to move freely in society, but lived a
ceremonial existence in the midst of a crowd of retainers, through whom
alone it was proper for him to communicate with the world outside. It
followed that, though the office of ambassador was more dignified, that
of agent was more generally useful.

Yet a third cause, possibly the most immediately potent, encouraged the
growth of the lesser diplomatic ranks: the question of precedence among
powers theoretically equal. Modern diplomacy has settled a difficulty
which caused at one time much heart-burning and even bloodshed by a
simple appeal to the alphabet. Great Britain feels no humiliation in
signing after France, if the reason be that her name begins with G; had
she not been Great, she would sign before. The vexed question of the
precedence of ambassadors, too, has been settled by the rule, already
referred to above, as to seniority of appointment. But while the
question remained unsettled it was obviously best to evade it; and this
was most easily done by sending an agent of inferior rank to a court
where the precedence claimed for an ambassador would have been refused.

Thus set in motion, the process of differentiation continues until the
system is stereotyped in the 19th century. It is unnecessary to trace
this evolution here in any detail. It is mainly a question of names, and
diplomatic titles are no exception to the general rule by which all
titles tend to become cheapened and therefore, from time to time, need
to be reinforced by fresh verbal devices. The method was the familiar
one of applying terms that had once implied a particular quality in a
fashion that implied actually nothing. The ambassador extraordinary had
originally been one sent on an extraordinary mission; for the time and
purpose of this mission his authority superseded that of the resident
ambassador. But by the middle of the 17th century the custom had grown
up of calling all ambassadors "extraordinary," in order to place them on
an equality with the others. The same process was extended to
diplomatists of the second rank; and envoys (_envoye_ for _ablegatus_)
were always "extraordinary," and as such claimed and received precedence
over mere "residents," who in their day had asserted the same claim
against the agents--all three terms having at one time been synonymous.
Similarly a "minister plenipotentiary" had originally meant an agent
armed with full powers (_plein-pouvoir_); but, by a like process, t