Monday, April 10, 2023

Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, February 14, 1861

At about ten o'clock P.M., of the 13th instant, Gaeta, in which the young Neapolitan King Francis II. has long and bravely stood a siege, capitulated to the Sardinians under Cialdini. So passes into the shade of exile another dethroned Bourbon!

A levĂ©e to-day at St. James's Palace. I presented, in the general circle, Colonel Schaffner, of Kentucky, the indefatigable explorer of a northern route for a submarine electric cable, from the highest point of Scotland to France, thence to Ireland, thence to Greenland, and thence, finally, to Labrador. This plan of four stepping-points, instead of one vast leap, has its advantages. It may realize the old phrase, “the longest way round is the shortest way home."

I dined yesterday with Mr. Croskey, meeting a company of most interesting gentlemen, about twenty in number: Admiral Fitzroy, Mr. Dutton, Mr. Scofield, Sir Edward Beecher, Mr. Rae, Dr. Shaw, Captain Peacock, etc.

SOURCE: George Mifflin Dallas, Diary of George Mifflin Dallas, While United States Minister to Russia 1837 to 1839, and to England 1856 to 1861, Volume 3, p. 434-5

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