The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1859-08-25

A "OuApRnATERAL" ACCOUNT OF AN INTER-
VIEW BETWEEN WIN. 81. SEWARD AND THE BRrTIsH
QuEEN-Our quadrilateral contemporary Of this
curious paragraph, evidently resulting from the
same adding OF the brains which "formed elbows
in the Mincio by the sympathies Of youth" The
writer mas not yet recovered from the panic
which seized him after the battle of Solferino.
The sight Of the Austrian hussar still disturbs
his imagination by day and by night even after
he has escaped from the Continent and reached
the eight little island" where certainly the
enemys horse cannot further pursue him.
From the distant outskirts of the battlefield he
never stopped till he found himself in Paris after
flying all the way over plains and Alps, as If,
like Gi]pin, he rode q race. He stopped not
for brake, and he stayed not for stone" With
hat off, his hair disheveled and streaming in the
wind, with wild, excited mien, be dashed through
the villages at full speed. The people, seeing ne
one in pursuit, concluded he was lunatic escaped
from an asylum. Even in Paris he did not deem
himself safe. He lost no time in getting to Eng
land, where he placed himself under the wing
of William II. Seward. Whether 1t was
the cannonade of Solferino or the panic
after the battle, or both combined, that
affected his brain, certain it is be has had bad
head ever since, and it is very doubtful if it will
ever grow better. His story of an interview of
Seward with Victoria is an evidence Of this. He
Says
Wsen asked by the Queen what he thought Of what he
had feen Of public life in England Mr. Seward replied,
which her Majesty rather pontediy reped M hone Won
have found noihing OF that kind to study here"
Who could have written that but the panic
stricken individual who made such mess of the
Mincio? 1t is very we'll known by every we'll
informed person that the Queen of England
never talks politics; and so obsequious
and smooth-tougued politician as Sew
ard would be about the last man in
the world to make 90 rude aud offensive an
observation to the first lady in England, if, indeed
he ever conversed with her at all Besides the
reply get down for him is not an answer to the
Queens supposed question. She asks what he had
seen, and be does not answer her as to this but
is made to cay what he had come to do. Seward
is too acute man, and has better know
ledge Of good manners than to neglect the
forms and etiquette Of the society in which he
moves. he knew very well that to address the
Queen as "madam" was to slight her rsnk as
sovereign, and he would undoubtedly have said
''your Majesty" And then the absurdi.y of bis
telling the Queen that he had come to study des-
potism in her dominions, for that is the amount
Of his reply; and she is represented as if feeling
that the observation was levelled at her throne
The paragraph, in every point of view, is so alb
surd that there is no accounting for it but on
the supposition which we have suggested, that
the writer who, under the influence of terror,
gave that matchless account of the Mincio, is
still laboring under the same mental hallucna-
ton and must therefore be excused. 1t is not
his fault, but his misfortune.