18 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE-VIII 



a similar purpose it was making a generous provision. 

 The conditions were practically the same at the Ameri 

 can and Russian seal islands ; yet the Russian officials in 

 charge of the matter seemed entirely regardless of this 

 fact, and, indeed, of Russian interests. After secret ne 

 gotiation with Sir Robert, without the slightest hint to 

 the American minister of their intended sacrifice of their 

 &quot; identical interest with the United States, &quot; they allowed 

 this treachery to be sprung upon us. The sixty-mile limit 

 was established by the tribunal, and it has proved utterly 

 delusive. The result of this decision of the tribunal was 

 that this great industry of ours was undermined, if not 

 utterly destroyed; and that the United States were also 

 mulcted to the amount of several hundred thousand dol 

 lars, besides the very great expense attending the presen 

 tation of her case to the tribunal. 



I now come back to the main point which has caused me 

 to bring up this matter in these reminiscences. How was 

 it that Great Britain obtained this victory ? To what was 

 it due ? The answer is simple : it was due to the fact that 

 the whole matter at St. Petersburg was sure to be decided, 

 not by argument, but by i i influence. Sir Robert Morier 

 had what in the Tammany vernacular is called a &quot;pull.&quot; 

 His government had given him, as its representative, all 

 the means necessary to have his way in this and all other 

 questions like it; whereas the American Government had 

 never given its representative any such means or opportu 

 nities. The British representative was an ambassador, 

 and had a spacious, suitable, and well-furnished house in 

 which he could entertain fitly and largely, and to which the 

 highest Russian officials thought it an honor to be invited. 

 The American representatives were simply ministers; 

 from time immemorial had never had such a house; had 

 generally no adequate place for entertaining; had to live 

 in apartments such as they might happen to find vacant in 

 various parts of the town sometimes in very poor quar 

 ters, sometimes in better ; were obliged to furnish them at 

 their own expense; had, therefore, never been able to ob- 



