686 



DIPLOMACY. 



through accredited agents, cannot be easily ascer- 

 tained. 



In remote antiquity, embassies are spoken of. Rome 

 received ambassadors from nations seeking peace or 

 alliance and protection. After the establishment of 

 the senate, such messengers of rival or dependent 

 countries delivered their commissions to the senatorial 

 body, and commonly in set orations. At Athens and 

 at Sparta, ambassadors were obliged to harangue the 

 sovereign people from the tribunal of the orators. 



u < liave no authentic accounts respecting the pri- 

 vileges of these foreign emissaries, nor relics of their 

 correspondence with their own government, or with 

 those to which they were deputed. The term ambas- 

 cin is found in the Salic law. But the cardinal de 

 Richelieu is generally considered as the founder of 

 that regular and uninterrupted intercourse between 

 governments, which exists at present between almost 

 nil the Christian powers. The private dissensions 

 between Philip II. and Elizabeth de Valois furnished 

 a convenient pretence for attaining the ends, which 

 may well be supposed to have guided that sagacious 

 statesman, and which went undoubtedly further than 

 to protect the unfortunate queen of Spain. Raymond 

 de Becarria thus commences the line of regular am- 

 bassadors in Europe. However the instructions given 

 by Machiavelli to one of iiis friends, who was sent by 

 the Florentine republic to Charles V. (Charles I. of 

 Spain), show that Richelieu was not the first person 

 who conceived all the advantages that might be de- 

 rived to a government from the correspondence of 

 an intelligent agent, accredited at the seat of a 

 foreign government. Machiavelli's own negotiations 

 with CzEsar Borgia, with the cardinal de Rouen, at 

 Rome, in Germany, and wherever he was employed, 

 prove tliat diplomacy had its present meaning long 

 before Richelieu's ascendency in France. We recom- 

 mend to our readers Machiavelli's diplomatic cor- 

 respondence ( Legazioni) not only as the earliest, but 

 as the finest specimens of diplomatic despatches ; 

 and we do it the more willingly, as this portion of 

 his works is generally little referred to. 



It is probable, that, from the beginning, the duties 

 of diplomatic agents were at least as great as at 

 present, as far as the art of diplomacy alone was 

 concerned. To study the character of the prince 

 and the disposition of his ministers ; to observe with 

 a vigilant eye the passing events ; to investigate the 

 strong and weak points of a state ; to establish rela- 

 tions svhich might become useful, either in peace or 

 in war ; to strengthen the existing amicable rela- 

 tions, and to weaken the means of attack and of 

 defence on the part of the foreign state ; to extend 

 commercial intercourse in a manner profitable to the 

 country of the ambassador (for centuries were to pass 

 before sounder views in political economy could 

 prevail) ; to protect the subjects of the ambassador's 

 sovereign, and to give a great idea of his power and 

 resources, by all possible means ; such were, as we 

 see, from the instructions given by Machiavelli to 

 his friend, the cardinal points recommended to a 

 diplomatic agent early in the sixteenth century ; and 

 they will, with few alterations, serve to guide am- 

 bassadors, ministers, and charges d'affaires, yet in 

 the womb of time. Still there are differences, pro- 

 duced by the progress of civilization and the im- 

 provement of public morals, that must be noticed. 



Wherever diplomacy may have had its origin, be 

 it in Italy, France, or Spain, the manners of these 

 countries and of the times, left politics infinitely less 

 restrained by the curb of honesty and good feeling, 

 than if it had sprung up among German nations, or 

 at later epochs. Thus intrigue, falsehood, plots, 

 and murder, or connivance, at least, in such detest^ 

 able expedients, were sometimes resorted to, by the 



earliest diplomatists, and contributed to render diplo- 

 macy, in the eyes of the indiscriminuting, almost a 

 byword of reproach. The marquis de Bedmar, in 

 Real's conspiracy of Venice, is a mere fancy figure. 

 The cardinal d'Ossat and president 1 1 ruin are, on the 

 contrary, unquestionable models of excellent men 

 and ambassadors. General ignorance, the laxity of 

 morals which degraded the greater part of Europe 

 till the middle of the eighteenth century, serve to 

 account for the want of honest principle which for- 

 merly disgraced public ministers. Few treaties were 

 as yet concluded. War, brute force, was the sole 

 umpire of right. Except in the Germanic confede- 

 racy, law was hardly ever brought to bear upon 

 international relations. It was not till the indepen- 

 dence of Holland, and the' subsequent developement 

 of maritime power, that political questions were 

 examined by the learned, in consequence, probably, 

 of having become connected with great public 

 grievances and judicial investigations. From that 

 time, and chiefly from the conclusion of the treaty 

 of Westphalia the most remarkable epoch in the 

 history of international intercourse diplomacy as- 

 sumed a more legitimate, a higher and really useful 

 character. Ambassadors ceased gradually to seek 

 their greatest lustre in their numerous retinue, and 

 the Russian ministers at Constantinople and Warsaw 

 were the last to appear with such a display of armed 

 followers as made a governor of Bourdeaux refuse 

 admission into the city to the duke of Feria, who 

 came, in the name of the king of Spain, to compli- 

 ment Louis XIII. on his accession to the throne. 

 There were no longer (to quote the noble language 

 of Shakspeare) " loving embassies to embrace sove- 

 reigns, as it were, from the ends of opposed winds ;"* 

 and, from that time, high breeding, an agreeable 

 figure, the display of wealth, fascinating and prepos- 

 sessing manners, an unblemished character, discre- 

 tion, knowledge of mankind, natural parts, nay, up- 

 right intentions and noble views, ceased to be suffi- 

 cient for the fulfilment of duties so much enlarged 

 by the improving condition of general society, 

 through the advancement and diffusion of knowledge. 



To be a perfect diplomatist, in the present state 

 of the Christian world, it would be necessary that a 

 man should be a sound lawyer, well acquainted with 

 the municipal laws of more than one country, versed 

 in the sciences, from which industry and arts derive 

 their splendour, and a state its strength, and equal 

 to any of the tasks to which those with whom he is 

 brought into contact might put his learning and 

 sagacity. The present political system of the world 

 can no longer be split into partial and solitary in- 

 terests : each party to it is a party in a common con- 

 cern, and usually suffers or gains by every important 

 change. There is really now a Christian common- 

 wealth, a unity of rights and interests, more real, 

 more worthy of consideration and confidence, than 

 the dream of political balance. This whole system is 

 in a constant state of development ; and to step out 

 of its path, is to remain behind it in its career. The 

 tone of political correspondence at present must 

 correspond with the elevated state of the diplomatic 

 character. 



In times not very distant, it was sufficient to enter- 

 tain a royal master by the gossip of a capital, the in- 

 trigues of ladies and gentlemen of the bed-chamber, 

 and the cabals of rival ministers. Now, the political 

 correspondent of a cabinet is compelled to inquire 

 into the working of the complex machinery of mo- 

 dern society ; to observe constantly the pulse of the 

 whole body politic j to keep in view the moral and 

 physical resources of nations ; to defend the rights 



Winter's Tale. 



