to Florence. I was much too early for the celebration and was told at 

 the Hotel Brun that I could have a room only until Sunday. As the fes- 

 tivities were to begin on Monday, this was rather disturbing news, 

 especially as all the other good hotels told the same story. 



The University authorities appeared to be in a state of hopeless con- 

 fusion and they paid no attention to the delegates and made no arrange- 

 ments for their entertainment. I had a personal letter to Capellini, the 

 Rector, which I left at his office, together with my credentials; I got 

 the landlord of the hotel to write him a letter, in Italian, in my name. 

 As these various measures produced no result, I engaged a commis- 

 sionaire and hunted the Rector up, or down. He seemed to be com- 

 pletely distracted and declared that he could do nothing for me; that 

 every delegate would have to look out for himself. Saturday evening, 

 James Russell Lowell turned up at the hotel and I was introduced to 

 him. He was very indignant at the scant courtesy shown to the dele- 

 gates, having been somewhat spoiled by the attentions which were paid 

 him in London, when he was the American Minister there. To be so 

 completely ignored was something of a novelty and a most distasteful 

 one. Eugene Schuyler was so good as to let me have one of his rooms at 

 the Hotel Pellegrino, thus enabling me to remain in Bologna. I still 

 took my meals at the Hotel Brun, where there was a delightful lot of 

 people, chiefly English and American, and some, like Lowell, Schuyler, 

 Weir Mitchell, Fiske, the translator of Taine, and Professor Credner, 

 of Leipsic, were celebrities. 



Word leaked out that, beside the honorary M. D., which was to be 

 conferred on Weir Mitchell, the representative American degree was to 

 be given to a missionary in Rome. This man was said to be an intimate 

 friend of the Minister of Public Instruction, who, in turn, was the 

 brother of the Rector of the University of Bologna. Schuyler and other 

 defenders of the Italians thought it very unreasonable to expect that 

 the latter should know anything about America, or the Americans, but 

 the EngHsh were very indignant about it. On Sunday evening, a lot 

 of the English and American delegates held an indignation meeting 

 in a cafe, to discuss their grievances. The Americans felt unable to do 

 anything, but the EngHshmen resolved to inform the authorities that, 

 unless the degree were given to Mr. Lowell, the British delegates would 

 leave, in a body. I do not know whether this ultimatum was actually 

 presented, or not, but, in some way or other the desired change was 

 made. 



C 207 ] 



