The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1883-03-12
An English Estimate of the Dead Statesman.

/
Behring's strait and the Okhotsk sea-
An English Estimate of the Dead Statesman.
| About one year since, on the occasion of
Prince Gortchakof7s retirement from the
Russian chancellorship, the London Times
published the following estimate of the
statesman:
prince Gortchakoffs retirement has often
been prematurely announced. 1t has been
more than once in his long life stated to be an
accomplished event. But he has at length def
nitely Withdrawn from political affairs, and
| the veteran chancellor resigns his functions
| to younger hands. An illustrious career is
thus closed. Prince Gortchakoh has been for
about sixty years engaged in the work
of diplomacy, and for about half of that
period he has always occupied prominent
position in the eyes of Europe. He has rep
resented his country at the most critical pc
| RODS of her history. He has determined
her policies several times when the issues
! of peace and war were in the balance. His
life is the political history of Russia for half
a century; and it is difficult for Englishmen
/ to conceive of the development of Russian
| policy apart from the clever and accom-
| plished chancellor who has hitherto in the
main directed it. When Prince Bismarck
| was but lad, his great rival was full-dedged
| in Diplomacy. While the former was lead
/ chakoff had achieved, in more than one deli
| cate mission fame as a dexterous negotiator
| The oldest living members of the craft belong
/ to a much younger generation than Prince
| Gortchakoff, whose education began at the
| congresses of Laybach and Verona, who is
! old enough to have availed himself at
! first hand of the precepts of Pozzo di
| Borgo and Metternich, and who had made
! his mark in European history before
most of his political adversaries in recent
times were born. From time to time the
world is reminded forcibly of the rapidity
with which events occur, of the vicissitudes
and fluctuations in all things political, and
it is just such news as that of the retirement
| of the Russian Chancellor from public at
| fairs which brings home to one generation
the fact that it has lost link with another
1t is rather the fashion in modern times to
scout the idea that diplomacy has its secrets
! and to suppose that any body of intelligence
may succeed in it. 1t is enough that he
| knows what he wants, and possesses sense
enough to use his opportunities. 1t needs no
long special training to prepare a person to
! represent his country with credit, ana any
an ateur, given native capacity, will do quite
as well as the man who was attache at twenty
and who has grown gray in the service in ev-
cry capital in Europe. This comfortable
easy-going notion was not accepted at
the time when Prince Gortchakoff began
his public career in the suite of Count
/ Nesselrode. On the contrary, it was then
| acknowledged that education and genius
were necessary in his profession 1t was not
every one who could be trained for the dis
/ charge of duties which were then supposed
to be peculiarly delicate. And even if the
rare talents which go to make a successful
negotator were procurable they must be
| carefully supplemented. A perfect diplo-
matist must be a miracle of intelligence He
must know several languages, and speak
them with such skill as never to raise a smile.
He must have fund of general knowledge,
so as to be in all circles perfectly at home,
and everywhere be hailed as a man of the
world Of course he must possess the sci
ence of men and of women also. Wit was
recognized rs a powerful auxiliary and the
diplomat who would shine must cultivate u
| talent for neat epigrammatic expression.
Above all, he must be master of himself ana
his passions. He must be able to keep silence
in spite of all temptations to speak, and he
must also know how to communicate the
most important intelligence in sentence
which commits him to nothing and which
| imparts nothing to the uninitiated. This
ideal has been always more or less the pat
tern which diplomatists have put before
them. 1t is still initiated, but it was never.
PERHAPS so closely copied as by some Rus
sian dplomatists, and among them, the Rus
sian chancellor. He was witty and capable,
and the statesman and diplomatist never hid
the man of pleasure. He was a master OF
the smoothly-gliding diplomatic verbiage
which may or may not conceal a definite
meaning; but he could, when he thought fit,
use plain language and express the aspira-
tons and ambition of his country in unmis
taxable terms, as witness the cir
cuar in which he announced to Eu-
rope in 1870 the intention of Russia
to require a revision of the Paris treaty
of 1856. No one, in fact, was more
skilled than he in all the arts of diplomacy;
and it is no wonder that he exercised an as
tendency for so Tonga period at the Russian
foreign office We do not undertake to say
how far it is essential to have a special class
or caste intrusted with the duty of conduct
ing the dealings between different states; bat
while it exists talents such as he possessed
will be priced highly