§ The EARL of MALMESBURYsaid, that he had to ask that indulgence which was sometimes granted in their Lordships' House when they were addressed in an irregular manner, while he called attention to a subject upon which he found himself obliged to render some explanation. It had relation to a conversation which took place its the other House of Parliament on Friday night, and which had led to considerable misapprehension amongst a class of gentlemen whom he should be sorry to see continuing to labour under such erroneous impressions. He had to direct their Lordships' attention to a conversation which had occurred with respect to the education and examination of attachés before entering into the diplomatic service. It was there stated by a noble Friend of his, the Member for Lynn Regis (Lord Stanley), who had occupied the post of Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs under the late Government, and accurately stated, that Her Majesty's late Government had a plan prepared for the better examination of candidates for attaché-ships than that at 900 present in use. So far his noble Friend was perfectly accurate in his statement, and he had no reason to believe that he had been misunderstood. His noble Friend, however, then went on to give to the other House of Parliament the outline of a plan which he himself had framed relative to the diplomatic body generally, including the higher ranks of Ambassadors and Ministers. In that statement the noble Lord gave it as his opinion that it would be a very great improvement upon the existing practice if the diplomatic department were no longer to be considered a specific profession, but rather that it should be understood as open to any gentleman whom Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs for the time being should think proper to appoint to it. Now, without entering into any discussion whether that plan would be an improvement or not, he had to state that many of those members of the diplomatic body not now actually employed, and who were resident in England, had written to him already to state their disapprobation and regret that such a plan had ever been framed by any Government of Her Majesty. He therefore thought it incumbent upon him to ask their Lordships' indulgence while he stated publicly, in answer to those gentlemen, as well as in answer to others who were anxious for some explanation of the sentiments expressed upon this subject, that no such a question was ever under the consideration of Her Majesty's late Government, and that it had never entered into their intention, as far as the constitution of the diplomatic body as a distinct profession was concerned, to alter the existing system. At the same time, however, it was due to his noble Friend, whose intelligence and capacity for business he (the Earl of Malmesbury) would be always the very first to testify to, to explain that the object of his plan was to promote a greater economy and a greater efficiency in the diplomatic service of the country. But he was nevertheless bound to declare, that, judging from his (the Earl of Malmesbury's) experience in public business with reference to the Foreign Office, he thought his noble Friend was mistaken in believing that his scheme would be likely to produce a greater economy in the expenditure; indeed so far from being more economical, the expense would probably be even greater. Again, he must assure their Lordships that he was unable to discover any necessity for such a change; because it was at all times competent to the Secretary of State to ap- 901 point any gentleman to a mission although he was not regularly practised in the diplomatic service. He could not help considering that if the country was to follow a plan similar to that proposed by his noble Friend, that if the attachés were not to be entitled to promotion, they would merely assume the position of clerks of the Foreign Office fixed at the different missions or embassies: and, all expectation of rising to the higher posts being shut out, very few gentlemen would enter so thankless a profession without much larger salaries than attachés at present received. Half of these now served gratis, looking forward to promotion. And with regard to the appointment of persons untrained in the diplomatic service to those offices, he thought that it would be holding out to a very great degree a premium up on jobbing; for he believed that as a consequence the Minister of State would be pestered to a most grievous extent with applications for those higher places, and to those abuses which, with all its advantages, even a constitutional form of government was not free from. His wish, then, was merely to take an opportunity of stating that the scheme to which he had alluded, whether it was wise or unwise, was entirely that of his noble Friend (Lord Stanley), who, probably having been misrepresented, was consequently misunderstood to say that his plan met with the approbation of Her Majesty's late Government—a quarter, on the contrary, as he (the Earl of Malmesbury) could assure their Lordships, from which there had been no intention of the present system being made to submit to any alteration.