The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-05-18
OUR CIVIL SERVICE ABROAD.

Diplomatic Agents.
LONDON, May /, 1S69-Your correspondent
has travelled over just one-half of the Eastern
hemisphere Abyssinia, Arabia, India, Egypt,
Crete, Syria Palestine, Turkey IN Asia and
Turkey in Europe, Greece, the Cyclades, Italy,
France, Spain, England. and Southern Russia
have visited. Much that have seen has been
: detailed already in sweetest morsels,-udDlts,
revelations of foreign matters concerning com
merce, public works, finance, polltics, wars,
history, varied with descriptions OF the chrono-
logical distributions of the different empires,
Kingdoms, states, republics, colonies, over Whlch
INV erratic footsteps led. The everyday life of
the various peoples inhabiting these countries
have l also dwelt upon, and every pubhcist in
America Lhope has been considerably enllght-
ened thereby. But now, after your correspond
ent's return to England, preparatory to another
extensive journey which your agent tells me |
am to take, and acting upon suggestion given
to me by your agent, do find myself called
npOn to touch upon another topic which
hitherto have not done, and this is "Our Civil
Service Abroad" With the view to make our
generous republic acquainted with the actual
present condition of the American diplomatic
body abroad, do open my portfolio and extract
such information as notes taken upon the spot
will afford me.
Paraphrasing once more so that no selfshness
or unworthy motives may be ascribed to your
correspondent by your readers, let me state
before commencing my work that whatever re-
Velations are herein contained may be believed,
because | can have no object whatever in dis
torting any actualty with which ! am acquainted
and are herein set down Articles referring to
the same subject on which | am about to write
have at intervals appeared in some of the Ameri-
can magazines but they were not written by
me, nor by an impartial observer of events and
actions; they were the emissions of interested
persons-of men already in the employment of
the Government-ofa an American Consul now on
service Your correspondent was Mt his elbow
while he wrote one, and of a verify | could not
help but smile at the platitudes and arrogant
postulates upon which he was enlargng for the
purpose of obtaining from Government larger
salary.
Would it be believed if were to state that the
American public are the worst represented at
foreign courts of any other nation on the earth
And yet such is the fact. Why ? Because the
majority of our representatives have not been
chosen as the most eligible for their present pO-
Sitions but are appoinees of a set of politicians,
whose chief aim and study is how to dispose of
their friends. 1t Is natural for men to think of
their own friends and relations first, but if these
friends and relations are totally ncapacitated to
perform the set duties, they do themselves
grieyous wrong in persistiig to retain them in
their situations. How Very wrong. how very
sinful is it, then, when politicians. though con-
vinced of their friends incapacity and want of
intellect, persist in using their influence to pre-
serve unfit appOintees in public office, when each
passing day of such ofliceship is at the expense
of our national dignity. But let the reader pay
attention and follow me while / indicate some
instances of real absurdities
THE AMERICAN LEGATION AT THE COURT OF ST. JAMES.
Starting at the initial point on the route to the
European Continent we find ourselves in the neigh
borhOod of the Court of st. James-the English
Court Mr. Reverdy johnson (nO, should have said
in newspaper parlance, the Hon. Reverdy JohnsOn)
rs the appOintee at this Court Hen ReVerdy John
son. 1t Is said, is gentleman aSchOlar, and states
man. High and necessary qualifications these are
before a thinking man can find it in his heart to
sanction so important an appointment as an ambas-
Sad0r or the representative of nation Mr. johnson
mas now been i'm Ofice some months Those who
IN m haV ypl lt
some conclusions concerning his capabilty and
adaptibilty for this very important post We all
know, and 1t is apparent to the most casual observer
that Mr.. johnson is gentleman and a scholar. But
OF the other qualification, what OF it Can any nte-
gent American place him among the category of
statesmen No, not one. What has he done, then,
to forfeit that name? This, chefest of all. He has,
AXE another Lamartine, sacrificed the reputation OF
man Of action and the statesman to speeches, In
striking contrast to his calm, dispassonate pred6
cessOr, does the conduct of Mr.. Johnson appear.
Before the most slowly deberatiYe people in the
world he commenced his diplomatic duties with
stump speeches. For awhile he was listened to with
respect His eminent office demanded that, and Eng
nshmen listened to the American representative with
a respect blended with curiosity. But his speeches
became vapd and uninteresting, simply because they
were but commonplace rehearsals of what the peo-
pie had heard from his own mouth, and had read in
every paper scores of times before. His dOgmatiC
and imperious expressions, effects OF premature con-
ClusOns on his part concerning the Alabama claims,
were caught up and ridculed by people who, more
than all Others detest clap-trap speeches, and are
seldom prone to hasty declarations. AS we wish to
stand well i'll the eyes of the world, all earnest,
thoughtful Americans must deplore this lack of tact
on the part of Mr. Johnson In the minds of the in
habitants of the British isles he has established the
fact beyond all doubt, that we are still in the Martin
Chuzzlewit era, and that stump speaking is still
idosyncratic Of native born Americans He also eX-
posed himself to unkind remarks if not insults. The
Saturday ReUjel0 was in its glory, and many were the
pungent sarcasms leveled at our unfortunate Minis
ters head for his guileesS remarks before beefeang
corporations and inSolent members OF meChanlc IN
stues confess to having felt, with several other
Americans as if were sitting on thOrns while ezra
tic Mr. Johnson made his extraordinary tour over
England, and what wayward spirit prompted him to
declam with the feeble dihusveness so characters
tic of him, before every beeffaced fat-brained sans
cOtteS that thought tit to call upon him for speech,
is beyond my knowledge. Andrew Johnson's tour was
not more undignited or more out OF place than Mr..
ReVerdy Johnson's was His reasons Were-aCCOrd-
ing to his statements-he hoped to cement in
bonds still frmer the love existing between che two
nations, and to erase from English minds the idea
that the American people entertained hostile feel
ings towards England Very laudable indeed, we
must admit, but was 1t MS place 10 matt al every
petty village to disseminate his opinions? What is
the press for? Whatever feelings animate Ameri-
cans generally find their way to the editorial
columns of the American journals, and If they con-
England and her interests they are republished
in English Journals Not for a day nave they been
at fault as yet to discern the tendency Of public
opinion in America. No other American Minister
ever thought it incumbent upon him to act
as O newsman or an oracle TO the country he was
accredited. Why should Mr.. johnson constitute him
self as the mOuthpece OF the American nation?
Only that he was born for a stump orator, and his
predection for speech-making usurped his dignity
and his duty. fear also that there is good deal OF
parasitism In the man, else why should he be so
ready to accommodate himself 10 the desires OF the
aristocracy when we know well the antl-Amer'
can feeling with which they nave always been I'M
bued? If any of your readers doubt the existence
of such feeling let them remind themselves of the
epiphOnematic eXclamations which greeted his with
lrawal from an aristocratc drawing-room: III oN
very like Yankee he Is, to be sure; he is full o
Yankee buncOmbe" Since the happy termination
of the civil war in America we are gene
rally very proud of the word Yankee, because /
Indicates party that was victorious; but with an
Englishman the word Yankee is the embodiment