580 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-VII 



the whole country was becoming more and more like a 

 garden, he said that such a statement was hardly likely to 

 please thinking Englishmen; that they could hardly be 

 glad that England should become more and more like a 

 garden; &quot;for,&quot; he said, &quot;feeding a great nation from a 

 garden is like provisioning an army with plum cake. 



He then dwelt on the fact that Great Britain had become 

 more and more dependent for her daily bread on other 

 countries, and especially on the United States. 



The conversation next turned to the management of es 

 tates, and he remarked, in a bluff, hearty way, that his 

 father had desired him to become a clergyman ; that there 

 was a pastor s living, worth, if I remember rightly, about 

 fifteen hundred thalers a year, which his father thought 

 should be kept in the family. This led to some amusing 

 conversation between him and the princess on what his 

 life would have been under such circumstances, ending by 

 his saying jocosely to her, &quot;You probably think that if I 

 had become a pastor I would have been a better man. To 

 which she answered that this she would not say; that it 

 would not be polite. &quot;But,&quot; she continued, &quot;I will say 

 this : that you would have been a happier man. 



He referred to some of my predecessors, speaking very 

 kindly of Bayard Taylor and George Bancroft; but both 

 he and the princess dwelt especially upon their relations 

 with Motley. The prince told me of their life together at 

 Gottingen and at Berlin, and of Motley s visits since, 

 when he always became Bismarck s guest. The princess 

 said that there was one subject on which it was always a 

 delight to tease Motley his suppressed novel &quot;Merry- 

 mount&quot;; that Motley defended himself ingeniously in 

 various ways until, at his last visit, being pressed hard, he 

 declared that the whole thing was a mere myth; that he 

 had never written any such novel. 



The dinner being ended, our assembly was adjourned to 

 the terrace at the back of the chancellor s palace, looking 

 out upon the park in which he was wont to take his famous 

 midnight walks. Coffee and cigars were brought, but for 



