AS COMMISSIONER AT PARIS-1878 527 



bery shown by a certain sort of Americans abroad, it is 

 not an unwise thing to have in each capital a man who, 

 in the intervals of his more important duties, can keep this 

 struggling mass of folly from becoming a scandal and a 

 byword throughout Europe. No one can know, until he 

 has seen the inner workings of our diplomatic service, 

 how much duty of this kind is quietly done by our repre- 

 sentatives, and how many things are thus avoided which 

 would tend to bring scorn upon our country and upon 

 republican institutions. 



