I swear I spent the night in searching every nook and corner of my mind and I was of the same opinion the next morning.  There was nothing to do then but the most unwelcome double duty:  (1) Of continuing to carry out instructions, at every step making a bad situation worse and running the risk of a rupture (which would be the only great crime that now remains uncommitted in the world); and (2) of trying to persuade our own Government that this method was the wrong method to pursue.  I know it is not my business to make policies, but I conceive it to be my business to report when they fail or succeed.  Now if I were commanded to look throughout the whole universe for the most unwelcome task a man may have, I think I should select this.  But, after all, a man has nothing but his own best judgment to guide him; and, if he follow that and fail—­that’s all he can do.  I do reverently thank God that we gave up that contention.  We may have trouble yet, doubtless we shall, but it will not be trouble of our own making, as that was.

“Tyrrell[98] came into the reception room at the Foreign Office the day after our withdrawal, while I was waiting to see Sir Edward Grey, and he said:  ’I wish to tell you personally—­just privately between you and me—­how infinite a relief it is to us all that your Government has withdrawn that demand.  We couldn’t accept it; our refusal was not stubborn nor pig-headed:  it was a physical necessity in order to carry on the war with any hope of success.’  Then, as I was going out, he volunteered this remark:  ’I make this guess—­that that programme was not the work of the President but of some international prize court enthusiast (I don’t know who) who had failed to secure the adoption of the Declaration when parliaments and governments could discuss it at leisure and who hoped to jam it through under the pressure of war and thus get his prize court international.’  I made no answer for several reasons, one of which is, I do not know whose programme it was.  All that I know is that I have here, on my desk at my house, a locked dispatch book half full of telegrams and letters insisting on it, which I do not wish (now at least) to put in the Embassy files, and the sight of which brings the shuddering memory of the worst nightmare I have ever suffered.

“Now we can go on, without being a party to any general programme, but in an independent position vigorously stand up for every right and privilege under law and usage and treaties; and we have here a government that we can deal with frankly and not (I hope) in a mood to suspect us of wishing to put it at a disadvantage for the sake of a general code or doctrine.  A land and naval and air and submarine battle (the greatest battle in the history of the belligerent race of man) within 75 miles of the coast of England, which hasn’t been invaded since 1066 and is now in its greatest danger since that time; and this is no time I fear, to force a great body