concerned in the congress of Vienna, dated March 19, 1815, which is to the following effect:

"To prevent the embarrassments which have often occurred and which may yet arise from the claims to precedence between different diplomatic agents, the plenipotentiaries of the powers signing the treaty of Paris have agreed to the following articles; and they feel it their duty to ask those of other crowned heads to adopt the same regulation:

ART. I. Diplomatic employés are divided into three classes; that of ambassadors, legates, or nuncios;

that of envoys, ministers, or others accredited to sovereigns;

that of chargés d'affaires accredited to ministers charged with foreign affairs.

ART. II. Ambassadors, legates, or nuncios alone have the representative character.

ART. III. Diplomatic employés on an extraordinary mission have not for that reason any superiority of rank.

ART. IV. Diplomatic employés shall take rank among themselves in each class according to the date of the official notification of their arrival.

The present rule shall bring with it no, innovation in regard to the representatives of the Pope.

ART. V. There shall be in each state a uniform mode determined upon for the reception of the diplomatic employés of each class.

ART. VI. The ties of relationship or of family alliance between courts give no rank to their diplomatic employés. The same is true of political ties.

ART. VII. In the acts or treaties between several powers which admit of the alternat, the lot shall decide between the ministers, as to the order to be followed in signatures."*

In the protocol of the congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, dated November 21, 1818, a new class of ministers was constituted by the plenipotentiaries of the five great powers. They say—

"To avoid the disagreeable discussions which may arise in the future on a point of diplomatic etiquette, which the rule annexed to the recés of Vienna, by which questions of rank were regulated, does not seem to have provided for, it is decided between the five courts, that resident ministers accre

* By the alternat is intended the practice, sometimes adopted in signing conventions, of alternating in the order of priority of signature, according to some fixed rule, so as to cut off questions of rank. The lot has also been used. Comp. Klüber, SS 104-106.

dited near them shall form, in respect to their rank, an intermediate class between ministers of the second order and chargés d'affaires.

وو

According to these rules, on which the present practice everywhere is based, there are four classes of diplomatic agents. To the first belong ambassadors of temporal powers, together with legates a or de latere and nuncios of the Pope. To the second all diplomatic employés accredited to sovereigns, whether called envoys, ministers, ministers plenipotentiary, or internuncios. To the third resident ministers accredited to sovereigns. To the fourth chargés d'affaires accredited to ministers of foreign affairs, with whom would be reckoned consuls invested with diplomatic functions.†

In regard to the rank of the minister who shall represent a state at a particular court, the general rule is that one of such rank and title is sent, as has been usually received from the other party; and that the sovereigns having a royal title neither send ministers of the first rank, nor receive them from inferior powers.‡

In regard to diplomatic etiquette Dr. Wheaton observes, that while it is in great part a code of manners, and not of laws, there are certain rules, the breach of which may hinder the performance of more serious duties. Such is the rule requiring a reciprocation of diplomatic visits between ministers resident at the same court.

As for the ceremonial of courts an ambassador is to regard himself the representative of national politeness and goodwill, but to submit to no ceremony abroad which would be account

* There is no distinction between legates a and legates de latere. These are cardinals, nuncios are not. Internuncios form an inferior grade of papal diplomats, belonging to the second or third class. From early times the bishop of Rome had vicars, delegates, or legates, in the countries of Europe, who had oversight of religious affairs and some delegated jurisdiction. Legates for some time had a permanent office, which might be attached to a particular bishopric. Only in modern days have these representatives of the Pope become assimilated to the envoys from temporal powers. In France by the concordat of 1801, all intermeddling with the affairs of the Gallican church was prohibited to them, by whatever name they went. † Comp. Heffter, § 208. Heffter, § 209.

ed degrading at home; for nothing can be demanded of him inconsistent with the honor of his country. A question somewhat agitated among us, who have no distinct costume for the chief magistrate or for those who wait on him, is, In what costume should our diplomatic agents appear at foreign courts? In none other, it may be answered, than such as is appropriate when we pay our respects to the President of the United States, unless another is expressly prescribed. The rule is to emanate from home, and not from abroad; and no rule, it is to be hoped, will ever be given out, inconsistent with the severe simplicity of a nation without a court.

An ambassador may be recalled, or sent home, or for some urgent reason declare his mission terminated, or it may expire by its own limitation, or by the completion of a certain official work, or by the death of the sovereign sending the ambassador, or of the sovereign to whom he is sent, or yet again by a change in his diplomatic rank. When, for any cause not implying personal or national misunderstanding, his mission is terminated, a letter of recall is generally necessary, which he is to deliver up, and ask for an audience to take leave of the sovereign or chief magistrate of the country where he has been residing. And again, when his rank has been changed without removal from his station, he presents a letter of recall and one of credence, as at first.*

The inviolability of foreign ministers belongs also to heralds, bearers of flags of truce, etc. (Comp. § 134.) Couriers and bearers of despatches are privileged persons, as far as is necessary for their particular service. But agents attending to the private affairs of princes, and secret envoys, when not accredited, are not entitled to the privileges of ambassadors under the law of nations.

* For all the details of an ambassador's duty the Guide Diplomatique of Ch. de Martens (4th edition), Paris, 1851, is probably the best book. The second volume is a kind of complete letter writer, useful, no doubt, to raw hands. But unfortunately the book is in French, and, so far as I know, has not been translated into English. Would it not be a good work to set up a French school at Washington for members of Congress expecting to go on missions?

§ 95.

Consuls.

The commercial agents of a government, residing in foreign parts, and charged with the duty of promoting the commercial interests of the state, and especially of its individual citizens or subjects, are called consuls. These, under the regulations of some countries are of different grades, being either consuls-general, consuls, or vice-consuls, from whom consular agents differ little. The consular office, also, may have a connection with that of diplomatic agents. (§ 94.)

Origin of the consular office.

Nothing exactly like the office of consuls was known to the ancients. The nearest resemblance to it was borne by the proxeni of Greece, who, as their name implies, stood in the relation of hospitality to a public body or state, and like other hosts and guests, might hand down the office in their family. Their chief duties were to entertain and honor the ambassadors of the foreign state within the country where they resided, to help in distress its private citizens doing business there, and perhaps to represent them in commercial suits.*

The consuls of the middle ages, so far as they resembled modern consuls, seem to have been of two kinds; first, a college of judges or arbitrators, whose functions were exercised within the city or state which appointed them, and secondly those who were chosen to settle disputes among the merchants of their town who resided in a foreign town or district. As for the first class it was not strange that merchants, who formed guilds by themselves, should have magistrates of their own; and the name given to them, consuls of the merchants, or of the sea, was borrowed from one of the prevailing names of the head officers of many Italian cities. As for the second, it can be traced back to century XII. In 1190, a charta of king Guy, of Jerusalem, grants the privilege to the merchants of Marseilles of appointing consuls of their own at Acco (St. Jean d'Acre), and in 1268, king Jacob of Arragon (Jayme I. 1213* Comp. Schömann, Griech. Alterth. II. 22.

+ Comp. Hegel, Gesch. d. Städteverfass. von Italien II. 205, et seq.

1276), gives to merchants of Barcelona the same privilege for parts beyond the sea under his sway. A charta of 1328, calls them in the Provençal dialect "regens dels mercadiers que van per mar. Such consuls were either resident, as those of the large trading cities of the Mediterranean, or temporary during the stay abroad of merchants setting sail in a vessel together. From a statute of Marseilles of 1253-55, in Pardessus (Lois maritimes IV. 256), we learn that the appointment of consuls for foreign parts was there instrusted to the rector of the town with the syndics and guardians of the treasury; that such consuls, under advice of their council, had the power of imposing fines and of banishing;-subject however to the review of the home government on complaint of the aggrieved person,—that if no consuls should have been appointed for any place where ten or more Marseilles merchants were residing, these of themselves might make choice of one, until the office could be filled; that the consul refusing to serve was finable; and that no man enjoying special privileges in the place, and no one but a wholesale dealer, could hold the office. The consul, if parties are willing to submit their differences to him, is directed to call in two assistants. The fines which he may exact from parties whose differences he has settled are to go, half to him and half to the treasury of Marseilles. Important information in regard to this office is also given by the statutes of Ancona of the year 1397.†

§ 96.

The functions of modern consuls are determined by special treaties and by the laws of their own land. Functions and dú Among their usual duties in Christian lands, be- ties of consuls. sides those of general watchfulness over the commercial interests of their nation, and of aid to their countrymen in securing their commercial rights, may be enumerated the duties

Of legalizing by their seal, for use within their own country, acts of judicial or other functionaries, and of authenticating * Du Cange voce Consul. Comp. Leonhardi in Ersch u. Gruber's Encyclop. voce Consulat. + See Pardessus, u. s. V. 108, 116, et seq.