Leopold, even if the latter had not, from family and long experience, a position of peculiar weight in the scale of European affairs, so that Belgium under his rule has a value beyond her natural power or territorial extent. Belgium may be small in domain, but so was Greece; nor will any one presume to measure the influence her sovereign may exercise by the number of square miles he governs.

But the Senator asked if there was any other government so small in numbers where we were represented by a plenipotentiary. I have before me, from the last almanac, the population of Chile, where we have a plenipotentiary. It is one million five hundred and fifty-eight thousand. Here, also, is the population of Peru, where we have a plenipotentiary, two million five hundred thousand.

MR. DAVIS. I believe that those missions ought to be reduced, and I would vote to-day for the reduction of the missions to Chile and to Peru.

MR. SUMNER. Very well; but let us take each question by itself. That is the more practical way. When the proposition to reduce the missions to Chile and Peru comes before the Senate, I shall be ready to meet it, and I do not say that I shall differ from the Senator; but that proposition is not now before us, nor is it involved even indirectly in the pending amendment.

It is said, that, if we raise this mission, next year there will be attempt to raise the salary. Very well; when that comes, we can meet it. Again it is said that next year there will be attempt to raise both mission and salary at the Hague and other places. Very well; when the time comes, and it must have the sanction of a

committee of this body to come before the Senate,

we

will meet it. Meanwhile I ask you to consider the actual question under debate, which is, whether you will authorize the Government, in view of the peculiar circumstances of the case and for the support of our interests abroad, to raise the Belgian mission without any increase of salary. I have said this too often, I know; but I have been driven to it by the pertinacity with which Senators have insisted upon presenting the case in a false light.

The amendment was adopted, Yeas 21, Nays 18, and the bill passed the Senate; but the House of Representatives would not consent to raise the Belgian mission. Two different conference committees were appointed. The first united in the following substitute, drawn by Mr. Sumner, which would enable the President to raise the mission in his discretion without increase of salary: "That an envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary, appointed at any place where the United States are now represented by a minister resident, shall receive the compensation fixed by law and appropriated for a minister resident, and no more." But this was disagreed to by the House, and at the second conference the Senate receded from the amendment, so that it was lost.

In the next Congress it was renewed by Mr. Sumner, and prevailed. It will be found in the Consular and Diplomatic Act of July 25, 1866.1

1 Statutes at Large, Vol. XIV. p. 226.

CONSULAR PUPILS.

SPEECH IN THE SENATE, ON AN AMENDMENT TO THE CONSULAR AND DIPLOMATIC APPROPRIATION BILL, MARCH 15, 1864.

THE Senate having under consideration the Consular and Diplomatic Appropriation Bill, an amendment was reported by Mr. Fessenden from the Committee on Finance reviving the provision in the Act of August 18, 1856,1 authorizing twenty-five consular pupils, and making an appropriation for them. The amendment was opposed by Mr. Collamer, of Vermont, and Mr. Reverdy Johnson, of Maryland. Mr. Sumner said in reply:

MR.

---

R. PRESIDENT, The chief objection of the Senator from Maryland seemed to be that we might educate these young men at the national expense and very soon thereafter lose them, in other words, not get our money back. In the first place, it is very easy, by regulations at the State Department before these appointments, to provide against any such contingency; and I understand that Mr. Marcy, indefatigable and ingenious as the Senator remembers he was, did, by a series of regulations, carefully provide for this very case. Should we return to the original law, the Secretary of State would have only to revive those original regulations by one of his most distinguished predecessors. I believe this a sufficient answer to the Senator.

But the Senator from Michigan [Mr. CHANDLER] has

1 Statutes at Large, Vol. XI. p. 55, Ch 127, § 7.

already answered him in another way, when he asked, very pertinently, What assurance have we that we shall enjoy the services of the cadets at West Point, or the naval cadets now at Newport? There are certain requirements of service, but the Senator knows well that nothing is more common than for cadets, especially military, to pass immediately from that education they have received at the expense of their country into occupations serving only their private advantage.

MR. JOHNSON. That is with the consent of the Government. The Government accepts their resignations.

MR. SUMNER. Very well; what is to hinder regulations at the Department of State requiring the consent of the Government before these pupils shall be released, in short, holding them by some words of contract for a certain term? Here let me say, that, unlike cadets, these pupils will give the Government valuable service even while pupils.

But, Sir, passing from these considerations, allow me for a moment to ask the attention of the Senate to this proposition in two aspects, the first as a carrying out of the consular and diplomatic statute of the United States, and the second as in the nature of an educational provision calculated to benefit our consular service abroad.

In the first aspect, the Senate will bear in mind that down to 1855 we had no general diplomatic and consular statute. Our representation in foreign countries went under thorough review, and the result was the statute in our books, determining grades, adjusting salaries, and, in one word, systematizing the whole business. Let the character of the statute be borne in mind. But

this statute, which aimed to present a complete system, contained the provision for consular pupils.

Now, Sir, at that time and by that statute our consular salaries were adjusted to this very provision of consular pupils. The one was in the nature of a complement to the other. The salaries were made lower than they otherwise would have been in certain cases, because the consuls were to be aided by pupils with a compensation fixed by statute. But the provision for pupils was repealed shortly afterwards, indeed before. the experiment had been tried, without, however, raising the consular salaries in corresponding degree. It seems clear that something must be done now. You must do one of two things, either raise the consular salaries or appoint consular pupils. Otherwise the original idea of the statute fails, and our system is defective.

But this seems to be the least important aspect of the subject. A mere question of salary, or, if you please, of system in the statute, is trivial, to my mind, by the side of that other consideration to which Senators have already alluded. I said that this was part of an educational system for the advancement of our service abroad. I do not think you can exaggerate its importance in this respect. Let any one who has been abroad, or had personal acquaintance with those who have been abroad, bear testimony to the abounding ignorance in our foreign service, from the circumstance that there is nobody there, unless a hired foreigner, acquainted with the language, the laws, or the usages of the people about him. Sir, it is a shame that our offices abroad, whether consular or diplomatic, are served in this inferior way. Here, now, is a practical proposition beginning a remedy. It