The Sun.
London, England, 1858-04-08 00:00:00

SPAIN.

The Madrid journals of the 3d have arrived. On
the previous day, Good Friday, the Queen and the
King, in accordance with the ancient custom of the
Spanish sovereigns, visited with great pomp several
churches. The Espana says that the alleged fusion
of the two branches of the royal family is a mystifi-
cation, and it turns its contemporaries into r;dicule
for treating it seriously. Accord ng to the Iberia,
Spain and England are to act as arbitrators in
the difference which has arisen between Franc
and Portugal relative to the possession of the Congo
river on the western coast of Africa. Despatches
received by the Government from the Phillipine
Islands to the 10th Feb., Porto hie() to the 2d ult,
and from Cuba to the 12th ult., state that perfect
tranquillity prevailed in those colonies.

A letter from Belgrade of the 30th ult, in the
Cologne Gazette says :—" The news has been re-
ceived of the death in prison of Itaja Daganovitch,
one of the senators condemned by the prince. Yet
the latter declared yesterday to the Turkish corn-
misgioner that all the prisoners were in good
health.

DIPLOMATIC MISVIANAGRAIE VT.

(From the Times.)

It is a general belief that the working of the
Circumlocution Office is entirely or mainly obstruc-
tive, and that the ingenuity of its functionaries
is simply employed in finding out how things are
not to be done, and how the most urgent necessities
and the most fervid impulses may be brought to a
standstill. That, however, is only a partial view
of the system. There is at least one department of
this famous institution in which the numerous offi-
cers employed are not content with the vulgar am-
bition of doing nothing at all, and presenting
simply a cold shoulder, or a neat form of denial, to
the unfortunate man who wants something to be
done. The Foreign Office hasalways t een celebrated
for a nobler and more active ambition, or at least
for "not doing what is to be done" in a more
showy and original style. It not only will not
do what is to be done, but does the very opposite.
It industriously turns the ploughshare into the
sword, and makes a dagger out of a prunning-
hook. Lord Melbourne used to say that there
would be peace for ever if we could only shut
up the Foreign Office ; and we have certainly
lived to see Ambassadors and Ministers descend-

ing in right diplomatic succession from the
sacred het alds of antiquity, getting up wars, de-
claring them, and carrying them on upon their own
account. It is not to bo supposed that the se gentle-
men ever really consider it their mission to involve
nations in quarrels and plunge them into wars.
There is a special service for that departm.3nt, ad-
mirably conducted by spirited cAptains, high poli-
tical writers, philosophical assassins, self-consii-
tuted peacemakers and regenerators of the human
species. But where a host of able and excellent

officials is dispersed over the world, stationed
in large cities, and brought into immediate con-
tact with the leafing
,spirits of the civilised

world, of course it ,must be for something. It
tnnot be for letting things alone. Such an in-
stitution must operate energetically and demonstra-
tively, so as to astonish, if not always to please, the
natives. If peace is its wish, then peace must be
maintained in a striking and effective manner, so
that people shall all admit the diplomatist to be
indeed a man of peace, to be able to preserve peace
or not as he pleases, to have peace in his grasp,
and to be the legitimate object, or at least channel,
of supplication when the prayer of the peoples is
for peaco .

It is not very long since we had an instance of
a Minister whose duty it was at the principal State
of the New World—always on the moss jealous
and fidg -,tyr terms with us, their pi ()genitors and
cousins—to avert collision, to smooth over
differences, and at least to take care there should
be no misunderstanding in the official communictt-
tious of the two countries. Mr. Of ampton, at the
Court of Washington, was a very clever, and, they
say, a very amusing man, a very good talker, an
all that is wanted at a London dinner party. This
admirable gentleman, however, having received
cloipAeh which Lord Clarendon had takin tite
pains to draw up and seed him, an being pressed
f,r time, under what circumstances we ate 1;w
informed, did not read the said document to th,
end, and accordingly misunderstood, or rather
,
never made himself acquainted with his instrue
tions. So, drawing on his own imau,nation for
what he conceived L3rd Clarendon would probably
say at the end of the despatch, ho took au original
course of his own, and so rendered a question
already complicated absolutely in-oluble. We are
now presented, however, with a much bolder speci-
men of the same sort of treaturtnt, and one calcu-
lated to invest the whole dit servi e wcti, a
altuo-t awful character. From the nottlem v. who
presidesin Downing-street to theyoungest Secretary
of Legation, or most modest attache, let us all pray
for the perfect sanity, comfort, and especially the

undisturbed leisure of these men. We shall not in deed
consult e ther th eir owu testes or thenecessit 'es of the
service byinsi ailing them in quiet she ines and shady
groves, where they may pursue their own free
tai ditationi. It is th-ir business to go into the
world to talk, to write, anti to act. So let us at
least pray that they may all have a good night's
root, that they may rise refreshed, and in time to
read their letters before they go out for the day.
Let us, then, pray chat they may generally—at
le Est, when a crisis is expected, and a little cloud
is on the horizon—return home in time to do a
little business, to give an order, to read a
drauelit note, and even the document itself
to which they have to append their important
signatures. If this be not always possible,
m,y they at least be able to wake up be-
tore they go to bed for the omissions of the
day ! Never did we adequately feel till now bow
much we all depend upon persons of whom few of
us ever heard, and hirw the world hangs on their
• humour, or such notions of duty as a long period
of service may chance to have left them.
Sir James Hudson and Mr. Erskine were sent to
Turin for the express purpose of communicating to
the Sa dinian Court the views and wishes of the
British Foreign Secretary, and supplying him with
heir views and wishes in return. It has some-
times been suggested that the whole thing might
he done more expeditiously and with less
chance of mistake by a direct transmission of let-
ters to and fro between the two Courts. That,
however, is a very undiplomatic opinion, and on
he present occasion we leave it to its fate. Yet,
li t us see how the actual system has worked in
this instance. On the 29th of December Lord
Clarendon sent a despaich to Sir James Hudson,
instructing him to ask Count Cavour whether the
Sardinian Government meant to object to the pro-
eeedings taken by the Neapolitan Government in
the case of the Cagliari, on the ground that the
Neapolitan vessels of war had no right to pursue
the Cagliari, and to capture her le-lrond the Neapo-
litan territorial jurisdiction. This was a plain,
simple, and very natural request on the part of
the British Government, to know whether the Sar-
dinian Government meant, to act on a particular
ground, which Lord Clarendon proceeded to ex-
plrin he considered a proper one, if it was justi-
fied by the facts of the ease. This, however,
though stated with Lord Clarendon's usual clear-
ness and vigour, was either above the intelligence
of the minor acials of Turin, or seemed too mild
for their taste. Sir James Hudson, it is true,
did his duty at first. He ordered and approved
a draught of a note to be sent to Count Cavour,
fiithfully repeating the words of the despatch, and
asking Count Cavour whether toe Sardinian Govern-
ment meant to object to the proceedings of the
Neapolitan Government on the ground particu-
larized. Mr. Erskine, however, having simply to
write out and despatch afair copy from this draught,
wholly ignored and omitted the question which
was its principal object, and substituted for it
no question at all, but an alleged piece of informa-
tion which he was so good as to volunteer for
the benefit of the Sardinian Government
" I have been instructed," he wrote, "to ac-
quaint your Excellency that her Majesty's
Government are disposed to object to these pro-
ceedings, on the ground," &c. The chatge was
1 from a question to a statement, from a question as
to the views of the Sardinian Government to a
statement compromising the views of our own. It
supposed 'he Sardinian Government to take the
initiative from us, instead of deferring a final ex-
pression of our own views till we had learnt on what
views the Sardinian Geverninerit was actually pro-
ceeding. Mr. Erskine brought his despatch withthis
important and elabi rate alteration—it was nobody
else's—to i`eir J. Hudson, who never read a line—the
alteration was in the very first sentence,—but simply
put hisnarne to the document, which remained with-
out challenge, doing all the mischief it could from
January sth to March 15th, nearly two months
and a-half. Eirly last month, M. C:vour showed
Mr. Eiskine's despatch to Lord Malmesbury,
who immediwely wrote to ask on whose authority
the supposititious statement had been made, and
elicited an explanation of the facts. Mr. Erskine
now expresses his deep regret that be had made "a
very material alteration in the wording of the first
paragraph ;" admits what he ought to have said ;
explains how' he might possibly have fallen
into the " unfortunate blunder ; " suggests
what he might possibly have meant to say,
most dutifully exonerates his chief, and pleads on
his own part the difficulty of literally transcribing
a paper of his own composition. Lord Malmes-
bury very properly informs Sir J ames Hudson that
the explanation is unsatisfactory, and desires that
Mr. Erskine may be told that his conduct is quite
inexcusable.

Is it possible to suppose that such a thing could
be done at all without being a matter of frequent
occurrence ? Mr. Erskine had licence enough,. it
is evident, to do as he pleased. When a Minister
never looks at what he signs, a clever, industrious,
and ambitious secretary, desirous to act with proper
energy, and ready to persuade himself that the de-
spatch was "his own composition," is under con-
,iiierable temptation to improve, to simplify and
invgorate the message which be is charged to
transmit. We can almost pardon a subaltern who
is ready to take responsibility, and see that the work
does not flag in his hands. Indeed, whether Mr.
Erskine desires it or not, this is almost the only
account possible in his case, as the alteration
is rather too material both in matter and
words to be a mere slip of the pen or of the
memory in the act of transcription. We
can readily suppose that Mr. Erskine thought it
odd Lord Clarendon should first ask whether the
Sardinian govert, ment were objectiugon this ground
and then defended it, if the facts bore it out. It was
natural he should wish to simplify matters by
assuming the objection at once, and leaving Sar-
dinia to agree, if it liked. But this was not what
Lord Clarendon said, and it certainly did not
accord with the re,pective positions of the two
Governments in the affair. In fact, Mr. Erskine
was for leading Sardinia, instead of suggesting
that simple co-operation and common understand-
ing which Lord Clarendon most properly desired.
But are we safe when secretaries are encouraged
to follow their own devices, and when, for aught
we know, scores of irlitatiug and injudicious de-
spatches may be rambling in foreign chanceries
that Downing-s,reet never heard of ? Sir James
Hudson is the responsible man. If the subaltern
be visited with the punishment of a subaltern, the
Chief ought to have his due. We cannot think it
safe to leive either of them at Turin, especially
with no Minister at all with Naples, and only Mr.
Howard in Tuscany.