168 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-XVI 



Wiirtemberg. I found him a hearty, strong, active-minded 

 man the sort of man whom we in America would call 

 &quot; level-headed &quot; and &quot;a worker. &quot; Learning that I had 

 once passed a winter in Stuttgart, he detained me long 

 with a most interesting account of the improvements which 

 had been made in the city since my visit, and showed 

 public spirit of a sort very different from that which 

 animated the minor potentates of Germany in the last 

 century. The same may be said of the Grand Duke of 

 Baden, who, in a long conversation, impressed me as a 

 gentleman of large and just views, understanding the 

 problems of his time and thoroughly in sympathy with the 

 best men and movements. 



Republican as I am, this acknowledgment must be made. 

 The historical lessons of the eighteenth and nineteenth 

 centuries, and the pressure of democracy, are obliging 

 the monarchs of Europe to fit themselves for their duties 

 wisely and to discharge them intelligently. But this is 

 true only of certain ruling houses. There seems to be a 

 &quot; survival of the fittest.&quot; At various periods in my life 

 I have also had occasion to observe with some care vari 

 ous pretenders to European thrones, among them the hus 

 band of Queen Isabella of Spain ; Prince Napoleon Victor, 

 the heir to the Napoleonic throne; the Duke of Orleans; 

 Don Carlos, the representative of the Spanish Bourbons ; 

 with sundry others ; and it would be hard to conceive per 

 sons more utterly unfit or futile. 



As to the conduct of Germany during our war with 

 Spain, while the press, with two or three exceptions, was 

 anything but friendly, and while a large majority of the 

 people were hostile to us on account of the natural sym 

 pathy with a small power battling against a larger one, 

 the course of the Imperial Government, especially of the 

 Foreign Office under Count von Billow and Baron von 

 Eichthofen, was all that could be desired. Indeed, they 

 went so far on one occasion as almost to alarm us. The 

 American consul at Hamburg having notified me by tele 

 phone that a Spanish vessel, supposed to be loaded with 



