Page:Diplomacy and the Study of International Relations (1919).djvu/40

18 permanent embassies were accepted the resident ambassador did not divest himself of that character; nor has he entirely done so yet. The part has become merged in a larger function and has almost assumed the dress of constitutional propriety, but he is still the eyes and the ears of his State. There is still to-day a distinction in character between the reception by a State of an envoy accredited to it for the special purpose of negotiating an understanding, and the recognition of permanent envoys, representatives of foreign States. The reception and use of the former were essential to the conduct of the art of negotiating. But to send or to receive the latter is discretionary on the part of a State, although it has become an established convention for all full-Sovereign States to send and to receive them, with a view to the maintenance of intercourse among the members of the Family of Nations. With