Minister to the Court of St. James’s, and who also made himself ludicrously conspicuous as one of the famous Ostend manifesto party.  However, his talents are undoubted, and his public career renders it probable that, warned by the failure of his predecessor, his presidency will reflect more credit upon the Republic than that of Mr. Pierce.  Mr. B.’s inaugural address has been published in this country, and is, in its way, a contradictory curiosity.  He urges, in diplomacy, “frankness and clearness;” while, to his fellow-citizens, he offers some very wily diplomatic sentences.  Munroe doctrine and manifest destiny are not named; but they are shadowed forth in language worthy of a Talleyrand.  First, he glories in his country having never extended its territory by the sword(?); he then proceeds to say—­what everybody says in anticipation of conquest, annexation, or absorption—­“Our past history forbids that, in future, we should acquire territory, unless this be sanctioned by the laws of justice and honour” (two very elastic laws among nations).  “Acting on this principle, no nation will have a right to interfere, or to complain if, in the progress of events, we shall still further extend our possessions.”  Leaving these frank and clear sentences to the consideration of the reader, we return from the digression.

The crowd outside was very orderly, but by no means so numerous as I had expected; I estimated them at 8000; but a friend who was with me, and well versed in such matters, calculated the numbers at nearly 10,000, but certainly, he said, not more.  The penny Press, by way of doing honour to their new ruler, boldly fixed the numbers at 40,000—­that was their bit of Buncombe.  One cause, probably, of the crowd not being greater, was the drizzling snow, which doubtlessly induced many to be satisfied with seeing the procession pass along Pennsylvania Avenue.

I cannot help remarking here, how little some of their eminent men know of England.  A senator, of great and just reputation, came to me during the ceremony, and said, “There is one thing which must strike you as very remarkable, and that is, that we have no soldiers here to keep order upon an occasion of such political importance.”  He was evidently unaware that, not only was such the case invariably in England, but that soldiers are confined to barracks, or even removed during the excitement of elections.  There is no doubt that the falsehoods and exaggerations with which the Press here teems, in matters referring to England, are sufficiently glaring to be almost self-confuting; but if they can so warp the mind of an enlightened senator, how is it to be wondered at that, among the masses, many suck in all such trash as if it were Gospel truth, and look upon England as little else than a land of despotism; but of that, more anon.  The changing of presidents in this country resembles, practically speaking, the changing of a premier in England; but, thank Heaven! the changing of a premier in England does not involve the same changes as does the changing of a president here.