DIPLOMACY. In the wider sense, the art or st iettee of foreign polities. The term is, how ever, more commonly employed in the more re stricted meaning of the art of managing the in tereour-e and adjusting the relations of Slates to one another by negotiation. Used in this sense, the word is of modern origin. dating back only to the bitter part of the eighteenth century. The art and the processes connoted by the term. how ever. are as old as international relations, a nel toyer the whole field of such relations. whether strictly political or not. The principal objects of diplomacy have always been the samt—to pre serve the independence and safeguard the security of the State, or to secure some coveted political advantage over other States. Subsidiary to these principal objects have been the more immediate purposes of preserving certain political arrange ment—such as the European 'balance of power' —intended to prevent the aggramlizement of cer tain States at the expense of others, the preven tion of general wars. and the securing of emu inercial advantages to the subjects tif trailing na tions. Under settled political conditions, such as now exist in Europe and in North .1ineriva, the commercial purposes of diplomacy tend to be come more prominent than those of a purely po litical character, though the latter never lose their supreme importance. and are never far in t Ile background of international intercourse.
The ni•thods diplomatic action vary accord ing to the inagnitlide of the interests involved and the nature of the enn egcoey which calls them into play. For the settlement of questions vital ly offeeting several States, or such as involve the peace of a continent. or the general policy of the great powt rs of Christendom, a general congress or ititernational conference may be summoned. III eh:trailer was the eimgress of Westphalia, tie] I in 11S-ti to 'settle the issues involved in the Thirty ears' \Var the Congress of Vienna I 1'41I 131, by which the affairs of Europe, thrown into collinsioll by the Napoleonic Nears. were re.
adjusted: an 1 the recent Hague Conference 1s99 1, told at the instance of the Czar of Rus sia. fir the promotion of the peaceful settlement of international differences among all civilized States.
Qiiestions of less general importance. arising among two or more State:, are more frequently settled by formal treaties, directly negotiated by the regular diplomat i• representatives of the States alleeted. thoiegli tlov may also be eon siilered and the eonflicting claims of the parties ailinsted by joint commissions appointed for the purpose. \\ here these claims cannot he ad ju-ded by negotiation, resort may be had to a permanent of arbitration, like that es• tablished as the result of The Ilii;,rue Conference above referred to, cr by arbitrators agreed upon by the parties to the controversy. _ratters of less importance, not requiring formal adjudica. don or the solemn sanction of a triaty, are com monly dealt w ith in informal eoliferenees between the foreign I/Illee.• of the states concerned, and these result in friendly understandings as to the policy to be pursued by them.
The management of the foreign intercourse of a nation is one of the chief functions of the exeentive head of the State. Formerly it was largely performed by the ruler in person, but it ions in modern times passed into the hands of a class of officials knoon as diplomatic agents, though the most of these, as ambas sailors. are invested with an extraordinary de• gri s of dignity, from the fact that they are sup• posed to represent the person of the sovcrei;..m, and not merely the foreign office of the State by which they are accredited. Under modern con• ditions, the usual instruments of diplomacy are: The principal seeretaries of State for for eign affairs; 1''1 regular diplomatic agents of various grades, ranging from Mahn :sailors to chorfp's (ra Ira ire!: (31 occasional embassies or agents of diplomatic intercourse appointed for the accomplishment of a particular purpose. See 1)tet.oxi.vric c•NTs.