MODERN CIVILIZATION should be made from men of noble birth, accustomed to the manners and customs of court life, capable of observing the etiquette and of brilliantly representing the sovereign. But the ambassador has also the negoti- ation, of affairs which concern the two governments; he must persuade the government to which he is sent, to conclude an alliance with his own government or to make peace with a powerful friend or to break off an alliance with a powerful enemy. In order to pre- pare for the war with Holland the agents of Louis XIV. held negotiations with the powers, who were allies of Holland, until they succeeded in detaching almost all of them; the envoys of Holland in their turn passed years in forming a coalition against Louis XIV. When powers at war decide to make peace their diplomats go and confer in some town agreed upon, for the purpose of discussing the terms of peace; often a neutral power offers to mediate, and its envoys unite with those of the belligerent powers to help them to come to an agreement. The diplomats depart with instructions from their governments, tracing out the line of conduct that they must follow, and they continue to receive their orders in special dispatches. But usually they have full powers; they can set the conditions of treaties; what- ever they may do is approved in advance; their signa- ture pledges their government. Therefore only clever and trustworthy men are chosen. The diplomat should know how to conduct all negotiations in a way favor- able to his master, to beguile the diplomats with whom he treats in order to make them agree to the most advantageous conditions, all the while holding him-