AS COMMISSIONER AT PARIS-1878 527 



bery shown by a certain sort of Americans abroad, it is 

 not an unwise thing to have in each capital a man who, 

 in the intervals of his more important duties, can keep this 

 struggling mass of folly from becoming a scandal and a 

 byword throughout Europe. No one can know, until he 

 has seen the inner workings of our diplomatic service, 

 how much duty of this kind is quietly done by our repre 

 sentatives, and how many things are thus avoided which 

 would tend to bring scorn upon our country and upon 

 republican institutions. 



