Omaha daily bee., 1888-11-07
SACKVILlE
Some Facts and Gossip About n
British Minister at Warrington.

British Minister at Washington.
Philadelphia Record: The Hon. Sir
lionel 5. ~SHckvilie West, knight COM
nauder of the Order of st. Michael aud
George, who lately inherited from
ais brother the additional title of Baron
oaciville, with an estate OF so. 900 q
year, certainly has written himself
down an ass. This was no news in
Washington, but judging from the re-
publican Newspapers, which have been
us for several years how much
ADLER West was than Bayard. il seems
to have been news to the rest of the
country. Here in Washington this ex-
traordinarv envoy has been recognized
ever since his arrival, in 1851, as an
though reticent nonentity who
was sent here in the mysterious process
OF promotion which gives Washington,
as a ~second-class capital the second-class
OF the English diplomatic service
when they are beginning to think of
their approaching retirement from
public life. All our diplomatic business
with Great Britain, if it is of the slight
est consequence. is transacted with the
secretary of state for foreign affairs.
either directly by our secretary of state
or int~crmediately through our minister
to England. | have read most of the
published diplomatic correspondence
between our government and that of
Great Britain in the seven years since
the present English ministry came to
the old-fashioned manor house occupied
by the legation up on Connecticut ave-
nue.. | do not recall a single despatch
OF h least Importance written or
signed by Sir Lionel Sackville West,
Baron Sackville. Whenever he does
anything Mt all he ''transmitsn some
thing or other That ONE other man has
written. All that he has done could
have been just as we'll done by the third
secretary of legation. He has had no
personal influence upon affairs here. for
he ma not been able to form a friend
ship with any president OF secretary of
state or any other tirst-class public man.
His $50 600 a year entertaining fund has
given some social influence with which
he has been able to get some things out
OF congress.
THE EXTRADITION TREATY.
After Secretary Bayard, through
Minister Phelps, had concluded with
Lord Rosebery, G~ladstone's foreign Sec
rotary, the best e~Xtradition treaty we
ever got with any government. West
did succeed in getting the republican
senators to amend the treaty so as to
make the dynamiters extraditable. This
the republican senators did, not that
they hated West less, but Bayard more.
They knew that just as long as they
kept the treaty in executive session land
they have kept it there to this day they
could make the ignorant believe that it
was Secretary Bayard who had listened
to West and not themselves. You know
how well they have succeeded, strange
as it may seem that such wretched
cheating should succeed at all. West
has accomplished several of these little
back-stairs feats. But that is about all.
He has done more at tennis than he has
at diplomacy since 1881. He has q ten
mis- court in the backyard of the lega-
ton, and plays there every fair evening
in the spring and fall with Il lot of
young people who might be his grand
children. He is also a good walker.
Every day., rain or shine, he takes Il six
mile walk. The British minister PLAYS
tennis and takes walks. That is about
the size of it all.
''OLD SILENCE"
Ordinarily he is known as "Old ST.
~lence." At dinners and at parties, as
at conferences and negotiations, West
has been as silent as a dead clam. One
night at Il party last winter he stood 81
lently contemplating the dancers so long
that a young society man thought he
was slowly petrifyiug. In order to save
him the young mar moved up to him as
though inviting conversation. For a
full minute West, who knew him per-
fectly we'll, looked steadily and silently
at him. Then he suddenly dropped his
single eyeglass and ejaculated: Lets
have some shcrryn, which was his en-
tire conversation for that evening. Nor
did any one suppose until this week that
West could write. The fact is that West
is too old for work. Forty-three years
ago he entered the British diplomatic
service rs Il clerk to the earl of Aber-
deem, then secretary of state to foreign
affairs. Ever since then he has been
slowly drying up. Attache at Lisbon
and Berlin, secretary at Tunis, Madrid,
Berlin and Paris, charge d. atfaires oc-
~casionally, and finally minister to the
Argentine Republic, to Spain, and to
the United States, he has long since
left his wits behind him.
THE COLLISION THEOR DOUBTED.
| take very little stock in the theory
that he wrote the Los Angeles letter in
collision with the republican managers.
He is just dull enough to fall right into
their trap with all its outlines full in
view. l have no doubt hat he wrote in
perfect good faith, although with as lit
tie knowledge as wisdom. l am glad it
happened. The humbug was so appar-
ent as to be dissolved at the first touch.
But where does it leave Minister West
and those republican newspapers that
have been ~eXulting for two or three
years back over his superiority in sa-
gacity and astuteness to the president
and Secretary Bayard? If any man
ever played the fool so to the life as
West since David deceived the Philis-
tines have not heard of it. 1t is easier
to believe that he is not acting than to
believe that he is.
A PEN PORTRAIT.
West is a small man thin and straight,
although his head leans forward when
he walks. He has scauty hair and full
beard both once jet black, but now blue
BACKED with dye. He wears English
clothes, which are always twenty years
too young for him. His face has a hard
wooden expression, and all his move
ments are mechanical. He must be six
ty-five and over and very old for his age
he is. He lives like his predecessor
Sir Edward Thornton, in the big brick
building put up by the British govern
n> =. -. INI..,-l 81