Page:Dramatic Moments in American Diplomacy (1918).djvu/45

Rh "His reputation was more universal than that of Liebnitz or Newton, Frederick or Voltaire, and his character more beloved and esteemed than any or all of them. * * * His name was familiar to government and people, to foreign countries, nobility, clergy, and philosophers, as well as plebeians to such a degree that there was scarcely a peasant or a citizen, a valet de chambre, a coachman or footman, a lady's chambermaid or a scullion in a kitchen, who was not familiar with it, and who did not consider him a friend to human kind."

The remarkable thing about this was, that the "scullion in the kitchen" was right—as every chancellor in Europe knew.

There was no more need or use of secrecy. All England rang with the news. Lord Rockingham declared that this diplomat's arrival in France was a serious blow to Great Britain, more than counterbalancing the British victory on Long Island and the capture of New York. It was a common saying in London that he