1826. Born at Paris, March 31.
1832-9. Childhood in Switzerland.
1839-44. With private tutors.
1845-9. Balliol College, Oxford1.
1850. Clerk in Education Office.
1853. Attaché at Vienna Embassy.
1858. Attaché at Berlin.
1861. Marriage with Alice, daughter of General Jonathan Peel.
1865. Commissioner3 at Vienna. Commercial Treaty. C.B. Chargé d’Affaires at Frankfort.
1866-71. Chargé d’Affaires at Darmstadt.
1870. Tour in Alsace to test national feeling.
1871. Chargé d’Affaires at Stuttgart.
1872-6. Chargé d’Affaires at Munich.
1875. Danger of second Franco-German War.
1876. Minister at Lisbon.
1881. Minister at Madrid. 1882. K.C.B.
1884. Bismarck vetoes Morier as Ambassador to Berlin.
1885-93. Ambassador at St. Petersburg.
1886. Bulgaria, Batum, and Black Sea troubles.
1887. G.C.B. 1889. D.C.L., Oxford.
1891. Appointed Ambassador at Rome: retained at St. Petersburg.
1893. Death at Montreux. Funeral at Batchworth.
Robert Morier
Diplomatist
Diplomacy5 as a profession is a product of modern history. As Europe emerged from the Middle Ages, the dividing walls between State and State were broken down, and Governments found it necessary to have trained agents resident at foreign courts to conduct the questions of growing importance which arose between them. Churchmen were at first best qualified6 to undertake such duties, and Nicholas Wotton, Dean of Canterbury, who enjoyed the confidence of four Tudor sovereigns, came to be as much at home in France or in the Netherlands as he was in his own Deanery. It was his great nephew Sir Henry (who began his days as a scholar at Winchester, and ended them as Provost at Eton) who did his profession a notable disservice by indulging his humour at Augsburg when acting7 as envoy8 for James I, defining the diplomatist as ‘one who was sent to lie abroad for his country’.42 Since then many a politician and writer has let fly his shafts9 at diplomacy, and fervent10 democrats11 have come to regard diplomats12 as veritable children of the devil. But this prejudice is chiefly due to ignorance, and can easily be cured by a patient study of history. In the nineteenth century, in particular, English diplomacy can point to a noble roll of ambassadors, who worked for European peace as well as for the triumph of liberal causes, and none has a higher claim to such praise than Sir Robert Morier, the subject of this sketch13.
The traditions of his family marked out his path in life. We can trace their origin to connexions in the Consular14 service at Smyrna, where Isaac Morier met and married Clara van Lennep in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Swiss grandfather and Dutch grandmother became naturalized subjects of the British Crown and brought up four sons to win distinction in its service. Of these the third, David, married a daughter of Robert Burnet Jones — a descendant of the famous Bishop15 Burnet, and himself a servant of the Crown — and held important diplomatic appointments for over thirty years at Paris and Berne. So it was that his only son Robert David Burnet Morier was born in France, spent much of his childhood in Switzerland, and acquired early in life a remarkable16 facility in speaking foreign languages. To his schooling17 in England he seems to have owed little of positive value. His father and uncles had been sent to Harrow; but perhaps it was as well that the son did not, in this, follow in his father’s footsteps. However much he neglected his studies with two easy-going tutors, he preserved his freshness and originality19 and ran no danger of being drilled into a type. If he had as a boy undue20 self-confidence, no one was better fitted to correct it than his mother, a woman of wide sympathies and strong intellectual force. The letters which passed between them display, on his part, mature powers of expression at an early age, and show the generous, affectionate nature of both; and till her death in 1855 she remained his chief confidante and counsellor. In trying to matriculate at Balliol College he met with a momentary21 check, due to the casual nature of his education; but, after retrieving22 this, he rapidly made good his deficiency in Greek and Latin, and ended by taking a creditable degree. His time at Oxford, apart from reading, was well spent. He made special friends with two of the younger dons: Temple, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, and Jowett, the future Master of Balliol. The former was carried by rugged23 force and sheer ability to the highest position in the Church; the latter won a peculiar24 place, in Oxford and in the world outside, by his gifts of judging character and stimulating25 intellectual interest. Morier became his favourite pupil and lifelong friend. F. T. Palgrave, the friend of both, tells us how ‘Morier went up to Balliol a lax and imperfectly educated fellow; but Jowett, seeing his great natural capacity, took him in the Long Vacation of 1848 and practically “converted” him to the doctrine26 of work. This was the turning-point in Morier’s life.’ Together the two friends spent many a holiday in Germany, Scotland, and elsewhere, and must have presented a strange contrast to one another: Jowett, small, frail27, quiet and precise in manner, Morier big in every way, exuberant28 and full of vitality29. It was with Jowett and Stanley (afterwards Dean of Westminster) that Morier went to Paris in 1848, eager to study the Revolutionary spirit in its most lively manifestations30. Stanley describes him as ‘a Balliol undergraduate of gigantic size, who speaks French better than English, is to wear a blouse, and to go about disguised to the clubs’.
He took his degree in November 1849, and a month later he was visiting Dresden and Berlin, making German friends and initiating31 himself in German politics and German ways of thought. Though his British patriotism32 was fervid33 and sustained, he was capable of understanding men of other nations and recognizing their merits; and in knowledge of Germany he acquired a position among Englishmen of his day rivalled only by Odo Russell, afterwards Ambassador at Berlin. Morier’s father had for many years represented Great Britain in Switzerland and could guide him both by precept34 and by example. Free intercourse35 with the most liberal minds in Oxford had developed the lessons which he had learnt at home. But his own energy and application effected more than anything. He was not satisfied till he had mastered a problem; and books, places, and people were laid under contribution unsparingly. He started on his tour carrying letters of introduction to some of the famous men in Germany, including the great traveller and scientist, Alexander von Humboldt. Of a younger generation was the philologist36 Max Müller, who was a frequent companion of Morier in Berlin, and gave up his time to nursing him back to health when he was taken ill with quinsy. He found friends in all professions, but chiefly among politicians. A typical instance is von Roggenbach, who rose to be Premier37 of Baden in the years 1861 to 1865, when the destinies of Germany were in the melting-pot. Baden was in some ways the leading state in South Germany at that time, combining liberal ideals with a fervent advocacy of national union, and the views of Roggenbach on political questions attracted Morier’s warmest sympathy. Another state in which Morier felt genuinely at home was the Duchy of Coburg, from which Prince Albert had come to wed18 our own Queen Victoria. The Prince’s brother, the reigning38 Duke, treated Morier as a personal friend; and here, too, he found Baron39 Stockmar, a Nestor among German Liberals, who had spent his political life in trying to promote goodwill40 between England and Germany. He received Morier into his family circle and adopted him as the heir to his policy. This intimacy41 led to further results; and, thanks in part to Morier’s subsequent friendship with the Crown Prince and Princess of Prussia, generous ideals and a liberal spirit were to be found surviving in a few places even after 1870, though Bismarck had poisoned the minds of a whole generation by the material successes which he achieved.
In 1849 the doors of the Foreign Office were closed to Morier. The Secretary of State, Lord Palmerston, had treated his father unfairly, as he thought, some years before, and Morier would ask no favours of him. He continued his education, keeping in close touch with Jowett and Temple, and, when he saw a chance of studying politics at first hand, he eagerly availed himself of it. The troubles of Schleswig-Holstein, too intricate to be explained briefly42, had been brewing43 for some time. In 1850, the dispute, to which Prussia, Denmark, and the German Diet were all parties, came to a head. The Duchies were overrun by Prussian troops, while the Danish Navy held the sea. Morier rushed off to see for himself what was happening, and spent some interesting days at Kiel, talking to those who could instruct him, and forming his own judgement. This was adverse44 to the wisdom of the Copenhagen Radicals45, who were trying to assert by force their supremacy46 over a German population. In the circumstances, as Prussia gave way to the wishes of other powers, no satisfactory decision could be reached; but ten years later the issue was in the ruthless hands of Bismarck, and was settled by ‘blood and iron’.
In 1850 Morier accepted a clerkship in the Education Office at ￡120 a year. The work was not to his taste, but at least it was public service, and he saw no hope of employment in the Foreign Office. He found some distractions47 in London society. He kept up relations with his old friends, and he took a leading part in establishing the Cosmopolitan49 Club, which later met in Watts’s studio, but began its existence in Morier’s own rooms. He enjoyed greatly a meeting with Tennyson and Browning, and wrote with enthusiasm of the former to his father, as ‘one who gave men an insight into the real Hero-world, as one from whom he could catch reflected something of the Divine’. But Morier’s spirits were mercurial50, and between moments of elation48 he was apt to fall into fits of melancholy51, when he could find no outlet52 for his energies. Waiting for his true profession tried him sorely, and he was even resigning himself to the prospect53 of a visit to Australia as a professional journalist, when fortune at last smiled upon him. Palmerston retired54 from the Foreign Office, and when Clarendon succeeded him, Morier’s name was placed on the list of candidates for an attachéship. At Easter 1853 he started for another visit to the Continent, full of hope and more than ever determined56 to qualify himself for the profession which he loved.
He was rewarded for his zeal57 a few weeks later, when he paid a visit to Vienna, won the favour of the Ambassador, Lord Westmorland, and was commended to the Foreign Office. At the age of twenty-seven he was appointed to serve Her Majesty58 as unpaid59 attaché, having already acquired a knowledge of European politics which many men of sixty would have envied. In figure he was tall, with a tendency already manifested to put on flesh, good-looking, genial60 and sympathetic in manner, a bon vivant, passionately62 fond of dancing and society, an excellent talker or listener as the occasion demanded. His intelligence was quick, his powers of handling details and of grasping broad principles were alike remarkable. He wrote with ease, clearness, and precision; he knew what hard work meant and revelled63 in it. Unfortunately he was subject already to rheumatic gout, which was to make him acquainted with many watering-places, and was to handicap him gravely in later life. But at present nothing could check his ardour in his profession, and during his five years at Vienna he took every chance of studying foreign lands and of making acquaintance with the chief figures in the diplomatic world. He enjoyed talks with Baron Jella?i?, who had saved the monarchy64 in 1848, and with Prince Metternich, whose political career ended in that year of revolutions and who was now only a figure in society. After the Crimean War Morier obtained permission to make a tour through South-east Hungary and to study for himself the mixture of Slavonic, Magyar, and Teutonic races inhabiting that district. He followed this up by another tour of three months, which carried him from Agram southwards into Bosnia and Herzegovina, having prepared for it by working ten to twelve hours a day for some weeks at the language of the southern Slavs. Incidentally he enjoyed some hunting expeditions with Turkish pashas, and obtained some insight into the weakness of the British consular system. All his life he believed strongly in the value of such tours to obtain first-hand information; and thirty years later, as Ambassador, he encouraged his secretaries to familiarize themselves with the outlying districts of the Russian empire.
In 1858, at the age of thirty-two, Morier passed from Vienna to Berlin. It was the year in which the Princess Royal, the eldest65 daughter of Queen Victoria, married the Crown Prince of Prussia.43 Her father, the Prince Consort66, was very anxious that Morier should be at hand to advise the young couple, and the appointment to Berlin was his work. Then it was that Morier became involved in the struggle between Bismarck and the Liberal influences in Germany, which had no stronger rallying-point than the Coburg Court. This conflict only showed itself later, and at first the young English attaché must have seemed a sufficiently67 unimportant person; but before 1862 Bismarck, coming home to Berlin from the St. Petersburg Embassy, and discerning the nature of Morier’s character, had declared that it was desirable to remove such an influence from the path of his party, who were determined to bring Liberal Germany under the yoke68 of a Prussia which had no sympathy for democratic ideals.
For the moment the ship of State was hanging in the wind; light currents of air were perceptible; sails were filling in one parliamentary boat or another; but the chief movement was to be seen not in parliamentary circles but in the excellent civil service, which preserved that honesty and efficiency which it had acquired in the days of Stein. There were marked tendencies towards Liberalism and towards unification in different parts of Germany; and, if the Liberal party could have produced one man of firmness and decision, these forces might have triumphed over the reactionary69 Prussian clique70. In this conflict Morier was bound to be a passionate61 sympathiser with the parties which included so many of his personal friends and which advocated principles so dear to his heart. With the triumph of his friends, too, were associated the prospects71 of a good understanding between England and Germany, for which Morier himself was labouring; and he was accused of having meddled72 indiscreetly with local politics. When King William broke with the Liberals over the Army Bill, caution was doubly necessary. Bismarck became Minister in 1862, and, great man though he was, he was capable of any pettiness when he had once declared war on an opponent. From that time the policy of working for an Anglo-Prussian entente73 was a losing game, not only because Bismarck detested74 the parliamentarism which he associated with England, but also because, on our side too, extremists were stirring up ill-feeling. In his letters Morier makes frequent reference to the ‘John Bullishness’ of The Times. When this journal, to which European importance attached during the editorship of Delane, was not openly flouting75 Prussia, it was displaying reckless ignorance of a people who were making the most solid contributions to learning and raising themselves by steady industry from the losses due to centuries of Continental77 warfare78.
From time to time he paid visits to friends at Dresden, at Baden, and elsewhere. One year he was sent to Naples on a special mission, another year he was summoned to attend on Queen Victoria, who was visiting Coburg. In 1859 he is lamenting79 the monotony of existence at Berlin, which he calls ‘a Dutch mud canal of a life, without even the tulip beds on the banks’. But when later in that year Lord John Russell, who knew and appreciated his talents, became Foreign Secretary and called on him for frequent reports on important subjects, Morier found solace80 in work. He was only too willing to put his wide knowledge of the country in which he was serving at the disposal of his superiors at home. He wrote with equal ability on political, agrarian81, and financial subjects. That he could take into account the personal factor is shown by the long letter which he wrote in 1861 to Sir Henry Layard, then Political Under-Secretary of State.44 It contained a masterly analysis of the character and upbringing of King William, showing how his intellectual narrowness had hampered82 Liberal Governments, while his professional training in the army had made him a most efficient instrument in promoting the aims of Junker politicians and ministers of war.
On Schleswig-Holstein, above all, Morier exerted himself to convey a right view of the question to those who guided opinion in London, whether newspaper editors or responsible ministers. He appealed to the same principle which had won support for the Lombards against Austria. The inhabitants of the disputed Duchies were for the most part Germans, and the Danish Government had done violence to their national sentiment. If England could have extended its sympathy to its northern kinsmen83 in time, the question might have been settled peacefully before 1862, and Bismarck could never have availed himself of such a lever to overthrow85 his Liberal opponents. As it was, Prussia ignored the Danish sympathies displayed abroad, especially in the English press, went her own way and invaded the Duchies, dragging in her train Austria, her confederate and her dupe. Palmerston, who controlled our foreign policy at the time, waited till the last moment, blustered87, found himself impotent to move without French support, and left Denmark smarting with a sense of betrayal which lasted till 1914. By such bungling88 Morier knew that we were incurring89 enmity on both sides and lowering our reputation for courage as well as for statesmanship.
In 1865 he was chosen as one of the Special Commissioners90 to negotiate a treaty of commerce between Great Britain and Austria. He had always been a Free-trader, and he was convinced that such economic agreements could do much to improve the world and to strengthen the bonds of peace. So he was ready and willing to do hard work in this sphere, and finding a congenial colleague in Sir Louis Mallet91, one of the best economists92 of the day, he spent some months at Vienna in fruitful activity and won the good opinion of all associated with him. For his services he received the C.B. and high commendation from London.
This same year brought promotion93 in rank, though for long it was uncertain where he would go. In August he accepted the offer of First Secretary to the Legation in Japan, most reluctantly, because he saw his peculiar knowledge of Germany would be wasted there. Ten days later this offer was changed for a similar position at the Court of Greece, which was equally uncongenial; but at the end of the year the Foreign Office decided94 that he would be most useful in the field which he had chosen for himself, and after a few months at Frankfort he was sent in the year 1866 as chargé d’affaires to the Grand Ducal Court of Hesse-Darmstadt.
From these posts he was destined95 to be a spectator of the two great conflicts by which Bismarck established the union of North Germany and its primacy in Europe. Morier detested the means by which this end was achieved, but he had consistently maintained that this union ought to be, and could only be, achieved by Prussia, and he remained true to his beliefs. It is a great tribute to his intellectual force that he was able to control his personal sympathies and antipathies96, and to judge passing events with reference to the past and the future. He had liked the statesmen whom he had met at Vienna, and he recognized their good faith in the difficult negotiations97 of 1865. But for the good of Europe, he thought the Austrian Government should now look eastwards98. It could not do double work at Vienna and at Frankfort. The impotence of the Frankfort Diet could be cured only by the North Germans, and the aspirations99 of good patriots100, from Baden to the Baltic, had been for long directed towards Prussia. But it was no easy task to make people in England realize the justice of this view or the certainty that Prussia was strong enough to carry through the work. Led by The Times, the British Press had grown accustomed to use a contemptuous tone towards Prussia; and when in the decisive hour this could no longer be maintained, and British sentiment, as is its nature, declared for Austria as the beaten side, this sentiment was attributed at Berlin to the basest envy. Relations between the two peoples steadily101 grew worse during these years, despite the efforts of Morier and other friends of peace.
The Franco-German war brought even greater bitterness between Prussia and Great Britain. The neutrality, which the latter power observed, was misunderstood in both camps; and the position of a British diplomat4 abroad became really unpleasant. Morier in particular, as a marked man, knew that he was subject to spying and misrepresentation, but this did not deter55 him from doing his duty and more than his duty. He took measures to safeguard those dependent on him, in case Hesse came into the theatre of war. He organized medical aid for the wounded on both sides. He took a journey in September into Alsace and Lorraine to ascertain102 the feeling of the inhabitants, that he might give the best possible advice to his Government if the cession103 of these districts became a European question. He came to the conclusion that Alsace was not a homogeneous unit — that language, religion, and sentiment varied104 in different districts, and that it was desirable to work for a compromise. But Bismarck was determined in 1870, as in 1866, that the settlement should remain in his own hands and that no European congress should spoil his plans. Morier found that he was being talked of at Berlin as ‘the enemy of Prussia’, and atrocious calumnies105 were circulated. One of these was revived some years later when Bismarck wished to discredit106 him, and Bismarckian journals accused him of having betrayed to Marshal Bazaine military secrets which he discovered in Hesse. Morier obtained from the Marshal a letter which clearly refuted the charge, and he gave it the widest publicity107. The plot recoiled108 on its author, and Morier was spoken of in France as ‘le grand ambassadeur qui a roulé Bismarck’. Yet all the while, with his wife a strong partisan109 of France, with six cousins fighting in the French Army, with his friends in England only too ready to quarrel with him for his supposed pro-German sentiments, he was appealing for fair judgement, for reason, for a wise policy which should soften110 the bitterness of the settlement between victors and vanquished111. Facts must be recognized, he pleaded, and the French claim for peculiar consideration and their traditional amour propre must not be allowed to prolong the miseries112 of war. At the same time Morier did not close his eyes to the danger arising from the overwhelming victories of the German armies. No one saw more clearly the deterioration113 which was taking place in German character, or depicted114 it in more trenchant115 terms. But it was his business to work for the future and not to let sentiment bring fresh disasters upon Europe.
Apart from this critical period, life at Darmstadt bored him considerably116. His presence there was valued highly by Queen Victoria, one of whose daughters had married the Grand Duke; but Morier felt himself to be in a backwater, far from the main stream of European politics, and society there was dull. So he welcomed in 1871 his transference first to Stuttgart, and a few months later to Munich, the capital of the second state in the new Empire and a great centre of literary culture. Here lived Dr. D?llinger, historian and divine, a man suspected at Rome for his liberal Catholicism even before his definite severance117 from the Roman Church, but honoured everywhere else for the width and depth of his knowledge. With him Morier enjoyed many conversations on Church councils and other subjects which interested them both; and in 1874, lured118 by the prospect of such society, Gladstone paid him a visit of ten days. Morier did not admire Gladstone’s conduct of foreign policy, but he was open-minded enough to recognize his great gifts and to enjoy his company, and he writes home with enthusiasm about his conversational119 powers. A still more welcome visitor in 1873 was Jowett, his old Oxford friend, who never lost his place in Morier’s affections.
Among these delights he retained his vigilance in political matters, and there was often need for it, since the German Government was now developing that habit of ‘rattling120 its sword’, and threatening its neighbours with war, which disquieted121 Europe for another forty years. The worst crisis came in 1875, when Morier heard on good authority that the military clique at Berlin were gaining ground, and seemed likely to persuade the Emperor William to force on a second war, expressly to prevent France recovering its strength. In general the credit for checking this sinister122 move is given to the Tsar; but English influences played a large part in the matter. Morier managed to catch the Crown Prince on his way south to Italy and had a long talk with him in the railway train. The Crown Prince was known to be a true lover of peace, but capable of being hoodwinked by Bismarck; once convinced that the danger was real (and he trusted Morier as he trusted no German in his entourage), he returned to Berlin and threw all his weight into the scale of peace. Queen Victoria also wrote from London; and, in face of a possible coalition123 against them, the Germans decided that it was wisest to abstain124 from all aggression125.
A new period opened in his life when he left German courts, never to return officially, and became the responsible head of Her Majesty’s Legation at the Portuguese126 Court. His five years spent at Lisbon cannot be counted as one of his most fruitful periods, despite ‘the large settlement of African affairs’, which Lord Granville tells us that Morier had suggested to his predecessors127 in Whitehall. For the big schemes which he planned he could get no continuous backing at home, either in political or commercial circles. For the petty routine England hardly needed a man of such outstanding ability. Of necessity his work consisted often in tedious investigation128 of claims advanced by individual Englishmen, whether they were suffering from money losses or from summary procedure at the hands of the Portuguese police. Of the diplomatic questions which arose many proved to be shadowy and unreal. Something could be done, even in remote Portugal, to improve Anglo-Russian relations by a minister who had friends in so many European capitals. The politics of Pio Nono and the Papal Curia often find an echo in his correspondence. Here, too, as elsewhere, the intrigues130 of Germany had to be watched, though Morier was sensible enough to discriminate131 between the deliberate policy of Bismarck and the man?uvres of those whom he ‘allowed to do what they liked and say what they liked — or rather to do what they thought he would like done, and say what they thought he would like said — and then suddenly sent them about their business to ponder in poverty and disgrace on the mutability of human affairs’. In a passage like this Morier’s letters show that he could distinguish between a lion and his jackals, between ‘policy’ and ‘intrigue129’.
Had it not been for Germany and German suggestions, Portuguese politicians would perhaps have been free from the fears which loomed132 darkest on their horizon — the fears of an ‘Iberian policy’ which Spain was supposed to be pursuing. In reality the leading men at Madrid knew that they had little to gain by letting loose the superior Spanish army against Portugal and trying to form the whole peninsula into a single state. Morier, at any rate, made it clear that England would throw the whole weight of her power against such treatment of her oldest ally. But alarmist politicians were perpetually harping133 on this string, and Morier, in a letter written in 1876, compares them to ‘children telling ghost-stories to one another who have got frightened at the sound of their own voices, and mistake the rattling of a mouse behind the wainscot for the tramping of legions on the march’.
To Morier it seemed that the important part of his work concerned South Africa, in which, at the time, Portugal and Great Britain were the European powers most interested. It was in 1877 that Sir Theophilus Shepstone annexed135 the Transvaal, and many people, in Europe and Africa, were talking as if this must lead to the expropriation of the Portuguese at Delagoa Bay. Morier himself was as far as possible from the imperialism136 which would ride rough-shod over a weaker neighbour. In fact, he pleaded strongly for British approval of the pride which Portugal felt in her traditions and of her desire to cling to what she had preserved from the past. Once break this down, he said, and we should see Portuguese dominions137 put up for auction138, and England might not always prove to be the highest bidder139. Friendly co-operation, joint140 development of railways, and commercial treaties commended themselves better to his judgement, and he was prepared to spend a large part even of his holidays in England in working out the details of such treaties. He studied the people among whom he was, and did his best to lead them gently towards reforms, whether of the slave-trade or other abuses, on lines which could win their sympathy. He appealed to his own Foreign Office to abstain from too many lectures, and to make the most of cases in which the Portuguese showed promise of better things. ‘This diet of cold gruel’, he says in 1878, ‘must be occasionally supplemented by a cup of generous wine, or all intimacy must die out.’ Again in 1880, he asks for a K.C.M.G. to be awarded to a Governor-General of Mozambique, who had done his best to observe English wishes in checking the slave-trade. ‘Perpetual admonition’, he says, ‘and no sugar plums is bad policy’— a maxim141 too often neglected when our philanthropy outruns our discretion142.
When Morier was promoted in 1881 to Madrid, he used the same tact143 and geniality144 to lighten the burden of his task. No seasoned diplomatist took the politics of Madrid too seriously. Though the political stage was bigger, it was often filled by actors as petty and grasping as those of Lisbon. The distribution to their own friends of the ‘loaves and fishes’ was, as Morier says, the one steady aim of all aspirants145 to power; and measures of reform, much needed in education, in commerce, in law, were doomed146 to sterility147 by the factiousness148 of the men who should have carried them out. In the absence of principles Morier had to study the strife149 of parties, and his correspondence gives us lively pictures of the eloquent151 Castelar, the champion of a visionary Republic, the harsh, domineering Romero y Robledo, at once the mainstay and the terror of his Conservative colleagues, and the cold, egotistic Liberal leader Sagasta, whose shrewdness in the manipulation of votes had always to be reckoned with. The constitution given in 1876 had entirely152 failed to establish Parliament on a democratic basis. For this the bureaucracy was responsible. The Home Office abused its powers shamelessly, and by the votes of its functionaries153, and of those who hoped to receive its favours, it could always secure a big majority for the Government of the moment. For the three years which Morier spent at Madrid, he recounts surprising instances of the reversal of electoral verdicts within a short space of time.
The King was popular and deserved to be so, for his personal qualities of courage, intelligence, and public spirit; but his position was never secure. There was a bad tradition by which at intervals154 the army asserted its power and upset the constitution. Some intriguing155 general issued a pronunciamiento, the troops revolted, and the Central Government at Madrid, having no effective force and no moral ascendancy156, gave way. Parliament had little stability. Cabinets rose and vanished again; the same eloquent but empty speeches were made, and the same abuses remained unchanged.
But before now a spark from Spain had set the Continent ablaze157. The past had bequeathed some questions which, awkwardly handled, might cause explosions elsewhere, and it was well to know the character of those who had the key to the powder magazine. More than once Morier was approached on the delicate question of the admission of Spain to the council of the Great Powers. In Egypt, where so many foreign interests were involved, and where Great Britain suffered, in the ‘eighties, from so many diplomatic intrigues, Spain might easily find an opening for her ambitions. She might advance the plea that the Suez Canal was the direct route to her colonies in the Philippines. Germany, for ulterior ends, was encouraging Spanish pretensions158; but, to the British, Spain with its illiberal159 spirit scarcely seemed likely to prove a helpful fellow-worker. Morier had to try to convince Spanish ministers that Great Britain was their truer friend while refusing them what they asked for; and in such interviews he had to know his men and to touch the right chord in appealing to their prejudices or their patriotism. The English tenure160 of Gibraltar was also a perpetual offence to Spanish pride. Irresponsible journalists loved to expatiate161 on it when they had no more spicy162 subject to handle. On this, as on all questions affecting prestige only, Morier was tactful and patient. When they should come within the range of practical politics, he could take a different tone. But he knew that more serious dangers were arising in Morocco, where the weakness of the Sultan’s rule was tempting163 European powers to intervene, and he laboured to maintain peace and goodwill not only between his own country and Spain, but also between Spain and France. The common accusation164 that the English are not ‘good Europeans’ was pre-eminently untrue in his case. He realized that the interests of all were bound up together, and used his influence, which soon became considerable, to remove all occasions of bitterness in the European family, being fully84 aware that at Berlin there was another active intelligence working by hidden channels to keep open every festering sore.
Morier was fertile in expedients165 when ministers consulted him, as we see notably166 on the occasion of King Alfonso’s tour in 1883. Before the King started, the newspapers had been writing of it as a ‘visit to Berlin’, though it was intended to be a compliment to the heads of various states. To allay167 the sensitiveness of the French, Morier suggested to the Foreign Secretary that the King should make a point of visiting France first; but, owing to the ineptitude168 of President Grévy, this suggestion was rendered impracticable. When the King did visit Paris, after a sojourn169 at Berlin, where he received the usual compliment of being made titular170 colonel of a Prussian regiment171, a terrible scene ensued by which Morier’s sagacity was justified172. The King was greeted with cries of ‘à bas le Colonel d’Uhlans’, and was hissed173 as he passed along the streets; only his personal tact and restraint saved the two Governments from an undignified squabble. He was able to give a lesson in deportment to his hosts and also to satisfy the resentful pride of his fellow-countrymen. The whole episode shows how individuals can control events when the masses can only become excited; kings and diplomats may still be the best mechanics to handle the complicated machinery174 on which peace or war depends. Alfonso XII died in November 1885, soon after Morier’s departure for another post, but not before he had testified to the high esteem175 in which our Minister had been held in Spain.
From Madrid he might have passed to Berlin. The British Government had only one man fit to replace Lord Ampthill (Lord Odo Russell), who died in 1884. Inquiries176 were made in Berlin whether it was possible to employ Morier’s great knowledge at the centre of European gravity, but Bismarck made it quite clear that such an appointment would be displeasing177 to his sovereign. It was believed by a friend and admirer of both men that, if Bismarck and Morier could have come to know one another, mutual178 respect and liking179 would have followed; but magnanimity towards an old enemy, or one whom he had ever believed to be such, was not a Bismarckian trait, and it is more probable that all Morier’s efforts would have been thwarted180 by misrepresentation and malignity181.
Instead he was sent to St. Petersburg, where he took up his duties as Ambassador in November 1885. Here he had to deal with bigger problems. The affray at Penjdeh, when the Russians attacked an Afghān outpost and forcibly occupied the ground, had, after convulsing Europe, been settled by Mr. Gladstone’s Government. Feeling did not subside182 for some years, but for the moment Asiatic questions were not so serious as the conflict of interests in the Balkan peninsula. The principality of Bulgaria created by the Congress of Berlin was the focus of the ‘Eastern question’— that is, the question whether Russia, Austria, or a united Europe led by the Western powers, was to preside over the dissolution of Turkey. Bulgaria certainly owed its existence to Russian bayonets; in her cause Russian lives had been freely given; and this formed a real bond between the two nations, more lasting183 than the effect of Mr. Gladstone’s speeches, to which English sentimentalists attached such importance. But the Bulgarians have often shown an obstinate184 tendency to go their own way, and their politicians were loath185 to be kept in Russian leading-strings. Their last act, in 1885, had been to annex134 the Turkish province of Eastern Roumelia without asking the consent of the Tsar. At the moment they could safely flout76 the Sultan of Turkey, their nominal186 suzerain; but diplomatists doubted whether they could, with equal safety, ignore the Treaty of Berlin and the wishes of their Russian protector. The path was full of pitfalls187. The Austrian Government was on the watch to embarrass its great Slavonic rival; English statesmen were too anxious to humour Liberal sentiment as expressed at popular meetings; Russian agents on the spot committed indiscretions; Russian opinion at home suspected that Bulgaria was receiving encouragement elsewhere, and the air was full of rumours188 of war.
Across this unquiet stage may be seen to pass, in the lively letters which Morier sent home, the figures of potential and actual princes of Bulgaria, of whom only two deserve mention to-day. The first, Alexander of Battenberg, member of a family which enjoyed Queen Victoria’s special favour, had been put forward at the Berlin Congress, and justified his choice in 1885 by repelling189 the Serbian Army and winning a victory at Slivnitza. He had won the attachment190 of his subjects but had incurred191 the hatred192 of the Tsar, and the tone of his speeches in 1886 offended Russian sentiment. Two years after Slivnitza, in face of intrigues and violence, he abandoned the contest and abdicated193. The second is Ferdinand of Coburg, whose tortuous194 career, begun in 1887, only ended with the collapse195 of the Central Powers in 1918. He was put forward by Austria and supported by Stambuloff, the dictatorial196 chief of the Bulgarian ministry197. For years the Russian Government refused to recognize him, and it was not till 1896 that he came to heel, at the bidding of Prince Lobanoff, and made public submission198 to the Tsar. But, first and last, he was only an astute199 adventurer of no little vanity and of colossal201 egotism, and such sympathies as he had for others beside himself went to Austria-Hungary, where he owned landed property, and had served in the army. He was also displeasing to orthodox Russia as a Roman Catholic, and in Morier’s letters we see clearly the mistrust and contempt which Russians felt for him.
With an autocrat202 like Alexander III, secretive and obstinate, these personal questions became very serious. Ambitious generals might anticipate his wishes, Russian regiments203 might be on the march before the Ministers knew anything, and Europe might awake to find itself over the edge of the precipice204.
Morier’s own attitude can best be judged from the letters which he exchanged with Sir William White, our able ambassador to the Porte, who was frankly205 anti-Russian in his views. At first he put his trust in strict observance of the Treaty of Berlin, and wished that Prince Alexander would consent to restore the status quo ante (i.e. before the change in Eastern Roumelia); but although a stout206 upholder of treaties, he admitted as a second basis for settlement ‘les v?ux des populations’, on which the modern practice of plebiscites is founded. The peasants of Eastern Roumelia were clearly glad to transfer their allegiance from the Sultan to the Prince. Also the successes achieved by Prince Alexander in so soon welding together Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia had to be recognized as altering the situation. In fact, Morier’s position was nearer to that of 1919 than to the old traditions in vogue208 a century earlier, and would commend itself to most English Liberals. But, as an ambassador paid to watch over British interests, he was guided by expediency209 rather than by sentiment. These interests, he was convinced, were more vitally affected210 in Central Asia than in the Balkans. He believed that, if British statesmen would recognize Russia’s peculiar position in Bulgaria, the advance of Russian outposts towards India might be stayed, and the two great powers might work together all along the line. But, to effect this, national jealousies211 must be allayed212 and an understanding established. Morier had to interpret at St. Petersburg speeches of English politicians, which often sounded more offensive there than in London: he also had to watch and report to London the unofficial doings and sayings of the aggressive Pan-Slavist party, who might at any moment undermine the Ministry.
Foreign policy was in the hands of de Giers, an enlightened, pacific minister, who lacked, however, the courage to face his master’s prejudices and had little authority over many of his own subordinates. De Nelidoff, at Constantinople, dared even to make himself the centre of diplomatic intrigue directed against the policy of his chief. Still less was de Giers able to control the strong Pan-Slavist influences which ruled in the Church, the Home Office, and the Press. Morier gives interesting portraits of Pobedonóstsev, the bigoted213 procurator of the Holy Synod, of Tolstoy the reactionary Minister of the Interior, of Katkoff the truculent214 editor of the Moscow Gazette. These were the most notable of the men who flouted215 the authority, thwarted the work, and undermined the position of the Tsar’s nominal adviser216, and often they carried the day in determining the attitude of the Tsar himself. Yet Morier was bound by his own honesty and by the traditions of British diplomacy to do business with de Giers alone, to receive the assurances of one who was being betrayed by his own ambassadors, to make his protests to one who could not effectively remedy the grievances217. His difficulty was increased by de Giers’s manner —‘when getting on to slippery ground he has a remarkable power of speaking only half intelligibly218 and swallowing a large proportion of his words’. Morier was often conscious that he was building on sand; but in quiet weather it was possible to stem the flood for a while even with dikes of sand. Perhaps a little later the tide of Balkan troubles might be setting in another direction and the danger might be past. In Russia, where so much was incalculable, it was wise to make the most of such help as presented itself. Meanwhile the Russian Ambassador in London, Baron de Sta?l, co-operated as loyally with Lord Salisbury as Morier with de Giers; and thanks to their diplomatic skill, rough places were smoothed away and bases of agreement were found. In the course of 1887, the smouldering fires of Anglo-Russian antagonism219 died down, and Russia adopted a waiting attitude in Bulgaria.
But this happy result was not attained220 till after Asiatic problems had given rise to serious alarms. The worst moment was in July 1886, when the Tsar suddenly proclaimed, contrary to the Treaty of Berlin, that the port of Batum was closed to foreign trade. His point of view was characteristic. His father had, autocratically, expressed in 1878 his intention to open the port; this had been done, and it had proved in practice a failure; as a purely221 administrative222 act, he (Alexander III) now declared the port closed, et tout207 était dit. But naturally foreign merchants resented the injury to their trade, and insisted on the sanctity of treaties. The Berlin Government, as usual, left to Great Britain all the odium incurred in making a protest, and the other Continental powers were equally silent. Morier asserted the British case so strongly that he roused even de Giers to vehemence223; but when he saw that protests would avail nothing, he advised his Government to cut the loss and to avoid further bitterness. He reminded them that Russia had given way in Bulgaria, where the British point of view had prevailed, and that they must not expect her to submit to a second diplomatic defeat. Besides, a quarrel between Russia and Great Britain would only benefit a third party, ready enough to avail himself of it. Harmony was preserved, but the risk of a breach224 had been very great, and feeling was not improved by Russian activity at Sebastopol, where the Pan-Slavists were acclaiming225 the new birth of the Black Sea fleet. The death of Katkoff in 1887, and of Tolstoy in 1889, with the advent200 of more Liberal ministers, strengthened de Giers’s hands; and during his later years, though he often needed great vigilance and tact, Morier was not troubled by any crisis so severe.
The Grand Cross of the Bath, which he received in 1887, was a fitting reward for the services he had rendered to England and to Europe in this anxious time. He never lost heart or despaired of a peaceful solution.
At bottom, as he often repeats, Russia was not ready for big adventures — was, in fact, still suffering from lassitude after the war of 1878, ‘like an electric eel2 which, having in one great shock given off all its electricity, burrows226 in the mud to refill its battery, desiring nothing less than to come again too soon into contact with organic tissue’.
Apart from la haute politique and the conflicts between governments, Morier’s own compatriots were giving him plenty to do. A few instances will illustrate227 the variety of the applications which reached the Embassy. Captain Beaufort requests a special permit to visit Kars and its famous fortifications. Mr. Littledale asks for a Russian guide to help him in an ascent228 of Mount Ararat. Father Perry, S.J. (the Jesuits were specially86 obnoxious229 to the Holy Synod), wishes to observe a solar eclipse only visible in Russia. Another traveller, Mr. Fairman, is summarily arrested near Rovno where the Tsar’s visit is making the police unduly230 brisk for the moment. Morier procures231 him a prompt apology; but, not content with this, the Englishman now thinks himself entitled to a personal audience with the Tsar and the gift of some decoration to compensate232 him, which suggestion draws a curt233 reply from the much-vexed ambassador. But he was always ready to help a genuine explorer, whether it was Mr. de Windt in Trans-Caucasia or Captain Wiggins in the Kara Sea. To the latter, in his efforts to establish trade between Great Britain and Siberia by the Yenisei river, Morier lent most valuable aid, and he is proud to report the concessions234 which he won for our merchants in a new field of commerce.
Meanwhile he found occasion to cultivate friendships with Russians and foreign diplomats of all kinds. Of the more important he sends home interesting sketches235 to his superiors in Whitehall, Vischnegradsky, the ‘wizard of finance’, who raised the value of the rouble 30 per cent., became one of his intimate friends. When that ambiguous figure, Witte, his rival and successor, tried to discredit him, Morier vindicated236 with warmth the honesty and patriotism of his friend. Baron Jomini of the Foreign Office was of a different kind, witty237, volatile238, audaciously outspoken239, more like a character in Thackeray’s novels. Pobedonóstsev, the Procurator of the Holy Synod, remained ‘somewhat of an enigma’— as we can easily believe when we hear that this bigoted Churchman, the terror of the Jews, had been a friend of Dean Stanley, and was still fond of English literature and English theology.
Still more amusing are the stories which he tells of foreign visitors of high station — of the Duke of Orleans playing truant240 without the knowledge of his parents and being snubbed by his Grand Ducal relatives; of Dalīp Singh touring the provinces with a disreputable entourage and trying to make trouble for the British at Moscow; of the Prince of Montenegro and his beautiful daughters, whom Morier heartily241 admires —‘tall and massive, strong-limbed and comely242, the true type of the mothers of heroes in the Homeric sense’.
With the Court his relations were excellent. His intimacy with members of our own royal family helped him, and his geniality and unconventional, natural manner won favour with the Romanoffs, who retained in their high station a great deal of simplicity243. More than once Morier seized an opportunity for an act of special courtesy to the Tsar; and Alexander appreciated this from a man whose character was too well known for him to be suspected of obsequiousness244.
But the life in St. Petersburg was not all pleasure, even when diplomatic waters were quiet. The work was hard, the climate was very exacting245 with its extremes of temperature, and epidemics246 were rife150. In November 1889 he reports the appearance of ‘Siberian Catarrh, more usually described under the general name of Influenza’, which was working havoc247 in girls’ schools and guardsmen’s barracks, and had laid low simultaneously248 Emperor, Empress, and half the imperial family. Morier himself became increasingly liable to attacks of ill-health, and found difficulty in discharging his duties regularly. It required a keen sense of duty for him to stay at his post; and when in December 1891 he was appointed to the Embassy at Rome, he was very willing to go. But public interest stood in the way. He had made for himself an exceptional place at St. Petersburg. No one could be found to replace him adequately, and the Tsar expressed a desire that his departure should be postponed249. He consented to stay on, and the next two years of work in that climate, together with the death in 1891 of his only son, broke his spirit and his strength. Too late he went in search of health, first to the Crimea and then to Switzerland. Death came to him as the winter of 1893 was approaching, when he was at Montreux on the Lake of Geneva, close to the home of his ancestors.
The impression which he made on his friends and colleagues is clear and consistent, and the ignorance of the general public about men of his profession justifies250 a few quotations251. Sir Louis Mallet brackets him with Sir James Hudson45 and Lord Cromer as ‘the most admirable trio of public servants he had known’. Sir William White speaks of him and Odo Russell as ‘two giants of the diplomatic service’. Lord Acton, who knew Europe as well as any Foreign Minister, and weighed his words, refers to him in 1884 as ‘our only strong diplomatist’, and again ‘as a strong man, resolute252, ready, well-informed and with some amount of real resource’. More than one Foreign Secretary has borne testimony253 to the value of Morier’s dispatches; and Sir Charles Dilke, who, without holding the portfolio254 himself, often shaped our foreign policy and was an expert in European questions, is still more emphatic255 about his intellectual powers, though he thinks that Morier’s imperious temper made him ‘impossible in a small place’. Sir Horace Rumbold,46 in his Recollections, has many references to him, especially as he was in earlier years. He speaks of Morier’s ‘prodigious fund of spirits that made him the most entertaining, but not always the safest, of companions’; ‘of his imperious, not over-tolerant disposition’; ‘of the curious compound that he was of the thoughtless, thriftless Bohemian and the cool, calculating man of the world’; of his ‘exceptionally powerful brain and unflagging industry’. Elsewhere he recalls Morier’s journeys among the Southern Slavs, in which he opened up a new field of knowledge, and adds, ‘since then he has made himself a thorough master of German politics, and is, I believe, one of the few men whom Prince Bismarck fears and correspondingly detests’.
Jowett’s testimony may perhaps be discounted as that of an intimate friend; yet he was no flatterer, and as he often criticized Morier severely256, it is of interest to read his deliberate verdict, given in 1873, that ‘if he devoted257 his whole mind to it, he could prevent a war in Europe’. Four years earlier Jowett had been told by a diplomatist whom he respected, ‘Morier is the first man in our profession’.
By those who still remember him, Morier is described as a diplomatist of ‘the old school’. His noble presence, his courtly manner, and the dignity which he observed on all ceremonial occasions, would have qualified him to adorn258 the court of Maria Theresa or Louis Quatorze. This dignity he could put off when the need for it was past. Among his friends his manner was vivacious259, his talk racy, his criticism free. He was of the old school, too, in being self-confident and independent, and in believing that he would do his best work if there were no telegraph to bring frequent instructions from Whitehall. But he had not the natural urbanity of Odo Russell, nor the invariable discretion of Lord Lyons. He had hard work to discipline his imperious temper, and by no means always succeeded in masking his own feelings. Perhaps too high a value has been set on impenetrable reserve by those who have modelled themselves on Talleyrand. By their very candour and openness some British diplomatists have gained an advantage over rivals who confound timidity with reserve, and have won a peculiar position of trust at foreign courts. In dealing260 with de Giers, Morier at any rate found no need to mumble261 or swallow his words. He was sure of himself and of his honourable262 intentions. On one occasion, after reading to that minister the exact words of the dispatch which he was sending to London, he stated his policy to him categorically. ‘I always went’, he said, ‘upon the principle, whenever it could be done, of clearing the ground of all possible misunderstandings at the earliest date.’ Probably we shall never see the end of ‘secret diplomacy’, whether under Tory, Liberal, or Labour governments; but this is not the tone of one who loves secrecy263 for its own sake.
In many ways Morier combined the qualities of the old and the new schools. Though personally a favourite with kings and queens, he was fully alive to the changes in the Europe of the nineteenth century, where, along with courts and cabinets, other more unruly forces were at work. His visit to Paris in 1848 showed his early interest in popular movements, and he maintained a catholic width of view in later life. He knew men of all sorts and kept himself acquainted with unofficial currents of opinion. He could talk freely to journalists or to merchants, could put them at their ease and get the information which he wanted. His comprehensiveness was remarkable. The strife of politicians in the foreground did not blur264 the distant landscape. In Russia, behind Balkan intrigues and Black Sea troubles he could see the cloud of danger overhanging the Pamirs. In Spain or Portugal he was watching and forecasting the possibilities of the white races in Africa. So his dispatches, varied and vivacious as they were, proved of the greatest value to Foreign Secretaries at home, and furnish excellent reading to-day.
In these dispatches a few Gallicisms occur; and in writing to an old friend like Sir William White he uses a free mixture of French and English with other ingredients for seasoning265. But in general the literary style is admirable. He has a rare command of language, a most inventive use of metaphor266, a felicitous267 touch in sketching268 a character or an incident. Towards those working under him he was exacting, setting up a high standard of industry, but he was generous in his praise and very ready to take up the cudgels for them when they needed support. In commending one of them, he selects for special praise ‘his old-fashioned conscientiousness269 about public work and his subordination of private comfort’. He inherited this tradition from his own family and his faithfulness to it cost him his life.
Above all, we feel in reading these letters and memoranda270 that here is a man whose aim is truth rather than effect — not thinking of commending a programme to thousands of half-informed readers or hearers, in order to win their votes, but giving counsel to his peers, Odo Russell or Sir William White, Lord Granville or Lord Salisbury, on events and tendencies which affect the grave issues of peace and war and the lives of thousands of his fellow-countrymen. This generation has learnt how unsafe it is to treat these in a parliamentary atmosphere where men force themselves to believe what they wish and close their eyes to what is uncomfortable. While human nature remains271 the same, democracy cannot afford to deprive itself of such counsel or to belittle272 such a profession.
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Oxford
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| n.牛津（英国城市） | |
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eel
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| n.鳗鲡 | |
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commissioner
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| n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员 | |
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diplomat
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| n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人 | |
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diplomacy
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| n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕 | |
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qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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envoy
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| n.使节，使者，代表，公使 | |
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shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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fervent
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| adj.热的，热烈的，热情的 | |
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democrats
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| n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 ) | |
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diplomats
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| n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 )；有手腕的人，善于交际的人 | |
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sketch
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| n.草图；梗概；素描；v.素描；概述 | |
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consular
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| a.领事的 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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schooling
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| n.教育；正规学校教育 | |
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wed
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| v.娶，嫁，与…结婚 | |
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originality
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| n.创造力，独创性；新颖 | |
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undue
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| adj.过分的；不适当的；未到期的 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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retrieving
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| n.检索（过程），取还v.取回( retrieve的现在分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息） | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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stimulating
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| adj.有启发性的，能激发人思考的 | |
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doctrine
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| n.教义；主义；学说 | |
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frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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exuberant
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| adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的 | |
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vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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manifestations
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| n.表示，显示（manifestation的复数形式） | |
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initiating
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| v.开始( initiate的现在分词 )；传授；发起；接纳新成员 | |
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patriotism
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| n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义 | |
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fervid
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| adj.热情的；炽热的 | |
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precept
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| n.戒律；格言 | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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philologist
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| n.语言学者，文献学者 | |
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premier
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| adj.首要的；n.总理，首相 | |
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reigning
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| adj.统治的，起支配作用的 | |
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baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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goodwill
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| n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉 | |
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intimacy
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| n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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brewing
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| n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式 | |
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adverse
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| adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的 | |
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radicals
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| n.激进分子( radical的名词复数 )；根基；基本原理；[数学]根数 | |
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supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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distractions
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| n.使人分心的事[人]( distraction的名词复数 )；娱乐，消遣；心烦意乱；精神错乱 | |
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elation
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| n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意 | |
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cosmopolitan
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| adj.世界性的，全世界的，四海为家的，全球的 | |
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50
mercurial
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| adj.善变的，活泼的 | |
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51
melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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52
outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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53
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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54
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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55
deter
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| vt.阻止，使不敢，吓住 | |
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56
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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57
zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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58
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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59
unpaid
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| adj.未付款的，无报酬的 | |
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60
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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61
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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62
passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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63
revelled
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| v.作乐( revel的过去式和过去分词 )；狂欢；着迷；陶醉 | |
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64
monarchy
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| n.君主，最高统治者；君主政体，君主国 | |
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65
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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66
consort
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| v.相伴；结交 | |
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67
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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68
yoke
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| n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶 | |
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69
reactionary
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| n.反动者，反动主义者；adj.反动的，反动主义的，反对改革的 | |
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70
clique
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| n.朋党派系，小集团 | |
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71
prospects
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| n.希望，前途(恒为复数) | |
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72
meddled
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| v.干涉，干预（他人事务）( meddle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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73
entente
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| n.协定；有协定关系的各国 | |
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74
detested
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| v.憎恶，嫌恶，痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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75
flouting
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| v.藐视，轻视( flout的现在分词 ) | |
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76
flout
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| v./n.嘲弄，愚弄，轻视 | |
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77
continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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78
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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79
lamenting
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| adj.悲伤的，悲哀的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的现在分词 ) | |
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80
solace
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| n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和 | |
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81
agrarian
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| adj.土地的，农村的，农业的 | |
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82
hampered
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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83
kinsmen
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| n.家属，亲属( kinsman的名词复数 ) | |
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84
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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85
overthrow
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| v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆 | |
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86
specially
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| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
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87
blustered
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| v.外强中干的威吓( bluster的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮；（风）呼啸；狂吹 | |
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88
bungling
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|
| adj.笨拙的，粗劣的v.搞糟，完不成( bungle的现在分词 )；笨手笨脚地做；失败；完不成 | |
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89
incurring
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| 遭受，招致，引起( incur的现在分词 ) | |
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90
commissioners
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| n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官 | |
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91
mallet
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| n.槌棒 | |
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92
economists
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| n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 ) | |
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93
promotion
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| n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传 | |
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94
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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95
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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96
antipathies
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| 反感( antipathy的名词复数 )； 引起反感的事物； 憎恶的对象； （在本性、倾向等方面的）不相容 | |
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97
negotiations
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| 协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过 | |
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98
eastwards
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| adj.向东方（的），朝东（的）；n.向东的方向 | |
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99
aspirations
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| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
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100
patriots
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| 爱国者，爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 ) | |
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101
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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102
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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103
cession
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| n.割让，转让 | |
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104
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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105
calumnies
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| n.诬蔑，诽谤，中伤（的话）( calumny的名词复数 ) | |
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106
discredit
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| vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑 | |
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107
publicity
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| n.众所周知，闻名；宣传，广告 | |
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108
recoiled
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| v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
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109
partisan
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| adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒 | |
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110
soften
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| v.(使)变柔软；(使)变柔和 | |
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111
vanquished
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| v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制 | |
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112
miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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113
deterioration
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| n.退化；恶化；变坏 | |
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114
depicted
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| 描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述 | |
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115
trenchant
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| adj.尖刻的，清晰的 | |
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116
considerably
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| adv.极大地；相当大地；在很大程度上 | |
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117
severance
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| n.离职金；切断 | |
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118
lured
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| 吸引，引诱（lure的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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119
conversational
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| adj.对话的，会话的 | |
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120
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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121
disquieted
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| v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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122
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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123
coalition
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| n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合 | |
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124
abstain
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| v.自制，戒绝，弃权，避免 | |
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125
aggression
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| n.进攻，侵略，侵犯，侵害 | |
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126
Portuguese
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| n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语 | |
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127
predecessors
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| n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身 | |
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128
investigation
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| n.调查，调查研究 | |
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129
intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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130
intrigues
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| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
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131
discriminate
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|
| v.区别，辨别，区分；有区别地对待 | |
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132
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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133
harping
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| n.反复述说 | |
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134
annex
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| vt.兼并，吞并；n.附属建筑物 | |
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135
annexed
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| [法] 附加的，附属的 | |
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136
imperialism
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| n.帝国主义，帝国主义政策 | |
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137
dominions
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| 统治权( dominion的名词复数 )； 领土； 疆土； 版图 | |
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138
auction
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| n.拍卖；拍卖会；vt.拍卖 | |
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139
bidder
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| n.(拍卖时的)出价人，报价人，投标人 | |
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140
joint
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| adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合 | |
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141
maxim
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| n.格言，箴言 | |
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142
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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143
tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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144
geniality
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| n.和蔼，诚恳；愉快 | |
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145
aspirants
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| n.有志向或渴望获得…的人( aspirant的名词复数 )v.渴望的，有抱负的，追求名誉或地位的( aspirant的第三人称单数 )；有志向或渴望获得…的人 | |
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146
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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147
sterility
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| n.不生育，不结果，贫瘠，消毒，无菌 | |
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148
factiousness
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| 有党派 | |
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149
strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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150
rife
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| adj.(指坏事情)充斥的，流行的，普遍的 | |
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151
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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152
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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153
functionaries
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| n.公职人员，官员( functionary的名词复数 ) | |
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154
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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155
intriguing
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|
| adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心 | |
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156
ascendancy
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| n.统治权，支配力量 | |
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157
ablaze
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| adj.着火的，燃烧的；闪耀的，灯火辉煌的 | |
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158
pretensions
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| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
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159
illiberal
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| adj.气量狭小的，吝啬的 | |
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160
tenure
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| n.终身职位；任期；(土地)保有权，保有期 | |
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161
expatiate
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| v.细说，详述 | |
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162
spicy
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| adj.加香料的；辛辣的，有风味的 | |
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163
tempting
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| a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
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164
accusation
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| n.控告，指责，谴责 | |
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165
expedients
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| n.应急有效的，权宜之计的( expedient的名词复数 ) | |
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166
notably
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| adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地 | |
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167
allay
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| v.消除，减轻(恐惧、怀疑等) | |
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168
ineptitude
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| n.不适当；愚笨，愚昧的言行 | |
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169
sojourn
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| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
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170
titular
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| adj.名义上的，有名无实的；n.只有名义（或头衔）的人 | |
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171
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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172
justified
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| a.正当的，有理的 | |
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173
hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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174
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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175
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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176
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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177
displeasing
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| 不愉快的，令人发火的 | |
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178
mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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179
liking
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| n.爱好；嗜好；喜欢 | |
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180
thwarted
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| 阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
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181
malignity
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| n.极度的恶意，恶毒；（病的）恶性 | |
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182
subside
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| vi.平静，平息；下沉，塌陷，沉降 | |
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183
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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184
obstinate
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| adj.顽固的，倔强的，不易屈服的，较难治愈的 | |
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185
loath
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| adj.不愿意的；勉强的 | |
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186
nominal
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| adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的 | |
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187
pitfalls
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| （捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误 | |
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188
rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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189
repelling
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| v.击退( repel的现在分词 )；使厌恶；排斥；推开 | |
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190
attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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191
incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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192
hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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193
abdicated
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| 放弃（职责、权力等）( abdicate的过去式和过去分词 )； 退位，逊位 | |
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194
tortuous
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| adj.弯弯曲曲的，蜿蜒的 | |
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195
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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196
dictatorial
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| adj. 独裁的，专断的 | |
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197
ministry
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| n.(政府的)部；牧师 | |
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198
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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199
astute
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| adj.机敏的，精明的 | |
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200
advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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201
colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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202
autocrat
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| n.独裁者；专横的人 | |
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203
regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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204
precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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205
frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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207
tout
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| v.推销，招徕；兜售；吹捧，劝诱 | |
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208
Vogue
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| n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的 | |
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209
expediency
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| n.适宜；方便；合算；利己 | |
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210
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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211
jealousies
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| n.妒忌( jealousy的名词复数 )；妒羡 | |
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212
allayed
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| v.减轻，缓和( allay的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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213
bigoted
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| adj.固执己见的，心胸狭窄的 | |
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214
truculent
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| adj.野蛮的，粗野的 | |
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215
flouted
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| v.藐视，轻视( flout的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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216
adviser
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| n.劝告者，顾问 | |
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217
grievances
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| n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚 | |
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218
intelligibly
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| adv.可理解地，明了地，清晰地 | |
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219
antagonism
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| n.对抗，敌对，对立 | |
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220
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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221
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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222
administrative
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| adj.行政的，管理的 | |
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223
vehemence
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| n.热切；激烈；愤怒 | |
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224
breach
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| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
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225
acclaiming
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| 向…欢呼( acclaim的现在分词 )； 向…喝彩； 称赞…； 欢呼或拥戴（某人）为… | |
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226
burrows
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| n.地洞( burrow的名词复数 )v.挖掘（洞穴），挖洞( burrow的第三人称单数 )；翻寻 | |
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227
illustrate
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| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
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228
ascent
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| n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高 | |
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229
obnoxious
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| adj.极恼人的，讨人厌的，可憎的 | |
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230
unduly
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| adv.过度地，不适当地 | |
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231
procures
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| v.（努力）取得， （设法）获得( procure的第三人称单数 )；拉皮条 | |
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232
compensate
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| vt.补偿，赔偿；酬报 vi.弥补；补偿；抵消 | |
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233
curt
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| adj.简短的，草率的 | |
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234
concessions
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| n.（尤指由政府或雇主给予的）特许权( concession的名词复数 )；承认；减价；（在某地的）特许经营权 | |
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235
sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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236
vindicated
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| v.澄清（某人/某事物）受到的责难或嫌疑( vindicate的过去式和过去分词 )；表明或证明（所争辩的事物）属实、正当、有效等；维护 | |
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237
witty
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| adj.机智的，风趣的 | |
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238
volatile
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| adj.反复无常的，挥发性的，稍纵即逝的，脾气火爆的；n.挥发性物质 | |
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239
outspoken
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| adj.直言无讳的，坦率的，坦白无隐的 | |
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240
truant
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| n.懒惰鬼，旷课者；adj.偷懒的，旷课的，游荡的；v.偷懒，旷课 | |
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241
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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242
comely
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| adj.漂亮的，合宜的 | |
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243
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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244
obsequiousness
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| 媚骨 | |
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245
exacting
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| adj.苛求的，要求严格的 | |
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246
epidemics
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| n．流行病 | |
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247
havoc
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| n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱 | |
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248
simultaneously
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| adv.同时发生地，同时进行地 | |
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249
postponed
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| vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发） | |
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250
justifies
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| 证明…有理( justify的第三人称单数 )； 为…辩护； 对…作出解释； 为…辩解（或辩护） | |
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251
quotations
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| n.引用( quotation的名词复数 )；[商业]行情（报告）；（货物或股票的）市价；时价 | |
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252
resolute
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| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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253
testimony
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| n.证词；见证，证明 | |
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254
portfolio
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| n.公事包；文件夹；大臣及部长职位 | |
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255
emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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256
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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257
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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258
adorn
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| vt.使美化，装饰 | |
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259
vivacious
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| adj.活泼的，快活的 | |
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260
dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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261
mumble
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| n./v.喃喃而语，咕哝 | |
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262
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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263
secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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264
blur
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| n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚 | |
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265
seasoning
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| n.调味；调味料；增添趣味之物 | |
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266
metaphor
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| n.隐喻，暗喻 | |
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267
felicitous
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| adj.恰当的，巧妙的；n.恰当，贴切 | |
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268
sketching
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| n.草图 | |
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269
conscientiousness
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| 责任心 | |
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270
memoranda
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| n. 备忘录, 便条 名词memorandum的复数形式 | |
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271
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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272
belittle
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| v.轻视，小看，贬低 | |
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