that direction, and gathers to itself
new interests which in their turn give new impulse to its growth. Perhaps
the best simile that we can use for the foreign policy of the world is that
of a rather tangled garden, where creepers are continually growing and
taking root in new soil and where life is therefore always threatening
and being threatened by new life. The point is that we are dealing with
_life_--with its growth and decay; not with the movements of pieces on a
chequer-board.

Now, the Foreign Office largely exists in order to watch this growth and,
like a gardener, to train and lead it in directions where it can
expand without danger. But for this work intimate knowledge is
necessary--knowledge not so much of the personal character or policy of
those who govern the different nations, but knowledge of the character,
the economic needs, the beliefs, the feelings, and the aspirations of the
half-dumb millions who form and ultimately determine the life of each
nation. The diplomatist must study every political and social movement
which goes on in a nation; he must estimate the effect which the national
system of education is having on the mind of the nation; he must form an
idea of the lessons which the Government of his own country should learn
from the government of other countries, whether it be, for instance,
lessons in constitutional government or in municipal sanitation; and he
must above all be able to warn his Government of the dangers to his own
country which the growth of foreign countries seems to entail, in order
that peaceful measures may be taken in time to prevent a collision.

This, then, is a rough account of the actual work of diplomacy. It is not a
full account. There are many wrong things done which deserve criticism, but
which we have not had space to mention. There is also much self-sacrificing
and thankless work done by diplomatists and consuls in distant parts of the
world--much seeming drudgery which can hope for no reward--many honourable
services rendered to the public of which the public never hears. But the
above account will suffice to give a rough idea of the organisation with
which we are dealing, and we may now pass on to consider the question of
how this organisation should be managed and controlled.

B. THE DEMOCRATISATION OF FOREIGN POLICY

This phrase is rapidly becoming a political catchword. As such it requires
to be approached with the utmost caution. Before going furthe