Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/93

 later. After doing much political work in addition to his normal duties, owing to the long illness of Charles Stuart Aubrey Abbott, third baron Tenterden [q. v.], the permanent under-secretary of state, and the infirm health of other members of the staff, Pauncefote, on Lord Tenterden's death in 1882, was appointed by Earl Granville, then foreign secretary, to the vacant place, while he continued to superintend the legal work. In 1885 he and Sir Charles Rivers Wilson took part in the international commission at Paris concerning the free navigation of the Suez Canal, and were largely concerned in the draft settlement on which was based the convention of Constantinople (29 Oct. 1888). He was created G.C.M.G. at the close of 1885, and K.C.B. in 1888. On 2 April 1889 Pauncefote was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to the United States; Lord Salisbury had left the office vacant for some months after the abrupt dismissal of Lord Sackville [q. v. Suppl. II]. At Washington, Pauncefote by his personal influence contributed materially to the solution of the various differences, some of them sufficiently acute, which arose between the two countries, and rendered invaluable service in producing a more friendly feeling towards Great Britain in the United States. His patience, urbanity, and habits of complete and impartial study of complicated details combined with his legal training greatly to assist him in dealing with American politicians and officials, most of whom were lawyers. Among the most critical questions with which he had to deal were the claim of the United States to prevent pelagic sealing by Canadian vessels in the Behring Sea, a question which, after passing through some menacing phases, was eventually referred to the decision of an arbitral tribimal at Paris in February 1892; an arrangement was concluded for a modus vivendi pending the award. A second question, which concerned the boundary between Venezuela and British Guiana, was taken up by the United States government in 1895, and the unusual tenour and wording of President Cleveland's message to Congress on the subject, in December, threatened at one moment serious complications. The matter was referred in February 1897 to an arbitral tribunal at Paris, which in October 1899 decided substantially in favour of the British claim. In the discussions and negotiations which preceded the outbreak of war between the United States and Spain, in April 1898, Pauncefote tactfully sought with the representatives of the great European powers to secure a pacific arrangement without suggesting any indifference to freedom and good government in Cuba. Pauncefote's prudence through- out the period of the war did much to establish a lasting friendship between England and the United States. In 1893, after it had been ascertained that such a step would be agreeable to the United States government, the British representative at Washington was raised from the rank of envoy to that of am- bassador. Other great powers followed suit, and Pauncefote, as the senior ambassador, was of much service in settling various questions of precedence and etiquette-consequent on the change. In 1897, after prolonged negotiations, he concluded a convention with the United States for the settlement by arbitration of differences between the two countries. The convention, however, was not approved by the senate, and remained unratified. In 1899 Pauncefote was appointed senior British delegate at the first Hague conference which met to devise means for the limitation of armaments and the pacific settlement of international differences. Pauncefote here rendered his most important service to the cause of peace. Insuperable obstacles were soon apparent to the general acceptance of any binding obligation to reduce armaments or to submit disputes to arbitration. Pauncefote, therefore, ably assisted the president, M. de Staël, in setting the conference to work, as the best alternative, on establishing a suitable permanent tribunal of arbitration, to which voluntary recourse could at any time be readily had, and which other powers might bind themselves to recommend to disputants. In framing the needful machinery Pauncefote gave unostentatious but most efficient assistance, and shared with the president the credit of the success attained. On his return to England, after the termination of the conference, he was raised to the peerage on 18 Aug. 1898. The remaining years of his life were spent as British ambassador in the United States. In February 1900 he signed with Mr. John Hay, the United States secretary of state, a convention designed to replace the provisions of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty of 19 April 1850 with regard to the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. The convention, however, failed to secure confirmation by the senate, and was not ratified. A second convention ('the