Another there is, whose members are cousins of the one
sovereign and personal friends of the other.
A further means of amalgamation has been found in the existence of the
double embassies of the great powers. Austria, France and Spain each
send an Ambassador to the King of Italy and an Ambassador to the Pope,
of like state and importance. Even Protestant Prussia maintains a
Minister Plenipotentiary to the Holy See. Russia has her diplomatic
agent to the Vatican, and several of the smaller powers keep up two
distinct legations. It is naturally neither possible nor intended that
these diplomatists should never meet on friendly terms, though they are
strictly interdicted from issuing official invitations to each other.
Their point of contact is another grey square on the chess-board.
The foreigner, too, is generally a neutral individual, for if his
political convictions lean towards the wrong side of the Tiber his
social tastes incline to Court balls; or if he is an admirer of Italian
institutions, his curiosity may yet lead him to seek a presentation at
the Vatican, and his inexplicable though recent love of feudal princedom
may take him, card-case in hand, to that great stronghold of Vaticanism
which lies due west of the Piazza di Venezia and due north of the
Capitol.
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