Courage is a most necessary quality in a negotiator; for, though the law of nations should give him ample security, there are many occasions in which he will find himself in danger, where he will have to rely upon his own courage and resource to escape from a perilous position without compromising the negotiation on which he is engaged. Thus no timid man can hope to conduct secret designs to success: unforeseen accidents will shake his faith, and in a moment of fear he may too easily give away his secrets even by the passing expression of his countenance and by the manner of his speech. And indeed a too great concern for his personal safety may lead him to take measures highly prejudicial to the duties he has to discharge. And at times when the honour of his master is attacked his timidity may prevent him from maintaining with the necessary vigour the dignity of his office and the prestige of his King. A prelate who was an ambassador at Rome from King Francis I. brought disgrace on his master because he failed to defend him in the Consistory, where the Emperor, Charles V., attempted to cast upon the French King the whole responsibility for the continuation of the war, boasting falsely that he had offered to end it by a single combat with François himself, and that the French King had refused. The King was so furious that he gave the Emperor the lie in public, and made known to the world his displeasure with his own ambassador for failing to uphold the dignity of France. François there and then took the resolution never to employ any man as French ambassador who was not a practised swordsman, and thus he hoped to uphold the honour of his house.
Firmness in Dispute.
A good negotiator must not only be courageous in danger but firm in debate. There are many men who are naturally brave, but cannot maintain an opinion in dispute. The kind of firmness that is needed is that which, having carefully and fully examined the matter, consents to no compromise but pursues with constancy a resolution once adopted till it is carried into effect. Compromise is the easy refuge of the irresolute spirit. The lack of firmness of which I speak here is a common fault of those who have a lively imagination for every kind of accident which may befall, and hinders them from determining with vigour and despatch the means by which action should be taken. They will look at a matter on so many sides that they forget in which direction they are travelling. This irresolution is most prejudicial to the conduct of great affairs which demand a decisive spirit, acting upon a careful balance of advantage and disadvantage, and pursuing the main purpose without abatement. It is said that Cardinal Richelieu, who perhaps took wider views than any man of his time, was somewhat irresolute when he came to action, and that Father Joseph, the Capuchin, a much narrower intelligence than the Cardinal, was of the greatest value to him because, once a decision was taken, he pursued it tenaciously, and often assisted the Cardinal in dismissing designs of compromise by which crafty persons hoped to destroy the original plan.
Genius no Substitute for Good Manners.
There are some geniuses born with such an elevation of character and superiority of mind that they have a natural ascendancy over all whom they meet. But a negotiator of this kind must take good care not to rely too much on his own judgment in order to voice that superiority which he has over other men, for it may earn for him a reputation for arrogance and hardness; and just on account of his very elevation above the level of common humanity, events may escape him, and he may be the dupe of his own self-confidence. He must sometimes consent to meet smaller men on their own ground.
Value of Good Faith.
The good negotiator, moreover, will never found the success of his mission on promises which he cannot redeem or on bad faith. It is a capital error, which prevails widely, that a clever negotiator must be a master of the art of deceit. Deceit indeed is but a measure of the smallness of mind of him who employs it, and simply shows that his intelligence is too meagrely equipped to enable him to arrive at his ends by just and reasonable methods. No doubt the art of lying has been practised with success in diplomacy; but unlike that honesty which here as elsewhere is the best policy, a lie always leaves a drop of poison behind, and even the most dazzling diplomatic success gained by dishonesty stands on an insecure foundation, for it awakes in the defeated party a sense of aggravation, a desire for vengeance, and a hatred which must always be a menace to his foe. Even if deceit were not as despicable to every right-minded man as it is, the negotiator will perhaps bear in mind that he will be engaged throughout life upon the affairs of diplomacy, and that it is therefore his interest to establish a reputation for plain and fair dealing so that men may know that they can rely upon him; for one negotiation successfully carried through by the honesty and high intelligence of a diplomatist will give him a great advantage in other enterprises on which he embarks in the future. In every country where he goes he will be received with esteem and pleasure, and men will say of him and of his master that their cause is too good to be served by evil means. For if the negotiator is obliged to observe with faithfulness all the promises which he has made, it will be at once seen that both he himself and the prince whom he serves are to be relied on.
Perils of Deceit.
This is surely a well-known truth and so indispensable a duty that it would appear superfluous to recommend it. At the same time many negotiators have been so corrupted by converse usages that they have forgotten the uses of truth—upon which I shall make but one observation, which is, that the prince or minister who has been deceived by his own negotiator probably began by teaching that negotiator the lesson of deception; or, if he did not, he suffers because he has made the choice of a bad servant. It is not enough to choose a clever and well-instructed man for the discharge of high political duties. The agent in such affairs must be a man of probity and one who loves truth, for otherwise there can be no confidence in him. It is true that this probity is not often found joined to that capacity for taking wide views which is so necessary to a diplomatist, nor is it always found in a man well stored with all the necessary knowledge which we have already described as the equipment of a good negotiator. I may be reminded that a prince is often obliged to use diverse instruments in order to accomplish his ends, and that there have been men of little virtue who proved themselves great negotiators and in whose hands high affairs of state have prospered, and that men of this type being restrained by no scruples have more often succeeded in delicate negotiations than have the right men who have employed none but honest means.
Monsieur de Faber rebukes Cardinal Mazarin.