EDWARD EVERETT.

the governing classes of the country to which he was accredited were in undisguised sympathy with the rebels, and willing to do everything that was consistent with neutrality, and more, to promote their success. To reduce to its minimum the assistance which the Rebellion was deriving from these sources, to prevent a formal recognition of the rebels as belligerents, to stop the fitting out of blockaderunners in English ports, and to strengthen to the utmost the modest party in England that remained in sympathy with us, was the arduous and solemn duty imposed upon Mr. Adams. It is generally conceded that his success was extraordinary, and though he did not succeed in preventing the recognition of the rebels as belligerents, nor in stopping the equipment of blockade-runners in English ports, nor in producing any sensible modification of the hostile feelings of the governing classes toward America, to him is conceded the merit of having done as much in those directions as probably could have been accomplished by any representative.

Mr. Adams remained in England seven years, and long enough to see peace restored in his own country, and the ruling classes of England sueing for

forgiveness and forgetfulness of their ungenerous treatment of his country in its time of trial.

J. LOTHROP MOTLEY, 1869-1870.

Upon the accession of President Grant, in 1869, Mr. J. Lothrop Motley was designated as the successor of Mr. Adams. Mr. Motley had been Minister to Austria during the administration of President Lincoln, and part of the administration of President Johnson. He resigned that mission in a pet, because President Johnson had directed some passages of a letter written by a tourist from Vienna, criticising his (Motley's) official deportment, to be transmitted to him for such explanations as he might think they merited.

A yet more unfortunate termination awaited Mr. Motley's diplomatic career in England. He enjoyed the friendship and protection of Senator Sumner, and came to be suspected by the President of giving more heed to the instructions of the Senator than of the Secretary of State. It finally transpired that in one of his communications to the British Minister of Foreign Affairs he transcended the instructions of the Secretary of State, and failed to communicate the fact to his Government, in consequence of which he was recalled in 1870. His diplomatic career will be chiefly remembered for these unfortunate misunderstandings with his Government.

ROBERT C. SCHENCK, 1871-1876.

Mr. Motley was succeeded by Robert C. Schenck, of Ohio, who took charge of the American Legation in 1871.

Mr. Schenck had occupied a seat in the lower branch of Congress for sixteen years; he had represented our country in Brazil from 1851 to 1853, and during the Rebellion had risen in the army to the rank of brigadier, and afterward of major-general of volunteers. During his residence in London, he was more or less conspicuous in the negotiations which resulted in the Treaty of Washington for the settlement of the Alabama claims, and the Geneva Conference.

Though his official conduct seemed to receive the approval of his Government, he was less fortunate in the impression he left upon his country-people visiting London. He resigned in 1876.

EDWARDS PIERREPONT, 1876-1878. The resignation of Mr. Schenck led President Grant to

CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

a partial reorganization of his Cabinet, and to the selection of Edwards Pierrepont, of New York, then his AttorneyGeneral, to succeed Mr. Schenck in London. Mr. Pierrepont was most fortunate in entering upon the duties of his mission when it was more than ever in our history the policy of England to cultivate friendly relations with the United States.

He gave himself a European notoriety on the very day of his arrival in England, the Fourth of July, by attending a meeting in London, called to celebrate the anniversary of our independence, and making a speech in which he

ROBERT C. SCHENCK.

spoke of Mr. Gladstone, then in the Opposition, in disparaging, not to say offensive, terms.

It was largely, if not entirely. due to the address of Mr. Pierrepont that General Grant owed his flattering recep tion in England in 1877, and we may add, in the other countries which he subsequently visited, where the example of England in such matters is more or less decisive.

JOHN WELSH, 1878-1880.

In the second year of Mr. Hayes's administration, 1878, Mr. Pierrepoint was replaced by John Welsh, of Pennsylvania. Like Abbott Lawrence, Mr. Welsh's principal claim to this distinction was his large wealth, and the generous use he had made of it; but unlike Mr. Lawrence, he had never had any experience in Congress or in public life. He held the position but two years, and then resigned. If not fortunate enough to achievo distinction as a diplomatist, he was more fortunate than many of his more eminent predecessors in escaping serious criticism.

J. RUSSELL LOWELL, 1880.

Upon the accession of Mr. Hayes to the Presidency, he appointed Mr. J. RussoH Lowell, of Massachusetts, to the Madrid mission. Upon the resignation of Mr. Welsh, Mr. Lowell was transferred to London, where he fully sustains the reputation which the State of Massachusetts has conferred upon that mission, and where he occupies a position of social and political influence which has scarcely been accorded to any of his predecessors. The time to estimate him as a diplomatist and statesman is not yet arrived. Should Mr. Lowell remain at his post till the close of the administration, Massachusetts will probably have no cause to feel ashamed of the record she has made in American diplomacy during the century then to close, with John Adams at one end of it and James Russell Lowell at the other.

A CHAT ABOUT GOOD CHEER.
BY SUTHERLAND MENZIES.

THE decline of high-class cookery in France generally, and notably at Paris, has become a subject of general complaint not only with the expert gastronome, but also the refined and appreciative viveur. The first-rate chef de cuisine is almost a personage of the past. How has this happened in such an age of practical science and widely prevailing enjoyment like the present? Is it attributable to the Spartan simplicity of the young Republican régime which in theory holds that a true democrat should be neither gourmel nor gastronome, though he may be a vigorous trencherman ?

The Revolution of 1789 overthrew the great nobles, the sumptuous tables, and the grand manners; but Talleyrand restored all that, and, thanks to him, the reputation of France again made the tour of the world and substantiated its claim to supremacy in stately and refined hospitality. Whose task will it be now to restore all this to its former splendor? The palmy days of haute cuisine were when Carême and his fellow-artists produced their masterpieces for the repasts of the monarchs and great statesmen of the early part of the century.

Carême was the representative of the culinary art in its highest perfection. Amidst the prodigalities of the Directory he had prepared the delicate luxury and exquisite sensuality of the First Empire. The table of Prince de Talleyrand was served, Carême tells us, "avec sagesse et grangeur, donnait l'exemple et rappelait aux bons principes les gens comme il faut."

Carême having grown up with the Empire, one can fancy his grief at seeing it crumble to pieces. He was constrained to accomplish, in the plain of Vertus, the gigantic regal banquet of 1814. The year following, the Prince Regent summoned him to Brighton as chef de cuisine. He remained in England two years, and drew up every day, under the eye of his somewhat blasé Royal Highness, the menu for dinner. It was during these private consultations that he penned a course of dietetic gastronomy which would be considered among the classics of the kitchen.

Bored by the dull-gray skies of England, he retired to Paris; but the Prince Regent, having succeeded to the throne, recalled him in 1821. For a French cook to be misunderstood is the most unpardonable outrage that can be inflicted on him. "Je lui ai composé," said the great chief, bitterly, of George IV., "une longe de veau ca surprise. Il l'a mangée; mais il n'a pu le comprendre." So the disgusted cook composed a last sauce, which he called "La dernière Pensée de Carême," and retired from the royal service.

From London Carême went to St. Petersburg; next to Vienna to superintend some grand dinners of the Emperor of Austria. He then revisited London, but only to return to Paris to write and publish. But as, at the frequent congresses that were then taking place, all the sovereigns desired to have him, he was continually torn away from his theorizing. Carême had become indispensable during those diplomatic assemblies. But great labor shortens life. "The charcoal kills us," he said; "but what does that matter? The fewer years, the greater glory." He died, sacrificed, in fact, by his genius, on January 12th, 1833, before he had reached his fiftieth year, leaving pupils worthy of him, among others the excellent Vuillemot.

The name of Marie-Antoine Carême, certainly, did not seem destined to acquire the gastronomic celebrity which it attained. Since his death many princes have lost their principalities, many kings have descended from their thrones. Carême, the king of the kitchen by his genius, has kept his position, and no rival glory has appeared to eclipse him.

Like all founders of empires, like Theseus, like Romulus, Carême was a sort of foundling. He was born at Paris on June 7th, 1784, in a woodyard in the Rue du Bac, where his father worked; the latter, burdened with fifteen children and not knowing how to find them in daily bread, took little Marie-Antoine, then eleven years old, to dine with him one day at the barrier. Then leaving him there on the pavement, he said:

"Go, my little fellow; there are plenty of good employments in this world. If we allow ourselves to sink into sloth, misery will be our lot, and we must die in it. Now is the time to make your fortune, and it only needs talent, and you don't lack that. Go, my little fellow; this evening or to-morrow some good house will perhaps open its door to receive you. Go ahead with what our good God has given you and what I add.”

And the excellent man added his blessing. From that forward Marie-Antoine saw no more either of father or mother, who died young; or his brothers or his sisters, who were scattered over the wide world.

Night soon darkened down upon him. The boy, attracted by a well-lighted window, tapped on the pane. It was the kitchen of a low eating-house, of which history has not preserved the owner's name. This man welcomed Carême, and on the morrow took the lad into his service. When at sixteen he quitted that dingy gargote to work at a restaurant, where his progress was rapid, the youth

already gave promise of what he would one day become. From the time when he was taken into the employ of Bailly, a famous pastry cook in the Rue Vivienne, who excelled in cream tarts, and supplied Prince Talleyrand, he saw his way clearly for the future and discovered his vocation.

Shortly after entering his seventeenth year he quitted these great pastry-houses, in which he had greatly distinguished himself by his designs of unique confectionery termed extraordinaires, in order to superintend grand dinners.

"That was sufficient to occupy the whole of my time," he tells us in his memoirs. "I continued to rise higher and higher, and made a great deal of money. The envious were jealous of me, a poor working-lad, and I have found myself a butt for the attacks of not a few small pastry-cooks who will have much to achieve ere they stand where I do."

Carême is perhaps the only man of his time whose fame has remained undisputed.

Much has been said about Talleyrand's table, and much that is incorrect. The Prince-bishop was of opinion that a wholesome and well-studied kitchen should tend to fortify health and to keep off serious maladies. And the good health he enjoyed during the last forty years of his life affords a strong argument in favor of that dictum. All that was illustrious in Europe, political, erudite and artistic, as well as great generals, ministers, diplomatists, poets, found seats at his sumptuous board, and all without exception owned that the highest refinement of culinary art, allied with a hospitality the most unbounded, reigned there.

The Prince went every year to drink the waters at Bourbon d'Archambault, thence to his magnificent chateau of Valençay, where he kept open table to the celebrities of Europe. At Paris his dinner-hour was eight o'clock; in the country he dined at five, and in fine weather he afterward walked out. On returning to the house the silent game of whist was played, and, that over, Talleyrand retired to his cabinet and there fell asleep. His flatterers then said that he was absorbed in his reflections.

When eighty the active-minded veteran diplomatist devoted an hour every morning to a discussion with his cook upon the ordre du jour of the menu for dinner-the only repast he took in the twenty-four hours, for in the morning before he began work he merely drank two or three cups of camomile tea. Bouché or Bouche-Sèche, who had been in the service of the Condé family, and who was noted for the savor and succulence of his good cheer, was charged with the duty of appointing the kitchens of the Prince's establishments at Paris and Valençay. It was he who produced those famous dinners at the Affaires Etrangères that became classic, and were so continually imitated. The Prince placed the utmost confidence in Bouché, and allowed him perfect liberty in the matter of expenditure, and accepted all he did with a good grace. Bouché died in the Prince's service, his first post of chef having been in the establishment of the unfortunate Princess de Lamballe, and Talleyrand's kitchen was only a continuation of that of the house of Condé.

The menu of a "dîner maigre" given by Talleyrand in honor of the Emperor Alexander is worth noting, and does great credit to the invention and resources of the chef:

"Four soups: Riz à la Crécy; potage aux laitues nouvelles; potage de filets de soles; potage de quenelles de carpes aux champignons. Four relevés: Filets de carrelets à la Orly; riasoles de poisson à l'allemande; attelets de goujous panés; croquettes de saumon aux truffes Four grosses pièces: Carpe à la polonaise; turbot à la hollandaise; hure d'esturgeon au vin de

Champagne; brochet à la Régence. Sixteen entrées: Plies à la bourguignonne; vol-au-vent de laitances de carpes; boudins de poisson au beurre d'écrevisses; darnes de saumon à la vénitienne; hollandaise; petits-pâtés de filets de soles à la Béchamel; rougets salade de homards à la provençale; escalopes de cabillaud à la grillés, sauce à l'italienne; papillotes d'aloses à Huxelles; petites timbales de nouilles aux crevettes; fillets de soles à la bayonnaise; turban de merlans à la Conti; vives grillées, sauce aux tomates; perches à la bayonnaise; caiss d'huîtres et de laitances à l'italienne; páté chaud d'anguilles à l'ancienne; bonne morue au gratin. Four grosses pièces d'entremets: Buisson d'écrevisses normandes; poupelin glacé au four; gâteau au riz soufflé; buisson de truffes. Four plats de rôts: Truite au bleu; plongeons de Seine; sarcelles au citron; merlans frits, panés à l'anglaise. Sixteen entremets: Gelée de marasquin, œufs à la Dauphine; cardes à la poulette; génoises pralinées; plongeons bardés d'anguilles; tartelettes de pommes glacées; épinards au jus; céleri à la Béchamel; crème françoise au cédrat; fromage bavarois aux framboises; patatos d'Espagne à la maître d'hôtel; champignons à l'espagnole, gâteaux à la d'Artois; choux glacés au cardinal; laftues farcies à l'essence d'esturgeon; œufs brouillés au verjus muscat; gelée d'orange moulée. Six assiettes volantes de soufflés à la vanille; forty-eight assiettes de dessert."

The cuisine of Louis XIV.'s time was nice, sumptuous and substantial. The Grand Monarque was a prodigious eater; and a suspicion only of the degree of delicacy to which the art could reach at the table of the Condés had then dawned. It was under the Regent, Orléans, to his petits soupers, to the cooks he formed, whom he paid and treated so royally and so politely, that the eighteenth century was indebted for its excellent cookery. That promoter of conviviality and good humor - that science which we may well and truly call the gay scienceawakened men's wit by stimulating it to the keenest point. French conversation, which soon became the model for European conversation, found, from midnight to one o'clock in the morning, its highest perfection at table.

The long reign of Louis XV. was monotonous as regarded the kitchen. M. de Richelieu alone produced some variety over the ordinary sameness of those perfumes, flowers, and fruits which were resorted to as accessories. He invented the pudding à la Richelieu and the bayonnaise, which French restaurateurs persist in calling Mahonnaises, under pretext that they had been first produced on the eve or the morrow of the capture of Port Mahon. Neither must we omit to place beside those dishes the Béchamel sauce and Soubise cutlets. This period appears so much the longer from having succeeded that vivacious epoch presided over by the Regent, when everybody was youthful and possessed of wit and good digestion. One of the Duke's faults was that he was too good-natured. Nothing made him angry, nothing displeased him. His levity was such that he turned everything into pleasantry. The Regency was the gayest epoch of the gay French nation, when during some seven or eight years people lived only to eat, drink, and be merry. But, alas! the heavy reckoning for all that came in the next reign.

According to the worthy M. Grand Manche, chef of the kitchens of the sordid arch-chancellor Cambacérès, who was daily in the habit of checking sharply the dinner expenses, the master of the house ought to say nothing, see nothing about the cost of a first-rate dinner, but simply trust to the skill and probity of his cook for the result. It is a delicate point, but the illustrious Talleyrand, Carême tells us, acted upon these principles, and they are those of good taste, and were those of all the great gentlemen whom I have served: Castlereagh, George IV., the Emperor Alexander, etc. But Cambacérès," he adds, was never an epicure in the proper acceptation of the Word; he was born simply a gross and voracious eater." It is said that Louis XVIII, in his elaborate banquets,

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