xf^sE LlStf. 

 X &quot; &quot; or THE 



AS MINISTER TO RUSSIA- 1892 -1894 



too, was a strong character, though lacking apparently in 

 some of General von Schweinitz s more kindly qualities. 

 He was big, roughish, and at times so brusque that he 

 might almost be called brutal. When bullying was needed 

 it was generally understood that he could do it con amore. 

 A story was told of him which, whether exact or not, 

 seemed to fit his character well. He had been, for a time, 

 minister to Portugal ; and, during one of his controversies 

 with the Portuguese minister of foreign affairs, the latter, 

 becoming exasperated, said to him : &amp;lt; * Sir, it is evident that 

 you were not born a Portuguese cavalier. &quot; Thereupon 

 Morier replied: &quot;No, thank God, I was not: if I had been, 

 I would have killed myself on the breast of my mother. 



And here, perhaps, is the most suitable place for men 

 tioning a victory which Morier enabled Great Britain to 

 obtain over the United States. It might be a humiliating 

 story for me to tell, had not the fault so evidently arisen 

 from the shortcomings of others. The time has come to 

 reveal this piece of history, and I do so in the hope that it 

 may aid in bettering the condition in which the Congress 

 of the United States has, thus far, left its diplomatic ser 

 vants. 



As already stated, the most important question with 

 which I had to deal was that which had arisen in the 

 Behring Sea. The United States possessed there a great 

 and flourishing fur-seal industry, which was managed with 

 care and was a source of large revenue to our government. 

 The killing of the seals under the direction of those who 

 had charge of the matter was done with the utmost care 

 and discrimination on the Pribyloff Islands, to which these 

 animals resorted in great numbers during the summer. It 

 was not at all cruel, and was so conducted that the seal 

 herd was fully maintained rather than diminished. But 

 it is among the peculiarities of the seals that, each au 

 tumn, they migrate southward, returning each spring in 

 large numbers along the Alaskan coast, and also that, 

 while at the islands, the nursing mothers make long ex 

 cursions to fishing-banks at distances of from one to two 



