What were the distinctive qualities which enabled Paul Cambon to
acquire so great an influence in England and to achieve so notable a diplomatic success? We can recall the picture of this impressive French gentleman, with his grey top hat and his lavender gloves, with the white beard and moustache and the prominent, short- sighted blue eyes. We can recall the exquisite courtesy which gave such majesty to his deportment. He did not possess the wit, the social charm or the vivacity of his equally famous brother Jules Cambon. He seemed impenetrable as well as imperturbable ; he seemed stiff as well as dignified. It is from these letters that we first acquire some understanding both of the strength of his character and of the cool lucidity of his brain. " In any case," he writes in October, 1899, " I am a Latin . . . that is to say that I prefer lucid to vague ideas." It was this clarity of mind which enabled him to see beyond the immediate facts of any given situation to the ultimate causes behind those facts. " The real cause," he writes, " of human dis- putes is the necessity of obtaining food. . . . England would cl:e of hunger unless she were able incessantly to extend her Empire. We, whether we be Catholics or not, have always enough to cat ; it may be that we have too much." " The superiority of the English," he writes again ," resides in this, that they do not mind being thought very stupid ; they have no vanity in intellectual matters." This assuredly is a profound observation. "With men like Lord Salis- bury," he comments, " as with the English in general, it is important never to depart from the strictest veracity." He may not have mastered our language ; but hi- understanding of our character was penetrating and correct. * *
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