Word Finder - statesmanship

definition

The craft or skill of being a statesman, of leading a government well.

Lowe was a rather cut-anddry economist, who prided himself that during his four years of office he took twelve millions off taxation; but later opinion has hardly accepted his removal of the shilling registration duty on corn (1869) as good statesmanship, and his failures are remembered rather than his successes.

His statesmanship, though marred occasionally by personal vanity and love of popular applause, was far-seeing and prudent.

He died at his home at Blechingdon in Oxfordshire on the 26th of April 1686, closing a career marked by great ability, statesmanship and business capacity, and by conspicuous courage and independence of judgment.

But he was entirely lacking in practical statesmanship. Brought up in a revolutionary atmosphere, his enthusiasm was uncontrolled by judgment.

The new archbishop, without being one of the English divines who have made notable contributions to theological learning, already had a great reputation for ecclesiastical statesmanship; and in subsequent years his diplomatic abilities found ample scope in dealing not only with the difficulties caused in the church by doctrinal questions, but pre-eminently with the education crisis, and with the new problems arising in the enlarged Anglican Communion.

He was as conspicuously deficient in the statesmanship as he was in the oratorical genius of such men as Flood, Plunket or Grattan.

On all sides the statesmanship and eloquence of Amyraut were conceded.

His superiority over all his Muscovite contemporaries was due to the fact that he was already a statesman, in the modern sense, while they were still learning the elements of statesmanship. His death was an irreparable loss to the tsar, who wrote upon the despatch announcing it, the words "Peter filled with grief."

It should be noted that the scene with Burke took place in the course of the debate on the Quebec Bill, in which Fox displayed real statesmanship by criticizing the division of Upper from Lower Canada, and other provisions of the bill, which in the end proved so injurious as to be unworkable.

The best proof of his real powers of statesmanship is that the peace of Utrecht was subsequently made on the broad lines which he had laid down as the only security for European peace nearly a dozen years before its conclusion.

By looking at them together we understand how much the comedy of Terence was able to do to refine and humanize the manners of Rome, but at the same time what a solvent it was of the discipline and ideas of the old republic. What makes Terence an important witness of the culture of his time is that he wrote from the centre of the Scipionic circle, in which what was most humane and liberal in Roman statesmanship was combined with the appreciation of what was most vital in the Greek thought and literature of the time.

The influence of Panaetius and Polybius was more adapted to their maturity, when they led the state in war, statesmanship and oratory, and when the humaner teaching of Stoicism began to enlarge the sympathies of Roman jurists.

Thus the world powers of heathen statesmanship and heathen religion are leagued in a confederacy against the rising Christian Church.

Like so many of the Italians of that time, who were almost destitute of a moral sense, she looked upon statesmanship in particular as a career in which finesse, lying and assassination were the most admirable, because the most effective weapons.

The practical statesmanship contained in these papers raised Talleyrand in public estimation; and, thanks to the efforts above named, he gained the post of foreign minister, entering on his duties in July 1797.

His abilities were inconsiderable, his character weak, and he was qualified neither for the ordinary administration of public business nor for the higher sphere of statesmanship, and was entirely destitute of that experience which sometimes fills the place of natural aptitude.

In this respect, for the seven years of his administration at Washington, he developed a policy of statesmanship quite new in the history of the United States.

His statesmanship, as judged from his acts, was all but flawless, and he was certainly one of the greatest of the medieval diplomatists.

The greed of the three partitioning powers very nearly led to a rupture between Austria and Prussia; but the tact and statesmanship of the empress of Russia finally adjusted all difficulties.

February 1815, the duke of Wellington filled his place with adequate dignity and statesmanship until the war broke out.

Laud's complete neglect of the national sentiment, in his belief that the exercise of mere power was sufficient to suppress it, is a principal proof of his total lack of true statesmanship. The hostility to "innovations in religion," it is generally allowed, was a far stronger incentive to the rebellion against the arbitrary power of the crown, than even the violation of constitutional liberties; and to Laud, therefore, more than to Strafford, to Buckingham, or even perhaps to Charles himself, is especially due the responsibility for the catastrophe.

Undoubtedly he owed the triumphs of his reign very largely to the statesmanship of Absalon and the valour of Valdemar.

Not yet thirty-five years old, he had proved himself a master in the sphere of Indian statesmanship and diplomacy as on the field of battle.

Polybius (ii.-viii.) follows the Memoirs which Aratus wrote to justify his statesmanship, - Plutarch (Aratus and Cleomenes) used this same source and the hostile account of Phylarchus; Paus.

The guiding spirit in this anti-Prussian policy, which characterized Bavarian statesmanship up to the war of 1866, was Ludwig Karl Heinrich von der Pfordten (181 i-1880), who became minister for foreign affairs on the 19th of April 1849.

The party and the principles of Oldenbarneveldt, however, though crushed, were not extinguished, and though Frederick Henry by his personal influence and prudent statesmanship had been able to surmount the difficulties placed in his way, he had had to encounter at times strong opposition, and had been much hampered in the conduct both of his campaigns and of his policy.

The little we know of his statesmanship during the short period he was in power gives proof of political wisdom.

When Thiers, however, fell from power in May 1873, and a Royalist was placed at the head of the government in the person of Marshal MacMahon, Gambetta gave proof of his statesmanship by unceasingly urging his friends to a moderate course, and by his tact and parliamentary dexterity, no less than by his eloquence, he was mainly instrumental in the voting of the constitution in February 1875.

His death, at the early age of forty-four, cut short a career which had given promise of still greater things, for he had real statesmanship in his conceptions of the future of his country, and he had an eloquence which would have been potent in the education of his supporters.

John Hay was a man of quiet and unassuming disposition, whose training in diplomacy gave a cool and judicious character to his statesmanship. As secretary of state under Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt his guidance was invaluable during a rather critical period in foreign affairs, and no man of his time did more to create confidence in the increased interest taken by the United States in international matters.

His last speech of all, in 1819, contained a passage referring to the union he had so passionately resisted, which exhibits the statesmanship and at the same time the equable quality of Grattan's character.

His very defects were among the chief elements of Pelham's success, for one with a strong personality, moderate self-respect, or high conceptions of statesmanship could not have restrained the discordant elements of the cabinet for any length of time.

But unfortunately for Germany the papal chair at this time was occupied by Innocent III., a pope who emulated Hildebrand in ambition and in statesmanship. At first vacillating, but by no means indifferent, Innocent was spurred to action when a number of princes met at Spires in May 1200, declared Philip to be the lawful king, and denied the right of the pope to interfere, lie was also annoyed by Philips attitude with regard to a vacancy in the archbishopric of Cologne, and in March 1201 he declared definitely for Otto.

The situation needed all the statesmanship of the new ruler, Leopold II.

Such was the second partition of Poland (January 23, 1793), which eliminated the " buffer state " on which Austrian statesmanship had hitherto laid such importance, and brought the Austrian and Russian frontiers into contact.

But the work he left behind him is the best proof of his statesmanship. He found Denmark in ruins; he left her stronger and wealthier than she had ever been before.

The Louisiana Purchase, although the greatest "inconsistency" of his career, was also an illustration, in corresponding degree, of his essential practicality, and one of the greatest proofs of his statesmanship. It was the crowning achievement of his administration.

Jefferson's statesmanship had the limitations of an agrarian outlook.

Largely owing to Howe's statesmanship responsible government was finally conceded in 1848 by the imperial authorities, and was thus gained without the bloodshed and confusion which marked its acquisition in Ontario and Quebec. In 1850 he was appointed a delegate to England on behalf of the Intercolonial railway, for which he obtained a large imperial guarantee.

Excellent as a statement of the aim and method of Isocrates, and tolerable as a statement of those of Gorgias, these phrases are inexact if applied to Protagoras, who, making " civic virtue " his aim, regarded statesmanship and administration as parts of " civic virtue ", and consequently assigned to oratory no more than a subordinate place in his programme, while to the eristics - whose existence is attested not only by Plato, but also by Isocrates and Aristotle - and to Socrates - whom Grote himself accounts a sophist - the description is plainly and palpably inappropriate.

Settimo was elected president of the government, but the administration was lacking in statesmanship, the treasury was empty, and nothing was done to raise an army.

Athenian statesmanship in the time of Demosthenes was gravely exercised to make this form of contribution more effective.

In 1525 he went to Rome for the Jubilee, and two years of ter returned to England and was initiated by Thomas Cromwell into the mysteries of statesmanship, that master telling him that the main point consisted in discovering and following the will of princes, who are not bound by the ordinary code of honour.

Very careful statesmanship might mean permanent dominion on the Baltic shore, but there was not much margin Christina, for blundering.

Horn had clearly perceived this; and his cautious neutrality was therefore the soundest statesmanship. But the politicians who had ousted Horn thought differently.

The kings choice, however, fell on Hajji Mirza Aghasi, a native of Erivan, who in former years, as tutor to the Sons of Abbas Mirza, had gained a certain reputation for learning and a smattering of the occult sciences, but whose qualifications for statesmanship were craftiness and suspicion.

Fulk continued the tradition of good statesmanship and sound churchmanship which Baldwin I.

Almeida's statesmanship was to a great extent sound.

On the contrary, men of high rank and tried statesmanship were on that very account thought all the fitter to write the chronicles of the state they had served.

Though there is no proof of higher qualities of statesmanship in him, by his courage and military skill he enabled the Byzantine nation not merely to survive, but ultimately to beat back th?