All of us who have influence--and that I trust may be said of both of us, who now meet for the first time--we are so few that I, a stranger to you, though not, I trust, wholly unrecommended, dare come to you to-night." "With what purpose, then.

Sir ?" "With the immediate purpose of learning at first hand the truth of the revolutionary system in Europe.

I have not been abroad of late, indeed not for some years.

But I know that our diplomacy is all a-tangle.

The reports are at variance, and we get them colored by partisan politics.