Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1881-12-27
The British Minister.
Washington special to the New York Wor

| washington special to the New 1ork World.
| Washington official society is now being
much exercised in its mind over a grave
| social question which will probably lead to
what may be called IAN international cpl
! sode," at least as interesting as the issue
raised in New York society some time ago
by the advent of Mile. Sarah Bernhardt
| The question in this case is not fought we
to visit her" but ''ought we to visit him, ~
and rs the individual directly concerned is
no less person than the new minister of
/ Great Britain to the United States, to whose
arrival the gay world of Washington had
| looked forward as the harbinger of a season
| Of unrivalled festivities at the new and hand
some house Of the legation, it may be easily
imagined that the question is fast taking
! precedence for the time at dinner tables and
! boudoirs of the gravest political subjects,
| The facts are simple enough. The new
| British minister, the Hon. Lionel SackviIle-
West is younger brother of the present
Earl Delaware. In virtue of his descent
| from Lord Delaware, governor and captain
| general of Virginia, who died in that prov
! ince in 1913 and to whom Delaware and the
| Delaware River owe their name. MIR.
| West it will be remembered, was invited
| by the Pennsylvania Steamship Company Y
/ to accept passage to this country on one
| of the company's steamers and was re-
/ ceiyed with much efiusion and enthusiasm
By the amiable Philadelphians Oh his ar
| rival. He is brother also of the Coun-
! tess of Derby and of the present Ouch
! ess of Bedford. Few men in England
| come of so ancient a stock, and no man in
England is more highly connected. He Is
a man of ability also, and has served with
credit in the diplomatic service. Why,
| then, this question ''Ought we to visit
| him 2" We'll, any one who will take trouble
! to look at a record of the house of Delaware
in the Ensiishman's Bible will see that MIR.
! Lionel, Sackville-W West, born in July, 1927,
A.. therefore but little turned of tifty-four is
a bachelor. And yet it appears to be an
| unquestioned fact that Mr.. Sackv;lie- West
| has family of children, two at least of
| whom it is understood he wishes should live
with him, and it is an open secret
| that lady OF American origin
| long connected with the Span
/ ish court, was at some pains, before Mr..
Srckville-West came from the British lega-
| ton at Madrid to this country, to assure her
numerous correspondents in this city that
| the connection, now of some years
date, of the British minister with a Spanish
actress had caused much scandal and led to
number of social unpleasantness at the
Spanish capital, Notwithstanding the some
what liberal reputation in such matters of
the city which SO long acknowledged the
sway of the Regent Queen Christina and of
| the regnant Queen Isabella People who
remember the unchallenged despotism
welded over Washington by the late
Thaddeus Stevens may naturally ask why
official society at Washington should con-
! Germ itself with the domestic relations of a
foreign minister. But it must be remem-
! bered that Thaddeus Stevens no longer
lives, and that Washington society, on at
least two comparatively recent occasions,
has taken very decided ground as to the So
cial relations it would maintain with the
wives of two foreign ministers concerning
| who it was alleged that their matrimonial
experiences had been more romantic than
regular and, Gil precedents apart, it must
be admitted that it cannot fail to be awk-
ward for heads of families to explain to
their families how foreign minister can be
at once bachelor and the head of a family.