quite as far as the minister had gone, and in some points to put the case still more strongly.  Everything was going on quietly.  Important business had been transacted, with no sign of distrust or discontent on the part of the government as regarded Motley.  Whatever mistake he was thought to have committed was condoned by amicable treatment, neutralized by the virtual indorsement of the government in the instructions of the 25th of September, and obsolete as a ground of quarrel by lapse of time.  The question about which the misunderstanding, if such it deserves to be called, had taken place, was no longer a possible source of disagreement, as it had long been settled that the Alabama case should only be opened again at the suggestion of the British government, and that it should be transferred to Washington whenever that suggestion should again bring it up for consideration.

Such was the aspect of affairs at the American Legation in London.  No foreign minister felt more secure in his place than Mr. Motley.  “I thought myself,” he says in the letter of December 27, “entirely in the confidence of my own government, and I know that I had the thorough confidence and the friendship of the leading personages in England.”  All at once, on the first of July, 1870, a letter was written by the Secretary of State, requesting him to resign.  This gentle form of violence is well understood in the diplomatic service.  Horace Walpole says, speaking of Lady Archibald Hamilton:  “They have civilly asked her and grossly forced her to ask civilly to go away, which she has done, with a pension of twelve hundred a year.”  Such a request is like the embrace of the “virgin” in old torture-chambers.  She is robed in soft raiment, but beneath it are the knife-blades which are ready to lacerate and kill the victim, if he awaits the pressure of the machinery already in motion.

Mr. Motley knew well what was the logical order in an official execution, and saw fit to let the government work its will upon him as its servant.  In November he was recalled.

The recall of a minister under such circumstances is an unusual if not an unprecedented occurrence.  The government which appoints a citizen to represent the country at a foreign court assumes a very serious obligation to him.  The next administration may turn him out and nothing will be thought of it.  He may be obliged to ask for his passports and leave all at once if war is threatened between his own country and that which he represents.  He may, of course, be recalled for gross misconduct.  But his dismissal is very serious matter to him personally, and not to be thought of on the ground of passion or caprice.  Marriage is a simple business, but divorce is a very different thing.  The world wants to know the reason of it; the law demands its justification.  It was a great blow to Mr. Motley, a cause of indignation to those who were interested in him, a surprise and a mystery to the world in general.