MR. PRESIDENT,--There seems a perpetual disposition in this debate to change the issue. I stated that the issue was how we shall best give efficiency to our representation in Europe. Now the Senator from Kentucky says that the issue is how we shall give our minister at Belgium an opportunity to get into a little better company. That is his imagination. Surely it is not the way the Committee directed me to state the case. It is not the way in which I have presented it at any time in this discussion. I hope that Senators will not be diverted from the real issue, which is simply, Will the public interests be promoted by this change? The Committee answer in the affirmative, and in my humble opinion the Committee is right. MR. DAVIS. Will the Chairman specify in what respect the public interest will be promoted, in what respect the efficiency of our representative at the court of Brussels will be increased, and in what respect the increase of his grade will render this Government and its interests more acceptable to Leopold? MR. SUMNER. In the same way, Sir, that the public interests are promoted at London, and also at Paris, by a plenipotentiary instead of a minister resident. MR. DAVIS. According to that rule, we ought to have a first-class minister at every court in Europe and at every government in South America, and everywhere else where we send diplomatic representatives. MR. SUMNER. No,--the Senator will pardon me,--not at every court in Europe, but only at those where we have considerable interests. It all pivots upon that. What are our relations with different courts? With considerable interests, we should be represented accordingly. With inconsiderable interests only, there is no reason to raise the mission. We have first-class missions, according to our scale of rank, at London, Paris, Madrid, Turin, Vienna, Berlin, and St. Petersburg. And why? MR. DAVIS. Will the honorable Chairman tell me the relative proportion between the commercial interests of the United States and England, the United States and France, and the United States and Belgium? MR. SUMNER. There are interests of all kinds, commercial and political, differing in different countries. I need not remind the Senator that our interests with England and France are largely superior to those with any other European power,--much above those with Belgium; but if you ask me what other European power I should place next after those two, I should hesitate, in the condition of our affairs at this precise moment, to place any before Belgium. MR. DAVIS. Would you not place Russia before Belgium?