Page:Diplomacy and the Study of International Relations (1919).djvu/34

12 long been and still is a desirable part of the equipment of both the junior and the senior members of the diplomatic service. Hamilton Seymour declared in 1861 that ‘by far the most important point for those who enter the profession, is that of learning French’: he agreed that the society of ladies was the society in which it could be most quickly learnt for conversational purposes. He had seen men even in the higher spheres of diplomacy placed in ridiculous situations, and openly laughed at, as a consequence of their want of familiarity with the French language. ‘Would you’, the Earl of Clarendon was asked in 1861, ‘attach supreme importance to a complete familiarity with the French language?’—‘The greatest importance; I consider that a sine qua non.’ ‘Does not the dignity, and almost the respectability, of a foreign minister a great deal depend upon his being able to communicate with his colleagues, and society, in the French language, and in a manner that should not excite either remark or ridicule?’—‘Clearly so; but I also think that he should speak the language of the Court to which he is accredited.’