We publish to-day a remarkable article by Lord Cromer— the
first notice of the Life of Lord Lyons—which is in effect an apology for diplomacy by one who was himself among the ablest of diplomatists. With that apology we are in general agreement. It is the glory, as it is the business, of a diplomatist to benefit his country by negotiation rather than by war. During war the Chancelleries are silent. It is the statesmen who for various reasons "knock the beads of the nations together," in order, as they think, to satisfy some great national ambition or aspiration. No doubt such statesmen sometimes invoke an appeal to arms, not because they really believe it will be in their country's interests, but because they think they can thereby best curry favour with the electors, or that section of them on whom their power depends. Bismarck, though he was trained as a diplomatist, by his own confession deliberately made three wars in his capacity of statesman. No doubt he believed that by doing so he was laying deep the foundations of his country's greatness, but the fact remains that he determined that there should be war with Denmark, with Austria, and with France, and war there was.
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