UNITED STATES AND CANADA 237 



the Daily News in Paris all through that eventful 

 period, he was naturally well qualified for supplying 

 Miss Braddon with all the necessary incidents and 

 local colour during that strenuous time. So it may 

 be imagined the conversation was most interesting. 

 I remember '' Labby " saying to me, '' If ever I 

 come to the Foreign Office, I shall at once abolish 

 all Ambassadors and Diplomatic Agents. Consuls 

 could quite well do all that is necessary. If ever 

 the need arose of sending a special commissioner to a 

 foreign country, I should give him a despatch before 

 he started to send home in due course, reporting 

 the result of his mission." I tell this story as it is so 

 characteristic of Labouchere, who, as we all know, 

 could never be taken seriously, and never really 

 meant what he said. Nor did his utterances quite 

 fit in with the line he took when the supplementary 

 estimates, embodying, inter alia, the cost of our 

 mission, £3900, came up for discussion in Parlia- 

 ment on March i, 1888, in supply. I quote from 

 the Times report of the following day : 



Mr. Labouchere said that he would assume with 

 respect to the special mission to the United States 

 that the best man possible had been sent out, that 

 the best possible treaty had been signed, and that 

 the time chosen for the mission was the best time. 



