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the following day stopped the Englishman’s carriage and demanded 
his “ silver chest.” The Englishman did not at first know what was 
meant, but presently it occurred to him, and he stooped to take out 
the case and hand it to the brigands; when, thinking that he was 
stooping to get his weapons, they fired into his carriage, killing 
him and his wife. Many countries would have contented themselves 
with the profuse palaver with which the Neapolitan Government 
tried to cover the matter, but such was not the case with the govern- 
ment of Great Britain. Not long afterward a frigate bearing the 
British flag sailed into the harbor of Naples, and the British min- 
ister made a formal demand. The immediate result was that 
eighteen brigands were hanged and the final result was that for a 
long time afterward, whomever brigands along the Mediterranean 
might murder, they very carefully spared Englishmen. 
But here I wish to do what is possible for me, toward putting to 
rest a calumny against our own country as to the protection of her 
adopted citizens abroad. It has not infrequently been stated that 
Great Britain and various other countries are more careful in guard- 
ing the interests of their adopted citizens than is the case with our 
own Government. The very contrary is the truth. The rule in most, 
if not all, other countries, and especially in Great Britain, is to 
protect the interests of their adopted citizens in all other countries 
save that of their birth ; but to leave them, when visiting their native 
country, to the tender mercies of that country. The rule of Great 
Britain is that when a naturalized subject visits the land of his 
birth, he does so at his own risk and peril. The American Govern- 
ment, on the other hand, exerts itself to the utmost to protect its 
adopted citizens in the land of their birth. Our country has taken 
the greatest possible pains to make careful treaties for this pur- 
pose, and in nothing has she been more constantly strenuous than 
in seeing that there be no infraction of such treaties. For many 
years it seemed to be the main business of American representatives 
abroad to struggle for the interests of our adopted citizens against 
every possible construction of treaties which might in any way 
curtail their interests. Any person looking at what are known as 
the “budget dispatches’ from our embassies abroad will see most 
ample proofs of this. 
And here a tribute ought not to be omitted to our recent and, 
indeed, present Ministers to Turkey and China:—a long series of 
them in both these regions have done their duty nobly. 
Still another of the functions of an American diplomatic repre- 
sentative is to cooperate with the consuls of his government, promot- 
