Show MINISTERS WIVES I i Not Clergymens But Wives of Our American Diplomatists THE ETIQUETTE OF POSITION Adam Badeau on the Standing of the Wires of American Ministers PlenSpotentiarj nt the Court of bt James NEW Yom Nov 22A foreign minister in London Is next in precedence to a duka in ordinary scciety or at court marquises earls and the lesser nooihty all follow the American representative In tho diplomatic diplo-matic circlo ministers come after ambassadors ambassa-dors and among those of the same degree the relative rank IB determined by the length of time they have remained at the Bame court Thus Mr Motley used to follow fol-low the Haytian minister a burly negro because the latter had been longer at St James than tbe historic envoy The wife C of a diplomatist has the same rank and precedence among women as her husband among men so that our ministers wife follows fol-lows a duchess and precedes a marchioness cr a countess Even Lady Salisbury when prime ministers wife had to give ray forM for-M Lincoln for the premier as such has no precedence The ministers wife must pay no visits and go to no parties until sue has been presented pre-sented to the queen but the presentations are made at a drawing room for unlike an ambassadress an envoys wife has no claim to a special audience now the drawing rooms are held in the early months of the year and when a minister arrives at his post later his wife would be excluded from society if the rule was strictly enforced Her majestys own absence from London makes etiquette intolerable and itis quiely ignored General bcheocks daughters wore presented at a garden party at Buckingham Buck-ingham palace as indeed he was himself and Mrs P crrepont was nearly a year in London before she saw the queen Many ministers wives never speak to her majesty or are admitted to her presence pres-ence during their entire stay in England except at a general drawing room for the queen goes to no state balls orconcorts and has not attended a private party in thirty years and not more than one or two of these ladies has ever been honored hon-ored with an invitation to dine at Windsor The diplomatic body is a part of the court and should be invited on all state occasions but the queen has deviated from this rule and given great offense at all the marriages in the royal family since the death of the prince consort On these occasions she invites only ambassadors and tho ministers of those courts with which she is allied by blood or marriage and of course the American envoy is excluded During twelve years that I was in London Motley Schenck Welsh Pierrepont and Lowell were ministers in succession and not one of them dined with her majesty except Pierrepont and he was only invited to accompany General Grant When one remembers that the British minister dines always once a year at tne White House and frequently receives other attentions of a personal character from the president the royal courtesy meted to our representative representa-tive seems a scant return And this cannot can-not be explained by the prolonged mourning t mourn-ing of the queen for tbe ministers of other courts are often honored with the invitations invita-tions not extended to Americana Even the Prince and Princess of Wales rarely ask the United States minister or his family to dmnerand not always to their balls When Mrs Paran Stevens first went to London she was anxious to go to the queens ball but the drawing rooms were over for the year and none but royal personages or people of official importance are ever asked to these balls unless first presented at court The Prince of Vales however informed Mrs Stevens that if the American minister would apply for an Invitation the etiquette would be waived The minister was General Schonok and he S had learned chat Her Majesty was always displeased at these irregular requests He therefore wrote to the lord chamberlain that at the instance of the Prince of Wales be had the honor to request an invitation for Mrs Stevens The card was sent but Her Majesty was wroth and court gossip declared that the prince was severely snubbed by his royal manma He took his revenge and at the next dance lot Marlborough house Mrs Stevens was asked and General Schenck and his daughters omitted avery a-very palpable slight and so intended Had they been left odt at a queens ball or positive state function tbe affront would have boen International but the prince maintained that his party was a private one and he could ask whom he pleased The ministers wives however receive all the attention they desire from everyone every-one below the royal family They must pay the first visit to duchesses and to the wives of members of the government but everybody else calls on them except ex-cept the wives of ambassadors and of foreign ministers senior in offlco to their husbands I accompanied Mr Motley to England as secretary of legation in IfcCO and on bis arrival his wife was inundated in-undated with visits from the most important Im-portant people In the kingdom Motley however had passed a season in London asa as-a private individual and his history of the Dutch republic made a still greater impression Im-pression in England than in this country no was extremely popular personally and people like the Duke and Duchess of Ar gyll Earl Russell Lord Houghton and Mrs Morton were glad to welcome him back in his new capacity The queen had even invited in-vited him to Balmoral as an historian which is more than she ever did for him asa as-a minister She apparently dislikes the representative of the great democracy as such which is perhaps not remarkable in a queen and granddaughter of George III The American ministers families have always held their own in London society They bavo seldom had great fortunes to I spend and have usually lived in plain houses their diamonds could not compare with ducal ornaments and their entertainments entertain-ments hardly ever rivalled those of the aristocracy but they have been women of dignlned manner ana character of taste in dress and once or twice of great personal beauty It has happened that seven of our ministers were unmarried Mr Buchansn was a bachelor General Schonck and Mr Welsh were widowers and Mrs Lowell was a great invalid during dur-ing part of her husband term Miss Harriet Lane Mr Buchanans niece presided pre-sided over her uncles establishment the Misses bchenct and Welsh over those of their fathers In general society these ladles received the recognition and precedence pre-cedence that a wIfe would have enjoyed but at court the rule was different The queen decided that unmarried daughters bad no official rank or place even wnen they represented or accompanied their fathers They could not present their countrywomen at court they could not take precedence of the wives of other representatives rep-resentatives even of lower degree they could < nly go to court like other j dung ladies i la-dies With a chaperone and as part of the suite of an ambassadress or a ministers wife But the queens own unmarried daughters enjoyed the rank inherited from herself and she even insisted that they outrank the Duchess of Edmburgn a married mar-ried woman and the daughter of a czar inconsequence in-consequence the duchess seldom goes to court The rule does not work both ways and we know the adage Tho decision created great feeling and was very generally disapproved it oar tainly presumed to determine the position of ladles of foreign legations and international interna-tional disputes have sometimes followed such presumption but her majesty was obstinate and no government resented the interference As I have said in coclety the rule was invariably ignored The daughters of a widowed minister took the same place at table and wherever else tho question vas raised that their mother would have received I have had the honor of knowing ail the ladies but one who hs yc presided over tbe American legation in London since 1S5G Miss Harriet Lane now Mrs Johnson is known as one of tbe most charming of American women she was liked and admired ad-mired as much in London afterward atc at-c A I the White House She still is sometimes seen in the inner circles of the old Washington Wash-ington society as if to show that the grace and dignity and attractiveness which will ono day historical were worthy of their fame Mrs Charles Francis Adams passed through London with her husband during arbitration at Geneva and looked in again on that sooiety of which she had once made a part She left a memory there among many people of importance that was proof of her taut fend sense for she had a difficult role to play Sue was in England during our civil war when the aristocratic circles in which she moved were intensely hostile to the north At the time of the Trent difficulty Lord Houghton came to town and took Mr and Mrs Adams to his country seat at Pryston to get them away from the storm of English feeling which reached even to ball rooms and dinner tables Mrs Revordy Johnson is still remembered remem-bered in Washington and Baltimore as a stately gracious lady of the olden style but her husbands stay in London was too short for her to make a decided impression on society Next came Mrs Motley a sister of Park Benjamin the writer and an amiable sensible sen-sible woman but almost ecnpsed by her brilliant husband and daughters These daughters have all married Englishmen of I prominent families The eldest who came I I out in London was pronounced by Lord I Palmers no Dad judge the prettiest girl of the season She is married to Sir William Vernon Harcourt perhaps the ablest man after the piemier himself in the present government aud the likeliest to succeed him Sbo is past her earliest youth but has a talent for politlost is a good talker and a great lady io the fingers ends An American might think she cares too much for rank and precedence but she is a favorite in English society as are her sisters one Mrs Bnnsley Sheridan is the cousin by marriage of the Duke of Somerset Lord Dufferin Lord Houghton Lord Baltimore and a score of other aristocrats the other Mrs St John MildmVi is also connected with many of the high nobility Mrs Motley died soon after her husbands removal from office regretted by hosts of friends She lies by his side in the cemetery at Kensal Gicen for after Motleys second diplomatic diplo-matic downfall he declared that her bones should never rest in America I The three daughters of General Schenok I were the next ladles to represent America lat the court of St James They had many I difficulties to contend with Inltlle first place their mother was dead and the j question of precedence was settled against them Then during their fathers term tho Geneva arbitration occurred and English I Eng-lish ill feeling was again at its height Lord Houghton did not carry them out of I its purlieus but the famous Lady Walde grave was their staunchest friend and had them oonstantly at her house in town and country They were all clever and thoroughly American like their father and perhaps the family would have boen more generally popular if they had put their light more carefully under a bushel but their wit and their patriotism were always in evidence The young women I were too bright inrepartee for many of their acquaintances and this is a fault i men do not forgive in the weaker sex while the women declared they dressed too I well and they did dress better than most of the English belles At the close of Gen SchencU career came his unfortunate but innocent oonnectlon with the Emma mine and he left England suddenly to defend himself before congress The young ladies remained for awhile and formed warm friends who stood by them till they followed their father They were not wanting English as well as Americans to wish them well when they left in so great distress the society they had adorned Mrs Edwards Pierrepont came after them the handsomest representative American women have had in London for forty years Her beauty and her costumes were so much appreciated that their fame reached the queen she shared the general admiration Both her majesty and the Princess of Wales were more gracious to Mrs Plerrepont than to any of her successors suc-cessors or predecessors The princess reported re-ported to the queen the impression she received re-ceived aud her majesty Invited Mrs Pierre pont to accompany her husband on one of his official visits to Osborne an unprecedented unprece-dented honor so that she might make her personal acquaintance Mrs Pierrepont was also commanded to join the royal prrty at dinner when General and Mrs Grant were asked to Windsor and her majesty even gave her portrait to the pretty American Unfortunately the ladys compatriots com-patriots did not share the royal feeling She gays great offense by declining the invitations in-vitations of Americans in London and was generally supposed to prefer the society of English aristocrats to that of the democrats demo-crats whom she represented Tbe preference was never attributed to Miss Ellen Welch who succeeded her Mr Welch was a widower and Miss Welch the only unmarried daughter The minister waa over seventy years of age of Quaker blood and had never been given to the frivolities of this wicked world He I was appointed minister without his knowledge knowl-edge and accepted his post unwillingly but ha was too old to frequent the late London balls and his daughter could not attend them without a chaperone so that they heard comparatively little of tile great English world but they entertaned their own country people with a simple but generous gen-erous hospitality and their heads were never turned by their elevation which is more than could be said of several of the ladies who enjoyed Miss Welchs position One of these left a country house because be-cause she was not taken into dinner every night at the head of the company another neglected to return the visits of Mrs Talt because she had no title until she learned that Mrs Tail was tho wife of the archbishop arch-bishop of Canterbury several of them were eaten up with Ideas of their own consequence con-sequence and quarreled about their precedence pre-cedence till even the English laughed at them I saw one of them at Marlborough house take a certain position in the line before dinner and declare emphatically that was her place Oh very well said a duchess if we are to consult precedence pre-cedence I am up here and she stepped above the punctilious American After Miss Welsh came Mrs Lowell who WES too ill for years to tee her part in society but this did not prevent Mr Lowell from going everywhere without her She was a sweet goodtempered interesting in-teresting woman liked by all who know her I was not in England during the regime of Mrs Phelps but she filled her station to the approval of her country people while on the retirement of her husband a number of English women of importance headed by the prime ministers wife presented pre-sented her with a costly bracelet a compliment com-pliment entirely without precedent Mrs Lincoln was a MIss Harlan daughter of President Lincolns secretary of the interior She was early introduced I into the great world of Washington and was very popular there as a girl full of vivacity and cleverness She married the son of Abraham Lincoln and returned to Washington as the wife of the secretary of war Renewing her early associations the success of the matron was a fitting sequence se-quence to that of the girL Her London career ca-reer was checked b > the death of en only son but she has since returnen to the scenes to which her position calls bar Certainly long familiality with the best and greatest companies in America should have fitted her to adorn either a court or those still more delightful circles in England Eng-land where people of the highest rauk mingle with an ease and simple grace that corned only from the entire absence of pie tensIon and the needlessness of arrogance ADAM BADEJLU |