may have quite a different meaning, and a
sulky stupid fellow might bring about a war.
Every smile, every intonation ot a chief therefore
ought to be copied. A dragoman should
look upon himself merely as the faithful
mouthpiece of his superior. If he add one
word more or less to a phrase, he may spoil
the work of the ablest negociator. No one
can discharge such duties properly who has
not considered and felt them. I will go
farther and say that nobody can render
rightly the ideas of one English gentleman,
but another English gentleman. By the
term English gentleman, I mean a man who
has been educated in the ideas of persons of
our standard of honour, and accustomed to
live habitually with them. For we have our
own straightforward Island way of looking
at things. We may be right, or we may be
wrong; but for my part, I believe a high-
minded honourable Englishman makes the
best and safest of negociators. He must,
however, be clearly understood; for if you
bother him and put him out, he grows hot
and confused. Now, in our negociations with
the Court of Dahomey, the British ambassador
was not understood, for the simple reason,
that not one of the dragomen had a thorough
knowledge of English. Even their reports
to the Embassy on the most trifling occasions
were made in a kind of barbarous French,
which it was a great question, nine times out
of ten, if the ambassador understood in his
turn. Bless my heart! Had our schools
and universities no youths between the ages
of ten and twenty-five, who could make
themselves thoroughly acquainted with the
English and Dahometan? I have known
men who mastered the latter in twelve
months. It is the easiest of jargons.

It may be readily supposed, after what I
have said, that I did mighty little in my
official career at Dahomey. But I brought
away a thought or two on our Embassies in
general, and I proceed to note them.

I should like to see our embassies form
more of a council than they do; many heads
are better than one. The wisest ambassador
may, now and then, be the better for a
little wholesome advice; although he never
will be induced to take it unless it is
imposed upon him. He grants any of his
suite a voice in an affair of importance, as
grudgingly as an absolute king grants a
parliament.

I would like to see the duties of each
member of an Embassy clearly fixed and
appointed as in other services, so that he may
qualify himself to fulfil them; and not be
forced into a place for which he is unfit by
habit and education, at the pleasure of a
chief who does not take the trouble to know
him.

I would like to see men of more real mark
and importance attached to our Embassies.
They would thus acquire an immense
increase of weight and importance. A lad of
nineteen can be of no use upon a foreign
mission, except to bring it into disrepute
while he is sowing his wild oats. He is a
mere encumbrance, and could learn his
business much better at home.

Let us be represented abroad as we really
are; in our best colours; by our best men who
have really shown ability, and earned (not
inherited) distinction. Let us have really
respectable Embassies, which may help to
advance the progress of science and
civilisation all over the world; which may
carry the healthy genius of our land from
one hemisphere to the other, and bring
us back numberless practical benefits in
return. What stores of useful information,
not only to Government, but to the public,
might be gleaned by really able and useful
men attached to our diplomatic establishments;
by draughtsmen, surveyors, engineers,
physicians, soldiers, lawyers, sound men
thoroughly accustomed to observe, and
scholars!

Our Embassies might be much more
numerous than they are. At Paris, Vienna, Constantinople,
Berlin, Naples, Madrid, we could
hardly have too many clear-headed, hard-working
men; while such a farce as our
missions at Hanover, Stuttgardt, Dresden,
and so forth, ought to be abolished as
ridiculous. Chargés d'affaires with a thousand
a year, not too proud to attend to
their business, would really be of service
there.

As it is, how does the case stand? Not
one in twenty of our diplomatic servants
knows anything of our real interests, either
in art, letters, science, or commerce. Will you
only consider the notable case of Lord Fiddlededee
at Timbuctoo. Yet he is but one example
out of several. Useful treaties, therefore,
are seldom made except by men like
Ashburton or Bruck, who were altogether
out of the regular line.

We are essentially a commercial people;
and our public servants should be qualified
to look to the interests of that commerce
which they are placed in positions of honour
and emolument to protect. This is precisely
where our diplomacy most signally fails. It
writes home despatches about the health
of serene princes and their relations to the
third and fourth generation; about the
opinions of this man or that man on Noodle
or Doodle questions, worth as little as the
men themselves. It presents the assurance
of its high consideration; and it smiles,
and it dines, and it bows, with curious
felicity.

I do not mean by any means to object to
dining. Lord Palmerston never said a truer
thing than when he assured us that dining was
the soul of diplomacy. No good was ever done
without being on pleasant terms with people;
and an invitation to dinner is merely an
assurance of good will. It saves a vast deal
of trouble, talk, and loss of time. People