FENNIMORE COOPER.

MR. COOPER has been in town for a week or two past, looking, as the Scripture phrases it, "like a tiel tree or an oak, whose strength is in them though they cast their leaves." By the present promise of his robust frame, and steady eye, he will give us new leaves (of new books) for many a Spring yet to come. In a conversation with the eminent novelist while here, we reverted to the time when we first had the pleasure of secing him—in Paris, in 1832—and, among other remembrances of the period, he mentioned a circumstance, illustrative of the long-ago gestation of the ambition of Louis Napoleon, which we asked leave to record, as a chiffon of history. Mr. Cooper's house, we should mention, was, at that time, the "hospice de St. Bernard" of the Polish refugees, and, as the nucleus of republican sympathies in the great capital, his intimacy with Lafayette, personal reasons aside, was necessarily very close and confidential. At his daily breakfast table, open to all friends and comers-in, (and supplied, we remember, for hour after hour of every day with hot buckwheat cakes, which were probably eaten nowhere else on that side the water,) many a distinguished but impoverished Polish refugee ate his only meal for the twenty-four hours, and, to the same hospitable house,

COOPER'S HOSPITALITY.

211

came all who were interested in the great principle of that struggle, distinguished men of most nations among them. But, to the story :

I was calling upon Lafayette, one day, (said Mr. Cooper) and was let in by his confidential servant, who, it struck me, showed signs of having something to conceal. He said his master was at home, and, after a moment's hesitation, made way for me to go on as usual to his private room-but I saw that there was some embarrassment. I walked in, and found the General alone. He received me with the same cordiality as ever, but inquired with some eagerness who let me in, and whether I met an old acquaintance going out. I told him that his old servant had admitted me, and that there was certainly something peculiar in the man's manner; but as I had seen no one else, I knew nothing more. "Ah," said the General, "that fellow put him in the side-room. Sit down, and I will tell you. Prince Louis Napoleon Bonaparte was here two miuutes ago!" I expressed surprise, of course, for this was in '33, when it was death for a Bonaparte to enter France. "Yes," continued the General," and he came with a proposition. He wishes to marry my grand-daughter Clementine, unite the Republicanists and Imperialists, make himself Emperor, and my grand-daughter Imperatrice!" And, if it be not an indiscreet question, I said, what was your answer, my dear General? “I told him," said Lafayette, "that my family had the American notion on that subject, and chose husbands for themselves that there was the young lady-he might go and court her, and, if she liked him, I had no objection."

Mr. Cooper did not tell us (for of course he did not know) how the Prince plied his wooing, nor why he failed. The fair Clementine, who, thus, possibly, lost her chance of being an Em

press, married Monsieur de Beaumont, and now represents her rejected admirer, as the French ambassadress at the court of Austria. Shortly after this visit to Lafayette, Mr. Cooper was in London, and mentioned to the Princess Charlotte, (the widow of the elder brother of the present President,) this venture of Prince Louis into the den of the Orleanists. "He is mad!" was the only reply. But the finger-post of "that way madness lies," does not always point truly. At any rate, there is a certain "method in his madness," for the same match between Imperialism and Republicanism has been the Prince's pursuit ever since, and the chances are that he will finally bring it about— Clementine's and other intermediate unbelievings, notwithstanding.

DIPLOMATIC

SCHROEDER AND FAY.

APPOINTMENTS.

THE appointment of Mr. SCHROEDER as Chargé d'Affaires to Sveden, gives us that "threshold of commendation," by which we have long wished to enter upon the subject of FITNESS IN Before generalizing upon the matter, let us say more definitely, to those of our readers who have not had the good fortune to meet Mr. Schroeder, that a better model for an incumbent of that particular office could be picked from no diplomatic school, even in Europe. With singular elegance of person and a temperament naturally courtly and gracious, Mr. Schroeder is, in the best sense of the phrase, an accomplished man." He has had such an education as few young men get in this country; and, to the solid acquirements necessary in his profession as an engineer, are added a practical acquaintance with European languages-acquisitions, such as are rarely made by gentlemen of leisure, in the arts and music-fine scholarship and habitual familiarity with the forms of refined society. A lovely wife, who has been the charm of the brilliant circle of which her mother's house is the centre at Washington, will not be a trifling accessory to what the new Chargé takes with him to grace his office at the Court of Sweden. We may

66

214

DIPLOMATIC FITNESS.

well wish our country were always, and at every Court, to be as favorably represented.

The appointment, alone, of Minister to England, might be kept, without objection, to serve its present purpose-a step of honor by which a Government Secretary could leave the Cabinet with dignity, or a shelf whereon a politician could be set aside as an honorary bust, when the plastic clay of his party influence stiffens beyond farther moulding. England knows our country well enough to make allowance for any manners in any man whom it was necessary for the American President thus to reward or get rid of. The language being the same, too, the talent which had brought the new Minister to his eminent position at home, would be likely to come out in conversation; and force of character and originality of mind would be appreciated by English statesmen, even through the nasal accent, exaggerated phraseology, and newly-adopted manners, which would very likely be their accompaniments, in a purely political appointee.

The mission to France is also, perhaps, too important a gift to be taken away from party bestowal, and both this and the mission to England, from our important relations with these two countries, require men of sound judgment and some breadth of opinion and experience though, to have our country represented at Paris by a man who does not fluently speak French, let his claims otherwise be what they may, is a discreditable possibility which we trust to Heaven our public sense of dignity will outgrow.

Allowing overruling reasons to make exceptions of these two Missions, however, the others, it seems to us, (and the Secretaryships of all,) should be given to those only who have the kind of education to enable them to perform their duties, properly and gracefully. A knowledge of French, which is the diplomatic