SIR ERNEST SATOW.
[To THE EDITOR OF TILE "SrscrArou.-3 SIR,—The conspicuous firmness of the Spectator, of which I have been for n_sny years an admirer, appears strangely at fault in the concluding paragraph of your article on "The Return of the Empress" in your issue of January 11th. In it you write : "We take no pains to send our most reflective diplomatists there [Pekin], but are content with men who 'know the language' and have experience,' and who, when a great political storm is only a few hours off, suggest, with Sir C. Macdonald, that all will go right if there is a little more rain." I am not concerned to defend Sir C. Macdonald, who, for aught I know, may have made this remarkable statement, but to dismiss our present representative in Pekin, Sir Ernest Satow, in this contemptuous manner seems to me the height of injustice. The man who "cleaned the slate" in the manner which Sir E. Satow has done both in Morocco and Japan might surely rank as "a reflective diplomatist," and certainly if it be a crime to "know the language" he is "the most offending soul alive," so well versed is he in foreign tongues. No one who has not been a witness of this distinguished man's handling of an awkward crisis in international affairs, which it has been the present writer's privilege to see, could possibly allow such a slight upon him to pass unnoticed. If that great charm of manner which half disarms the angry antagonist at the start, if a strong and powerful will which this manner effectually conceals, and if a trained and flexible intellect of the most alert description do not constitute "a reflective diplomatist," then Sir E. Satow
can lay no claim to the title. —I am, Sir, &c., E. H, C.
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