tions were formed of her, and the eyes of Europe fixed upon her. When, after entering upon the duties of royalty, she declared her determination to resign in favor of her cousin, supplications were in vain employed to prevent her so doing, and her people were bathed in tears. Entertaining a contempt for the rest of her sex, she assumed a manly dress, and thus travelled through Europe. In the Eternal City she became a convert to the Catholic faith. In France, conceiving herself to be still an anointed sovereign, she undertook to put to death, by her regal mandate, her private secretary. Her admirers became undeceived, and she fell in their estimation below the rank of an ordinary woman. Our only object in adducing this cumulative testimony has been to endeavor to convince those ladies, who are discontented with their generic position, of the propriety, whilst they enjoy the sunshine of life, of leaving to the other portion of struggling humanity those graver toils for which their natural roughness, stronger reasoning powers, and blunter sensibilities better fit them; whilst the ladies reign supreme in the household, the vestry, and the ball-room. The position of a weak man leaning for support on a strong-minded woman is so pitiable; the spectacle of a wife holding the purse-strings is so ungracious; the exhibition of an illiterate female subjugating by a strong will a man whom we over-rate -instance Socrates and his wife Xantippe-and who yields from a desire to avoid a vulgar contest, is so revolting that we should suppose the intuitive tact of the fair sex would induce them to shrink from its exhibition.

The highest dignity of woman is in the domestic vineyardthe nursery of generations and the cradle of nations. Her influence here is omnipotent, but when diverted from this congenial sphere, and involved in the complicated concerns of the country or state, she abdicates the throne to which an inexorable law has given her the only title, her life is paralysed, and her appropriate character lost. Let not the women of America clamor for that which is opposed to the decrees of nature and Providence, united with the sentiment of a free and enlightened government and people.

TRAINED AND IMPROVISED DIPLOMATISTS-THE SYSTEM UPON WHICH DIPLOMATIC SERVICE IS ORGANIZED AND CONDUCTED FOREIGN POLICY OF AMERICA AND EUROPE.

A STRONG Conviction of ability to accomplish anything is the great earnest of success and the peculiar attribute of the American people. Hence while in Europe every department of life is subdivided into numerous branches, to each of which some invividual devotes his exclusive exertions, we seize and grapple with each and every subject which presents itself, unawed by its magnitude, and unimpeded by its novelty. In England the attorney and counsellor are as distinct as the physician and apothecary. With us one individual performs both parts, and yet not only will our Reports compare favorably with those of the mother country, but the sagacity with which we have simplified our Code of Procedure in New York has attracted the respectful attention of British jurists, whilst the names of Marshall, Story, Kent, and Wheaton are as familiar to them as to us.

Diplomacy has existed as a science almost from the birth of civilization. As soon as two wandering tribes were brought in hostile contact captives were sure to be made. The first dictate of revenge would inspire the idea of putting them to death, but a fear of reprisal, and a desire to be paid for the excess of prisoners, which either party enjoyed, would naturally introduce the establishment of a cartel, a flag of truce, and the sending of mutual representatives, whose persons would be sacred for the time. As constant habit, giving familiarity with business, produces a great saving of time, particular men were soon set apart to conduct these negotiations, and the office of Herald arose. Great honor was also attached to it from the first. In Homer we find them addressed in the following respectful strains:

"Hail ye heralds, messengers of Jove."

Ambassadors or Legati are spoken of in Roman history from the origin of the republic to the decline of the empire. In the Middle Ages heralds had insignia and a language of their own.

With the change in warfare, produced by the introduction of fire-arms, came the peaceful ambassador, ready to discuss and insinuate, taking the place of the herald, breathing war and defiance from the first. Kings no longer, or less seldom, headed

their armies, the seat of government became fixed, and liberal discussion preceded the ultima ratio regum.

As intervals of leisure were constantly occurring, and as their business was to settle nice points, discussions of precedence filled up those hours not devoted to diplomacy, and the honor of heading the corps was long and eagerly contended for. Whilst the other powers of Europe have fluctuated as to political importance, France has always claimed equality with the highest.

When William started to conquer England he was but a vassal of France, and for years his descendants did homage for their continental possessions. When Charles V., uniting in his own person the power of Spain, Burgundy, and Austria, overshadowed the rest of Europe, France alone resisted his power, and was his rival, both for the imperial crown and the possession of Italy. Through each subsequent age she has taken the same ground, and her claim has always been that her ambassador should rank first in the diplomatic circle, and that claim has generally been conceded. Even during the first years of the French Republic the Executive Council of France, in their instructions to their minister in this country, declare :

"That the Directors of the French Republic, throwing far aside everything connected with ancient diplomacy, with fiscal regime, with restrictive police, with all those barriers to the wealth and prosperity of nations, give their cheerful assent to the overtures made by General Washington and Mr. Jefferson, for renewing and consolidating our commercial relations, by founding them upon the principles of eternal truth."

But they add, that should any foreign minister attempt to set up peculiar claims to precedence, then their representative shall contend for and exact that superiority which has always been conceded to France-at the same time such is their desire to harmonize with us,

"that they are even disposed to give a wider extent to the treaty, by converting it into a mutual agreement, by which the two nations would mingle their commercial and political interests, and establish an intimate union, to favor in every way the extension of the empire of liberty."

Their envoy, however, mistaking the parties with whom he had to deal, endeavored to assume towards us that tone of protection and superiority, which vulgarity and ignorance seem to consider as indicative of strength and power; finding he could make no impression on the Executive, Mr. Genet appealed to the people, and our President requested his withdrawal by his own country. Before leaving he published a manifesto, of which the following is a translated copy-and worthy of consideration as breathing the spirit of its writer, and as a specimen of the style of diplomatic intercourse of the French Republic:

"Citizen Genet, Minister Plenipotentiary of the French Republic, to Mr. Jefferson, Secretary of State for the United States:

"SIR:-Frankness, candor, and probity being the sole basis of the policy of France now that she has become free, and the secret of those who direct her affairs at present being to have none at all, I have announced to you that I should cause to be printed not only my correspondence with the Federal government, but also the instructions which have been given me by the Executive council of the French Republic. My correspondence is not yet printed, but the translation of my instructions being complete, I hasten to send you two hundred copies, praying you to request the President of the United States to be kind enough to have them distributed amongst the different members of Congress, and to make an official communication of them to the two chambers of that legislative body. This first portion of the collection which I inform you I shall lay before you in succession, will place it in the power of the representatives of the American people to judge if my political conduct, since I have resided in the United States, has conformed to the instructions of the French people. This step, which I owe to my country, having been taken, leaving to your wise legislation the task of taking, with regard to the points being negotiated between us, the measures which the interest of the United States may seem to exact, there will remain nothing more for me to do than to pursue before your tribunals the authors and accomplices of this odious plot, of this monstrous series of lies, of feigned certificates, and absurd rumours, by means of which the public mind has been so long fascinated, and which has led into error your chief magistrate, with a view to shake, and perhaps destroy the alliance of two nations whom everything invites to mutual love and union, at a moment when the most imminent danger impends equally over both."

If we were forced to consider that this style of ambassador were necessary to a republic, the following description of one representing the same country at a far earlier period, under the monarchy, would do much to reconcile us to despotism. The Count Avaux, minister of Louis XIV., who accompanied James II. in his final attempt to regain his throne, is thus described :

"His demeanor was singularly pleasing, his person handsome, his temper bland, his manners and conversation were those of a gentleman who had been bred in the most polite and magnificent of all courts, and who had represented that court both in Catholic and Protestant countries, and who had acquired in his wanderings the art of catching the tone of any society into which chance might throw him."

Whilst an Englishman thus describes the French representative, the Duke de Saint Simon, the author of "Contemporary Memoirs" of immense historical importance, thus mentions the Duke of Portland, the confidential friend of William III. and his frequent representative :

"BENTIC, discreet, cautious, polite towards others, faithful to his master, adroit in business, was of essential service; he appeared with a personal splendor, a politeness, an air of the man of the world and the courtier, a gal

lantry and a grace which surprised every one; at the same time he possessed much dignity, and even hauteur mingled with discernment, and a prompt judgment which yet never risked anything."

Our own Franklin, with all his apparent simplicity, possessed a tact, a coolness, and sagacity, capable of coping with the most wily politicians. As the head of our missions in Europe at a time when our securities were only negotiable on account of the desire of the countries to which we applied to humble the pride of England, he managed to obtain loans from France and Spain which enabled us to go successfully through the contest. That the feelings of the then King of France were by no means personally friendly to our cause, was revealed at a later day by the instructions of the constituent authorities of France to their minister here:

"The French are desirous of a nearer union now they have become a Republic, than could be accomplished under the monarchy, as the policy of the monarchy was to repress the United States and oppose the desire of Congress to become possessed, during the Revolution, of the two Floridas, Canada, and Nova Scotia, regarding the possession of those countries by Spain and England as a useful cause of disquietude and vigilance to the United States. The Executive Council, faithful to its duties, submissive to the will of the French people, authorized citizen Genet to declare these things with frankness and loyalty to the members of Congress.

Curiously contrasting with the acknowledged diplomatists have ever been the secret agents of state policy; men who, whilst hidden under some other guise, or following some apparently humble walk, were the real designers of those plans of which political puppets enjoyed the glory. Whilst our first negotiations with France were languishing from the unwillingness of her government to be compromised with England, an individual, apparently insignificant, conceived and executed a plan for giving us material aid, the benefit derived from which, at the time, can only be measured by the ingratitude it afterwards met with at our hands. Beaumarchais is a wonderful specimen of a universal genius succeeding in the most opposite departments beyond his wildest expectations, meeting and overcoming obstacles the most appalling, leaving proofs of his genius to last through time, and yet lost to view himself beneath the monuments he erected. This country still owes him some millions of dollars for the shipments he made us under the assumed name of " Frederic Hortales and Company." Literature and music are indebted to him for the Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni-an opera as attractive now as in the days when it was prohibited in the time of Louis XVI.; and though not a lawyer he conquered the bar and the bench. Tried on a capital accusation, he was his own advocate, and covered with ridicule