THE MISSION TO ROME. 109 



and rivets him to a chain which would prevent him 

 from executing any movement in all the circumstances 

 which had not been foreseen or literally explained by 

 his Government. 



" In my own case I still maintain, despite the 

 opinion of the Council, that I have not acted contrary 

 to the letter or spirit of my instructions ; but before 

 attempting to prove it, by challenging the funda- 

 mental errors of the report, I must take up the de- 

 fence of the true principles, by contrasting the views 

 held by M. Martens with the doctrine propounded in 

 the following paragraph : 



" ' The instructions of the Government are in no 

 case to be attenuated, extended, or modified by the 

 aid of outward circumstances or external commentaries 

 not forming part of them ; all the rules of hierarchy 

 and of responsibility would be set at naught if this 

 principle was not strictly followed, and the Council of 

 State would be wanting in its duty if it did not 

 scrupulously adhere to the same.' 



"Not only did M. Drouyn de Lhuys himself take a 

 contrary view (see his instructions of May 8th, at page 

 14), but M. Martens, in his 'Manuel Diplomatique,' 

 vol. i. p. 131, says, < Even when the course which a 

 diplomatic agent is to follow and his political actions 

 are traced for him in his instructions, and his duty 

 obliges him to conform to them, there are, however, 

 cases in which the orders he has received are such 

 that the execution of them would produce an effect 



