The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-06-06
Women Diplomatists.
Isl. James's Gazette


[St. James's Gazette.l
II the female diplomatist has been kept
more out of sight in the current century, her
influence has been none the less felt in foreign
politc5. She is still an intermediary between
minister and minister; and her salon is often
turned to account as an ambush from which
attacks may be directed against states and
cabinets. A proposal to outrage an ally or
tear up treaty coming from her is not so
likely to shock diplomatic propriety and her
pen never compromises ministry or court,
for the dizziness Of blue and yellow books is
unrelieyed by feminine correspondence.
And then minister may call upon lady, how
ever eminent, withoutthe fact being telegraph
ed from one end of Europe to the other. The
Metternichs and Nesselrodes OF the last gener-
alton were well aware of the value OF woman's
work and wit in international politics. When
the Austrian chancellor was working heart
and soul to turn out the pro-Russian ministry of
M. de Martignac in Paris, he called into requi-
sition the ''matnees allemandes'' of the
Countess Apponyi; and the share which the
Princess Iieyen had in the intrigues Of 1927,
which ended in the resignation of the Duke of
Wellington and the short-lived administration
OF Mr.. Canning, is matter which is now pref
ty well authenticated.
Russian women, from one reason or another,
seem at very early period to have taken
mems parts in politics and played them well.
They have shown themselves as patient hand
maids to statecraft as Frenchwomen to amuse-
ment or Italians to art and, whenever a plot
was Matching, from bed-chamber conspiracy
II q faSio ~
Dashkoff or Protasoff was sure to be at the
soyereign's elbow dol ng her part to hold the
threads of the intrigue. The melancholy, sem
timenti character of more than one car has
subiugated them easily to womens influence.
The first Alexander was always more or less
under woman's thumb at one time in thrall-
dom to a Naryschkine, at another to Baron
ess Rrudender. When this remarkable wom-
an crossed his path the car was just in that
condition Of mind and body to be easily i'm
pressed with the mystic style of religion she
preached. The exhaustion caused by his ter
rble struggle with Napoleon; the gloom which
the burning of Moscow had stamped upon his
spirit; the errors and sorrows of his domestic
life-all inclined him to fall back upon religion
for support. The baroness's eloquence, her
mysticism, her sentimentalism, together made
conquest of Alexander's vacillating, magma
tive disposition; and, if the holy alliance came
not of her prompting, the enthusiasm with
was in all likelihood kindled by this lady.
In 1910 there was quite galaxy of feminine
talent in Paris engaged in the intrigues to patch
up a Franco-Russian alliance against Eng
land. Princess Lieven stood head and
shoulders above any of them. She was not
the first lady of that name who had meddled
with affairs of state. Her husbands mother,
the Countess Carlovna the was created q
princess at Nicholas coronation in 1926 had
played distinguished part in the reigns of
Catherine, Paul and Alexander i, and had
been Nicholas's governeSs and instructor.
Christophe Andrewitch, the younger son, had
inherited but small portion of the talents of
this remarkable old lady. He was statesman
malgre lui; and if the Princess Daria Christie
pharovna did not positively dictate his dis
patches, as some people said she did, we know
that he entered, under her direction, into pol
cies that were often opposed to his own con-
victions; for, if he could be called a diploma
tist at all he was of the school of Nesselrcde
and Pozzi di Borgo, who thought ambassadors
existed to conciiate rival ministers and prevent
monarchs from quarreling. The story of the
princess's successes here are we'll known-suc-
cesses which were perhaps somewhat owing
to her admirable aping of English ways and
manners. She was the "rage'' in London dur
ing many of the 10 years that her husband was
ambassador here. Prince Lieven died in 1889.
For some time there was no accredited Rus
sian ambassador at the court of Louis Philippe
and the delicate negotiations which passed be-
tween st. Petersburg and Paris concerning the
Eastern question and the Russo-FIanee alliance
were entrusted to the hands of the Princess
Daria.
The two ladies who have in these latter days
played the most important part in amateur
diplomacy-Mme de Novikoff aud the Princess
Liza Troubetzkoi-have done their best to act
up to the high standard of intrigue which the
Princess Lieven laid down. The princess's re-
unions, which had been frequented chiefly by
Thierists during the reign of the first president
of the new republic, became deserted when
her patron fell and she began to cabal against
Marshal MacMahon's government. Her own
government had disowned her; and she left
Paris in disgust, having never achieved more
than success d'estime. She is only remem-
bered now-if she is remembered at abby
Frenchmen and Frenchwomen as an agreeable
hostess and an accomplished woman Nine
Novikof, the o. K. (Olga Kreeff)sof "Russia
and England has also dabbled little in
Journalism; and when London correspondent
of the Russ, a Moscow newspaper, furnished
her countrymen with some curious notes on
the ways and manners and habits of thought,
religious and political, of her hosts. Her ca
reer in London, her conquests amongst the
most perfect and astute statesmen of our time,
and her bold and not unsuccessful attempt to
make Russian handmade of English high
churchism are too we'll known to require notice
here. She has been exceedingly useful to her
friendssin Russia, and may live to be more use
full yet. There is plenty of credulity and van
lty IN England to work upon.