no RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS. 



opposed to the views of his superior, and detrimental 

 to the interests of his country. In a case of this kind, 

 and assuming that the diplomatic agent, having the 

 aim of his mission clearly before him, should be 

 thoroughly convinced that in obeying the orders he 

 had received he would be running directly counter to 

 this aim, he might, and perhaps ought, to take it upon 

 himself to suspend the execution of them, losing no 

 time in informing his Minister of what he has 

 done, and in giving reasons to justify his conduct. 



" ' Moreover, his responsibility is not determined by 

 the concessions which he may make, nor by the exi- 

 gencies which he may insist upon, and the extent of 

 which is laid down for him in his instructions ; his 

 main duty consists in doing what is best to the utmost 

 of his ability.' 



" The reporter of the Council of State declares that 

 my letter of instructions should have been my sole 

 guide, and, while blaming me for putting my own in- 

 terpretation upon it, its meaning is so far from being 

 clear to him, when it has not the light of external 

 commentaries to guide him, that he has to preface it 

 with a preamble of the political intentions which he 

 attributes to the Government, and that he has to com- 

 ment upon them, to make extracts from them, and 

 recast them, so to speak, in order to draw from them 

 any positive meaning to support his own views. And 

 I am to be blamed for having regarded as serious and 

 binding the formal engagements entered into by the 



