colonial dominions of Spain, on this continent; and in Europe the same thing has been done by Belgium and Greece.  The existence of all these governments was recognized by some of the leading powers of Europe, as well as by the United States, before it was acknowledged by the states from which they had separated themselves.  If, therefore, the United States had gone so far as formally to acknowledge the independence of Hungary, although, as the result has proved, it would have been a precipitate step, and one from which no benefit would have resulted to either party; it would not, nevertheless, have been an act against the law of nations, provided they took no part in her contest with Austria.  But the United States did no such thing.  Not only did they not yield to Hungary any actual countenance or succor, not only did they not show their ships of war in the Adriatic with any menacing or hostile aspect, but they studiously abstained from every thing which had not been done in other cases in times past, and contented themselves with instituting an inquiry into the truth and reality of alleged political occurrences.  Mr. Huelsemann incorrectly states, unintentionally certainly, the nature of the mission of this agent, when he says that “a United States agent had been despatched to Vienna with orders to watch for a favorable moment to recognize the Hungarian republic, and to conclude a treaty of commerce with the same.”  This, indeed, would have been a lawful object, but Mr. Mann’s errand was, in the first instance, purely one of inquiry.  He had no power to act, unless he had first come to the conviction that a firm and stable Hungarian government existed.  “The principal object the President has in view,” according to his instructions, “is to obtain minute and reliable information in regard to Hungary, in connection with the affairs of adjoining countries, the probable issue of the present revolutionary movements, and the chances we may have of forming commercial arrangements with that power favorable to the United States.”  Again, in the same paper, it is said:  “The object of the President is to obtain information in regard to Hungary, and her resources and prospects, with a view to an early recognition of her independence and the formation of commercial relations with her.”  It was only in the event that the new government should appear, in the opinion of the agent, to be firm and stable, that the President proposed to recommend its recognition.

Mr. Huelsemann, in qualifying these steps of President Taylor with the epithet of “hostile,” seems to take for granted that the inquiry could, in the expectation of the President, have but one result, and that favorable to Hungary.  If this were so, it would not change the case.  But the American government sought for nothing but truth; it desired to learn the facts through a reliable channel.  It so happened, in the chances and vicissitudes of human affairs, that the result was adverse to the