118 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [voL. 48 
call “a reform.” His plan was exceedingly drastic. For it was 
nothing less than that the entire existing system be extirpated, root 
and branch,—in fact, “ reformed off the face of the earth,” and that 
in place of it, whenever our Government should have any business 
with any other, it should seek out a suitable agent, make a fair 
bargain with him for his services, send him to attend to the matter, 
and then recall him as soon as he had finished it. 
Although this advice has often been cited as a piece of political 
wisdom, has lingered vaguely in the public mind, and has, indeed, 
been recently sanctioned by a very eminent American citizen, it 
seems not difficult to show that such a departure from the practice 
of the whole civilized world would be a misfortune,—not only to our 
country in general, but especially to our political, commercial and 
financial interests ; that our guiding idea in any reform of the diplo- 
matic service, as in every other true reform, should be, not revolu- 
tion but evolution ; not an adoption of the idea dear to so many so- 
called reformers, that “ whatever is is wrong,” but the recognition 
in our existing system of what is good, and the development out of 
this, by simple common sense and statesmanlike methods, of some- 
thing better. 
For, in view of all the interests of our country, ever extending, 
ever becoming more complex, ever demanding, more and more, quick 
sight and prompt action, what is it that we need? Is it men to be 
sought and selected and passed upon and haggled with and sent 
across the ocean to see if, perhaps, they can mitigate serious and 
even disastrous international trouble after it has got under full 
headway? Is it not, rather, to have thoroughly trained men on the 
spot, who shall foresee trouble, prevent it, attenuate it, disperse it, 
be in touch with the right men, know the right means, speak the 
right word, at the right moment, in the right quarter? 
Some years since, at Constantinople, I asked the cause of the 
widespread conflagrations which had so often devastated that capi- 
tal. The-answer was that the city had a very peculiar fire depart- 
ment—that when a fire broke out in any house, the proper and usual 
way was for its owner to seek someone who owned a hand fire 
engine, to find, by proper examination, whether he was trustworthy, 
whether his helpers were robust, whether his-fire apparatus was 
effective ; and then to make a bargain with him and his helpers and 
conduct them to the fire. There was usually, so | was informed, not 
much trouble in finding the fire, for, by the time the machine had 
been approved and the firemen selected and bargained with and got 
to the spot, the conflagration was amply evident. 
