icular.
But the man who wrote it never saw the British Government and
wouldn't know it if he met it in the road. To him it is a mere
legal entity, a wicked, impersonal institution against which he has
the task of drawing an indictment--not the task of trying to
persuade it to confess the propriety of a certain course of
conduct. In his view, it is a wicked enemy to start with--like the
Louisiana lottery of a previous generation or the Standard Oil
Company of our time.

One would have thought, since we were six months in preparing it,
that a draft of the Note would have been sent to the man on the
ground whom our Government keeps in London to study the situation
at first hand and to make the best judgment he can about the most
effective methods of approach on delicate and difficult matters. If
that had been done, I should have suggested a courteous short Note
saying that we are obliged to set forth such and such views about
marine law and the rights of neutrals, to His Majesty's Government;
and that the contention of the United States Government was
herewith sent--etc., etc.--Then this identical Note (with certain
court-house, strong, shirt-sleeve adjectives left out) could have
come without arousing any feeling whatsoever. Of course I have no
personal vanity in saying this to you. I am sure I outgrew that
foible many years ago. But such a use of an ambassador--of any
ambassador--is obviously one of the best and most natural uses he
could be put to; and all governments but ours do put their
ambassadors to such a use: that's what they have 'em for.

_Per contra_: a telegram has just come in saying that a certain
Lichtenstein in New York had a lot of goods stopped by the British
Government, which (by an arrangement made with their attorney here)
agreed to buy them at a certain price: will I go and find out why
the Government hasn't yet paid Lichtenstein and when he may expect
his money? Is it an ambassadorial duty to collect a private bill
for Lichtenstein, in a bargain with which our Government has had
nothing to do? I have telegraphed the Department, quite calmly,
that I don't think it is. I venture to say no ambassador ever had
such a request as that before from his Government.

My dear House, I often wonder if my years of work here--the kin