing to give a dinner in Harry Lauder's honour, and having asked me to let them invite him while he was at the Town Hall, duly sent a committee. They arrived while the pipers were playing, and stood solemnly and somewhat disconsolately in a corner, a rather sorry little group, wearing the old moth-eaten Glengarry bonnets they had brought out for the occasion. I explained their presence to Harry Lauder, who was standing apart at the other end of the room---and took occasion to remark that it must be fatiguing to him to accept social invitations while traveling and giving two performances a day. Harry Lauder looked solemnly to where they stood in their Glengarry bonnets, and then said, as seriously as only a Scotsman can say anything, and with utter conviction, in his broad Scotch:

"Aye, bu' still, of coorse ye understan', it's a grreat day for them."

Mr. Balfour laid down his club and threw back his head in hearty laughter, and kept laughing at it for the rest of the round.

October 26, 1920.---Jimmy Cox is out for Irish independence, a disgusting bit of demagogy and international impertinence that should defeat him; though he is defeated already, for a week from today Harding is certain to be elected.

Call today from Selden, correspondent New York Evening Post; he thinks the League of Nations is getting on its feet and that perhaps cocksure America wouldn't now be admitted with her conceited reservations. Japan is opposed to our coming in at all, or more properly anxious to keep us out, or for us to remain out.

October 28, 1920.---Nell and I attended this morning the closing session of the Council of the League of Nations, an event of no very intrinsic interest, but very great in all the implications. The members were seated behind a long green baize table on the platform, facing the small scattered audience that represented the public. Hymans, in the middle, was presiding, Léon Bourgeois on his right and Mr. Balfour on his left, the former with a large atomizer before him, and a small bottle or something that he sniffed repeatedly for his cold. Old Bourgeois, for his cold, was muffled in a great overcoat; he is a fattish, whitish, softish, old man, not very clean, I should say---has a kind of pasty, moth-eaten air, and is flabby. Mr. Balfour made a little speech thanking Hymans and the Belgian Government and making a discreet reference to America's absence, expressing the hope that she would join.

Indeed, the absence of an American representative was the marked feature of the spectacle. I felt sad and ashamed that we had no one there: it seems so babyish in us. But meanwhile the League of Nations carries on without us, and very well, too. The sentiment at the close of the session of the Council is distinctly optimistic. After the session, chatting with Mr. Balfour a moment, I asked him if he did not think now that the League was a going concern, and he said most decidedly, "Yes." Hymans, too, is of that opinion.

Jimmy Cox is indulging in the most disgusting demagogy in a frantic effort to get the Irish vote---has proclaimed the Lord Mayor of Cork a holy martyr, or something of the sort.

Sunday, October 31, 1920.---The campaign at home is over and at the election on Tuesday Harding will undoubtedly be elected, and the people are voting for him not on account of the League of Nations---they don't know anything about the League of Nations or give a damn for it, one way or the other. They are simply in a spiteful mood with the President and think that they are hurting him, though Cox doesn't represent him or his ideas any more than Harding does. The people indeed, do not know what ideas Harding or Cox represents; neither do Harding or Cox. Great is democracy.

November 3, 1920.---The flag is on the Palace once more today, so the King is home again. Sent Harding a cable, congratulating him on his election.

November 8, 1920.---The Queen and the Prince arrived home yesterday from Brazil, and went to the Palace at Laeken. It is said too that Barros-Moreira returned with them, as an Ambassador, which will make one of his naïve vanity and conceit insupportable.

There is much... relief that they are at home again. I hear that the visit in Brazil was the occasion of deplorable demonstrations of Brazilian internal politics, that Pessoa's enemies carried on a vicious campaign against him in the press, accusing him of having been pro-German during the war, of having then had the bad taste to make a tour of Europe when he was only President-elect, accepting royal honours, and then, of having brought the King to Brazil and thus taken advantage of his popularity to cultivate and restore his own.

November 12, 1920.---I have just been reading in the Times and the Daily Mail newspapers, not without emotion, the accounts of the burial in Westminster Abbey of the Unknown Warrior. It was a most beautiful and poetic idea, and the service touching and moving. What a great nation the English are! What profound depths in their nature and national character!

Sunday, November 14, 1920.---A fall of rain all day long. In the Parc Léopold early to give the dogs their walk, then at eleven with Nell to Christ Church, where Gahan had arranged a service for Armistice Day. There was a great English flag on one side of the chancel and a great American flag on the other. The service was quite impressive and touching, with the grand hymn "Oh God, Our Help in Ages Past," and Gahan winding up his poor sermon by the true if perhaps too explicit observation that the British and American people, the English-speaking race, was superior to all others because it had the open Bible.

November 15, 1920.---This is a fête day---and there is a heavy steaming rain. At two this afternoon, with my staff---all ridiculous and uneasy, but democratic and patriotic and true to T. Jefferson, Sockless Simpson, old man Marcy, and William Jennings Bryan, in evening dress; though perhaps, as it occurs to me on second thought, had they known of that garb, they would have insisted on shirt-sleeves and overalls---with my staff, as I was saying, to Ste.-Gudule for the Te Deum. There was the usual show---the Ministers, the diplomatic corps, and so on, all in uniform, the judges in their red robes, the troops, the crowds. The Queen and Prince Léopold were the only members of the royal family present; the King never assists at this fête.

November 20, 1920.---Carton de Wiart, after ten days of hard work, has at last formed a Ministry; he is taking the portfolio of the Interior, and Jaspar going to the Foreign Office.

December 6, 1920.---A dispatch from Washington announces that Senator Jones is to introduce in the Senate a bill to prohibit diplomatic officers abroad from serving wine at their tables, the bill to carry penalties of six years' imprisonment for a second offence. There are no words for the stupid, ignorant, provincial fanaticism that reigns at home these last few years. It is simply unspeakable. The Anti-Saloon League is setting up a theocracy with a boundless tyranny, and there seems to be no one in the nation virile enough even to oppose it. It is the dictatorship of the prohibitionists. The American Government is so provincial that it will not buy houses for Embassies and Legations, nor give its representatives funds with which to entertain, as other nations do---but it would dictate what food they serve in their own houses, on their own tables, and at their own expense! The fact is, liberty is as dead in America as it is in Russia.

December 10, 1920.---The Paris edition of the New York Herald has a dispatch announcing the introduction of a bill forbidding American diplomats to attend dinners where wine is served, a bill introduced by some ignorant Anti-Saloon League fanatic from Georgia. Unspeakable!

December 11, 1920.---Our dinner to General Allen went off well enough...

Mrs. Allen said to me, in her strong Middle West accent: "We know about you from your pieces in the paper; I ought to have written some; you know we were at St. Petersburg five years, going to court, you know, and around with those barbarians and all, and I ought to have written it up but I never had any time. I suppose it's easy to write, isn't it?" "Well," I said, "I've been trying to learn to write for forty years, and haven't succeeded yet." "Oh, I'm sure you have! But I suppose those papers always have some one who can fix things up for you if you just tell 'em what to say, haven't they?"

December 18, 1920.---The Paris edition of the New York Herald today publishes an American dispatch which states that Harding yesterday, addressing a group of Presbyterian preachers at Marion, said that the Treaty of Versailles is bad because "it does not mention the name of the Deity." The old poker-player might at least spare us that. Or does he think that treaties, like old-fashioned wills, begin, "In the name of God, Amen"?

December 20, 1920.---The Lewis Nixons were here to luncheon. Nixon has written to Knox, a great friend of his, urging that I be retained at this post, but is still talking all the while about my being the next Democratic candidate for President, which I shouldn't like at all, preferring, if I am to leave diplomacy, where I should like to remain, to devote myself wholly to literature, and while working live in England or France.

At noon came Dr. Louise Pearce of the Rockefeller Institute, and Miss Bowen, just back from the Congo, where they have been experimenting with their cure for sleeping sickness. The story is a pretty one. When the Queen was in America she visited the Rockefeller Institute, Nell going with her, and they were deeply interested in the experiments that Dr. Pearce was making in that disease. Her Majesty expressed a desire to have the remedy tried in the Congo, and last May Dr. Pearce and Miss Bowen one day appeared in Brussels, en route for the Congo. Nell asked for an audience with the Queen for them, but they went away without leaving any address behind, and Nell had to explain to the Queen as best she could. Today, however, when I learned what they had done in the Congo, I decided at once that the Queen must see them. They had indeed done wonders; they lived at Leopoldville, in most difficult conditions, treated seventy-eight cases---natives---and had most encouraging results, effecting many cures or apparent cures---years only can determine whether they are permanent.

December 21, 1920.---Nell took Dr. Pearce and Miss Bowen to Laeken this morning at 11:30, and they had audience of Her Majesty. The Queen was deeply interested in their work and detained them for an hour . ... This evening Jaspar telephoned us to say that the King had given orders that Dr. Pearce receive the Order of the Crown and Miss Bowen that of Léopold II.

December 28, 1920.---Weather warm-15° C.---and very humid and oppressive. To the Parc Léopold with the dogs this morning; with Nell this afternoon to visit some old shops. Returning home, passing Dechenne's bookshop in l'avenue de la Toison d'Or, saw two little boys, ragamuffins, looking at some sketches by French artists in the window. "That," said the smaller of the urchins, "is a design in crayon." Even the children in the streets know something of art!

At a luncheon given by Jacobs, avenue Louise, the other day, the Prince Ronald Napoléon went up to Colonel Thomas, and looking at the Colonel's decorations, said: "What would George Washington say? And what are you doing with all those decorations, and you a citizen of a republic?"

And Thomas, good old chap, replied instantly, "And what are you doing with the title of Prince?"

December 29, 1920.---A letter from Marshall this morning. He had been to Marion, and had lunched with Harding, who was well disposed, and so on; personally fond of me; would like and so forth, but-there was opposition. In short, I judge, though Marshall as always hopeful and determined, that there is not the slightest chance of my remaining here. "Colonel" George Harvey was there, and told Marshall that though he was for "Brand"---"give Brand my regards," and said, "and tell him I'll do all I can to help him"---there was opposition, little hope, and so on, and to the victor belong the spoils. But why "Brand"? "Colonel" Harvey's relations with me were never intimate. But what was of more importance was that, as Marshall appears to have learned from Heineman, Hoover is opposed to me, said that my retention was "out of the question" or something of that sort.

January 3, 1921.---De Margerie in receiving on New Year's day made a remarkable speech, in which he told the Belgians that France would not, could not, remove the much disputed port surtax. It is extraordinary, this arrogance of the French, and I wonder how much longer the Belgians will stand it.(25)

January 4, 1921.---De Margerie's discourse has kicked up the jolliest row imaginable! The newspapers, at last, begin to notice it, and to publish articles bitterly resenting it. The blunder was brought about by a question from Lemonnier, the portly alderman of Brussels, who went to the reception...; he brought up the unfortunate subject of the port surtax, and in reply de Margerie said that it could not be removed, that all nations were selfish---"Belgium can give France lessons in that respect," he said-and in short, tripped up thus by a stupid little accident brought about by Lemonnier's question, he brought down about his head in ruins the French edifice which for two years he has been building in Belgium. I have never seen the Belgians so angry, and de Margerie has ruined his usefulness here.

January 5, 1921.---De Margerie's blunder is more and more the talk of the town. He has quite finished himself. It is a good thing ---not that I have any personal grudge against him---but a good thing for Belgium, for the Belgians now begin to see clearly, and to rate French promises at their just value.

January 6, 1921. ---The Hon. Medill McCormick, Senator from Illinois. He wasn't, however, half bad; terribly conceited, of course, but pleasant and agreeable. He had just come from the Palace, where he had had an audience with the King, and, said he, "You have a friend in that man. If you run for office again you'd better have him campaign for you. Out of the forty-five minutes he allotted to me, he devoted thirty to talking about you!" Perhaps that's what I liked in McCormick.

We lunched with Jaspar,(26) nearly a score of us, Francqui among others. McCormick held forth throughout the entire meal as though he were addressing the Senate, though speaking in French, and fairly good French, too. Francqui, since no one else could get in a word edgewise, sat there taking in McCormick, weighing, estimating, classifying him, quite accurate, no doubt, since catching my eye, he gave me the drollest wink. McCormick discoursed on the Monroe Doctrine, said that America immediately after the fourth of March would declare peace with Germany, and would have nothing to do with the League of Nations. Indeed, made it plain that in his opinion America would adopt and preserve a policy of complete isolation. At this a grave disappointed silence fell on the table. Presently Jaspar said that America could not, even if she would, preserve such a policy, and to this McCormick replied to the effect that the sea could not be dried up. Then Jaspar said that airships could go over it, and submarines under it. McCormick went on, then, to explain that if America had "obligations" anywhere---he was speaking in French but translating his English thoughts and words---she would not forget them. He used the word "obligations" in the English sense of a moral duty, but Jaspar, his keen eyes twinkling, said quick as a flash, "Obligations are actions!" And the table roared with laughter.

After luncheon I talked with Jaspar and with Francqui, principally about de Margerie's blunder. Francqui was delighted, said it was a good thing and high time that something happened to bring the Belgians to their senses in this matter of French influences. Jaspar was of the same opinion, saying that de Margerie had ruined his prestige and "he is finished."

January 11, 1921.---To the Foreign Office to have a little talk with Jaspar. I broached the Dutch negotiations, after talking of other things, and found him most receptive. I told him... how Kattendyke had spoken to Thomas, and how Van Vredenbergh had then come to see me, and what he said, and added, "I tell you this as a friend, in case it may be of interest to you."

He said that it was of the greatest interest, and thanked me, and then said that he had the liveliest desire, "le plus vif désir," to settle the matter; that mistakes had been made, that they had gone too far, that there was no longer any idea or notion of annexations; that as to the Wieligen, an accord could be reached, probably on the former basis; that the Dutch newspapers had grossly exaggerated the effect of his speech in saying that he demanded an apology from the Dutch; that he had never done anything of the kind, nor would ever think of such nonsense; that he appreciated the political necessities that compelled the Dutch statesman to be intransigent, and so on. As to the military accord, on which others (Delacroix) had insisted, he was not of their mind; he understood why the Dutch would not want such an accord. With the French, it was different, they were a military nation, they thought in military sequences. The Dutch mentality was more like that of England and America, where military accords were detested. In short, he would be very glad to have Van Vredenbergh come to see him, and talk the matter over, for it was high time that an end be put to an impossible and detrimental situation. It was most encouraging, and I told him that I should tell Van Vredenbergh.

He told me that he had sent an instruction to de Cartier telling him to see Harding and express to him the hope of the Belgian Government, and the Belgian people, that I be left here, and so on, and I thanked him as well as I knew how.

We talked also of the de Margerie incident; the interpellation in the Chamber has been postponed for a fortnight, and in the meantime Jaspar is to explain the situation to the committees on foreign relations. Yesterday the Belgian Government, through Gaffier at Paris, made a representation to the Quai d'Orsay, saying that the Belgian Government resented the interference of the French Ambassador at Brussels in the internal affairs of the country.

January 12, 1921.---Thomas came in to tea; then Kattendyke, Van Vredenbergh having gone to Luxembourg. I told Kattendyke that I had had a talk with Jaspar, and that I found him most willing to discuss, and anxious to settle, if possible, the Dutch business, and that he would be glad to have Van Vredenbergh call on him. I told him that I considered the moment a favourable one, but that I should not tell him what, or all that Jaspar had said, because in case negotiations were resumed, and then were broken off and came to nothing, I did not care to have it said, possibly, that I had reported Jaspar as saying this thing or that. He was well pleased, and said that he would inform Van Vredenbergh, who would be most grateful to me. On going out he said that, following Jaspar's speech in the Chamber, the negotiations had come to a deadlock, neither side caring to take the first step toward a resumption of the conference. Then he asked, "May I say that M. Jaspar invited M. Van Vredenbergh?" I said, "No, not on my authority. M. Jaspar did not ask me to invite Mr. Van Vredenbergh to come to him, he said that I might say that he would be glad to see Mr. Va Vredenbergh if he came!" Then I said: "If I were you, and wished to settle the business, as you say you do, I shouldn't raise such petty points."

January 13, 1921.---This evening we dined at the French Embassy; about thirty there, and a few in after dinner. But not the success it used to be; poor de Margerie is fallen, and the spell is broken; one felt it in the atmosphere.

January 14, 1921.---Van Vredenbergh, back from Luxembourg, evidently in haste, at Kattendyke's suggestion; I was guarded and would tell him nothing of what Jaspar had told me, except that he, Jaspar, would be glad to see him if he were to call, and that I had found Jaspar desirous of settling the business.

At six, Nell and I to the ------- dancing academy, where we ambassadors and ambassadresses had agreed, last night at de Margerie's, to meet and take a lesson in le quadrille royale, to be prepared for the Court ball next week. But there was a crowd there---and we all joined with the class, two long lines, dancing up and down, making reverences, and so on, all most ridiculous, but a lot of fun, and all very gay.

January 20, 1921.---Rested, put some more touches on my speech, and at 4 P.M. took the train for Ghent. Thomas and Mrs. Thomas and Johnson and Mrs. Johnson, and Villalobar and his staff, all went by motor, but I took the train because of my cold, which is bad, and I so hoarse that I cannot recognize my husky voice when I speak. Arrived at Ghent at five, and Thomas met me and drove to the house of Maurice. Lippens, the Governor of the Province of East Flanders, where I was to lodge. I dressed at once, and at six Lippens appeared, very fine in his uniform, and we drove to the theatre, just as Villalobar was arriving, something more than merely magnificent in his uniform, with twenty-two decorations! We were presented to the Burgomaster, M. Brann, a fat old man, in office for twenty-five years, and to the aldermen, and all the notables, and then went into a noble old hall, all gilt and rococo, to dine .... A military band played while we dined, and the dinner done, the Burgomaster proposed the toast "The President," and we stood while the "Star-Spangled Banner" was played. Then he proposed the King of Spain, and the Spanish air was played; then I gave them the King of the Belgians, and "la Brabançonne," then Villalobar proposed the Queen. The Burgomaster made his speech, and our diplomas were presented to us; then Lippens spoke, and presented us with an illuminated address. Then I spoke, then Villalobar, reading a speech that he never wrote himself. Then we went to the theatre, where there was to be a gala performance of Manon. The performance was already on, fortunately, the first act almost done---and I wishing that it were the last! At the end of that act the orchestra played the "Star-Spangled Banner," and there was a great ovation and I bowed and bowed, then the Spanish air began, and Villalobar bowed. Then the opera.. . lasting until midnight.

Lippens and I drove to his house. I had a good room, a good bed, with a hot-water bottle in it, a cup of hot tea---and slept hard. Wakened at 7:30 by the clatter of wooden shoes on the pavement below my window, the sound so typical of Flanders, to which every town awakes. I went down to a good English breakfast of bacon and eggs and tea and toast. Everything in the house in a way suggests English customs, and I knew instantly on entering the house; I liked the sensation!

January 28, 1921.---To the Parc Léopold this morning, and all the rest of the day indoors, trying to nurse my cold, which hangs on to me grimly. Working all day, and... reading, and before tea, finishing Pepys's Diary, the eighth volume of the Wheatley edition. This evening I read Pepysiana. It is the most amazing human document, and the most interesting book ever written. What a pity that there was no Dr. Coppée in his day; we might have had a score more of such volumes! I am sending to London for all the other books printed about him.

January 31, 1921.---At noon to Hymans, to present to Mme. Hymans her Red Cross medal, but she had not come in, so I sat down with Hymans in his charming library---he has the nicest house in the world---and had a bit of gossip with him, about everything: Wilson, the League of Nations, the de Margerie incident, parliamentary government, the new accord reached by the Allies at Paris, which is but the old accord reached at Boulogne nine months ago.