The New York herald., 1873-11-23
Buchu DipKomacy-lts Biusser and H.
Weakness.


Buchu diplomat. He Is the product in
diplomacy OF an epoch which has created its
gods out of blatant false pretences, and which,
becoming convinced of the unsoundness OF the
| material, is throwing the idols one by one on
the dust heap for the great Board of Health,
over which Common Sense presides, to cart
| away into oblivion. The Buchu diplomat still
| remains on the pedestal, but his Dies IrG
! is coming; and, when it has come, every day
| thereafter Will be dies non to him. We all
have fair notion of the old time diplomat,
whose kitchen was an auxiliary to his brains,
whose suavity was as studied as his prudence,
and whose greatest object in life was to gain
stealhy advantage over other suave, prudent
and reserved diplomats, while apparently con-
ceding everything to them except the suit of
| clothes he wore. Their studied insincerity to
the majority Of the world was relieved, how
ever. by fidelity to their masters. They were
the outgrowth of ages of obsequious-
ness, and served as lubricants between
the various despotisms by which the
world was governed in their day. That they
were as artificial rs their business is not sur
prising, and that they burrowed like foxes in
their haae poltique is not to be wondered at
when their masters hid their projects from
their own peoples as jealously as from the
peoples Of other masters. Indeed, the people
had little to do but fight and pay for the
fighting, and 'fhe reason why" was a ques-
tioI on which trayfl Of crowns,
trunkful of diplomatic uniforms, the
selfishness Of half dozen men and the
ambition of q couple decided. We claim
to have changed all that Where the people
are competent to judge, and where they are
acknowledged as the sole source OF power, the
little dinner table trickeries, boudor blandish-
ments, statue-faced mystery and diplomatic
secrecy are as much out of place as periwigs
and shoe buckles are out of date, only little
more so. The great Buchu diplomat is
cross between this old mystery man and
the blatant quack whose nostrum is placarded
on every dead wall, and who lives on the
credulity and folly Of weak-minded humanity
1t was a difficult combination to make, for
one-half of the man should be mystery and
secrecy and the other half blatancy and brag
The cross Of the two is the masterwork of false
pretence; the result is that Buchu has its
pedestal in the State Department 1t is
neither sound democratic flesh nor trnssed
royal fowl-it Is Buchu fish.
The Buchu diplomat is hardly pressed to
keep up his mysteries Let him have first
rate difficulty with strong Power on hand
At one end or the other Of the cable his
secrets leak out, and this brings him into
difficulty. 1t can scarcely be otherwise, for
with the Buchu instinct he tells to the first
sympathetic ear he meets that he has con-
cocted wonderful plan, which Will sat
isty everybody and that when it
has reached its inevitable result the
nation will ring with the praises of the
Great State Secretary Buchu. But when the
secrets have been well aired before the
the parent of some timid little complain
ings which he called an emphatic protest,
some innocent little requests which he called
peremptory demands, and some vapid little
generalities which he caled-the voice of
international law AS fast as one false pre-
tence is discovered he proceeds to concoct
another, and the nation finds that Buchu is
on the top of the popular wave in another
week, to be down in the trough Of the sea the
week after. The misery Of it is that the
national dignity is dragged up and down
along with him. His clustering and swagger-
ing is for home consumption. but, like Boab-
dill, he takes craven's sword and servile
I ~ ID l.
with is one not to be trihed with. That he
should flourish and prosper on this Buchu
baseness is humiliating to national good
sense, but in the age Of Buchu is it not fitting
that the exemplar Of quackery should be found
in the State Department for while as well as
everywhere else?
1t must not be forgotten that he has one
tlustsr card, which he always plays for
trump. Give him a small, weak Power that
cannot fight, and give him the shadow of
pretext for despatch writing. and heavens!
how he will make the eagle scream! Then he
teens with genuine emphatic protest, peremp-
tory demands and his ultimatum will rever-
berate like peal of Himalayan thunder. No
quack whose patient has recovered in spite
OF the medicine will extol himself
and his nostrum like unto Secretary
Buchu, when he has extracted an
apology from q twentieth rate Power There
is, however, a case in which Secretary Buchu's
fine quack frenzy transcends itself Give him
some meddling five feet two foreign diplomat,
who has had the misfortune to see through the
humbug Of Buchu, and to say so, and earth
affords finer spectacle Of a convulsion
of nature than Secretary Buchu on the war
path, worrying the remains of such ptiful
foe rs Catacazy. 1t is not heroic; it is very
ridiculous; but the fantastic tricks of the
clown turned pedagosue is the heroism of Dip
lomatc Buchu.
Buchu diplomacy has its record, which it is