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ing as often. The harangue, which was in French, ran as follows:

66

SIRE, It is with equal satisfaction and eagerness that the king my master sends me to your Majesty, to assure you that the Peace can produce no effect on him more agreeable than that of placing him in a position to acquire and cultivate your friendship, and to convince you that he has not been your enemy from choice, but from the necessity of circumstances. However painful these may have been, they have never prevented him from rendering justice to your Majesty's fine qualities and great actions. He orders me to testify to you, that henceforward he will make it his principal care to maintain with you a union which he has so ardently desired, and which Europe regards as absolutely necessary to confirm the tranquillity she is beginning to enjoy.

"This is what your Majesty will see by the letter I have the honour to present."

Then my Lord uncovered, delivered his letters of credence to the king. The king, receiving them, made a sign to my Lord to cover again, which my Lord did, and added concerning himself:

"As regards myself, Sire, I could not be more sensible than I am of the choice which the king my master has made of me, since he procures me the occasion of employing myself in the consolidation of a union so useful to the good of the two crowns. I very humbly supplicate your Majesty to receive me, and to be persuaded that no one will ever have for you more respect or veneration than myself."

The king answered in very obliging terms. His speech was about the length of my Lord's; the substance was his intention and desire to keep the Peace inviolable, and to live in good friendship and correspondence with the King of England. Then my Lord presented to his Majesty the chief of the English nobility, and retired, making three reverences, one within the balustrade, and two without, the king answering the civility as usual.

The ambassador then paid visits, and made speeches to the Dauphin,

VOL. LXXX.-NO. CCCCLXXXIX.

and to the princes and princesses of the royal family, the two young Dukes of Anjou and Berri receiving only one harangue between them. The prince departed after the audience of the Dauphin, leaving Portland for the remainder of his visits with the introducers of ambassadors.

Some of the princesses received the ambassador in bed, giving his excellency an arm-chair within the balustrade. In his official capacity he kissed the princesses, as well as the ladies who received him in the antechamber.

When he visited princes who lived in the same house, but whose duty it was to see the carriage parts, the ambassador, after one visit, took one turn out of the court, and returned to pay the visit.

With pomp and ceremony he visited and received visits from his fellowambassadors; keeping open house not only for themselves, but for his friends and acquaintance in general

These form the culminating points of Portland's embassy. His resistance on points of etiquette was no longer required, as a royal order was issued for a codification of precedents and regulations on the subject. Two difficulties alone arose, and these were speedily overcome by the talent of the ambassador. The princes claim it as their right to be received by ambassadors at the bottom of the stairs. "This ambassadors avoid as well as they can, pretending in all things to an exact equality with princes, who receive them only at the middle of the stairs. The expedient that my Lord found in this case was, to be in the same apartment when the prince arrived to meet him, as was said, in the outward hall or entry, and conduct him to the apartment above stairs, and receive his visit there. By this means the prince was received by my Lord at the bottom of the stairs, and, indeed, a little more than so, yet my Lord did not come down so far to meet him."

The other was a ministerial difficulty. It was the habit for ambassadors to pay the first visit to the French ministers. Portland, when about to perform his duties in this respect, understood by letters from Mr Secretary Vernon that Count

H

Tallard, the French ambassador in London, expected the first visit from the English minister. Mr Prior was at once sent to Monsieur Pomponne to arrange the point, and to state Portland's refusal to pay the first visit, unless Tallard were instructed to do the same. The matter was satisfactorily settled.

*

After this incident, the treatment experienced by the ambassador from the king and royal family was flattering in the extreme. One night the king, on retiring to rest, ordered the candlestick to be given to Portland, a favour seldom accorded to ambassadors. The monarch, on another occasion, while taking medicine, made the ambassador enter within the balustrade of the bed, an honour never known to have been given to any foreigner. On his departure, the king presented him with his picture, enamelled and set round with diamonds, with a plan of his house and gardens at Versailles and Marly, while the Dauphin and the Duke of Orleans gave him similar drawings of their places at Meudon and St Cloud.

At length, in the same order as before, the Embassy took their audiences of leave. The king embraced Portland, and subsequently caused a rating to be given to the fiery Grand Prior for having forcibly taken precedence of the ambassador at a supper given by the Dauphin. The introducers were presented with four thousand francs to make into plate. Sainctot alone had the grace to give thanks for the gift. To his Majesty Portland presented, as was his custom, nine fine Neapolitan horses, and received in return a handsome barb.

On the 18th of June Portland finally left Paris, staying three days at Chantilly with the Prince of Condé. He then continued his road by Flanders, having received permission from the king to see all the fortified places, accompanied by engineers with orders to show him the defences thoroughly. The honours that graced his exit surpassed even those that had welcomed his arrival. Everywhere he was received with salutes, feasts, and escorted by larger squadrons than before.

On the 27th the ambassador left Dunkirk, where he had seen Jean Bart, and arrived at Calais.

"On the 28th his excellency went on board his Majesty's yacht the Henrietta, Captain Robinson, commander, and at two afternoon arrived at Dover, the cannons of which place were discharged. His excellency went the same night to Canterbury, where he lodged at Sir George Rook's house.

"The 29th, continued his way to London, arrived at night at Whitehall, and went immediately to Kensington to see his Majesty, who received him with all the marks of his royal favour and bounty, after which he was welcomed home by all the nobility and gentry," &c. &c.

We have thus followed the Embassy of Lord Portland from his journey to his return. We have endeavoured to give a description of those minor matters, which, however trivial in themselves, illustrate the manners of an age. In their time, as we have seen, they were considered fit subjects for discussion in the councils of a great king. In our own day such details engage less attention; but it has seemed to us that their faithful record may be of value, if only to furnish the historian with some elements of a minute precision, -the novelist and the playwright with hues of a correct local colour. But, indeed, it is not for the antiquarian only that such records have interest.

To the philosopher also, they are valuable as standards of comparison, whereby he may estimate the civilisation of a past age, and gauge the development of our own.

Recent events give to such a recital a peculiar relevancy, Peace is signed.

A special Embassy, brilliantly composed, is about to repair to a luxurious court, there to be the honoured witness of the most impressive ceremony of a reign. That Embassy will behold a society as splendid, a government as despotic, an etiquette as strict as existed under Louis the Fourteenth, when Portland, the Dutchman, represented the success of England, and Prior the poet limited his fancy to a chronicle of court observances.

* Grimblot; St Simon.

THE DISPUTE WITH AMERICA.

No sooner is the Old World at rest, than the New World breaks out into flames. Internally as well as externally, the affairs of America are troubled. Her tendencies towards foreign war may end in mere verbal vapouring, but her internal dissensions have already embodied themselves in dread matter-of-fact. A civil war rages in the State of Kansas, which has become the battlefield of the Slavery and Anti-Slavery parties; while the excitement is becoming universal, and subscriptions of money and bodies of settlers are pouring in on both sides to maintain the contest. Not even the halls of Congress are safe from the brutalities of the pro-Slavery party; and an outrage has been committed on the person of Mr Sumner, the great Abolitionist orator in the American Senate, so unprovoked and atrocious, that we believe the veriest coalheaver in this country would have scorned to have perpetrated it. The blows of Brooks's stick on the bare head of Sumner have found an echo of vehement indignation in every township of the free Northern States; the papers are full of "indignation meetings," and speeches in which war to the death with Slavery is openly announced as the only remedy for the evil with which they are threatened-namely, the entire prostration of freedom before the ruthless tactics of the Southerners, and the conver

sion of the Union into a despotism of the slaveholders. "Let me say to you, my fellow-citizens," said the Hon. S. Galloway, of Ohio, at an immense gathering in New York, "if the signs of the times are read correctly by me, there are yet to be other Concords, Lexingtons, and Bunker Hills. [Tremendous applause.] There are to be other battle-fields upon which are to bleach the bones of some of the present generation, falling, and fighting as they fell, for the same great principles which nerved the arms and hearts of our revolutionary fathers. Up and be doing!-put on the whole armour, and go out to the battle! The great question now before the people of this country is not the emancipation of the negro, but the emancipation of the white man. We are bound in the bands of slavery to-day-we are gagged-we are prevented from talking out those sentiments which animated the hearts of the men of 1776. The crisis has come. Here are two antagonistic powers about to come into collision

freedom and slavery. The question is, which shall we receive? [Loud cries of "Freedom! freedom!"] Which do you desire to transmit to your descendants? Which shall be the governing principle of our American institutions? ["Freedom! freedom!"] Freedom, you say; then labour, and fight, if need be, for it."* The South, on its part, is still more

* The following resolutions agreed to at this meeting (held 10th June) show the vehement temper of the public mind :

"Resolved, That we have watched with painful interest the progress of events in Kansas, and that we earnestly entreat the President to interpose his authority for the protection of the Free State settlers from the lawless outrages of the invading Missouri mob and their auxiliaries, recently collected by Major Buford in the southern slave States. [Applause.]

"Resolved, That should the government persist in its refusal to protect the peaceful pioneers of Kansas against their oppressors and plunderers, they will be fully justified in protecting and defending themselves; but we entreat them to forbear to the last possible moment, and only stand on the defence when no choice is left them between resistance and enslavement. [Tremendous cheering.]

"Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress at once to pass a law which will prevent the packing of Grand Juries by United States Marshals bent on indicting innocent citizens for high treason, and on the destruction of private property under pretence of law. [Cheers.]

"Resolved, That we proceed to manifest our sympathy for the suffering freemen of Kansas by furnishing them with material aid [Cheers], and that Samuel B. Rug

Tallard, the French ambassador in London, expected the first visit from the English minister. Mr Prior was at once sent to Monsieur Pomponne to arrange the point, and to state Portland's refusal to pay the first visit, unless Tallard were instructed to do the same. * The matter was satisfactorily settled.

After this incident, the treatment experienced by the ambassador from the king and royal family was flattering in the extreme. One night the king, on retiring to rest, ordered the candlestick to be given to Portland, a favour seldom accorded to ambassadors. The monarch, on another occasion, while taking medicine, made the ambassador enter within the balustrade of the bed, an honour never known to have been given to any foreigner. On his departure, the king presented him with his picture, enamelled and set round with diamonds, with a plan of his house and gardens at Versailles and Marly, while the Dauphin and the Duke of Orleans gave him similar drawings of their places at Meudon and St Cloud.

At length, in the same order as before, the Embassy took their audiences of leave. The king embraced Portland, and subsequently caused a rating to be given to the fiery Grand Prior for having forcibly taken precedence of the ambassador at a supper given by the Dauphin. The introducers were presented with four thousand francs to make into plate. Sainetot alone had the grace to give thanks for the gift. To his Majesty Portland presented, as was his custom, nine fine Neapolitan horses, and received in return a handsome barb.

On the 18th of June Portland finally left Paris, staying three days at Chantilly with the Prince of Condé. He then continued his road by Flanders, having received permission from the king to see all the fortified places, accompanied by engineers with orders to show him the defences thoroughly. The honours that graced his exit surpassed even those that had welcomed his arrival. Everywhere he was received with salutes, feasts, and escorted by larger squadrons than before.

On the 27th the ambassador left Dunkirk, where he had seen Jean Bart, and arrived at Calais.

"On the 28th his excellency went on board his Majesty's yacht the Henrietta, Captain Robinson, commander, and at two afternoon arrived at Dover, the cannons of which place were discharged. His excellency went the same night to Canterbury, where he lodged at Sir George Rook's house.

"The 29th, continued his way to London, arrived at night at Whitehall, and went immediately to Kensington to see his Majesty, who received him with all the marks of his royal favour and bounty, after which he was welcomed home by all the nobility and gentry," &c. &c.

We have thus followed the Embassy of Lord Portland from his journey to his return. We have endeavoured to give a description of those minor matters, which, however trivial in themselves, illustrate the manners of an age. In their time, as we have seen, they were considered fit subjects for discussion in the councils of a great king. In our own day such details engage less attention; but it has seemed to us that their faithful record may be of value, if only to furnish the historian with some elements of a minute precision,

the novelist and the playwright with hues of a correct local colour. But, indeed, it is not for the antiquarian only that such records have interest. To the philosopher also, they are valuable as standards of comparison, whereby he may estimate the civilisation of a past age, and gauge the development of our own.

Recent events give to such a recital a peculiar relevancy. Peace is signed. A special Embassy, brilliantly composed, is about to repair to a

luxurious court, there to be the honoured witness of the most impressive ceremony of a reign. That Embassy will behold a society as splendid, a government as despotic, an etiquette as strict as existed under Louis the Fourteenth, when Portland, the Dutchman, represented the success of England, and Prior the poet limited his fancy to a chronicle of court observances.

* Grimblot; St Simon.

THE DISPUTE WITH AMERICA.

No sooner is the Old World at rest, than the New World breaks out into flames. Internally as well as externally, the affairs of America are troubled. Her tendencies towards foreign war may end in mere verbal vapouring, but her internal dissensions have already embodied themselves in dread matter-of-fact. A civil war rages in the State of Kansas, which has become the battlefield of the Slavery and Anti-Slavery parties; while the excitement is becoming universal, and subscriptions of money and bodies of settlers are pouring in on both sides to maintain the contest. Not even the halls of Congress are safe from the brutalities of the pro-Slavery party; and an outrage has been committed on the person of Mr Sumner, the great Abolitionist orator in the American Senate, so unprovoked and atrocious, that we believe the veriest coalheaver in this country would have scorned to have perpetrated it. The blows of Brooks's stick on the bare head of Sumner have found an echo of vehement indignation in every township of the free Northern States; the papers are full of "indignation meetings," and speeches in which war to the death with Slavery is openly announced as the only remedy for the evil with which they are threatened-namely, the entire prostration of freedom before the ruthless tactics of the Southerners, and the conver

sion of the Union into a despotism of the slaveholders. "Let me say to you, my fellow-citizens," said the Hon. S. Galloway, of Ohio, at an immense gathering in New York, "if the signs of the times are read correctly by me, there are yet to be other Concords, Lexingtons, and Bunker Hills. [Tremendous applause.] There are to be other battle-fields upon which are to bleach the bones of some of the present generation, falling, and fighting as they fell, for the same great principles which nerved the arms and hearts of our revolutionary fathers. Up and be doing!-put on the whole armour, and go out to the battle! The great question now before the people of this country is not the emancipation of the negro, but the emancipation of the white man. We are bound in the bands of slavery to-day-we are gagged-we are prevented from talking out those sentiments which animated the hearts of the men of 1776. The crisis has come. Here are two antagonistic powers about to come into collision

freedom and slavery. The question is, which shall we receive? [Loud cries of "Freedom! freedom!"] Which do you desire to transmit to your descendants? Which shall be the governing principle of our American institutions? ["Freedom! freedom!"] Freedom, you say; then labour, and fight, if need be, for it."* The South, on its part, is still more

The following resolutions agreed to at this meeting (held 10th June) show the vehement temper of the public mind :

"Resolved, That we have watched with painful interest the progress of events in Kansas, and that we earnestly entreat the President to interpose his authority for the protection of the Free State settlers from the lawless outrages of the invading Missouri mob and their auxiliaries, recently collected by Major Buford in the southern slave States. [Applause.]

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'Resolved, That should the government persist in its refusal to protect the peaceful pioneers of Kansas against their oppressors and plunderers, they will be fully justified in protecting and defending themselves; but we entreat them to forbear to the last possible moment, and only stand on the defence when no choice is left them between resistance and enslavement. [Tremendous cheering.]

"Resolved, That it is the duty of Congress at once to pass a law which will prevent the packing of Grand Juries by United States Marshals bent on indicting innocent citizens for high treason, and on the destruction of private property under pretence of law. [Cheers.]

"Resolved, That we proceed to manifest our sympathy for the suffering freemen of Kansas by furnishing them with material aid [Cheers], and that Samuel B. Rug

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