vious
liking for American men and women of standing and ability was marked and
did undoubted service in promoting good feeling between the two
countries--where it was not grossly and untruthfully misrepresented by
sensational journals. Really distinguished visitors from the United
States, whether rich or poor, always found a welcome at the hands of His
Royal Highness and amongst those whom he appears to have especially
liked were James Russell Lowell, Thomas F. Bayard, Whitelaw Reid and
Chauncey M. Depew. American women who have been absorbed into English
life and society like Lady Harcourt, Mrs. Chamberlain and the Duchess of
Marlborough were always treated with marked courtesy by both the
Princess and himself. His visit to the United States in 1860 had also
taught him something of conditions there which those around him were not
always fully aware of. Hence the value of the message which was sent to
the New York _World_ in the name of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of
York during the Venezuelan crisis. If it be true that a private letter,
a word spoken in season, or a brief drawing-room conversation, is often
more influential than a cloud of newspaper writing, then the Prince of
Wales was for years a potent force in promoting good-will between the
Empire and the Republic.

As a diplomatist there can be no doubt of the Heir Apparent's influence.
He succeeded, in fact, to much of the power held in that respect by the
Prince Consort. It was the post of an unofficial and secret personal
mediator between the Sovereign of Great Britain and those of other
countries. Thoroughly acquainted with the personality of foreign rulers,
related to the majority of those in Europe, knowing their degrees of
national influence and personal power, familiar with the statesmen's
position in Court and Legislature, associated more and more closely as
the years went on with Queen Victoria's personal view of foreign policy,
the Prince's position was one of very great indirect power. Through his
heirship to the British throne he was naturally upon terms of something
like equality with those whom he met as rulers at Berlin or St.
Petersburg, at Paris or Vienna, and more in sympathy with their point of
view than men of less than Royal rank. To quote Mr. George W. Smalley in
_McClure's Magazine_ of March, 1901: "His is a strange nature. He has,
very fully and strongly, the pride of Kings and what the pride of Kings
is, a republican who has lived a