176 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE XVI 



it with his sense of veracity to assume the rights of 

 American citizenship with no intention to discharge its 

 duties. This somewhat startled him. Then, from a more 

 immediately practical point of view, I showed that, even 

 if he acquired American citizenship, and could reconcile 

 his conscience to hreak the virtual pledge he had made 

 in order to obtain it, the government of Austria, and, 

 indeed, all other governments, would still have a full right, 

 under the simplest principles of international law, to for 

 bid his entrance into their territories, or to turn him out 

 after he had entered, the right of expelling undesirable 

 emigrants being constantly exercised, even by the United 

 States. This amazed him. He had absolutely persuaded 

 himself that I could, by some sleight of hand, transform 

 him into an American citizen ; that he could then at once 

 begin attempts to reestablish the fine old Polish anarchy 

 in Austria, Russia, and Germany ; and that no one of these 

 nations would dare interfere with him. It was absurd 

 but pathetic. My advice to him was to go back to his 

 lecture-room and labor to raise the character of the 

 younger generation of Poles, in the hope that Poland 

 might do what Scotland had done rise by sound mental 

 and moral training from the condition of a conquered and 

 even oppressed part of a great empire to a controlling 

 position in it. This advice was, of course, in vain, and 

 he is now building air-castles amid the fogs of London. 



In my life at Berlin as ambassador there was a tinge 

 of sadness. Great changes had taken place since my stu 

 dent days in that city, and even since my later stay as min 

 ister. A new race of men had come upon the stage in 

 public affairs, in the university, and in literary circles. 

 Gone was the old Emperor William, gone also was the 

 Emperor Frederick, and Bismarck and Moltke and a host 

 of others who had given dignity and interest to the great 

 assemblages at the capital. Gone, too, from the univer 

 sity were Lepsius, Helmholtz, Curtius, Hoffmann, Gneist, 

 Du Bois-Reymond, and Treitschke, all of whom, in the 

 old days, had been my guests and friends. The main ex- 



