ance in the commercial questions to be treated were of value. We happened to arrive at Washington on a day which, as it afterwards turned out, was pregnant with fate to the destinies of the republic, for upon the same night the celebrated Nebraska Bill was carried in Congress, the effect of which was to open an extensive territory to slavery, and to intensify the burning question which was to find its final solution seven years later in a bloody civil war. The shout of laughter which greeted this sally abashed even the worthy sena. tor, which was the more gratifying to those present, as to do so was an achievement not easily accomplished. When the war broke out, Senator Tombs was among the fiercest and most uncompromising partisans of the South. He was one of the members of Jefferson Davis's Cabinet, and I believe only suc ceeded with some difficulty, at the conclusion of hostilities, in making his escape from the South. He remained to the last a prominent political figure, and only died quite recently. We found the excitement so great upon our arrival in Washington in the afternoon, that after a hurried meal we went to the Capitol to see the vote taken. I It was the height of the season when shall never forget the scene presented we were at Washington, and our arrival by the house. The galleries were imparted a new impetus to the festivities, crammed with spectators, largely com- and gave rise to the taunt, after the treaty posed of ladies, and the vacant spaces on was concluded, by those who were opthe floor of the house crowded with vis-posed to it, that "it had been floated itors. The final vote was taken amid through on champagne." Without altogreat enthusiasm, a hundred guns being gether admitting this, there can be no fired in celebration of an event which, to doubt that, in the hands of a skilful diplothose endowed with foresight, could not matist, that beverage is not without its be called auspicious. I remember a few value. Looking through an old journal, I nights afterwards meeting a certain Sen- find the following specimen entry : ator Tombs at a large dinner given by "May 26. Luncheon at 2 P.M. at Senone of the most prominent members of ator F.'s. Sat between a Whig and a Congress - who has since filled the office Democrat senator, who alternately poured of secretary of state- in Lord Elgin's abolitionism and the divine origin of honor. It was a grand banquet, at which slavery into the ear they commanded. I all the guests were men, with the excep- am getting perfectly stunned with ha tion of the wife of our host. He himself rangues upon political questions I don't belonged to the Republican, or, as it was understand, and confused with the nomen. then more generally called, the Whig clature appropriate to each. Besides party. Notwithstanding the divergence of Whigs and Democrats, there are Hard political opinion among many of those Shells and Soft Shells, and Free-Soilers, present, the merits of the all-absorbing and Disunionists, and Federals, to say measure, and its probable effects upon nothing of filibusters, pollywogs, and a the destinies of the nation, were being host of other nicknames. One of my discussed freely. Senator Tombs, a vio- neighbors, discoursing on one of these lent Democrat, was a large pompous varied issues, told me that he went the man, with a tendency, not uncommon whole hog. He was the least favorable among American politicians, to "orate specimen of a senator I have seen, and I rather than to converse in society. He felt inclined to tell him that he looked the waited for a pause in the discussion, and animal he went, but smiled appreciatively then, addressing Lord Elgin in stentorian instead. There were, however, some intones, remarked, à propos of the engross-teresting men present, — among ing topic, Yes, my lord, we are about to relume the torch of liberty upon the altar of slavery." Upon which our hostess, with a winning smile, and in the most silvery accents imaginable, said, "Oh, I am so glad to hear you say that again, senator; for I told my husband you had made use of exactly the same expression to me yesterday, and he said you would not have talked such nonsense to anybody but a woman!" them Colonel Fremont, a spare wiry man with a keen grey eye, and a face expressing great determination, but most sympathetic withal; and a senator from Washington Territory, which involves a journey of seventy days each way; and another from Florida, who, from his account of the country, represents principally alligators; and Colonel Benton, who is writing a great work, and is quite a fine man;' and the governor of Wisconsin, whose State has increased in ten years from thirty to five hundred thousand, and who told me that "I find all my most intimate friends are Democratic senators." "So do I," he replied drily; and indeed his popularity among them at the end of a week had become unbounded; and the best evidence of it was that they ceased to feel any restraint in his company, and often exhibited traits of Western manners unhampered by conventional trammels. Lord Elgin's faculty of brilliant repartee and racy anecdote especially de he met a man the other day who had travelled over the whole globe, and examined it narrowly with an eye to its agri. cultural capabilities, and who therefore was an authority not to be disputed; and this man had positively asserted that he had never in any country seen fifty square miles to equal that extent in the State of Wisconsin and therefore it was quite clear that no spot equal to it was to be found in creation.' As various other patriots have informed me that their re-lighted them; and one evening, after a spective States are each thus singularly favored, I am beginning to feel puzzled as to which really is the most fertile spot on the face of the habitable globe. After two hours and a half of this style of conversation, abundantly irrigated with champagne, it was a relief to go to a matinée dansante at the French minister's." grand dinner, he was persuaded to accompany a group of senators, among whom I remember Senator Mason-afterwards of Mason and Slidell notoriety — and Sen. ator Tombs figured, to the house of a popular and very influential politician, there to prolong the entertainment into the small hours. Our host, at whose door Here follow remarks upon the belles of we knocked at midnight, was in bed; but that period at Washington, which, though much thundering at it at length roused they are for the most part complimentary, him, and he himself opened to us, appearare not to the purpose, more especially as ing in nothing but a very short nightthey were the result of a crude and youth-shirt. ful, and not of a matured judgment. "All right, boys,” he said, at once divin"Got away from the French minister's ing the object of our visit; "you go in, just in time to dress for dinner at the and I'll go down and get the drink;" and president's. More senators and politics, without stopping to array himself more and champagne, and Hard Shells and Soft completely, he disappeared into the nether Shells. I much prefer the marine soft- regions, shortly returning with his arms shell crab, with which I here made ac filled with bottles of champagne, on the quaintance for the first time, to the politi- top of which were two huge lumps of ice. cal one. Then with a select party of These he left with us to deal with, while senators, all of whom were opposed in he retired to clothe the nether portion of principle to the treaty, to Governor A.'s, his person. He was a dear old gentleman, where we imbibed more champagne and somewhat of the Lincoln type, and had swore eternal friendship, carefully avoided the merit of being quite sober, which the burning question, and listened to sto- some of the others of the party were not, ries good, bad, and indifferent, till 2 A.M., and though thus roughly roused from his when, after twelve hours of incessant en first sleep, expressed himself highly de tertainment, we went home to bed thor-lighted with our visit. He was, moreover, oughly exhausted." evidently a great character, and many Meantime, to my inexperienced mind were the anecdotes told about him in his no progress was being made in our mis-own presence, all bearing testimony to sion. Lord Elgin had announced its ob- his goodness of heart and readiness of ject on his arrival to the president and the wit. At last one of the party, in a fit secretary of state, and had been informed of exuberant enthusiasm and excessive by them that it was quite hopeless to think champagne, burst out, that any such treaty as he proposed could be carried through, with the opposition which existed to it on the part of the Democrats, who had a majority in the Senate, without the ratification of which body no treaty could be concluded. His lordship was further assured, however, that if he could overcome this opposition, he would find no difficulties on the part of the government. At last, after several days of uninterrupted festivity, I began to see what we were driving at. To make quite sure, I said one day to my chief, "As for our dear old friend the gov. ernor here, I tell you, Lord Elgine," the accent was frequently laid on the last syllable, and the g in Elgin pronounced soft, "he is a perfect king in his own country. There ain't a man in Mussoorie dar say a word against him; if any of your darned English lords was to go down there and dar to, he'd tell them - "here followed an expression which propriety compels me to omit, and which completely scandalized our worthy host. "That's a lie," he said, turning on his guest, but without changing his voice, as he slowly rolled his quid of tobacco from one cheek to the other. "I can blas pheme and profane, and rip, and snort with any man; but I never make use of a vulgar expression." The impoliteness of the allusion to the British aristocracy, in Lord Elgin's presence, which called forth this strong asseveration on the part of the governor, also evoked many profuse apologies from some of the others present, who maintained that, if all English lords were like him, and would become naturalized Americans, they would "run the country; and that, so far as he was individually concerned, it was a thousand pities he had not been born an American, and thus been eligible for the presidency. Certainly it would not have been difficult to be more eligible for that high office than the respectable gentleman who then filled it. Of all presidents, I suppose none were more insignificant than Mr. Pierce, who was Occupying the White House at the time of our visit; while in his secretary of state, Mr. Marcy, we found a genial and somewhat comical old gentleman, whose popularity with his countrymen seemed chiefly to rest on the fact that he had once charged the United States government fifty cents "for repairing his breeches," when sent on a mission to inquire into certain accounts in which great irregularities were reported to have taken place. Thirty-two years have doubtless worked a great change in Washington society, as indeed it has upon the nation generally, and more especially upon the eastern cities since I first knew them. Then, Washington, "the city of magnificent distances," struck me as a howling wilderness of deserted streets running out into the country, and ending nowhere, its population consisting chiefly of politicians and negroes. Now, it is developing rather into a city of palaces, and becoming a fashionable centre during the winter for the élite of society, from all parts of the United States. Its population is growing rapidly under the new impetus thus received, and it will in all probability ultimately become the handsomest and most agreeable place of residence in the country. At the time of our visit Sir Philip Crampton was British minister at Washington, and under his hospitable roof I remember meeting Lincoln, and being struck by his gaunt figure, and his quaint and original mode of expression. There were other types which were equally novel. In another entry in my journal I find: "Dined last night with rather a singu. lar houseful of people. The master of the house was a senator, and at the same time a Methodist preacher and a teetotaller. Consequently, although we were twenty at dinner, we had nothing to drink but iced water. His wife was a spirit medium, and in constant communion with the upper or lower world, as the case may be. His daughter, whom I had the honor of taking in to dinner, was a bloomer, her skirt reaching to a little below the knee; she told me she never wore any other costume. Her appearance struck me as eminently fantastic; but that possibly was due to prejudice on my part. Her husband I understood to be an avowed disbeliever, not only in his mother-in-law's communications with the invisible world, but in that world itself, or any Creator of any world. So that the ménage rather suggested the idea of the happy family of animals, exhibited by showmen. However, they seemed to get on very well together, perhaps because they all agreed about the Nebraska Bill, which is the only subject upon which people really quarrel." I cannot convey a better idea of the effect produced upon society by our fes. tive proceedings at Washington than by quoting the following extract from a paper at the time describing the ball given by Sir, Philip Crampton in honor of the queen's birthday: As for the ladies present, our pen fairly charms. Our artists and modistes had racked falters in the attempt to do justice to their their brains, and exhausted their magazines of dainty and costly fabrics, in order to convince the world in general, and the English people in particular, that the sovereign fair ones of Washington regarded their sister sovereign of England with feelings, not only of "the most distinguished consideration," but of downright love, admiration, and respect, love, for the woman-admiration, for the wife of the handmother of nine babies. somest man in Europe - and respect, for the More was accomthan has been accomplished from the days of plished last evening in the way of negotiation Ashburton to the advent of Elgin. We regard the fishery question as settled, both parties having partaken freely of the bait so liberally provided by the noble host. Amid the soft footfalls of fairy feet-the glittering of jewels- the graceful sweep of $500 dresses. the sparkling of eyes which shot forth alternately flashes of lightning and to be the "observed of all observers." love-there were two gentlemen who appeared was the Earl of Elgin, and the other Sir Charles Gray. Lord Elgin is a short, stout gentleman, on the shady side of forty, and is decidedly John Bullish in walk, talk, appear One ance, and carriage. His face, although round | by surprise. I will venture to quote the and full, beams with intellect, good feeling, description I wrote at the time of the signand good-humor. His manners are open, ing of the treaty, and ask the reader to frank, and winning. Sir Charles Gray is a make allowance for the style of mock much larger man than his noble countryman, heroics, and attribute it to the exuberance being both taller and stouter. He is about of youth: sixty years of age, and his manners are particularly grave and dignified. The large and brilliant companý broke up at a late hour, and departed for their respective homes,pleased with their courtly and courte ous host; pleased with the monarchical form of government in England; pleased with the republican form of government in the United States; pleased with each other, themselves, and the rest of mankind. At last, after we had been receiving the hospitalities at Washington for about ten days, Lord Elgin announced to Mr. Marcy, that if the government were prepared to adhere to their promise to conclude a treaty of reciprocity with Canada, he could assure the president that he would find a majority of the Senate in its favor, including several prominent Democrats. Mr. Marcy could scarcely believe his ears, and was so much taken aback that I somewhat doubted the desire to make the treaty, which he so strongly expressed on the occasion of Lord Elgin's first interview with him when he also pronounced it hopeless. However, steps had been taken which made it impossible for him to doubt that the necessary majority had been secured, and nothing remained for us but to go into the details of the tariff, the enumeration of the articles of commerce, and so forth. A thorny question was intimately associated with the discussion of this treaty, which was settled by it for the time; and this was the question of the fisheries off the coast of British North America, claimed by American fishermen. This vexed subject, which was reopened by the abrogation of the treaty, has recently been the matter of protracted negotiation between the English and American governments; which, however, has proved so imperfect that serious disputes are daily arising, which it will require all the tact and forbearance of the English and American governments to arrange ami cably. For the next three days I was as busily engaged in work as I had been for the previous ten at play; but the matter had to be put through with a rush, as Lord Elgin was due at the seat of his government. And perhaps, under the circumstances, we succeeded better so than had longer time been allowed the other side for reflection. As it was, the worthy old secretary of state was completely taken "It was in the dead of night, during the last five minutes of the 5th of June, and the first five minutes of the 6th of the month aforesaid, that four individuals might have been observed seated in a spacious chamber lighted by six wax candles and an Argand lamp. Their faces were expressive of deep and earnest thought, not unmixed with suspicion. Their feelings, however, to the acute observer, manifested themselves in different ways; but this was natural, as two were in the bloom of youth, one in the sear and yellow leaf, and one in the prime of middle age. This last it is whose measured tones alone break the silence of midnight, except when one or other of the younger auditors, who are both poring intently over voluminous MSS., interrupts him to interpolate an 'and or erase a' the.' They are, in fact, checking him as he reads; and the aged man listens, while he picks his teeth with a pair of scissors, or cleans out the wick of a candle with their points, which he afterwards wipes on his grey hair. He may occasionally be ob served to wink, either from conscious 'cuteness or unconscious drowsiness. Presently the clock strikes twelve, and there is a doubt whether the date should be to-day or yesterday. There is a moment of solemn silence, when the reader, having finished the document, lays it down, and takes a pen which had been previously impressively dipped in the ink by the most intelligent-looking of the young men, who appears to be his 'secre tary,' and who keeps his eye warily fixed upon the other young man, who occupies the same relation to the aged listener with the scissors. "There is something strangely myste rious and suggestive in the scratching of that midnight pen, for it may be scratch. ing fortunes or ruin to toiling millions. Then the venerable statesman takes up the pen to append his signature. His hand does not shake, though he is very old, and knows the abuse that is in store for him from members of Congress and an enlightened press. That hand, it is said, is not all unused to a revolver; and it does not now waver, though the word he traces may be an involver of a revolver again. He is now secretary of state; before that, he was a judge of the Supreme Court; before that, a general in the army; before that, governor of a State; before that, secretary of war; before that, minister in Mexico; before that, a member of the House of Representatives; before that, a politician; before that, a cabinet-maker. He ends, as he began, with cabinet work; and he is not, at his time of life and with his varied experiences, afraid either of the wrath of his countrymen or the wiles of an English lord. So he gives us his blessing and the treaty duly signed; and I retire to dream of its contents, and to listen in my troubled sleep to the perpetually recurring refrain of the three impressive words with which the pregnant document concludes, 'Unmanufactured tobacco, rags'!" Thus was concluded in exactly a fortnight a treaty, to negotiate which had taxed the inventive genius of the Foreign Office and all the conventional methods of diplomacy for the previous seven years, and which, as it has since proved, has been of enormous commercial advan. tage to the two countries to which it was to be applied. A reference to figures will furnish the most satisfactory evidence on this point. In 1853, the year prior to our mission to Washington, the trade of Canada with the United States amounted to $20,000, 000, as recently given from correct data, by the Toronto Mail. In 1854 the treaty commenced to operate, and the volume of trade at once increased to $33.000,000. In 1855, it was $42,000,000; in 1857, $46.000.000; in 1859, $48,000,000; in 1863, $55.000.000; in 1864, $67,000,000; in 1865, $70,000,000; and in 1866, the year the treaty was abrogated by the action of the American government, it had reached the high figure of $84,000,000. It had thus nearly quadrupled in the course of twelve years under the action of the treaty, which the Americans erroneously believed to be so much more to the advantage of the Canadians than of them. selves, that they seized the earliest available opportunity, after the term fixed for its expiry, to abrogate it, -a measure dictated, I fear, rather by sentiments of jealousy than of political economy, and from which the States suffer certainly as much if not more than Canada, whose trade with the mother country has latterly undergone considerable development in consequence. The brilliant and dashing manner in which Lord Elgin achieved this remarkable diplomatic triumph, apparently certain of his game from the first, and playing it throughout with the easy confidence of assured success, made a profound im pression upon me- an impression which I had no reason to modify throughout a subsequent intimate association with him of three years in two hemispheres, during which he was nearly all the time engaged in confronting difficulties and overcoming obstacles which I used to think to any other man would have seemed insurmountable. As one by one they melted before his subtle touch, my confidence in his pro found sagacity and his undaunted moral courage became unbounded; and I could enter into the feelings of soldiers whose general never led them to anything but victory. It was both a pleasure and a profit to serve such a man; a pleasure, because he was the kindest and most considerate of chiefs, a profit, because one could learn so much by watching his methods, which indeed he was always ready to discuss and explain to those who occupied confidential relations towards him. By his premature death the country lost one of its most conscientious and ablest public servants, one whose ser. vices, and whose great capacity for ren dering them, have never received their just recognition at the hands of his coun. trymen. Our progress from New York to Canada was triumphal. On our arrival by a special train at Portland, Maine, we were received with the thunder of salutes, and went in procession to the house of one of the leading citizens, with bands of music, and flags, and escorts, mounted and on foot, the whole of the gallant militia hav ing turned out to do Lord Elgin honor. A characteristic incident occurred prior to our starting for a banquet at the city hall. While we were assembled in the drawing-room of our host, a tray with various kinds of wines and spirits was brought in, and our hospitable entertainer remarked, "You'll have to take your liquor in here, gentlemen; for I guess you'll get none where we're going to. We've got a liquor law in Maine, you know," he added, with a sly look at the tray. Drinking all you want before dinner is not a satisfactory way of "taking it in." However, we made the best of it, and soon found ourselves seated at a table plentifully supplied with tumblers of water, at which were two hundred guests. I am bound to say, considering the absence of stimulants, there was no lack of noise and merriment; and when dinner was over, speeches followed in rapid suc |