REFORMS IN THE DIPLOMATIC SERVICE 363 



Mm in the way of knowing, at any court, who are the 

 men of real power, and who mere parasites and pre 

 tenders, what relations are to be cultivated and what 

 avoided, which are the real channels of influence, and 

 which mere illusions leading nowhither. On the other 

 hand, the secretaries thoroughly trained would doubtless, 

 in their conversation with a man fresh from public af 

 fairs at home, learn many things of use to them. 



Thus, too, what is of great importance throughout the 

 entire service, every ambassador, minister plenipoten 

 tiary, or minister resident would possess, or easily com 

 mand, large experience of various men in various coun 

 tries. At the same time, each would be under most 

 powerful incentives to perfect his training, widen his ac 

 quaintance, and deepen his knowledge incentives which, 

 under the old system, which we may hope is now passing 

 away, with its lack of appointment for ascertained fit 

 ness, lack of promotion for good service, and lack of any 

 certainty of tenure, do not exist. 



The system of promotion for merit throughout the ser 

 vice is no mere experiment ; the good sense of all the lead 

 ing nations in the world, except our own, has adopted 

 it, and it works well. In our own service the old system 

 works badly ; excellent men, both in its higher and lower 

 grades, have been frequently crippled by want of proper 

 experience or aid. We have, indeed, several admirable 

 secretaries some of them fit to be ambassadors or min 

 isters, but all laboring under conditions the most de 

 pressingsuch as obtain in no good business enterprise. 

 During my stay as minister at St. Petersburg, the secre 

 tary of legation, a man ideally fitted for the post, insisted 

 on resigning. On my endeavoring to retain him, he an 

 swered as follows : i 1 1 have been over twelve years in the 

 American diplomatic service as secretary ; I have seen the 

 secretaries here, from all other countries, steadily pro 

 moted until all of them still remaining in the service are 

 in higher posts, several of them ministers, and some am 

 bassadors. I remain as I was at the beginning, with no 



