204 FOREIGN DIPLOMATISTS. [CHAP. XIV r . 



enjoying more refined and intellectual society. It was as if the 

 Legislature of the British empire, representing not only England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland, but Canada, Newfoundland, the West 

 Indies, Australia, the Cape, and all the other dependencies of the 

 British crown, were to meet in some third-rate town. Nor even 

 then would the comparison be a fair one, because if there be one 

 characteristic more than another which advantageously distin 

 guishes three-fourths of the American population, it is the high 

 social, intellectual, and political condition, relatively speaking, of 

 the working classes. The foreign diplomatist residing in Wash 

 ington lives within the borders of the slave territory, where the 

 laborers are more degraded, and perhaps less progressive, than in 

 any European state. Besides, the foreign embassador, in his offi 

 cial and political capacity, too often sees exposed the weak side 

 of the constitution of the Union, and has to deplore the power- 

 lessness of the federal executive to carry out its own views, and 

 to control the will of thirty independent states, or as many im- 

 peria in imperio. Just when he may have come to an under 

 standing with the leading statesmen on points of international 

 law, so that his negotiations in any other metropolis would have 

 been brought to a successful issue, he finds that the real difficul 

 ties are only beginning. It still remains to be seen whether the 

 government is strong enough to contend with the people, or has 

 the will so to act, or whether it will court popularity by yielding 

 to their prejudices, or even exciting their passions. Such is at 

 this moment the position of affairs, and of our minister at Wash 

 ington. 



