JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL. 4ol 



and Commemorative occasions called out. Lowell seized the occasions 

 with a spirit which scarcely needed them, and merely employed them 

 as fit opportunities for casting in large moulds the great thoughts 

 and feelings which rose out of the life of a man conscious of his in- 

 heritance in a nohle patrimony. 



It was at the close of this period, in which he had done incalcula- 

 ble service to the Republic, that Lowell was called on to represent the 

 country, first at Madrid and afterward at London. Eight years 

 were thus spent by him in the foreign service of the country. His 

 sole participation in practical politics, as the term is, up to this time 

 had been to attend a national convention once as delegate, and to 

 have his name used as Presidential Elector. To the minds of many of 

 his countrymen he seemed doubtless a dilettante in politics. Special 

 preparation in diplomacy he had not, but he had what was mote 

 fundamental, a large nature enriched by a familiar intercourse with 

 great minds, and so sane, so sound in its judgment, that whether he 

 was engaged in determining a reading in an Elizabethan dramatist or 

 in deciding to which country an Irish colossus belonged, he was bring- 

 ing his whole nature to the bench. No one can read Lowell's 

 despatches from Madrid and Loudon without being struck by his 

 sagacity, his readiness in emergencies, his interest in and quick per- 

 ception of the political situation in the country where he was resident, 

 and his unerring knowledge as a man of the world. Nor could 

 Lowell lay aside in his official communications the art and the wit 

 which were native to him. " I asked Lord Lyons," he writes in one 

 letter, " whether he did not think suzerainty might be defined as 

 • leaving to a man the privilege of carrying the saddle and bridle after 

 you have stolen his horse.' He assented." 



But though Lowell's studies and experience had given him a 

 preparation for dealing with diplomatic questions, the firmness with 

 which he held his political faith afforded as sure a preparation 

 for that more significant embassy which he bore from the American 

 people to the English. Not long after his return, he published a 

 little volume containing the more important speeches which he had 

 made while in England. Most of them had to do with litera- 

 ture, but the title address in the volume, " Democracy," was an 

 epigrammatic confession of political faith as hopeful as it was wise 

 and keen. A few years rater he gave another address to his own 

 countrymen on "The Place of the Independent in Politics." It 

 was a noble apologia, not without a trace of discouragement at 

 the apparently sluggish movement of the recent years, but with 



