but of which he is insensible and unworthy."

As diplomacy was evidently the career marked out for him by his father,
he was sent to study at Leyden, where he remained a year. In the
commencement of the century, Holland was the central point of all
European negotiations; and its schools became famous for languages and
the study of international law. The society among the higher orders of
the country was the most intelligent in Europe, consisting of
ambassadors and scholars of the first character. After this year of
vigorous study, and some brief stay at home, he returned to the
Continent, and made an extensive tour of the north. In the autumn of
this year he received his first diplomatic appointment, in the mission
to Spain. His success in the Falkland Island negotiation recommended him
to government, and he was appointed minister at Berlin--a very unusual
distinction for a diplomatist only twenty-four years old. But a still
more important distinction now awaited him. In 1777 he was sent as
minister to the court of the Empress Catharine, where he found himself
involved in all the craft of diplomacy with two of the most artful
sovereigns that ever lived, Frederick and Catharine. But difficulties
only place talents in a more conspicuous point of view, and he received
from his government the highest reward then conferred upon a foreign
minister, the Order of the Bath, in 1780. The climate of Russia was at
length found too severe for his health, and he petitioned for his
recall, which was granted, but with the honourable offer of his choice
of a mission either to Spain or the Hague; the former was the higher in
rank, but the latter the more important in activity. He unhesitatingly,
and wisely, chose the embassy to the Hague. In 1784, the Foxite
administration fell, and Pitt was in the ascendant. Harris had been at
all times connected with Fox, and had constantly voted with him in the
House; but so high was the public sense of his ability, and such was the
impartiality of Pitt's sense of public duty, that he offered him the
re-appointment to the Hague, which Harris, after consulting Fox and the
Duke of Portland as his political leaders, accepted. His services were
peculiarly required at this period, from the violent discussions which
had arisen in Holland; and he either originated, or perfected, the
treaty of alliance between England, Holland, and Prussia, which saved
the Stadtholder for the time, and Holland probably from be