CHAPTER IV

THE RECEPTION OF ENVOYS

THE American diplomatic representative goes to his post with no display, and much as a private gentleman makes a visit abroad. In this respect a great change has taken place in modern times. When Sully, the minister of King Henry of Navarre, went on his mission to Queen Elizabeth, he took to England a retinue of two hundred gentlemen. Ambassador Bassompierre speaks of an "equipage of five hundred" returning with him to France. When Sully reached London, he was saluted with three thousand guns from the Tower. D'Estrades, ambassador of Louis XIV, reports that he was met at Ryswick by the deputies of Holland with a train of three-score coaches-and-six.

While this extravagant display has given place in the western nations to more official simplicity, the old diplomatic order of things still lingers in the Far East. When the Viceroy Li Hung Chang went to Japan in 1895 to sue for peace, two merchant steamers were chartered to carry his suite of one hundred and thirtyfive persons and their paraphernalia. The Japanese embassy which visited Peking in 1905, to negotiate for an adjustment of the questions growing out of the Russo-Japanese war, was attended with great state. The ambassador and his suite, whenever they moved about,

were accompanied by a large and imposing escort, and the ceremonial observed was studiously planned to impress the Chinese. On their departure they bestowed liberal gifts of money upon various local institutions, and traveled by special railway train with a military guard.

When the American envoy arrives at his post, his first duty is to put himself in communication with the secretary for foreign affairs. His predecessor should, under ordinary circumstances, remain till his arrival, and facilitate his induction into office, but in his absence the secretary of legation, acting as chargé ad interim, arranges for a personal call at the foreign office to pay his respects to the secretary or minister for foreign affairs, and express his desire to present his letter of credence to the head of the state; but he will also send the secretary a formal note asking for such audience, and inclosing an "office copy" of his credentials. If it is customary at the capital to exchange formal addresses at the audience, the new envoy will also inclose with his note a copy of his remarks; and when advised by the secretary's note in reply of the time of audience, a copy of the sovereign's address is inclosed.

The government of each country prescribes the ceremonial to be observed at the audience for the delivery of the envoy's credentials, and there is no uniformity even in the courts of Europe. In most countries greater display is made in the reception of ambassadors than of representatives of a lower grade. In all the capitals of Europe there is an official, often a nobleman of high

rank, variously entitled the grand chamberlain, introducer of ambassadors, or master of ceremonies, with a bureau of assistants and clerks, a part of whose business it is to take charge of the ceremony of the reception of envoys, and in other ways to assist them in the duties incident to their installation in the diplomatic body.

It is to him the new envoy applies after his reception to ascertain the officials of the government upon whom he must call, to learn the peculiar customs of the diplomatic body and of society at that court, and this functionary is expected to solve such momentous questions as the order of seating at the envoy's table, or the proper persons to be invited to his balls or other entertainments. The new diplomats coming to Washington have often felt the need of such an official, and even the resident people of society would be grateful to the government if it would provide them some authorized person who could solve for them the many vexed questions of precedence which are continually arising. The subject of a code of official precedence has often been considered at the Department of State, but as yet no secretary of state has had the courage, in the face of the conflicting claims, to issue such a code of rules.

When the time for the new envoy's reception is determined, he is waited upon by the master of ceremonies to explain the formalities to be observed, and on the appointed day he, or some official representing him, calls at the hotel or residence of the envoy with one or more state carriages to conduct him and his suite to the palace. In some countries the minister is allowed to go,

unescorted, in his own carriage. If the envoy has the rank of ambassador, he is usually escorted by a detachment of cavalry, and the carriages which take him and his suite are drawn by six horses.

This latter distinction is among the last reminders of the great displays formerly made at court in honor of ambassadors. Most of these have fallen into disuse with the increasing demand of the present age for greater simplicity, but several of the courts of Europe still cling to the six-horse ambassadorial coach. In the accounts of the great Congress of Westphalia and other conferences of two centuries and more ago, we read of the great number of coaches-and-six which were a part of the paraphernalia of the respective ambassadors, the plenipotentiaries of the king of France, for instance, explaining the delay in their arrival by the necessity of stopping en route to secure the proper number of suitable horses for their cavalcade of entrance.

As stated, the ceremony at the reception of an envoy is regulated in each country by its government, and there is no uniformity of custom. For instance, in Madrid, where ancient usage is still observed, the introducer of ambassadors escorts the envoy with his suite to the palace with state carriages and a troop of cavalry, and leads them up the grand stairway lined with halberdiers into the throne room, where is the sovereign surrounded by the cabinet and royal household officials in full uniform. When the doors of the throne room are opened, the envoy makes a bow at the entrance, then advances half-way to the royal circle, halts and bows again, then approaches near to the sovereign,

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stops, bows a third time and proceeds with his address. When that is concluded, the envoy delivers the letter of credence of the President into the hands of the sovereign, who passes it without breaking the seal to the minister of foreign affairs, and the sovereign reads his address in reply. After a few minutes of informal conversation, the audience closes with the withdrawal of the envoy and suite, always with their faces to the royal circle, and a return down the grand stairway to the coaches and through the streets, accompanied by the introducer of ambassadors and the cavalry troop.

Hannibal Hamlin, that stout " Old Roman," who during his active political life had given little attention to society refinements, when he retired from the Senate was appointed minister to Spain to round out his public services. He anticipated the ceremonial of his reception by King Alfonso with considerable trepidation, and it is said he practiced with the trained secretary of legation the manner of his appearance before his majesty, with "the three reverences in the throne room. In a letter to his sons, after describing the manner in which he was escorted to the palace, he says: "I think you would have laughed heartily to have seen your plain republican father toted along with all those trappings of royalty. But then it was all in accordance with established custom and had to be performed. There was nothing for me to do but submit, look on, and reflect, as you may be sure I did." He closed a detailed account of the reception as follows: "I believe I made no mistake or blunder. Mr. R., the secretary, complimented me on the manner in which I went through the ceremony. On the whole, I