Sharp County record., 1878-10-03
TIE BERLIN CONGRESS.
Biographical Sketches of the Eminent |
Map-makers.
From the New York Sun.l


From the New York SUM-
Now that the work of the represent
atives of European diplomacy has actu-
ally begun, it may not be uninteresting
to glance at some of the distinguished
individuals to whose deliberations the
settlement of the Eastern question, and
of the fate of the Turkish Empire, is in
trusted.
OF the main figure of the Congress
there is little to say. His life and career
are well known to every body. Son OF
a poor and modest literary man, Benja-
min Disraeli followed in the footsteps of
his father, so far as regards poverty and
literary ability, but certainly not in the
matter of modesty. The obscure He
brew who came forward some fifty odd
years ago as the author of "Vivian
Grey," is now the Earl of BeaconSfeld,
Grand Vizier of Great Britain and a
probable Duke. His start in political
| life was marked by series of failures,
notably his maiden speech when he
succeeded at last in obtaining a seat in
Parliament for the borough of Maid
stone. The House of Commons re-
fused to listen to him. He simply said:
81 am not surprised at the reception
have experienced. Ihave begun several
things, and | have often succeeded at last.
l shall sit down now; but the time will
come when you will hear me-" They
have heard him. He was then 32 years
of age; he is p now.
The Lieutenant of Lord Beaconsfeld
is tie Marquis of Salisbury (Robert Ar
thur Talbot Gascoyne Cecil, P. C),
Earl of Salisbury, County Wits; Wis
count Cranborne, County Dorset; and
Baron Cecil of Essendine, County Rut-
land. He began his political career as
a member for Stamford. He was Sec
retary of State for India from 1866 to
1867, and was reappointed to the same
post in 1874. He succeeded his father
in 1868. Being a junior member OF the
family, he had to work for his living
when he was young, and, as in Disraeli's
case, literature supplied him with the
means of gentlemanly existence. The
articles he wrote for the monthly and
weekly reviews are still remembered.
He is Is wears old, was educated at
Eton, and graduated at Christ Church,
Oxford, but has as little knowlege OF
foreign languages as his chief. 1t must
be remembered, however, that DlSraeli
has described the English race as pecu-
iarly Arvan and noble in their inability
to speak more than one language and
their love of life in open air. Both the
Grand Vizier and his Lieutenant talk
English at the Congress, the usual
language of which is French. But the
members of the distinguished assembly
listen to them with as much delight as
did the congregation of De Quincy's old
clergyman, who knew little Hebrew,
and used to quote texts "in the very
words used by the Holy Ghost"
The third representative of England
Ithe British Anbassado1 to- the Ger,
man Court, the Right Hon. Sir Odo
William Russell, styled by courtesy
Lord Odo Russell. He can speak almost
any language, having been in the diplo-
matte service all his life, and having
used his best efforts to pick up the
tongues of the various countries he has
lived in. He is the youngest son of
Mai. Gen. Lord George William Russell,
second son of the Duke of Bedford, and
was raised to the rank of a Dukes son
by royal warrant in 1872. He entered
the service in 1849, and has ever since
occupied prominent positions in the
diplomatic and social centers of Austria,
France, Italy, Turkey and Germany.
Some years ago he was a member OF the
British Embassy in this country. In
1870 he filled, for short time, the post
of Under Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs.
The chief representatives of Russia
are Prince Gortschakof and Count
Schouvalof'. The former is 80 and the
latter about 80 years of age. Prince
Gortschakoff is descendant of an an
cient stock of Russian nobility. Hewas
educated, with the great national poet
of his country, Alexander Pouschkin, at
the Lyceum of Czarskoe-Selo, a kind of
Russian Eton. The two friends were
among the first matriculants of that col,
lege. After having graduated he enter
ed the diplomatic service, and began his
career at the Congresses of Laybach and
Verona as one. of the clerks of the
late Count Nesselrode. In 1924
he was Secretary OF the Russian
Embassy in London; in 1880 he was
Charge d'Affaires at Florence; in 1910
he negotiated the marriage of the Grand
Duchess Olga, sister of the present Car,
with the hereditary Grand Duke of
Wurtemburg After the revolution of
1913 he was appointed Russian plenipo-
Tertiary at the Diet of Frankfort. In
1854 he was Ambassador at Vienna, and,
soon after that Minister Of FOREIGN Al