ts of a nation, to say nothing of procuring those concessions from
others which enter into the commercial relations of states, and in some
degree affect their interests. The best method, certainly, as respects
the two first, is to manifest a determination to defend them by an
appeal to force; but so many conflicting interests stand in the way of
such a policy, that it is exceedingly difficult, wisest and safest in
the end though it be, to carry it out properly. At any rate, such a
course has never yet been in the power of the American government,
whatever it may be able to do hereafter, with its increasing numbers and
growing wealth. But even strength is not always sufficient to obtain
voluntary and friendly concessions, for principle must, in some degree,
be respected by the most potent people, or they will be put to the ban
of the world. Long diplomatic letters, although they may answer the
purposes of ministerial _exposes_, and read well enough in the columns
of a journal, do very little, in fact, as make-weights in negotiations.
I have been told here, _sub rosa_, and I believe it that some of our
laboured efforts, in this way to obtain redress in the protracted
negotiation for indemnity, have actually lain months in the _bureaux_,
unread by those who alone have power to settle the question. Some
_commis_ perhaps may have cursorily related their contents to his
superior, but the superior himself is usually too much occupied in
procuring and maintaining ministerial majorities, or in looking after
the monopolizing concerns of European politics, to wade through folios
of elaborate argument in manuscript. The public ought to understand,
that the point presents itself to him in the security of his master's
capital, and with little or no apprehension of its coming to an appeal
to arms, very differently from what it occasionally presents itself in
the pages of a President's message, or in a debate in Congress. He has
so many demands on his time, that it is even difficult to have a working
interview with him at all; and when one is obtained, it is not usual to
do more than to go over the preliminaries. The details are necessarily
referred to subordinates.

Now, in such a state of things, any one accustomed to the world, can
readily understand how much may be effected by the kind feelings that
are engendered by daily, social intercourse. A few words can be
whispered in the ears of a minister, in the corner of a drawing-room,