The Sun.
London, England, 1870-03-23 00:00:00

TIIE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, MARCH 23, 1870.

THE DIPLOMA.TICI AND CONSULAR
SERVICE.

HOUSE OF COMMONS, MONDAY.

The Select Committee appointed to inquire into this
subject resumed their sittings this morning, the Right
Hon. E. P. Bouverie in the chair. The permanent
Foreign Secretary, Mr. Hammond, was again called into
the chair, and produced a list of the diplomatic staff,
which was handed in. The members present were Mr.
Sclater-Booth, Mr. Rylands, Mr. Eastwick, Lord Bar-
rington, Mr. A. Russell, Mr. C. W. Dilke, and Mr. W.
H. Gladstone.

The examination of Mr. Hammond was proceeded with
by Mr. Rylands, who put some questions for the purpose
of chewing that the return of extraordinary expenses put
in did not correspond with the sums voted by Parliament.
Mr. Hammond explained that the extraordinary expendi-
ture must always be taken on a rough estimate. There
was no question whatever that the extraordinary expendi-
ture had very much increased, compared with 1868-9.
The charge for Persia was not included in the estimate,
which accounted for the discrepancy.
Mr. Rylands pointed out that the sum voted by Parlia-
ment for 1868-9 was £30,539, whereas the sum actually
expended was £45,480.
Mr. Hammond : Yes ; but estimate and expenditure are
not quite identical terms. The actual expenditure includes
the expense of the Persian mission, which will account
for the difference.

Mr. Rylands then read a list of the missions, giving the
increase in expenditure of each ; but Mr. Hammond said
that although it was perfectly true that within ten
years succeeding 1848-9 it had increased, yet in the
succeeding ten years, from 1858-9 to 1868-9, the
extraordinary expenditure had greatly decreased. Fin
instance in 1859 the extraordinary expenditure was nearly
V 7,000 ; in the following year it was £38,000 ; and in
1868-9 it was £30,539. The expense of telegraphing and
translation was much' less now than it was formerly.
Mr. Ryland then proposed to ask Mr. Hammond
whether any pensions were paid out of the secret service
money to persons engaged in the diplomatic service, but
that gentleman said he must decline to answer any ques-
tion as to the appropriation of the secret service money.
The Right Hon. the Earl of Malmesbury was then
called and cross-examined by. the Chairman.
His Lordship said : I have been twice Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs, and gave evidence before the Libel
Committee of 1851, and believe that the service has been to
some extent thrown open to by introducing a system of
examination, but I doubt whether it would be expedient
to throw open the service to competitive examination.
The possession of a university degree might be a recom-
mendation for entering the service. Ido not think the
salaries are too high considering the increased
cost of provisions. An attache certainly could
not live on his pay, he must have independent means.
It is essential that all gentlemen connected with the diplo-
matic service should be persons of high character and be
animated by considerable esprit de corps. I think it would
be extremely doubtful whether you could have a number
of clerks employed at the various missions, instead of
attaches, because I should be afraid that they
would be of such a varied character that continual
selections would have to be made by the head of the
mission. The personal character of the young men enter-
ilkg the service is a matter of grave consideration. I do
not think the question of pension presses very much,
because unless a man is in very bad health, he
can carry on his business to a very lengthened
period of life. At the time I became Secretary of
State, Lord Cowley was at Paris, and I continued with
him there. The post of Ambassador now is not generally
filled by a party man, though that used to be the case.
There is a considerable block in the service at present.
By Viscount Barrington : The service is certainly
looked upon as a profession, and I do not think
it is necessary to change our ambassadors frequently.
Unless attaches are men of means themselves I should say
the salaries are not sufficient. There is a very clumsy way
of payin the secretaries. One half of their salary is de-
ducted w'ban they are on leave of absence. If a chief is ab-
sent there is a deduction from his salary, and an increase
to that of the secretary. It costs a minister on the average
£4 a day besides his expenses when on leave of absence,
and the consequence is there is sometimes a disinclination
to take it. It would be very extraordinary if, when
a colonel took his leave he had to pay the major, and
the major the captain. lam not aware that it is so in any
other Inc fession, andam not at all of opinion that it would
be wise to give up the smaller missions. In point of fact,
the two most important pieces of information ever
received, I received from two small missions.
Viscount Barrington : Is there objection on the part
of your lordship to stating what they were.
The Earl of Malmesbury : No. One was when we thought
we had avoided, in conjunction with the French Em-
peror the necessity for the Italian War. We had early
information from our mission to Hanover that the Aus-
trians had broken through everything and crossed the
Ticino. The other case was that months before the event
occurred, we had intelligence from Switzerland that it was
the intention of the Emperor Napoleon to annex Savoy.
By Viscount Sandon : The effect that I can see from
the rule that an attachg should be unpaid is, that it opens
the door of the service to the sons of wealthy persons. No
doubt the greater facilities of communication has, to
some extent, rendered the diplomatic business
easier, but, at the same time, there has been
a considerable increase in the diplomatic business
in consequence of the increased commercial rela-
tions. I have known instances in which European wars
have been avoided in consequence of diplomatic action, of
which the public have known nothing whatever, with re-
apect to which it wag necessary that profound secrecy
should he preserved.
After some conversation as to the advisability of sup-
pressing the mission at Stuttgart, to which the Earl of
Malmesbury was opposed, and likewise some observations
ea to the consular service being under-paid, the committee
241 j owned.

AI)VANTAGES OF A DIPLOMATIC CAREER.

Now that the subject of the diplomatic service is receiving
so much attention, the following remarks from an article
in the Pall Mall Gazette may prove interesting :—" People
in ;England fancy that diplomatists enjoy great social
advantages. It is argued that if attaches and secretaries
het but miserable pay, they get the worth of several hun-
lreds a year in position. If at the age of from
(5 ,to 50 a man is only receiving £5OO a
year, is he not `hail fellow well met' with
lurchlauts, dilections, and excellencies, and smoking
ligarettes with chamberlains and flirting with maids of
aonour ? The answer is that nothing can be more false
han the idea that diplomatists have an enviable social
osition in the capitals where they reside. In the smaller
oreign capitals the ' good ' native society consists chiefly
,f stupid men and unlovely women. Its members belong
-zelusively to the aristocracy, with whom no middle-
class, professional, literary, or scientific people have any
social intercourse. The society is miserably small (say
100 to 150 strong.) There are no dinners, few evening
parties, at most eight or ten balls in the winter monthsl
to which diplomatists are invited. Far from diplo-
matists being courted, they are kept at a distance.
They are suffered as a necessary evil, and
only in view of the balls and dinners which the
heads of foreign missions occasionally give. The
native ladies prefer as dancers their own friends and
relations. The native officers and chamberlains will sel-
dom dance with diplomatic ladies, however young, pretty,
fascinating, and well dressed these may be. Only in
very exceptional cases will native ladies stoop to inti-
mate terms with diplomatic ladies. The sole social
resource of diplomatists, so far as real acquaintance-
ship is concerned, is the diplomatic body, which may
generally number fifteen to twenty-five gentlemen, and
three to five or six women. Sometimes it happens that,
from the ministers being unmarried or other causes, no
diplomatic house at all receives company. In such
cases a diplomatist may go for months without
getting the offer of so much as a cup of tea, for the
native society- seldom comes to town before Christ-
mass or remains after Easter. In middle-class society a
foreign minister or attache cannot easily move. Enghsh-
mm often try, but the attempt generally fails. Besides,
if a diplomatist is known to associate with merchants or
mm of letters, he is invariably called a democrat and a
snob, not only by the `good society' and the Court, but
even by his colleagues."

BRUTAL CONDUCT OF A PUBLICAN.—The
accident at Hitchin on Saturday was the occasion of very
brutal behaviour on the part of the landlord of the public-
house where the bodies of the persons wholost their hves by
being thrown from a carriage, were taken to. The
coroner (Mr. C. Innes) informed a correspondent of a
paper that when he went to the public-house to hold the
inqiiest he found the two bodies dressed as they were
found, and lying face upwards on the floor, and this
sickening spectacle was being exhibited by the publican
to anyone who bought a glass of ale. Mr. lanes at
mice gave the constable orders to lock the door and keep
the key. A few minutes after he found the public were
being admitted through a side door. As this door could
not be locked he told the policeman to nail it up. The
landlord, W. Webb, said it should not be nailed up, and
at once broke it open. Fortunately this scene was put a
stop to by the medical officer ordering the bodies to bl
;aunediately interred.

GOLD ASSAYS.—The change in the method of
stating assays of gold bars at the Bank of England is
explained by the Times. Hitherto they were stated at
1-768th (Ath carat grain) fine, and the importer
ran the risk of losing £1 in every £768, while
on the average the loss actually amounted to
£1 in every £1,536. The new system states the
fineness to 1-3 milli6me, giving a risk of £1 in £3,000, or
an actual average loss of D. in £6,000. The difference
between these averages is 0'493 pence (id), equivalent
on standard gold to 10s. 6d. for every £l,OOO. Small as
this difference seems, it nevertheless raises the actual
pars of exchange between England and other countries
by i per mile in our favour. The change is tantamount
to relieving the importation of bullion of a tax of N. per
oz., and to doing away with a premium of -id. per oz. in
favour of exportation. In regard to the French exchange,
for instance, whereas now the rate of 25f. 10c. per £1
leads to the export of bullion from the Bank, it must in
future fall to 25.081 before withdrawals become practicable,
and, instead of receiving gold from Paris, when the
exchange is in our favour at 25.35, we shall already
receive at 25.331. The same rule applies to other
exchanges. We shall receive gold sooner, and keen
logger.

A young burglar, who broke into the house of Mr.
Barnes, Coventry-road, Birmingham, proceeded to the
dining room, where he found some plate. He tied a silver
cruet-stand and salver in a'handkerchief, and put a silver
salt-cellar in his pocket. Here his depredations seem to
have ended, for, finding a decanter on the side table, the
burglar applied himself to the wine which it contained.
He became inebriated, and made so much noise that he
disturbed both the inmates of the house and the neigh-
bours, by whom he was secured. He is now awaiting his
triakat tke..asikcs,_