this is an important item for a diplomat. The English type is imitated everywhere, Anglomania and snobbery are diseases that have spread far and wide, but they are also powerful weapons of English diplomacy. Many people are glad to be mistaken for Englishmen. A large proportion of our diplomats are very much impressed by the English gentleman. Most of our diplomats are proud, if they meet an English lord, and they believe blindly whatever a Salisbury or a Grey says to them. The natural, easy and simple appearance of Englishmen gives the impression of honesty. However, in the blood of every Englishman there is so much political experience and such a tradition of self-government as has never been inherited by the sons of another nation. Every Englishman has been brought up in the school of international politics and self-government in a measure in which no son of the same social strata of another nation, either in the past or in the present, has ever done.
The phenomenal successes which were achieved during the reign of King Edward VII I do not trace to the genius of single statesmen, but rather lo these general national characteristics which have been bred in the nation and developed by their freedom and their power in the world. Together with French diplomacy, which has also admirable traditions and a sound school, English diplomacy knew how to exercise its influence over the press and the large mass of the people of foreign countries. No other alliance and no other State had so much material for the purpose of influencing
