Baron Rothschild also called on me yesterday, saying that
he had conversed with the Comte de Rigny, who assured him that the note
was not intended as a notice to depart, and that he would be glad to see
me on the subject. I answered that I could have no verbal explanations
on the subject, to which he replied that he had suggested the writing
a note on the subject, but that the minister had declined any written
communication. Rothschild added that he had made an appointment with the
Comte de Rigny for 6 o'clock, and would see me again at night, and he
called to say that there had been a misunderstanding as to the time of
appointment, and that he had not seen Mr. de Rigny, but would see him
this morning. But in the meantime I determined on sending my note, not
only for the reasons contained in it, which appeared to me conclusive,
but because I found that the course was the correct one in diplomacy,
and that to ask for a passport merely because the Government near which
the minister was accredited had suggested it would be considered as
committing the dignity of his own; that the universal practice in such
cases was to wait the order to depart, and not by a voluntary demand
of passports exonerate the foreign Government from the odium and
responsibility of so violent a measure.
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