1895.] Ill [Potts. 



scarcely inferior to tliose rendered by our Minister at the Court of St. 

 James." 



Early in 1861, before he had accepted the position of Consul to Liv- 

 <;rpool, Mr. Dudley went abroad for his health. While there, he was 

 appointed Consul to Paris, to fill tlie temporary vacancy, Mr. Bigelow 

 not having yet arrived and the former incumbent having proved a Seces- 

 sionist. 



The trying situation of Mr. Dudley and the little band of American 

 patriots in Liverpool is best described by Mr. William Everett in his 

 address on Charles Francis Adams.* He says : "I was in England dur- 

 ing the first two years of the war. I was one of that little company of 

 Americans whose duty kept us in England, scattered, isolated, scantily 

 informed, learning what was going on at home chiefly from garbled 

 telegrams, not knovving what to believe, yet called to account for every- 

 thing rash or foolish done or said to be done in North and South alike ; 

 sneered at, taunted, patronized and forced every hour to fight the battle 

 of our country's honor as truly as you who were in the regiments at 

 home. You had your trials ; believe me, we had ours. You were five 

 hundred thousand strong ; we were scarcely a fair-sized regiment, and 

 scattered farther apart than the pickets of a whole army corps. You 

 had the nation at your very backs ; we were cut off from it by ten days 

 of ocean. You had those who took eager account of your triumphs and 

 your disasters. We might bear tortures as acute as wounds or fever, and 

 deal what blows we could, with none to note or sympathize. Yet there 

 we fought, resolved that the name of America should not die in the land 

 from which her founders came. And to him we looked as leader, as 

 commander in our strife for honor ; and none who fought under McClel- 

 lan or Grant, under Dupont or Farragut, remember those heroes with 

 more grateful devotion than that which we pay to the memory of Charles 

 Francis Adams." 



It is impossible to read Mr. Adams' letters in " The Diplomatic Corre- 

 spondence " without having a profound respect for the character of the 

 man and his diplomatic ability. Mr. Dudley's relations with Mr. Adams 

 were constant and close. Surrounded by spies, a written correspondence 

 was not always deemed safe, as every moment the Consul at Liverpool 

 was watched and followed. For these reasons he often took the train 

 for London from Edgehill, liaving previously arranged to have his family 

 take his valise in their carriage and meet him there. He had noticed that 

 if he carried a handbag a spy was sure to follow and take the same train, 

 surmising his destination. If without it, apparently he was free from 

 this espionage. The numerous letters from his friend, Mr. Benjamin 

 Moran, the Secretary of Legation at London, were purposely written in 

 such a vague way that if they were intercepted, they would be of no ser- 



*William Everett's "Address on Charles Francis Adams," July 4, 1887, Cambridge, 

 1887, pp. 85, 86, 87. 



