The Sun.
London, England, 1867-03-13 00:00:00

American Ministers.

The M'CRACKEN correspondence has been largely
commented on by the American press. It has given
rise to much discussion regarding the position occu-
pied, more especially in Europe, by the diplomatists
of the country. That position is generally recog-
nised to be unfair; and as the mass of the nation
learn by travel and actual experience the social
differences which exist between them and European
countries they see the false light in which their
Ministers are placed. Mr. SEWARD'S action on the
M'CRACKEN letter will probably produce a result
Mr. M'CRACKEN little expected. If it has given him
notoriety, which may be gratifying to such a mind,
it has also induced such journals as the Nation to
take up the subject of the American Ministers
abroad, and discuss it in able and exhaustive articles.
" The American idea of the uses of an ambassador
differ widely from that held in Europe. The mass
of the public on the other side of the Atlantic are so
little used to seeing any political results accom-
plished by purely social influence, or, in
fact, in any way but through the ordinary
process of agitation, speech making, and
article writing, that they would never think
of selecting an ambassador for his social gifts.
Nine-tenths of the people would be greatly amused
if asked to give a man a high office because he
spoke French well, could give handsome dinners,
and make himself very agreeable in drawing-rooms.
The Government gives him about the salary which
would enable him to make a good show in a New
England country to Nvii, and nevertheless makes it a
sacred duty to pay every possible civility to every
American man, woman, or child, who can by hook
or by crook muster enough money to pay his or her
way to the door of the Legation. Fifty years ago
when it took six weeks to cross the Atlantic,
and people rattled through Europe iu post-
chaises, the visitors were few, and generally
wealthy and well educated. It was easy then
for an American Minister to open his doors to
his fellow-citizens, and tak.3 them round to see the
KING after dinner. But times have changed. Tens
of thousands now cross the Atlantic every spring,
of whom three-eighths belong to a class which in no
other country in the world possess the means of
making the "grand tour," or ever think of it. They
are nearly always determined at all events to go
to Court and to make the Minister take them, and
the unfortunate man in most cases dare not re-
fuse. Ile is pricked on the one side by the
thorns of European etiquette, which he knows makes
it improper for him to take persons of certain call-
ings or position into the presence of royalty ; and
he is assailed on the other, by the fear of being
abused or held up to popular odium at home as a
" snob" and a " flunkey," 9. servile imitator, of a
bloated and effete aristocracy. American travellers
multiply will the growth of the country in wealth,
and the impudence and exactions of many of them

increase in the same ratio as their numbers. Their
Minister is, to a large proportion of them, a kind of
valet-de-place, who is buund to secure for them
abroad, things which in European society are
only granted to the possessors either of certain con-
ventional distinctions, to great talents, or to
great
charms, and there is not one of them who may
not prove any day, as in M'CitAcKEN's case, a spy
and a slanderer, as well as a bore, if there are men
in Washington base enough or silly enough to read
and use this tattle. Either the Ministers abroad must
be released from all social duties, or they must in
performing them be allowed to conform to the
customs, and even prejudices, of the society in which
they are living, in which case the M'CRAcKENS will
fare badly." These are the remarks of a leading
American newspaper, and although we have noticed
but a few of the opinions, they are still sufficient to
indicate the feelings which animate men of sense
and education in America. Circumstances have
changed from the primitive days of simplicity
when the great Republic could send to European
Courts representatives who took their standing
wholly without regard to social influences, and could
maintain a position of high respect, though they may
have "lived in an attic and done their own cooking.'
American travellers are now the most numerous, and
at the same time the most wealthy and lavish in their

expenditure. They have no idea of " looking their
" Minister up" in an attic, and make no pretence to
the simplicity of the Puritan days of New England.
They assert their position as people of wealth, edu-
cation, and refinement, over all the Continent of
Europe, and they are, or must be, prepared to con-
form to the conventionalities of the society into
which they voluntarily enter. The eccentricities of
a few stern Republicans in consideration of the
great national virtues might readily have been
borne at European Courts in olden days, but the
circumstances are now totally changed.
There is an old proverb which in a few simple

words embodies a fund of good advice—" When in
Rome do as Rome does." American Ambassadors
should not be subjected to the nuisance of being
compelled to choose between a breach of the
etiquette of the Court to which they are accredited
and being denounced by a APCRACKEN for declin-
ing to place themselves in a false position. The diffi-
culties of dealing with their own countrymen, who
profess to look with contempt on the prejudices of
European societies, yet insist upon being introduced
into the Courts of Kin's, have been extreme, and
are such as no gentleman should be exposed to. He
should either have an absolute control to act in this
matter at his own discretion, or be permitted to re-
fuse to make such introductions at all. The
Nation says it does not know where the remedy is to
be found, but it must be found somewhere. We
say it will probaby be found in the general
good sense of the people, who will adopt a
conventional mode of dealing with the sub-
ject, and support their Ministers in acting
up to the standard. An Emperor is not a will
beast on show, and the Minister the showman.
The Court is the Sovereign's castle, and he has a
right to frame rules for the guidance of those who
introduce strangers. A citizen who runs for the
Presidency knows that his right arm will be made a
pump-handle, and a great development of the
muscles of that limb follow on a term of office.
But a Sovereign by the grace of GOD and heredi-.
tary right is not prepared for this manual exercise.
The quiet consciou3ues3 of a citizenship rapidly
taking the first place in the world is sufficient even
for an aspiring Ame'kat:, and if he wishes to be
introduced into any European Court he should first
conform to the conventional rules of that Court, and
not make it disagreeable to the Minister of his
country if he considers he would be infringing these
rules by introducing him. It is not the fault of the
Minister that such rules exist ; he is merely com-
plying with the prejudices of the country in which
he is placed. Should these prejudices be distaste-
ful to the American citizen in question he may
have a right to abuse the Court, and may do so to
his heart's content, but not his Ambassador._
Anglo-American Times.