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almost complete exemption from the operation of the local laws, it does not follow that they are exempt from all legal responsibility, or that there are no courts which have jurisdiction over them. They are in all respects amenable to the jurisdiction of the courts of their own country, and before those courts they may be required to appear as parties defendant in causes of a civil or criminal character.'

Immunity of Public Ministers in States Other than Those to which They are Accredited. A similar, though less extensive, immunity attends the correspondence of a public minister with his government, and his transit to and from his place of official residence. Although the privileges of ambassadors are, in strictness, only available in countries to which they are formally accredited in a diplomatic capacity, they are entitled, through comity, to immunity from interference and annoyance while in the territories of third states while en route to, and returning from, their respective posts of duty."

Privilege of Religious Worship. The privilege of religious worship according to a prohibited form, or one different from that prevailing in the country to which an ambassador is accredited, is now generally accorded, subject to certain restrictions as to publicity. Increasing tolerance, however, in all matters of religious opinion has detracted somewhat from the advantage of the concession, as it has deprived the restrictions of much of their former significance and force. A certain jurisdiction is also conceded to ministers in the perform

'Lawrence, Int. Law, § 151; Dana's Wheaton, §§ 224-243; Hall, $$ 50-53; Bluntschli, §§ 191-226; I Dig. Int. Law, § 94; II Phill. § 158.

I Dig. Int. Law, § 97; II Phillimore, pp. 208-211; Hall, § 99; Lawrence, Int. Law, § 150; Heffter, § 206; Klüber, § 204.

3

Complaint was made by the United States Government that its telegraphic communications with its minister in Guatemala were sub

jected to censorship in San Salvador in 1890. The act was disclaimed by the latter government.-For. Rel. of the U. S. 1890, pp 113, 114. The United States Minister to Turkey complained, in the year 1893, that his communications with the State Department had been opened by Turkish officials.-For. Rel. of the U. S. 1893, pp. 620, 624. See also Vattel, liv. iv. chap. vii. §§ 82-85, 125; I Twiss, § 222.

ance of certain legal acts in behalf of their fellow-subjects, such as formalizing and registering marriages, births, and deaths, and other acts of like character.'

Exemption from Customs Dues, etc. Foreign ministers are usually exempted from the payment of customs duties upon articles imported by them, and intended for their personal use. Such articles are subject to the usual inspection, and precautions calculated to prevent an abuse of the privilege are justifiable. To avoid such abuses some states permit a certain amount to be imported free of duty, and collect the usual dues upon articles imported in excess of the authorized amount or value. The privilege of an ambassador does not exempt him from the observance of the police and sanitary regulations of the city in which his official residence is situated. For a violation of such ordinances, however, he can only be proceeded against in a diplomatic way. Nor does his privilege exempt him from the payment of tolls, or of postage upon such of his correspondence as may be intrusted to the ordinary mails for delivery.'

Legationary Asylum. Although the rule of international law that the residence of a minister may not be used as an asylum for criminals is well settled, the practice of furnishing legationary asylum to persons charged with political offences, and to officials overthrown by revolutionary movements, still . exists in some states of the West Indies and of Central and South America. Such asylum has been offered in recent times by the ministers and, in a limited number of cases, by the consuls of Great Britain and the United States in those countries. In the case of the diplomatic representatives of the latter power, however, such asylum has been afforded in opposition to the policy and instructions of the government. It has been justified solely on the ground of humanity, and

1 Bluntschli, §§ 203-208; Heffter, § 213; I Halleck, pp. 299, 300; Kliiber, §§ 215, 216; I Twiss, § 221; II Phillimore, § 209; Hall, p. 181, note.

Klüber, § 205; I Halleck, p.

298; Bluntschli, §§ 222, 223; Heffter, § 217; I Dig. Int. Law, § 95; Dana's Wheaton, § 242, note 131; I Twiss, § 220.

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has usually been afforded only in cases of individuals whose lives were in actual danger from mob violence, and has been limited in point of time to a particular day, as to the sailing of a particular steamer. With a view to the suppression of the practice, the Government of the United States suggested, in 1870, that the great powers should combine in instructing their diplomatic agents to refuse such asylum in the future; but this effort did not meet with success.'

Military and Naval Attachés. The practice of assigning officers of the army and navy of a state to duty as military and naval attachés at its principal legations, though relatively recent in origin, has become quite general. These officers are detailed and assigned to duty by the head of the state which they represent, and are placed on a similar footing, in respect to privilege, as is occupied by the other attachés of the legation. Their duties are neither uniform nor well defined; but consist in the observation of current military events in the state to which they are accredited. They make such reports as are required by the regulations or orders of the state which they represent in a military capacity. There is no fixed rule as to the channels through which these reports shall be submitted, although, as the minister is responsible for the conduct and policy of the legation and for the official conduct of his attachés and subordinates, it would seem proper that such papers should pass through his hands. As a matter of fact, however, this is not always, nor even usually the case. As it is a part of the duty of attachés to obtain military information in the state in which they reside, there have been instances in which considerable friction has arisen in respect to the character and contents of the reports submitted by them to their governments, and the sources from which the informa

1 Hall, § 52. See also, for recent cases, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1876, pp. 338-344; 1878, p. 443; 1879, pp. 570, 576, 582; 1885, p. 207; 1886, p. 530; 1890, p. 522; 1895, pp. 245, 246; 1896, p. 381; Klüber, § 208; Vattel, liv. iv.

chap. ix. §§ 118, 119; Bluntschli, §§ 200, 202; I Dig. Int. Law, §§ 104

107.

Foreign Relations of the United States, 1879, p. 906; Dientz vs. La Jara, Trib. Civ. de la Seine, July 31, 1878; Bar, p. 617.

tion has been obtained, in consequence of which the recall of particular attachés has been demanded.

In time of war military and naval officers are sometimes specially assigned, or accredited, to the belligerent powers, with a view to their being permitted to accompany armies in the field, in order to observe the details of the military operations. These officers, unless formally attached to the legation at the capital of the belligerent state, are entirely without the diplomatic character. Their functions are restricted to the observation of the military operations, in which they are forbidden to assist or take active part. If captured, not having the enemy character, they cannot be placed in the status of prisoners of war; but they may be detained by the belligerent into whose hands they fall if their release, immediately after capture, would lead to a disclosure of his plans, or convey to the enemy any information as to his strength, positions,

or movements.

CONSULS: CONSULAR JURISDICTION

History of the Consular Function. Consuls are persons appointed by the government of a state to represent its commercial interests, and those of its subjects, in the principal ports of other nations.

The practice of maintaining consular representatives in foreign ports and commercial cities dates back to the very beginning of modern commerce. It was developed among the commercial cities of the Mediterranean, and grew out of the exigencies and necessities of their intercourse with the Levantine cities, whose forms of government and systems of law were radically different from their own. The ships of foreign merchants were held to be navigated under the jurisdiction of the nation whose flag they carried; and the general practice was for vessels engaged in long sea voyages, some of which occupied a period of not less than three years, to have on board a magistrate, whose duty it was to administer the law of the country of the flag among all on board, not merely while the vessel was on the high seas, but while she was in a foreign port,

loading or unloading cargo. This magistrate was termed the alderman in the ports of the North and Baltic seas, while in the Mediterranean ports he was designated by the familiar name of consul, and was the precursor of the resident commercial consul, who continues in the present day to exercise within merchant ships of his own nationality, notwithstanding they are within the territorial jurisdiction of another state, a portion of the personal jurisdiction formerly exercised by the ship's consul. The exercise of this consular jurisdiction requires no fiction of exterritoriality to support it. Its limits are either regulated by commercial treaties, or, where it has originated in charter privileges, it is now held to rest upon custom.'

The institution had become fully established, in much the same form as it now exists, at the end of the twelfth century, at which time Venice was represented in the East by consuls at Constantinople, Aleppo, Jerusalem, and Alexandria. The Eastern Empire maintained a consul at Marseilles, and foreign consulates had long been established and recognized at the port of Barcelona, in Spain. These early consuls performed many of the duties of modern ambassadors, and had something of their inviolable character. As a result of the general establishment of permanent missions in Europe in the seventeenth century, an important change was made in the consular function in all the states of the West. The diplomatic duties were transferred to the class of public ministers, to whom the character of inviolability was attached; and there remained to the consuls a class of duties of a commercial character, closely resembling those which they now perform. In the Levant, however, where no permanent missions were established, consuls continued to enjoy their old

'Consuls, as international commercial agents, originated in the colonial municipalities of the Latin Christians in the Levant, which municipalities were self-governing through their "consuls," the ancient title of municipal magistrates

in Italy.-VII Opinions of Attorney-General, p. 342. See also an article on the history of the consular office in the English Law Magazine for February, 1876; I Twiss, § 223; I Halleck, pp. 310, 311.

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