26 IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE -IX 



long delays in all business ; but a spirit is shown which, in 

 the long run, serves the purpose of our representative as 

 regards most questions. 



It seems necessary here to give a special warning 

 against putting any trust in the epigram which has long 

 done duty as a piece of politico-ethnological wisdom: 

 &quot; Scratch a Russian and you will find a Tartar.&quot; It 

 would be quite as correct to say, &quot;Scratch an American 

 and you will find an Indian.&quot; The simple fact is that the 

 Eussian officials with whom foreigners have to do are men 

 of experience, and, as a rule, much like those whom one 

 finds in similar positions in other parts of Europe. A 

 foreign representative has to meet on business, not merely 

 the Eussian minister of foreign affairs and the heads of 

 departments in the Foreign Office, but various other mem 

 bers of the imperial cabinet, especially the ministers of 

 finance, of war, of the navy, of the interior, of justice, as 

 well as the chief municipal authorities of St. Petersburg ; 

 and I can say that many of these gentlemen, both as men 

 and as officials, are the peers of men in similar positions 

 in most other countries which I have known. Though 

 they were at times tenacious in questions between their 

 own people and ours, and though they held political 

 doctrines very different from those we cherish, I am bound 

 to say that most of them did so in a way which disarmed 

 criticism. At the same time I must confess a conviction 

 which has more and more grown upon me, that the popular 

 view regarding the power, vigor, and foresight of Eus 

 sian statesmen is ill-founded. And it must be added that 

 Eussian officials and their families are very susceptible 

 to social influences: a foreign representative who enter 

 tains them frequently and well can secure far more for his 

 country than one who trusts to argument alone. In no 

 part of the world will a diplomatist more surely realize 

 the truth embedded in Oxenstiern s famous utterance, &quot;Go 

 forth, my son, and see with how little wisdom the world 

 is governed.&quot; When one sees what really strong men 

 might do in Eussia, what vast possibilities there are which 



