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Cecil Spring-Rice CECIL SPRING - RICE IN MEMORIAM 'ALENTINE CHIROL WITH P OR TRA IT LONDON w HN MURRA' ALBEMARLE STREET . 'O , , 1 9 1 9 'UN8 Nb S tag ved A ll righ ts reser . CONTENTS CE CIL SPRING- RICE POEM B' ALFRED NO'E S AN APPRE CIATION FROM SECRETAR' STATE FOREIGN AFFAIRS TWO IDEALS ' AN ADDRE SS B' SIR CECIL S PRIN G-RICE D ELI'E RE D B E FORE THE CANADIAN CLUB AT OTTAWA 37 AN ETON MEMORIAL TE E CE CIL S PRING-RICE MEMORIAL FUND AN AMBASSADOR ' W HO HAS NE'ER SPARED HIMSELF A RT HUR 'AM ES BA LFOUR I vow — ll ar t hin s t o thee , my country a e thly g abo ve E n and n s c of tire Whole a d perfect, the ervi e my love The love tha t asks no question the love that stands the test, That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best ' a n a a a The love th t ever f lters, the love th t p ys the n c p e, a c fic The love th t makes undaunted the final sa ri e . ’ ’ And an c n I ve a n a o there s other ou try , he rd of lo g g M a a lov e a ost de r to them th t her, most gre t to them a n th t k ow. We may not c ount her armies we may not see her Her a a ar uff n fortress is f ithful he t , her pride is s eri g An d and n n n n soul by soul sile tly, her shi i g bou ds n c a i re se , And her ways are ways of gentlen ess an d all her ” s are P path eace . C. A . S . R . S WA HINGTON , 'an. 12 , 1918 . CECIL S PRIN G - R IC E THE foregoing lines were written by Sir Ce cil ’ - Arthur Spring Rice, His Majesty s Ambassa on of dor to the United States, the eve his fi vo nal departure from Washington . The w recorded in them had been kept long before ds he put it into wor , for he had served his country for a quarter of a century with the ' love that never falters and, though he n knew it not , he was already a dyi g man . With his singular clarity of vision he had realised from the beginning Of the war that its issue might well depend in the last resort on the attitude of the great American Re public ' and so acute a sense as his of the awful responsibility that rested in such Cir c umst anc e s upon a British Ambassador during the prolonged period of American hesitation l and neutra ity, would have told severely on a much more robust constitution . If diplo macy may be compared to active warfare , 4 CECIL SPRING - RICE he had fought for two years in the most dangerous and important salient Of the l — as di l i British ines had fought, p omat sts fi S l l must ever ght, i ent y and patiently but indomitably under the poisoned shell- fire of German intrigues and when, with the entry of the great American democracy into the war, he had done his bit and was free to quit the post he had held with unswerving f tenacity through the days o stress and storm, —or he was , as we now know, doomed should l Z‘ — we say, privi eged to survive but for a short time the hour Of his crowning achieve ment . It was , at any rate, the end for which he had himself prayed not long before in some verses written on the death of a great friend who had passed away as suddenly as he was fated to do Ma n o lon a n ' O God ke g t rryi g, my , Ma wn a a y the do w rd p th be swiftly trod , Swiftly the falling feet des cen d d Short the road and soon the en . - . Psal lxx. r R a eat ead e Cf m 5 . Sp ing ice was gr r r of th e Psalms . B a cur ous coinciden e Psalm lxx is a ointed y i c . pp to be read at evens ong on th e 13th day of th e month and it was in ' th e ni t of 'anua 13- 14 1918 t at h e died wit no l n gh ry , , h h o g u fe r in r y g. IN MEMORIAM 5 W n n a he the doom is spoke , let it f ll And n a n a all . whe Thou t kest, the t ke An d s s n in sea a the un si ks the , Nor nor nor ca dim pale over st, B n o sad c an nor y h ge , slow degree , R adiant and royal to the last So take the gift Thou gavest me . Spring - Rice was an admirable product of his race and class and education, yet he had great originality . With Irish blood through of his father, who was the younger son the fi nh of rst Lord Monteagle, he i erited some ’ the qualities of his mother s North of England ll f family, the Marsha s, and their a fection for the English lakes . At Eton and at Balliol di he not only achieved stinction as a scholar , but acquired a reputation for a ready and whimsical and sometimes rather mordant h is wit which clung to him, not always to i professional advantage, throughout l fe . His first efforts at poetry came out in an Eton ' ” of x book, Out School ' and his O ford Rhymes are not yet forgotten . But it was in his deep sense of reverence for all that w as l great and noble in the past, and in his ove 6 CECIL SPRING - RICE of all that is beautiful in nature and literature fl of and art, that the in uence his early associa tions at school and college and at home was fl most strongly and permanently re ected . If his impatience Of conventions sometimes startled the very conventional world Of di plomacy, he brought into it the qualities of sympathy and imagination which it often lacks . Whenever the time comes for the rec ord ofhis lif e to be written, it will show, I believe, in a very striking way, how his whole career seems to have been a preparation for the final struggle at Washington in which he stood immovably for the fin est and most honourable traditions of British diplomacy against the brutal and corrupt methods of old — German statecraft . The gibe that a diplomatist is sent to lie abroad for the good — of his country was as repugnant to his own ’ conception of a diplomatist s duties and functions as to his innate personal rectitude . He believed that the business of a diplomatist fi wh o is in the rst place that of a peacemaker , without ignoring international differences or IN MEMORIAM 7 n l of fl bei g blind to possibi ities open con ict , should labour unceasingly to mitigate and avert them within the limits compatible with national interests and national dignity that in the second place it is the duty of a diplo mat ist not only to maintain friendly and close relations with the rulers and governing circles f O the country to which he is accredited, but to familiarise himself as far as possible with all the great currents of public opinion and all the great movements , social, religious and l political, which in the ong run determine the policy of autocracies that mould them to their purpose as well as of democracies that merely reflect them ' and thirdl y that in his own personal attitude and mode of life the diplomatist shoul d seek a golden mean be tween the reserve and reticence which may be easily misconstrued into aloofness and l o u distrust, and the faci e appeals to a p p larity wider than he c an properly aspire to in a foreign country without suspicion of overstepping the limits Of a position n e ces sarily circumscribed by the privileges it t For carries wi h it . the outer trappings and B 8 CECIL SPRING- RICE the ceremonial side of his profession he had perhaps an excessive contempt . He pre ferred to rely on the more human qualities of l simp icity, directness and transparent honesty in association with great power Of fin e work and a intellect . More fortunate than most young diplo mat ist s , who often have to serve an inter minable apprenticeship of mere routine work dr - and somewhat frivolous udgery , Spring Rice , ffi 1882 after entering the Foreign O ce in , was fir soon brought into intimate contact, st as assistant private secretary to Lord Granville ' - o and then as pr cis writer to L rd Rosebery, with the whole range of world- wide affairs which come within the purview of a British fir a as Foreign Secretary . His st post abro d, ll l n we as his ast, was Washi gton , where he spent with brief intervals all the earlier part of his career, gaining that thorough and sympathetic insight into American life and ki American character, and ma ng the many t o enduring friendships, which were serve him in such excellent stead when he returned 10 CECIL SPRING - RICE Sultan foreshadowed the price he was prepared to pay for the use of Turkey as his bridge ” - 1898 head to world dominion .
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