Goldwin Smith was a cosmopolite; a citizen as much of Canada and the United States as of England; a man indeed who would have preferred to call himself a citizen of the world.  But in England he was born and bred and began his career; under the Union Jack he died, and he may rightly be classed as an English historian.  My acquaintance with Goldwin Smith began a quarter of a century back, in the interchange of notes and books.  I was interested in the same fields which he had illustrated.  I looked upon him as more than any other writer, perhaps, my master.  I was in love with his spirit from the first and thought that no other man had considered so well topics connected with the unity of English-speaking men in a broad bond of brotherhood.  I did not set eyes on him until 1903, being for that year President of the American Library Association which was to meet at Niagara Falls.  I invited Goldwin Smith to give the principal address.  The librarians of Canada, as well as the United States, were to assemble on the frontier between the two countries, and it seemed desirable that a man standing under two flags should be spokesman and this character fitted Goldwin Smith precisely.  But that year he became eighty years old.  In the spring he was ill and did not dare to undertake in June an elaborate address.  When we assembled at Niagara Falls, however, I found him there.  He had come from Toronto to show his good-will and he spoke several times in our meetings; deliverances which, while neither long nor formal, were well worth hearing.  He was a stately presence, tall, slender, and erect even at eighty, with a commanding face and head which had every trait of dignity.  I had several opportunities for private talk and it appeared that his natural force was by no means abated.  It would no doubt be more just to class him as a critic in politics, literature, and philosophy rather than an historian, but in the latter capacity, too, his service was great.  His talk was fluent, incisive, and put forward without reference to what might be the prejudices or indeed the well-based principles of his listeners.  He lashed bitterly the Congress of the United States for refusing through fear of Irish disapproval to do honour to John Bright.  His tongue was a sword and cut sharply, and while he won respect always, often excited opposition and sometimes hatred.  Napoleon in particular was a bete noire, to whom he denied even the possession of military genius.  His courage was serene and he was quite indifferent as to whether he were hissed or applauded.  He moved in a lofty atmosphere and the praise and blame of men counted for little with him, as on his high plane he discussed and judged.  But it was impossible to entertain for Goldwin Smith any other feeling than profound respect, his accomplishments were vast, his memory unfailing, his ideals the highest, his sense of justice the keenest.  His was a nature perhaps to evoke veneration rather than affection,