The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-11

at the congress of Vienna in 1916. In those
days there was no public opinion TO control
or interfere with the individual wishes of
the sovereign, diplomatists then represent
ed, almost exclusively, a personal royal
policy, and as the mail was slow, as the
telegraph was not invented, as ENJOYS
were often a months distance from their
master they We're obliged to Interpret
their instructions as they could or to act
without instructions. For these various
reasons an ambassador had really an i'm
portant part to play, and grave RESPONSE
biliJy to support; diplomacy was then an
occupation needing forethought, prompt
decision, much subtlety of imagination and
abundant resources; its professions, there
fore had, in addition to their impersona-
ton of their monarch, some personal
grounds for claiming the extravagant pre-
negatives which were conceded 10 them.
The prerogative formerly enjoyed by
diplomatic ENJOYS were, in many cases,
really larger than those possessed by the
sovereigns they represented. For a long
time they exercised the direct attribute
of Judgment, and consequently of life and
DEATH over the members of their suite;
heir houses and their carriages were rec
oenized asylums from all local justice,
and often served as such for criminals
of any nationality. In certain countries
they extended this immunity far outside
the doors of the palaces they inhabited,
and maintained its action throughout the
entire neighboring district of the city.
They all kept guards for the defense of
their prerogative,. and for the immediate
punishment Of any one who infringed
them.
Some. of them pretended that they were
in no way bound to pay their debts, and
the privileges which still continue to ex
list of freedom from jurisdiction and tax
alton were carried to the most exorbitant
and abusive development. Every ambas-
sador sought for new occasions of extend
ing either the application of his preroga-
tives or those prerogatives themselves, and
half this time was spent in fighting over
them Examples of all this are abundant
in diplomatic histories; they are 50 nu-
merous and so varied that they supply il
Illustrations of every imaginable form of
difficulty or quarrel, for gentlemen pos
sessed in those days a sngularly strong
faculty of getting into trouble and cor
respondingly feeble talent for getting out
of it.
A century ago the whole Continental
Hotel, where our ambassado are lodged
now, would have been territory outside
the dominion of the French government.
The ambassadors of their suites might
commit any devitry they pleased, and
the sovereign could only complain to The
home government. The church itself in
he old days of its potency was not more
effective than the mere insignia of diplo-
matte privilege There are few episodes
in history more suggestive than the tri-
umphs of diplomats over sovereigns and
peoples. France, Great Britain and most
of the great European powers have time
and again been brought TO the verge of
war over the wrangles of ambassadors.
But our modest mission in Paris claims
nothing, and as a consequence it can have
anything it may happen to demand II
is housed as no embassy ever was before
in the palace of the Quai dOrsay. and
the pain republicans must be dazz,ed by
grandeurs which even the Congressional
Library cannot equal.