AS MINISTER TO RUSSIA- 1892-1894 19 



tain a tithe of that social influence, so powerful in Russia, 

 which was exercised by the British Embassy. 



More than this, the British ambassador had adequate 

 means furnished him for exercising political influence. 

 The American representatives had not; they had been 

 stinted in every way. The British ambassador had a 

 large staff of thoroughly trained secretaries and attaches, 

 the very best of their kind, well educated to begin with, 

 thoroughly trained afterward, serving as antennae for 

 Great Britain in Russian society ; and as the first secre 

 tary of his embassy he had no less a personage than 

 Henry Howard, now Sir Henry Howard, minister at The 

 Hague, one of the brightest, best-trained, and most ex 

 perienced diplomatists in Europe. The American rep 

 resentative was at that time provided with only one 

 secretary of legation, and he, though engaging and bril 

 liant, a casual appointment who remained in the coun 

 try only a few months. I had, indeed, secured a hand 

 some and comfortable apartment, and entertained at 

 dinner and otherwise the leading members of the Rus 

 sian ministry and of the diplomatic corps, at a cost of 

 more than double my salary ; but the influence thus exer 

 cised was, of course, as nothing compared to that exer 

 cised by a diplomatist like Sir Robert Morier, who had 

 every sort of resource at his command, who had been for 

 perhaps forty years steadily in the service of his country, 

 and had learned by long experience to know the men with 

 whom he had to deal and the ways of getting at them. His 

 power in St. Petersburg was felt in a multitude of ways : 

 all officials at the Russian Foreign Office, from the highest 

 to the lowest, naturally desired to be on good terms with 

 him. They knew that his influence had become very great 

 and that it was best to have his friendship ; they loved es 

 pecially to be invited to his dinners, and their families 

 loved to be invited to his balls. He was a power. The 

 question above referred to, of such importance to the 

 United States, was not decided by argument, but simply 

 by the weight of social and other influence, which counts 



