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48 RUSSIAN-BULGARIAN RELATIONS [chap. iv.
and destined for careers in the Embassies and Legations
of the West; cleverness at once attracted attention, if
any one showed any true ability all the town talked
about it. Much stress was laid on good manners and
discreet behaviour generally, and scrupulous
good-fellowship ; personal intrigue was rigidly excluded, and
every young man who went through the successive
stages could be sure of promotion in his turn;
exceptions were only made—and approved of among the
men themselves—in those cases of recognised striking
ability alluded to above.
On the other side, the Asiatic Department were
supplied from divers grades of society, to which the
former Directors had tried to attract the talent
and intelligence of the day. Those who were admitted
were destined to diplomatic and consular careers in
the Near East and in Persia. And as a matter of fact,
talents abounded in this profession between the forties
and eighties of last century. Later on the composition
of this Ministry, which had been so brilliant under
Prince Gortchakoff, deteriorated as he grew older and
feebler, and men of talent became more rare in the
Asiatic Department.
But all the same Hartwig had to push himself forward.
The ambitious young man became one of the informants
of the Novoye Vremja, which at the time was pursuing the
Ministry with criticism and accusing it of lack of vigour
and patriotism, more especially in Eastern affairs ; he
also kept in touch with our General Staff, which indulged
in the same criticism of our diplomacy. But one must
admit that it was not personal views alone which
induced Hartwig to become the echo of these critics
and to furnish them with material; all his life he had
been a staunch adherent of a policy of action in the
Near East and in Central Asia; and-he devoted his zeal
and his talents to this end. It was during the
administration of Count Lamsdorf that Hartwig’s career
received its true impetus. He promptly became the
right hand of the amiable and retiring Minister, who, an
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