which I gave him of our affairs.  You may suppose I inculcated the Northern views.  We spoke in his vernacular, and he asked me afterwards if I was a German.  I mention this not from vanity, but because he asked it with earnestness, and as if it had a political significance.  Of course I undeceived him.  His appearance interested me, and his manner is very pleasing.

I continued to receive long and interesting letters from him at intervals during his residence as Minister at Vienna.  Relating as they often did to public matters, about which he had private sources of information, his anxiety that they should not get into print was perfectly natural.  As, however, I was at liberty to read his letters to others at my discretion, and as many parts of these letters have an interest as showing how American affairs looked to one who was behind the scenes in Europe, I may venture to give some extracts without fear of violating the spirit of his injunctions, or of giving offence to individuals.  The time may come when his extended correspondence can be printed in full with propriety, but it must be in a future year and after it has passed into the hands of a younger generation.  Meanwhile these few glimpses at his life and records of his feelings and opinions will help to make the portrait of the man we are studying present itself somewhat more clearly.

Legation of the U. S. A., Vienna, January 14, 1862.

My dear Holmes,—­I have two letters of yours, November 29 and December 17, to express my thanks for.  It is quite true that it is difficult for me to write with the same feeling that inspires you,—­ that everything around the inkstand within a radius of a thousand miles is full of deepest interest to writer and reader.  I don’t even intend to try to amuse you with Vienna matters.  What is it to you that we had a very pleasant dinner-party last week at Prince Esterhazy’s, and another this week at Prince Liechtenstein’s, and that to-morrow I am to put on my cocked hat and laced coat to make a visit to her Imperial Majesty, the Empress Mother, and that to-night there is to be the first of the assembly balls, the Vienna Almack’s, at which—­I shall be allowed to absent myself altogether?

It strikes me that there is likely to be left a fair field for us a few months longer, say till midsummer.  The Trent affair I shall not say much about, except to state that I have always been for giving up the prisoners.  I was awfully afraid, knowing that the demand had gone forth,—­

“Send us your prisoners or you’ll hear of it,”

that the answer would have come back in the Hotspur vein—­

              ’And if the Devil come and roar for them,
               We will not send them.”