with unmingled feelings of satisfaction, not without misgivings which
warned him but too truly of the dangers about to encompass him, that he
accepted the place. He writes to me on April 16, 1869:--

"I feel anything but exultation at present,--rather the opposite
sensation. I feel that I am placed higher than I deserve, and at
the same time that I am taking greater responsibilities than ever
were assumed by me before. You will be indulgent to my mistakes and
shortcomings,--and who can expect to avoid them? But the world will
be cruel, and the times are threatening. I shall do my best,--but
the best may be poor enough,--and keep 'a heart for any fate.'"




XXI.

1869-1870. AEt. 55-56.

RECALL FROM THE ENGLISH MISSION.--ITS ALLEGED AND ITS PROBABLE REASONS.

The misgivings thus expressed to me in confidence, natural enough in one
who had already known what it is to fall on evil days and evil tongues,
were but too well justified by after events. I could have wished to
leave untold the story of the English mission, an episode in Motley's
life full of heart-burnings, and long to be regretted as a passage of
American history. But his living appeal to my indulgence comes to me
from his grave as a call for his defence, however little needed, at least
as a part of my tribute to his memory. It is little needed, because the
case is clear enough to all intelligent readers of our diplomatic