 When Tokugawa Akitake was sent to visit the 1867 World Fair in Paris, France, Alexander accompanied him.With the Meiji Restoration, Tokugawa Akitake was ordered back to Japan, but Alexander stayed on in Europe and returned to Japan a year later in 1869 as an advisor to the Empire of Austria-Hungary.He was subsequently ennobled with the title of baron by Franz Joseph I 

In August 1870, he resigned from the British Consulate.