said that a certain very distinguished person had heard of the recent wish which the American government had expressed with regard to the costume of its agents, and that while she would be happy to see Mr. Buchanan in any dress in which he might choose to present himself, she yet hoped he would so far consult her wishes as to consent to carry a sword.  “Tell that very distinguished personage,” said Mr. Buchanan, “that not only will I wear a sword, as she requests, but, should occasion require it, will hold myself ready to draw it in her defence.”  This strikes me as in just that tone of respectful exaggeration and playful acquiescence which a gentleman in this country may very becomingly take toward the whole question.  Neither Mr. Buchanan nor any one else, I believe, heeded the request of the Department, and Mr. Marcy himself, it is said, subsequently repudiated it.

But what was only a request of the State Department in Mr. Marcy’s time is now a law.  I had good opportunities to observe how very uncomfortable our poor diplomatists were made by this piece of legislation.  Its object was, of course, to give them a very unpretending and subdued appearance.  The result is, that with the exception of Bengalese nabobs, the son of the mikado of Japan, and the khan of Khiva, the American legations are the most noticeable people at any court ceremony or festivity in Europe.  When everybody else is flaming in purple and gold the ordinary diplomatic uniform is exceedingly simple and modest; but the Yankee diplomats are the most scrutinized and conspicuous persons to be seen.  One of the secretaries said to me:  “I am afraid to wander off by myself among these ladies:  they inspect me as the maids of honor in the palace of Brobdingnag did Gulliver.  I feel toward Columbia as a cruel mother who won’t dress me like these other little boys.”  It would require more than ordinary courage to attempt to dance in this rig.  I should think that our representatives would huddle together in the most unconspicuous portion of a room, and never leave it.  Said the secretary above quoted:  “I always feel here that I am of some use to my chief:  I am one more pair of legs with which to divide the gaze of British society.”

The dress in which our diplomats attend court at present is a plain dress-coat and vest, with knee-breeches, black silk stockings, slippers, etc.  It is difficult to see in what sense this is the “ordinary dress of an American citizen.”  The dress is not so ugly as it would seem to be; indeed, with the help of a white vest and liberal watch-chain, it might be made quite becoming were it not so excessively conspicuous.  An English cabinet minister at a party given in his own house usually wears it, and all persons invited to the Empress Eugenie’s private parties came got up in that manner.  But in London it was not till recently that American diplomatists were allowed to go to court even thus attired.  Everywhere else in Europe the legations were admitted