Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-01-26
DIPLOMATIC AGENTS.
How the Representatives of Foreign
Countries are Received.
IFdmuud Alton in ST Nicholas


Edmund Alton in st. Methodist
Under rules formally agreed upon by
the powers of Europe, at the Interna-
tional Congress of Vienna and AK la
Chapelle (held in the early part of the
present century,, and adopted by the Gov
eminent of the United States, diplomatic
agents are divided into four classes: Q)
ambassadors legates or nuncios; ~ en-
voys, ministers or other persons accredited
to sovereigns; (3) ministers resident, and
(4) charges d'atIaires accredited to Minis
tiers for Foreign Affairs. ambassadors, leg
atees and nuncios possess what is styled
the representative" character. They are
supposed to represent the person of the
prince by whom they are sent, and as such
to be entitled TO hold direct personal audi
ence with the sovereign to whom they are
accredited. Our Government neither
sends nor receives diplomats of this grade.
Legates and nuncios represent the Pope,
with whom we have no political relations,
and who, therefore, has no agent at Wash
ington; and as we have not seen fit to at
tach the title of ambassador to any OF the
representatives sent out by US, we have
been honored with no ambassadors from
other States. In point of fact, this repre-
sentative distinction is of little practical
value so far as it confers the privilege of
direct approach to the throne, for diplo-
matte business is transacted nowadays
through the Foreign Office of every lead
ing Government, and not through personal
audiences with the sovereign head. Still,
it humors the vanity of diplomat to be
called ambassador; the title gives him pre-
cedence on ceremonial occasions, and at
some Capitals it gives him precedence in
securing audience with the Minister for
Foreign Affairs.
The United States, in its treatment of
the Diplomatic Corps at Washington, dis
regards the question of title in matters of
business The Ministers take rank in the
diplomatic body according to the order
in which they arrive at the seat of gov
eminent and present their credentials,
and as to interviews with the Secretary
of State they are admitted to the audi
ence-room in the order in which they
reach the Department and present their
cards on diplomatic Day" A similar
rule as to audiences is recognized at St.
Petersburg, Berlin, and elsewhere, but the
fact that it is not universally observed
places our representatives occasionally at
a disadvantage. In some countries a
Minister of the United States may wait
for hours in the ante-room of the For
eign Office to gain an interview on some
State matter of the liveliest importance !;
and at the very last moment, when those
outranking him in title have come and
gone and he is about to take his turn,
the representative of some Insignificant
Asiatic power, who has just arrived with
no other object perhaps than to exchange
a few idle words with the Minister for
Foreign Affairs, goes in ahead, simply
because he is styled ambassador" and
the representative of the great American
Republic may have the door of the audi
ence-room closed in his face for the day.
This consideration has been the strong
plea of those who urge that our diplo-
matte representatives to the great Powers
should be given loftier titles, to put them
on business equality with other lega-
tions at the same courts.