The diplomatic circle is so totus teres atque rotundus, that
few particles of dirt stick on its periphery from the road over which it
travels. The radii are worked from different centres, often far apart, and the
tires and naves often fly out in wide divergence; but for all social purposes
is a circle, and a very pleasant one. When one sees M. de Stoeckle speaking to
M. Mercier, or joining in with Baron Gerolt and M. de Lisboa, it is safer to
infer that a little social reunion is at hand for a pleasant civilized
discussion of ordinary topics, some music, a rubber, and a dinner, than to
resolve with the New York Correspondent, “that there is reason to
believe that a diplomatic movement of no ordinary significance is on foot, and
that the Ministers of Russia, France, and Prussia have concerted a plan of
action with the representative of Brazil, which must lead to extraordinary
complications, in view of the temporary embarrassments which distract our
beloved country. The Minister of England has held aloof from these reunions for
a sinister purpose no doubt, and we have not failed to discover that the
emissary of Austria, and the representative of Guatemala have abstained from
taking part in these significant demonstrations. We tell the haughty nobleman
who represents Queen Victoria, on whose son we so lately lavished the most
liberal manifestations of our good will, to beware. The motives of the Court of
Vienna, and of the Republic of Guatemala, in ordering their representatives not
to join in the reunion which we observed at three o'clock to-day, at the corner
of Seventeenth Street and One, are perfectly transparent; but we call on Mr.
Seward instantly to demand of Lord Lyons a full and ample explanation of his
conduct on the occasion, or the transmission of his papers. There is no harm in
adding, that we have every reason to think our good ally of Russia, and the
minister of the astute monarch, who is only watching an opportunity of leading
a Franco-American army to the Tower of London and Dublin Castle, have already
moved their respective Governments to act in the premises.”
That paragraph, with a good heading, would sell several
thousands of the “New York Stabber” to-morrow.
SOURCE: William Howard Russell, My Diary North and
South, Vol. 1, p. 401-2
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