* * * * *
OUR LITERARY LEGATE.
Minister MOTLEY is a gentleman, a scholar, and, though last not least,
as genial a diner and winer as ever put American legs under a British
peer's mahogany. There was a time when he was for avenging British
outrage by whipping John Bull out of his boots, but now, clad in a
dress-coat of unexceptionable cut, he deprecates the idea of
international breaches. As a diplomatist he could scarcely show more
indifference to the Alabama claim, if the claim itself were All a Bam.
He roars for recompense more gently than a sucking dove. When he
presented our little bill a _grand coup_ was expected, but the
trans-atlantic turtle seems to have shut him up. Listening to
compliments on the "Dutch Republic" he forgets his own, and renders but
a Flemish account to his country. Not content with following the festive
footsteps of his illustrious predecessor, REVERDY, he has made new
tracks to every hospitable nobleman's door. The scented soft-soap of
adulation is his "particular vanity," and under its soothing influence
he seems to be washing his hands of his official responsibilities.
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