Part 10 (1/2)

”Nothing but Mortimer” Those who knew both ree, I do not doubt, that they would not be the s to make harae,” the life-long sentiment of Sumner, in conflict with ”Stand fast and stand sure,” the well-known device of the clan of Grant, reminds one of the problem of an irresistible force in collision with an insuperable resistance But the President says,--or is reported as saying,--”I may be blauided so much by reason of his personal hatred of myself, as I was by a desire to protect our national interests in diplomatic affairs”

”It would be useless,” says Mr Davis in his letter to the ”Herald,” ”to enter into a controversy whether the President may or may not have been influenced in the final deternation by the feeling caused by Sumner's personal hostility and abuse of himself” Unfortunately, this controversy had been entered into, and the idleness of suggesting any relation of cause and effect between Mr Motley's dismissal and the irritation produced in the President's o treaty--which rejection was ly insisted upon in a letter signed by the Secretary of State

Too strongly, for here it was that he failed to reentle; if indeed it was the secretary's own hand which held the pen, and not another's

We ht as well leave out the wrath of Achilles froer of the President with Sumner from the story of Motley's disin with M----------- He was, he is reported as saying, ”very angry indeed” with Motley because he had, fallen in line with Suether in his conversation as closely as Chang and Eng were coupled The death of Lord Clarendon would have covered up the coincidence between the rejection of the San Doo treaty and Mr Motley's dismissal very neatly, but for the inexorable facts about its date, as revealed by the London ”Tiht, and its failure as a defence reminds us too nearly of the trial in which Mr Webster said suicide is confession

It is not strange that the spurs of the ot out of the saddle should catch in the scholastic robe of the man on the floor of the Senate But we should not have looked for any such antagonism between the Secretary of State and the envoy to Great Britain On the contrary, they must have had many sympathies, and it must have cost the secretary pain, as he said it did, to be forced to communicate with Mr Moran instead of with Mr Motley

He, too, was inquired of by one of the emissaries of the American Unholy Inquisition His evidence is thus reported:

”The reason for Mr Motley's removal was found in considerations of state He overnment on the Alabama question, especially in the two speeches made by him before his arrival at his post”

These must be the two speeches made to the American and the Liverpool cha in these short addresses beyond those civil generalities which the occasion called out, I have failed to find it If it was in these that the reason of Mr Motley's reular that they are not mentioned in the secretary's letter to Mr Moran, or by Mr Davis in his letter to the New York ”Herald” They must have been as unsuccessful asin these speeches which could be construed into overnment on the Alabama question

We may much more readily accept ”considerations of state” as a reason for Mr Motley's removal Considerations of state have never yet failed the axe or the bowstring when a reason for the use of those convenient iency which can arise in a republican autocracy But for the very reason that a overnment, the manner in which that power is used is always open to the scrutiny, and, if it has been her than itself; a court that never goes out of office, and which no personal feelings, no lapse of tirounds on which Mr Motley was recalled are plainly insufficient to account for the action of the governreaton the part of the high officials by who which can never be repaired and never sufficiently regretted

Stung by the slanderous report of an anonyovernment of the day was not ashamed to listen, he had quitted Vienna, too hastily, itthat he had been unworthily treated The sudden recall from London, on no pretext whatever but an obsolete and overstated incident which had ceased to have any importance, was under these circumstances a deadly blow It fell upon ”the new-healed wound of ainst it, it was a shock from which he never fully recovered

”I hope I aue, in 1872, ”who 'fortune's buffets and rewards can take with equal thanks' I am quite aware that I have had far ht have had ift on my part had they remembered that I was an honorable man, and not treated me as a detected criminal deserves to be dealt with”

Mr Sureat wrong done to his friend He says:--

”How little Mr Motleybut respect and courtesy from the secretary is attested by all who know his eminent position in London, and the service he rendered to his country Already the London press, usually slow to praise Americans when strenuous for their country, has furnished its voluntary testiust 16, 1870, spoke of the insultedno confidence in saying that all the hopes of Mr

Motley's official residence in England have been amply fulfilled, and that the announcement of his unexpected and unexplained recall was received with extreret The vacancy he leaves cannot possibly be filled by a overnment, more attentive to the interests of his country, and orous perforh-bred courtesy and conciliatory tact and temper that make those duties easy and successful Mr Motley's successor will find his mission wonderfully facilitated by the firmness and discretion that have presided over the conduct of A too brief a term, too suddenly and unaccountably concluded'”

Nofound fault hen it is necessary to ainst him A diplomatist is watched by the sharpest eyes and coues The best and wisest has his defects, and soainst him in the form of accusation Take these two portraits, for instance, as drawn by John Quincy Ada, afterwards Lord Stratford de Redcliffe:--

”He is to depart to-h-teood but not extraordinary parts; stubborn and punctilious, with a disposition to be overbearing, which I have often been con ministers hom I have had occasion to treat, the man who hasin the diploovernreat respect for his word, and there is nothing false about hiotiator Mr Canning is a man of forms, studious of courtesy, and tenacious of private reat want is suppleness, and his great virtue is sincerity”

The second portrait is that of the French n minister who ever resided here has been so universally esteemed and beloved, nor have I ever been in political relations with any foreign statesood an opinion, with the exception of Count Romanzoff He has not sufficient command of his temper, is quick, irritable, sometimes punctilious, occasionally indiscreet in his discourse, and tainted with Royalist and Bourbon prejudices But he has strong sentiments of honor, justice, truth, and even liberty His flurries of temper pass off as quickly as they rise He is neither profound nor sublis, with the experience of , and good intentions biassed by party feelings, occasional interests, and personal affections”

It means very little to say that a ht have done sos better But when a questionable cause is to be justified, the victim's excellences are looked at with the eyes of Liliput and his failings with those of Brobdingnag

The recall of a foreign ed misconduct in office is a kind of capital punish which is pereneral can do nothing under ard to the public functionary whom he has appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate, but whorace at his own pleasure for insufficient cause or for none at all Like the centurion of Scripture, he says Go, and he goeth The nation's representative is less secure in his tenure of office than his own servant, to who dismissal

”A breath unistrate's responsibility to duty, to the fellow-citizen at his mercy, to his countrymen, to mankind, is in proportion to his power

His prient of his edicts, should feel bound to withstand hi under the plea of public policy, unless the minister, like the slaves of the hare his manhood behind him