Transcriber's Note: The following spelling corrections were made:
p. 23: "I said I would come with pleassure" changed to read "I said Iwould come with pleasure"
p. 28: "generally a collection of litttle" changed to read "generally acollection of little"
p. 34: "they all wear red flannnel" changed to read "they all wear redflannel"
p. 69: "As soon the the Sovereigns had taken" changed to read "As soonas the Sovereigns had taken"
p. 109: "where the suppper" changed to read "where the supper"
p. 110: "I took a last look at the black Madonnna" changed to read "Itook a last look at the black Madonna"
p. 111: "how we managed to eat chicken and mayonnaaise" changed to read"how we managed to eat chicken and mayonnaise"
p. 118: "We have just come in from a pleasant dinner at theJuarès" changed to read "We have just come in from a pleasantdinner at the Jaurès"
"Admiral Juarès was very hospitable" changed to read "AdmiralJaurès was very hospitable"
p. 142: "there are always babauds hanging over" changed to read "thereare always badauds hanging over"
All instances of "cortege" and "cortège" were changed to "cortége"
LETTERS OF A DIPLOMAT'S WIFE
1883-1900
BY
MARY KING WADDINGTON
ILLUSTRATED FROM DRAWINGS AND PHOTOGRAPHS
SMITH, ELDER & CO. LONDON
1903
Copyright, 1903, by Charles Scribner's Sons for the United States of America
Printed by the Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Company New York, U. S. A.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
BY THE COLLECTOR OF THE LETTERS
Mary Alsop King Waddington is a daughterof the late Charles King, President of Columbia Collegein the City of New York from 1849 to 1864, and agranddaughter of Rufus King, the second Minister sentto England by the United States after the adoption ofthe Constitution.
Miss King was educated in this country. In 1871,after the death of her father, she went, with her motherand sisters, to live in France, and in 1874 became thewife of M. William Henry Waddington.
M. Waddington was born in Normandy, France, in1826. His grandfather was an Englishman who hadestablished cotton manufactories in France, and had becomea naturalised French citizen. The grandson, however,was educated first in a Paris lycée, then at Rugby,and later at Trinity College, Cambridge. As an undergraduatehe rowed in the Cambridge boat in the Universityrace of 1849. Soon after leaving the University,M. Waddington returned to France and entered publiclife. In 1871 he was elected a representative from theDepartment of the Aisne to the National Assembly, andtwo years afterward was appointed Minister of PublicInstruction in place of M. Jules Simon. In January,1876, he was elected a senator for the Department ofthe Aisne, and two months later again became Minister of Public Instruction. In December, 1877, he acceptedthe portfolio of Minister of Foreign Affairs.
M. Waddington was the first plenipotentiary ofFrance to the Congress of Berlin in 1878. On February4, 1879, he became President of the Council (Pre