s from his hand has caused
the telegraph of the Admiralty to signalize the "Thunderer" to put
to sea with all haste. In a word, he was the trusted agent of our
Government, whether ruled by a Whig or a Tory, and his despatches were
ever regarded as a sure warranty for action.

The English Minister at a Foreign Court labors under one great
disadvantage, which is, that his policy, and all the consequences that
are to follow it, are rarely, if ever, shaped with any reference to the
state of matters then existing in his own country. Absorbed as he is in
great European questions, how can he follow with sufficient attention
the course of events at home, or recognize, in the signs and tokens of
the division list, the changeful fortunes of party? He may be advising
energy when the cry is all for temporizing; counselling patience and
submission, when the nation is eager for a row; recommend religious
concessions in the very week that Exeter Hall is denouncing toleration;
or actually suggesting aid to a Government that a popular orator has
proclaimed to be everything that is unjust and ignominious.

It was Sir Horace Upton's fortune to have fallen into one of these
embarrassments. He had advised the Home Government to take some
measures, or at least look with favor on certain movements of the Poles
in Russia, in order the better to obtain some concessions then required
from the Cabinet of the Czar. The Premier did not approve of the
suggestion, nor was it like to meet acceptance at home. We were in a
pro-Russian fever at the moment. Some mob disturbances at Norwich,
a Chartist meeting at Stockport, and something else in Wales, had
frightened the nation into a hot stage of conservatism; and never
was there such an ill-chosen moment to succor Poles or awaken dormant
nationalities.

Upton's proposal was rejected. He was even visited with one of those
disagreeable acknowledgments by which the Foreign Office reminds a
speculative minister that he is going _ultra crepidam_. When an envoy
is snubbed, he always asks for leave of absence. If the castigation
be severe, he invariably, on his return to England, goes to visit the
Leader of the Opposition. This is the ritual. Sir Horace, however,
only observed it in half. He came home; but after his first morning's
attendance at the Foreign Office, he disappeared; none saw or heard
of him. He knew well all the value of mystery, and he accordingly
disappeared from public view altogether.

W