17 SEPTEMBER 1870, Page 3

It is curious what a lot of popularity the Government

of the United States manages to obtain by promptly recognizing repub- lics, however ephemeral,—recognizing them " by telegraph," lest they should cease to exist before the arrival of the regular mail. Mr. Washburne, the American Ambassador in Paris, confesses he -can do nothing towards mediation between France and Germany, but besides being the medium of an almost instantaneous " acknow- ledgment" of the Republic, he has, oddly enough, added that he 4‘ protests personally against the continuation of an impious war and against useless massacres." Conceive an English ambassador annexing to a declaration of the views of Her Majesty's -Government, a public statement of his own views,—as that of a sort of private potentate who had set up for himself ! Yet all this mischievous and confusing overflow of individual -opinion into the affairs of an embassy does obtain a sort -of mob-favour for the power which permits it, while the prudent reserve of ambassadors and Governments who wait to see what stability there may be in a new experiment, get the reputation of cold, aristocratic hauteur.