....

The Bavarian envoy, Herr von Schrenk, I place among the best elements in
the assembly, as regards both his capacity and his character. He is a
thorough and industrious worker, and practical in his views and
opinions; although his predominantly juristic training and mode of
thinking make him at times disputatious, and tend to impede the progress
of affairs. In official intercourse he is frank and obliging, so long as
his [Bavarian] patriotism, which is high-strung and extremely irritable,
is treated with consideration; a foible for which I take particular
pains to make allowance.

Our Saxon colleague, Herr von Nostitz, inspires in me less confidence.
It seems to me that he has at bottom a traditional inclination toward
Prussia and its political system, which is nourished in part by a
Protestantism that is more rationalistic than orthodox, and by his fear
of Ultramontane tendencies. I believe, however,--and I should be glad to
find that I do him an injustice,--that on the whole, personal interests
take precedence with him over political interests, and that the
suppleness of his character permits him to view the latter in whatever
light best suits the former. His economic position is dependent upon his
place, aside from the salary, by reason of the fact that he owns a house
here in which he lives, which he bought before 1848 at a high price, and
which he has vainly attempted to rent for the last five years. His
political course is therefore controlled by his desire of remaining in
his official position under every contingency; and with the present
tendency of the Saxon government, Austria has certainly more opportunity
to help him in keeping his place than has Prussia. This circumstance
indeed does not prevent Herr von Nostitz from avoiding, as far as his
instructions will allow, any patent injury to Prussia; but with his
great capacity for labor, his intelligence, and his long experience, he
constitutes the most effective support of all Austria's efforts in the
federal assembly. He is particularly adroit in formulating reports and
propositions in awkward controversial questions; he knows how to give
his draught a color of compromise without the least sacrifice of any
Austrian interest, as soon as the correct interpretation comes to the
aid of the apparently indeterminate expression. When his draughts become
the basis of subsequent discussion, it is then usually discovered for
the first time that the real purpose fo