New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-02-15
nipLn,IATIC REFORMS.

I.
stiye from Louisiana. hiss been engaged, this
session as Chairman Of the Committee on Foreign
Affairs, in preparing bill reforming the Diplo-
matte and Consular service Of this country. This
bill has just passed the House, and will, pro5a-
bly,, pass the Senate. 1t reduces somewhat the
gross expenditure of the appropriations for the
service, while it adds to the efficacy Of the Con-
sulsr branch by paying regular and moderate SAL
aries TO sll of our Consus.
1t would be expecting too much of the inspra-
tions of this Congress, or even this generation
perhaps, to demand the total abolition Of resident
Diplomatic missions of al sorts and descriptions
the most therefore, we can look for in the prem
ises are changes, or perhaps notifications Of the
system. Mr Perkins assumes that the old hum
bug and chicsnery Of resident Minister'S in Lon
don, Paris, Madrid, Berlin, st. Petersburg. &C.,
&c, are necessary. We deny any such neces-
sity ard soy the whole should be swept away
Our Ministers abroad have done nothing ia yir-
tue Of their residence The little that was re-
qured OF them could have been achieved at
fitch part of the cost by an occasional special
envoy And we challenge contradiction of the
fact that the settlement OF the greatest difficulties
with foreign nations during this century have in
varisbly been achieved by special Ministers, or
their equivalents, high Commissioners. The
Treaty of Client was negotiated in that way; and
the next most important thing, the settlement OF
boundaries with Great Britain, was determined
BY the mission of Lord Ashburton TO this country,
while the resident Ministers of Great Britain and
the United States were left to suck their thumbs,
as their superiors were doing the realities Of in
ternationalism.
A quotation from Wheatons Law of Nations
has been given by Mr. Perkins, affirming that the
advance ef civilization during the last century
was due to the existence OF such class Of men
SIS resident dpOmstists; but this must be tsken
cum grdno sails. Mr.. Wheaton, being profess
sionsl diplomatist, was very apt to over estimate
the weight and importance of his craft. We,
however attribute such advance of civilization
chiefly to the discoveries in physical silence,
which enabled the people to increase their means,
and thus to develop their understanding, and,
conse 3uenty, bear with force against their heredi
tary grants But, taking Mr.. Wheatons estimate
Of the value of diplomacy in Europe and for Eu-
rope, during the last century il proves nothing
for this country and this century. The inter-
course between the nations of Europe was so ex-
tremey small up to the era of the rpened action
of steam navigation tina. estrangement, missppre-
heDsion, Jealousy, quarrels and wars, were Of
habitual occurrence-the last terrifying the non
intercourse to the exact extent ofts intensity and
duration. Ii is impossible TO read without
smile, in old biographies, novels, plays, or what
not, the fuss raised over the happy man who made
the grand tour of the Continent in the last GEN.
fury. In England it was almost exclusively con-
fined TO the young nobleman. The rich citizen
even did not think Of such magnificent sequence
to the sublimsted peripatetics Of the ennobled
and privileged few. Although Calais frowned
over against Dover, and Boulogne over against
Folkestone; yet the channel wa, an impossible
gulf to the millions who dselt in Eugland. The
man who had been simply through France, Swift
zerand, Prussia, and the minor German States,
was at home, in England, greater object of curl
o,ity than Bsyard Taylor-who has girdled the
earth, with manifold divergences from his main
lne-is to tie good Inhabitants Of an Illinois vii
lage. More people now leave New.York every
fortnight to make an extensive tour in Europe
than quilted England during the last century in
five years; and this remark Of non-intercourse is
Of much greater force as applied to the Cont
cent in tie relations with England during the last
century. OF this piquant statement there can
be no doubt; and it is infinitely suggestive, in its
own bailiwick and that Of multitudinous other
departments of international life and experience.
The fogies atWashinston should also remember
that iaiividualism has dispensed with nine ten.hs
of Governmental machinery, and what was true
of diplomacy half century ago, in it, relations
10 thi, country, is utterly exploded - much q,