provision
shall in no wise affect the duties, powers, or salary of such
representative."

This had the hearty approval of Senators Allison and Hale,
the leading members of the Committee on Appropriations, and
was reported favorably by that Committee.

Senator Vest was absent when the matter came up, and it passed
without opposition. Mr. Vest announced, the next day, that
he had intended to oppose it. I am afraid if he had, he would
have succeeded in defeating it.

When it went to the House, the Committee on Appropriations
consented to retain the amendment, and it was favored by Mr.
Hitt of Illinois, who had, himself, represented the country
abroad and knew all about such matters. There was a little
opposition in the House. But it was quieted without great
difficulty. Vice-President Morton, who had, himself, represented
the country at Paris, went personally to the House and used
his great influence in favor of the proposition. Mr. Blount
of Georgia, a very influential Democrat, threatened to make
a strong opposition. But the gentlemen who favored it said
to him: "Now you are going out of the House, but your countrymen
will not long let you stay in retirement. You will be summoned
to important public service somewhere. It is quite likely
that your political friends will call you to one of these
important diplomatic places, where you will be in danger of
suffering the inconvenience yourself, if the present system
continue." Mr. Blount was pacified. And the measure which
I think would have been beaten by a pugnacious opposition
in either House of Congress, got through.

Among the most impressive recollections of my life is the
funeral of Tennyson in Westminster Abbey. I got a seat at
the request of the American Minister by the favor of Archdeacon
Farrar, who had charge of the arrangements. It was a most
impressive scene. I had a seat near the grave, which was
in the Poets' Corner, of which the pavement had been opened.
The wonderful music; the stately procession which followed
the coffin through the historic West entrance, in the most
venerable building in the world, to lay the poet to sleep
his last sleep with England's illustrious dead of more than
a thousand years,

In those precincts where the mighty rest,
With rows of statesmen and with walks of Kings,

to which

Ne'er since their foundation came a nobler guest,

was unspeakably touching and impressive. The solemn burial
service was