13. That a premium should be offered for
official envelopes and fastenings to despatches,
which shall prevent the possibility of their
being opened without detection. That they
should then be confided to the honour of
foreign governments, and sent through the
post on all ordinary occasions. As much
security would be offered in this case as under
the present more costly system; for it is
obvious that a government disposed to incur
the consequences of discovery would have
little hesitation in seizing the papers of a
messenger, either by fraud or force. If no means
can be found by the ingenious stationers of
Britain, by which a safe envelope shall be
made for important despatches, perhaps we
have already an old plan which would puzzle
the cleverest scoundrel who ever lent the aid
of his cunning to the worst foreign post-offices.
If the envelope be made of thin paper, and
closed first with a wafer and then with sealing
wax the precaution is complete, for the means
used to melt the wax (a thin stream of gas)
will harden the wafer; and the means used
to soften the wafer will, of course, have no
effect upon the wax. However, if to this
precaution you add a thread, passing round the
despatch and fastening under the wafer; and
if, subsequently the person to whom the
despatch is really addressed cuts the said
envelope open on the address side any attempt
to tamper with the fastening on the other
will be at once ascertained by the
partial burning or division of the thread. If
there should still be persons so mysterious
as to be dissatisfied with these means,
there is still another method of securing
secrecy, which is far beyond all dispute.
Let despatches be enclosed in little leather
covers fastened with patent locks (the famous
American lock, or Chubb's, or Mordan's
enigma locks would be unimpeachable keepers
of secrets). If one set of keys were kept
at the Foreign Office, and the duplicate keys
by officials abroad, and the patent of the lock
fixed upon purchased for government, we
should be gainers of a great many thousands
a year. If anybody should conceive such a
consideration beneath the dignity of a great
nation, I beg most respectfully to disagree
with him. Whether it may suit patrons and
boroughmongers; whether it may be agreeable
to opera girls, to my lord's valet, or to my
lady's maid who gets her fashions from
Paris by the courier, is altogether another
question.

14. It would be well to adopt a better
system in preserving official archives. If
despatches were kept flat, in book form,
instead of creased and folded, they might
be kept in much less space, and preserved
more easily from the effects of time and dust.
If they were bound together in yearly books
and properly indexed, reference to any
particular despatch would be infinitely easier than
now, when it has to be hunted out from a
clumsy bundle, tied with red tape, and which
takes a quarter of an hour to put together
again whenever disturbed.

15. I would recommend that consuls should
be placed under the orders of the Board of
Trade, rather than the Foreign Office, under
the control of which they would be as
misplaced as when formerly under the direction
of the Colonial Office. The fact is, no nation
ever sorted and divided the public worse
than we do. The most liberal nation in the
world, in other respects, we are all for
nonsense and despotism in our offices. It would
be impossible to give the shadow of a reason
for more than half the odd things we witness
with such pride and complacency in Downing
Street and its dependencies.

16. Political despatches only should be
addressed to the Foreign Office; and, as the
world generally is a great deal too busy about
politics just now, the less consuls add to the
hubbub on ordinary occasions the better. A
gentleman living in a seaport town is seldom
placed very advantageously for giving valuable
opinions on politics. I know there are
exceptions, but this is the rule.

17. I would recommend that consuls be
entirely freed from the control of embassies, to
avoid disputes and ill-feeling; although they
should be directed to forward all despatches
under flying seal through the embassy for the
information and guidance of the public
servants belonging to it.

There are other regulations so necessary
and obvious that I blush to be obliged to call
attention to them. They are:

18. That no consuls be ever appointed
who are not acquainted with the language of
the country to which they are sent. That
none but persons who have passed an
examination in civil and criminal law, and are
of mature age, should ever be appointed to
the important consular magistracies of the
Levant; and that in all cases a thorough
knowledge of the laws and regulations
affecting trade shall be deemed
indispensable.

19. That consuls in the Levant be allowed
to charge in their accounts such expenses as
they may be conscientiously obliged to incur
in the discharge of their magisterial duties;
especially in procuring the attendance of
witnesses, and for medical examinations, and
advice in cases of criminal assault, lest
consuls should sometimes be found whose
straitened circumstances compel them to
shrink from taking all possible means to
seek truth; and to support the honour and
dignity of British law in those countries
where we have been mercifully allowed to
establish it.

20. That an experienced clerk be appointed
to all consulates, to be joint custodian
with the consul of all deposits and sums
received on behalf of British subjects; and to
give joint receipts for the same, stamped with
the consular stamp. This post in French
consulates is justly considered so important