10 The British Embassies, Ambassadors, QJAN. 



That it may be of importance to have agents at foreign courts is un- 

 questionable. But that unless they are men of ability, vigilance, and 

 knowledge, they are useless or directly injurious, is equally unquestion- 

 able. Now, from what rank of mankind are the candidates for those five 

 great appointments chosen ? In nine instances out of ten they are peers, 

 or chosen from the class of noble blood, the sons or immediate relatives 

 of the peerage ; and in ninety-nine instances out of a hundred, men 

 less fitted for those appointments or any others, could not be chosen. 



But let us look at their enormous emoluments. A place of twelve 

 thousand pounds a year, would be an abuse, even in the high salaries of 

 English office, and would be an enormous income even in the dearness of 

 every article of English life. But those emoluments are not for the 

 scale of English, but of foreign life. To take the most expensive capital 

 of the continent : in Paris, though 300/. a year will scarcely support 

 a family better than in London, yet the proportion decreases prodigiously 

 as the scale of property rises. A man who spends 3,000/. a year in 

 Paris, will have as much luxury for it, as he could have for 6,000/. in 

 London ; because in Paris, though the necessaries of life may be not 

 much cheaper than in London, the luxuries are. The scale varies still 

 more with the advance, and a British functionary with an income in 

 Paris of 12,000/. a year, would be on the footing of an Englishman 

 spending in London 30,0007. a year a sum actually equal to the vice- 

 royalty of Ireland, without any of the establishments of a court, and 

 with scarcely any necessity for keeping up an official show. 



This, no man knows better than Lord Stuart, who lives on an expendi- 

 ture even ridiculously narrow, and whose notorious want of hospitality is 

 the laugh of the English in Paris. Some of his lordship's pursuits may 

 be costly enough, but as they are certainly not displayed in the house of 

 embassy, we leave them to other inquirers. This ill mannered and very 

 niggardly personage, may make no model for diplomatic courtesy ; but it 

 is certain that one fourth of the salary would be sufficient for all the 

 necessary hospitality, and even for all the ceremonial and show of an 

 English embassy in Paris. 



We should mention that there is no obvious allowance for a house, the 

 British government having some years ago purchased a hotel in the Rue 

 St. Honore ; and as the ambassador has thus no rent to pay, none is 

 allowed ; but the house requires furniture, repairs, &c. and the repairs 

 are no trifle, for a short time since the bill amounted to fifteen thousand 

 pounds ! 



Thus, between outfit, secretary, and so forth ; the first year of the 

 English ambassador in Paris, costs 16,500/. ! and every following one 

 12,500/., independently of the interest and repairs of his house of em- 

 bassy. But we have not done with him yet. He claims a retiring pen- 

 sion after a term of service, and the weight of this on the country in his 

 person, may be estimated by the extraordinary fact, that in 1816, the 

 period when the last public returns were made, those retired pensions 

 amounted to no less a sum than fifty thousand pounds a year ! 



The Embassy at Vienna has the same outfit, salary, secretaryship, &c., 

 but with still higher advantages in point of emolument. Austria is one 

 of the cheapest countries in Europe ; and in Vienna, the English pound, 

 even when exchange is at par, is worth very little short of four pounds in 

 London. This would raise the Ambassador's salary of 12,000/., to not 

 much less than 40,000/. But the exchange is always greatly in favour 

 of England ; and the English pound is often worth half as much more 

 from the mere depression of the Austrian money. This would raise the 

 salary to between 50, and 60,000/ v on the lowest calculation ; and this 



