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The Literature of International Relations

practical and the legal side of diplomacy have been kept in view; an outline of the important Congresses and Conferences is included, and the different kinds of international compacts have been treated in some detail. The manner of conducting Congresses and Conferences, and of framing treaties and like instruments, is in the majority of cases, analysed. With regard to Good Offices and Mediation the historical supports and illustrations given by the author are considerable and ample. The language of the originals is retained, in the larger part of the work, in quotations from treaties and other State Papers. An Appendix contains a list of treatises on International Law likely to be of use to diplomatists, and a supplementary list of works, historical, biographical, and other, that 'may be useful to junior members of the diplomatic service', and not to these only.

There are parts of this work that more especially deserve attention within our own purpose: the first few pages[1] on definitions and uses of the words 'diplomacy' and 'diplomat', 'diplomate', 'diplomatist'; a chapter[2] on 'The Minister for Foreign Affairs'; a chapter,[3] historical in character, entitled 'Precedence among States and Similar Matters'; a chapter[4] on 'The Language of Diplomatic Intercourse, and Forms of Documents', especially the sections on the former use of Latin, French, and Spanish, on the language used in treaties, and on the Note, the note verbale, and the memorandum; a chapter[5] on 'Counsels to Diplomatists', including the Minister for Foreign Affairs;[6]

  1. i, pp. 1–4.
  2. i, ch. iii, pp. 8–12.
  3. i, ch. iv, pp. 13–25.
  4. i, ch. vii, pp. 58–99.
  5. i, ch. ix, pp. 119–45.
  6. 'We venture to suggest that a Minister for Foreign Affairs ought always to have a clear idea of the policy to be pursued in regard to each separate foreign state, and to seize every convenient opportunity of discussing it with the heads of the respective diplomatic missions. It is to be regretted that the earlier practice of providing an envoy proceeding to