Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/319

* DIPLOMACY. 273 DIPLOMATIC AGENTS. was always in a state of war, overt or latent.' The gradual substitution of national for personal and dynastic interests, which the last century has witnessed, has at once given a more pacilic character to international relations and a more straightforward and business-like tone to our diplomacy. Not that suspicion has entirely dis- ap|>eared from the one, or deception from the other, but they have become the exception and not the rule. The international relations of States w-itli which diplomacy has to do are only those of a pacific diameter. With the outbreak of war diplomatic relations come to an end. The suspension of diji- lomatic intercourse is usually a preliminary to a declaration of war, though it is sometimes em- jtloyed as a mild means of coercion of a weak State by a more powerful one. In such a ease it may be regarded as a strong expression of dis- pleasure, which may, if reparation be unduly de- layed, result in the use of force. The usage of the last three hundred years has resulted in the general adoiition of French as the language of diplomatic intercourse in Europe. The recent tendency has been to confine this to oral intercourse, written instructions and other diplomatic dispatches being usually couched in the language of the Government employing and transmitting them. The historj- of diplomacy is one of the most interesting and important chapters in the polit- ical history of nations. Its voluminous sources are to be found in treaties, in the correspondence of ministers of State and ambassadors, contained in tlie published and secret archives of States, and in the diaries and private correspondence of a multitude of ])ublie officials and courtiers. For a further discussion see Ixtebxational Law, and the authorities there referred to; also Moore. A Hundred Years of American Diplomacy (New York, 1000) ; id., Histori/ and Dij/cst of l.ilrrnationnl Arbitrations (Washington) : id.. The Old Diplomacii and the Neu- (Vniversity of Virginia. 1899) ; Bernard, Four Lectures on Stih- jecls Connected with Diplomacy (London, 1868). DIPLOMACY. An adaptation from Sar- dou's Dora, made by Bolton and Savile Rowe, .nnd profUiced in 1878. DIPLOMATIC AGENTS. In the widest sense, all the ollicers to whom the intercourse of the State with foreign powers is committed. As thus emjiloyed. the expression would include the Foreign Minister, or Secretary of State for For- eign -Mfairs, and. in the United States, the Senate in the exercise of its constitutional function of approving treaties with foreign States, as well as the regular and occasional representatives of the ("lovernnient abroad. More properly, how- ever, it has reference only to the latter class of officials, who, under instructions from the home Oovernment. carry on its intercourse with the powers to which they are accredited. Attention has been called in the article on Din.OMACv to the fact that for many centuries the diplomatic intercourse of States was carried on by occa- sional embassies, appointed for a particular pur- pose, and that it was not until the fifteenth cen- tury- that permanent and continuous diplomatic relations were instituted by the establishment of resident embassies. By far the greater part of the international intercourse of the mndem world is conducted through these regular diplo- matic channels, though occasional embassies are still employed for special occasions, principally of a ceremonial character, and the Foreign Ollice, or Department of State, of one Government may, on occasion, comnuinicate its views directly, by circularjOr otherwise, to the corresponding office of foreign States. The transformation of diplomacy in the last century from the art of applying personal infiu- ence in the management of men, to the more prosaic and worthv art of managing the business of the State with f(ueign nations, has necessi- tated a corresponding change in the organization and character of the diplomatic service. The personal qualities of shrewdness, a talent for intrigue, and smoothness of address, on which the old diplomacy was based, declined in im- portance, and made way for the knowledge of international law, of history, of the laws and conditions of trade, of men and affairs, which the new diplomac.v required. Accordingly the management of diplomatic intercourse has in Europe generally ])assed from the men of excep- tional gifts or exceptional influence, selected at random for the service, to a professional class of trained diplomatic servants. The comparative isolation of the United States hitherto, and the simplicity of her foreign relations, have delayed tne adoption of this reform in her diplomatic service, but the new conditions resulting from the war with Spain and her recent extraordinary commercial expansion indicate that a similar change in the character and organization of her diplomatic service cannot be much longer de- layed. Formerly the term ambassador was applied to all accredited diplomatic agents, and it is some- times still employed, interchangeably with minis- ter, as a general term to describe' such agents of whatever rank. But the title is now strictly appropriate' of only one, and that the highest class of diplomatic representatives. The process of classification began before the close of the seventeenth century, but did not receive inter- national recognition until the beginning of the last century. In 181.5 the eight principal powers represented at the Congress of Vienna agreed upon a gradation of diplomatic agents, who were thenceforth to rank as follows: (1) Ambassa- dors, legates and nuncios of the Pope; (2) en- voys, ministers, and others accredited to the sovereign; (3) charges d'affaires accredited to the department of foreign affairs. At the Con- gress of Ai-K-luChapelle a further distinction was made betwe(ni ministers pleiiipotcntiar.v, who were accorded the second place, and ministers resident, who became "an intermediate class be- tween ministers of the second order and charges d'affaires." As the rank of a foreign minister has nothing whatever to do with his power or with the facilities afforded him for transacting diplomatic business, or with the immunities en- joyed by him, but is a mere matter of precedence and the cerenumy of courts, the United States long refused to recognize the classification of the European powers and accredited all of it.s prin- cipal diplomatic agents as ministers plenipo- tentiary, i.e. ministers of full power and author- ity. In 189.3, however, the President was author- ized by act of Congress to appoint ambassadors of full rank and of equal grade and dignity with those which should be accredited by foreigi; pow- ers to this countrv. In accordance with this act