was at least true in her neutrality; that no desire for cotton would compel her to give aid to the South as long as she herself was not ill treated by the North.  But it seemed as though Mr. Seward, the President’s Prime Minister, had no better work on hand than that of showing in every way his indifference as to courtesy with England.  Insults offered to England would, he seemed to think, strengthen his hands.  He would let England know that he did not care for her.  When our minister, Lord Lyons, appealed to him regarding the suspension of the habeas corpus, Mr. Seward not only answered him with insolence, but instantly published his answer in the papers.  He instituted a system of passports, especially constructed so as to incommode Englishmen proceeding from the States across the Atlantic.  He resolved to make every Englishman in America feel himself in some way punished, because England had not assisted the North.  And now came the arrest of Slidell and Mason out of an English mail steamer, and Mr. Seward took care to let it be understood that, happen what might, those two men should not be given up.

Nothing during all this time astonished me so much as the estimation in which Mr. Seward was then held by his own party.  It is, perhaps, the worst defect in the constitution of the States, that no incapacity on the part of a minister, no amount of condemnation expressed against him by the people or by Congress, can put him out of office during the term of the existing Presidency.  The President can dismiss him; but it generally happens that the President is brought in on a “platform” which has already nominated for him his cabinet as thoroughly as they have nominated him.  Mr. Seward ran Mr. Lincoln very hard for the position of candidate for the Presidency on the Republican interest.  On the second voting of the Republican delegates at the Convention at Chicago, Mr. Seward polled 184 to Mr. Lincoln’s 181.  But as a clear half of the total number of votes was necessary—­ that is, 233 out of 465—­there was necessarily a third polling, and Mr. Lincoln won the day.  On that occasion Mr. Chase and Mr. Cameron, both of whom became members of Mr. Lincoln’s cabinet, were also candidates for the White House on the Republican side.  I mention this here to show that though the President can in fact dismiss his ministers, he is in a great manner bound to them, and that a minister in Mr. Seward’s position is hardly to be dismissed.  But from the 1st of November, 1861, till the day on which I left the States, I do not think that I heard a good word spoken of Mr. Seward as a minister, even by one of his own party.  The Radical or Abolitionist Republicans all abused him.  The Conservative or Anti-abolition Republicans, to whose party he would consider himself as belonging, spoke of him as a mistake.  He had been prominent as Senator from New York, and had been Governor of the State of New York, but had none of the aptitudes of a statesman.