bombardment had been begun without previous notice, thus depriving the diplomats in question of the opportunity of warning their _protégés_. Feeling their responsibility, they joined in a resolution, which was unanimously adopted, in which they referred to the principles and usages of international law in support of their demand, that measures should be taken to enable them to bring the persons and property of their countrymen into a place of safety. Nothing whatever of this kind has taken place now. Shall we try to solve the riddle by assuming that personal partisanship was the motive of the complaint, partisanship against Germany and for France?”--I then quoted the names of the diplomats who had formerly protested and were now silent. _April 17th._--The Chancellor wishes to have the following inserted in the _Kreuzzeitung_, with reference to an article in the _Standard_, as reproduced by the _National Zeitung_: “The rumour as to a desire being felt here in Berlin, that France and England should no longer be represented in the capital of the German Empire by Ambassadors, but only by simple Ministers, has afforded the _Standard_ an opportunity of arguing in favour of such an alteration, as it ascribes the existing usage mainly to the love of pomp and magnificence peculiar to the Second Empire. We do not know what truth there is in the rumour in question, but the grounds which lead the English newspaper to regard it as probable seem to us very far fetched. Another consideration, however, lies much nearer to hand, namely, whether the old diplomacy, with its formalities and struggles for precedence, which have delayed many a congress for weeks, can under any circumstances maintain its position at the present stage of development of international intercourse. A speed is now required in the transaction of business which was not dreamt of in former times, and railways and telegraphs furnish the means of achieving it. The prerogative which is put forward in support of the maintenance of Ambassadors, namely, their personal access to the Sovereign, is to our thinking largely outbalanced by the mediæval pretensions in the matter of precedence, which a diplomatic representative cannot forego so long as he bears the title of Ambassador, but which nevertheless render him anything but welcome at the Court to which he is accredited, to his colleagues, and to the Government of the country.”