------. He had three gentlemen
with him, so desired that I should be ushered into the office of the
legation, until he should be able to receive me. Here I found a clerk or
attache, Mr. M------, who has been two or three years on this side of the
water; an intelligent person, who seems to be in correspondence with the
New York Courier and Enquirer. By and by came in another American to get
a passport for the Continent, and soon the three gentlemen took leave of
the ambassador, and I was invited to his presence.
The tall, large figure of Mr. ------ has a certain air of state and
dignity; he carries his head in a very awkward way, but still looks like
a man of long and high authority, and, with his white hair, is now quite
venerable. There is certainly a lack of polish, a kind of rusticity,
notwithstanding which you feel him to be a man of the world. I should
think he might succeed very tolerably in English society, being heavy and
sensible, cool, kindly, and good-humored, with a great deal of experience
of life. We talked about various matters, politics among the rest; and
he observed that if the President had taken the advice which he gave him
in two long letters, before his inauguration, he would have had a
perfectly quiet and successful term of office. The advice was, to form a
perfectly homogeneous cabinet of Union men, and to satisfy the extremes
of the party by a fair distribution of minor offices; whereas he formed
his cabinet of extreme men, on both sides, and gave the minor offices to
moderate ones.
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