nslation of Palermo into
"Greenhorn")--or even knowledge of what they are. His utter lack of
information in the premises is indeed quite exceptional, especially
in a New England teacher. We should have expected an average lad of
fourteen in any part of the Union to have suspected that a consul
would need some acquaintance with the language of the people among
whom he was stationed, if not some slight notion of the general
routine and purposes of the office. Mr. Sampleton, however, is not
lacking in shrewdness and energy, and sets to work manfully, despite
the difficulties of his situation, general and special. After several
trying years, the comical tribulations of which are graphically
set forth, he is just beginning to feel himself at home when he is
summarily placed there in another sense by recall. He comes back as
poor as he went, save in experience and the languages, and resumes the
ferule with the determination not again to abandon it for the pen of
the public employe.

It is chiefly to the social side of consular life that Mr. Monti
introduces us, and most of the scenes belong to that aspect. The
salary, no longer eked out by fees and other perquisites, is much
inferior to the emoluments of other consuls at the same port, and
the American representative is consequently entirely outshone by his
colleagues of other nationalities. A considerable degree of diplomatic
style is expected from the corps, and kept up by all but himself. In
dinners, equipages, buttons and gold lace, and display of every kind,
not merely France, England and Russia, but Denmark and Turkey, leave
him deep in the shade. They have consular residences, large offices
and reading-rooms, with secretaries, interpreters and the other
paraphernalia of a small embassy, while Jonathan nests, with his
wife, on the third or fourth flat of a suburban rookery, and uses his
dining-room for an office. The sea-captains grumble at having to seek
him in such a burrow, and being accorded nothing when they get there
beyond the barest official action. He cannot interchange courtesies
with the magnates of the city, and thus places himself and the
interests of his country, so far as that often potent means of
influence goes, at a great disadvantage. A pompous commodore brings an
American squadron into port, and is ineffably disgusted at finding
his consul utterly unable to do the honors or in any way assist the
cruise.

Our author holds that the compensation of t