Democratic Sentinel, Volume 11, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 August 1887 — Diplomatic Courtesies. [ARTICLE]

Diplomatic Courtesies.

A very interesting article might be written on the rights of diplomatists, and ou the rights of the governments sending and receiving such representatives. But only a few general principles can be mentioned here. In the first place, the diplomatists sent by each of two countries to the other should be of the same rank. Great Britain sends an Ambassador to Turkey, and Turkey sends an Ambassador to England. The highest rank of American foreign Ministers is that of Envoy Ex traordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, and, accordingly, no Ambassador, which is the highest rank in diplomacy, is sent to Washington by any government. Again, the government to which a Minister is accredited has a right to refuse to receive him, and, if the reason be a personal one, the government which sends him need not take offense. In 1861 the Austrian Government refused to receive Mr. Anson Burlingame, who afterward did good service as American Minister to China, but no offense was taken, and the historian Motley was appointed Minister to Vienna. Moreover, if a Minister has been reciveed, it is the right of the government near which he is serving to ask that he be recalled, at any time. The United States Government has more than once taken this course —the most notable case having been during Washington’s administration, when M. Genet, the French Minister, had behaved himself with intolerable insolence. But, on the other hand, if the government whose Minister is thus virtually sent home regards the reasons of his dismissal as insufficient, the retaliation takes the form of leaving the mission vacant. The other government soon recalls its own Minister, and diplomatic relations between the two countries are suspended. If some time elapses before Mr. Sargent’s place at Berlin is filled, it may be expected that an excuse will be found for withdrawing the German Minister from Washington. So long as a Minister remains at a court, and the relations between his own government and that to which lie is accredited are friendly, he s entitled to all the official courtesies which are extended to the representatives of any government. To withhold one of these would be more than a slight—it would be an insult to the government from which the Minister came. Yet, outside of the purely formal courtesies, there are offered opportunities to a sovereign or a foreign Mitusfcur to show special friendliness, or the reverse. For example, Prince Bismarck was forced, by diplomatic usage, to invite Mr. Sargent to the dinner which he gave to all the foreign Ministers at Berlin on the Emperor’s birthday. But, while he shook hands with all his other guests, he put off - Mr. Sargent with a courteous bow. The late Emperor Napoleon was au adept at this sort of business. At his New Year’s receptions he graded his reception of the different Ministers according to his disposition toward theii respective governments, and his smiles, nods, and frowns were reported by telegraph all over Europe. Prince Bismarck seems to have sue 1 ceeded him in this trick, but it would be absurd for any one in America to be angry simply because a testy old man shows a lack of good-breeding. —• Youth’s Companion.