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CONSUL
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CONSUL , a public officer authorized by the See also:state whose See also:commission he bears to See also:manage the commercial affairs of its subjects in a See also:foreign See also:country, and formally permitted by the See also:government of the country wherein he resides to perform the duties which are specified in his commission, or lettre de See also:provision. (For the See also:ancient magisterial See also:office of consul see See also:separate See also:article above.)
A consul, as such, is not invested with any See also:diplomatic See also:character, and he cannot enter on his See also:official duties until a rescript, termed an See also:exequatur (sometimes a See also:mere See also:countersign endorsed on the commission), has been delivered to him by the authorities of the state to which his nomination has been communicated by his own government. This exequatur, called in See also:Turkey a barat, may be revoked at any See also:time at the discretion of the government where he resides. The status of consuls commissioned by the See also:Christian See also:powers to reside in See also:Mahommedan countries, See also:China, See also:Korea, See also:Siam, and, until 1899, in See also:Japan, and to exercise judicial functions in See also:civil and criminal matters between their own countrymen and strangers, is exceptional to the See also:common See also:law, and is founded on See also:special conventions or See also:capitulations (q.v.).
The See also:title of consul, in the sense in which it is used in inter-See also:national law, is derived from that of certain magistrates, in the cities of See also:medieval See also:Italy, See also:Provence and See also:Languedoc, charged with the See also:settlement of See also:trade disputes whether by See also:sea or See also:land (consules mercatorum, consules artis marls, &c.).1 With the growth of trade it See also:early became convenient to appoint agents with similar powers in foreign parts, and these often, though not invariably, were styled consuls (consules in partibus ultramarinis).2 The
1 The title of consul was See also:borne by the See also:chief municipal See also:officers of several cities of the See also:south of See also:France during the See also:middle ages and up to the Revolution. The name was not due to their being the successors of the chiefs of the See also:Roman municipie. They were members of the governing See also:body known as the consulat, and in Latin documents are sometimes styled consiliarii, i.e. councillors. The consulat itself is not traceable beyond the 12th See also:century.
2 Particular quarters of See also:mercantile cities were assigned to foreign traders and were placed under the See also:jurisdiction of their own magistrates, variously styled syndics, provosts (praepositi), echevinsearliest foreign consuls were those established by See also:Genoa, See also:Pisa, See also:Venice and See also:Florence, between 1o98 and 1196, in the See also:Levant, at See also:Constantinople, in See also:Palestine, See also:Syria and See also:Egypt. Of these the See also:Pisan See also:agent at Constantinople See also:bore the title of consul, the Venetian that of See also:baylo (q.v.). In 1251 See also: The system of French foreign consulships, for instance, all but died out after the crushing of the See also:independent See also:life of the south and the See also:incorporation of Provence and Languedoc under the French See also:crown; while, with the See also:establishment of Venetian supremacy in the Levant, the baylo See also:developed into a diplomatic agent of the first class at the expense of the consuls of See also:rival states. The See also:modern system of consulships actually See also:dates only from the 16th century. Early in this century both See also:England and See also:Scotland had their " conservators " with " jurisdiction to do See also:justice between See also:merchant and merchant beyond the seas "; but France led the way. The See also:alliance between See also:Francis I. and See also:Suleiman the Magnificent gave her special advantages in the Levant, of which she was not slow to take See also:advantage. Her success culminated in the capitulations signed in 1604, under the terms of which her consuls were given See also:precedence over all others and were endowed with diplomatic immunities (e.g. freedom from See also:arrest and from domiciliary visits), while the traders of all other nations were put under the See also:protection of the French See also:flag. It was not till 1675 that, under the first capitulations signed with Turkey, See also:English consuls were established in the See also:Ottoman See also:empire. Ten years earlier, under the commercial treaty between England and See also:Spain, they had been established in Spain. The frequent See also:wars of the succeeding century hindered the development of the consular system. Thus, though the system of consuls was regularly established in France by the See also:ordinance of 1661, in 176o France had consuls only in the Levant, See also:Barbary, Italy, Spain and See also:Portugal, while she discouraged the establishment of foreign consuls in her own ports as tending to infringe her own jurisdiction. It was not till the xgth century that the system developed universally. Hitherto consuls had, for the most See also:part, been business men with no special qualification as regards training; but the French system, under which the consular service had been See also:long established as part of the See also:general civil service of the country, a system that had survived the Revolution unchanged, was gradually adopted by other nations; though, as in France, consuls not belonging to the See also:regular service, and having an inferior status, continued to be appointed. In See also:Great See also:Britain the consular service was organized in 1825 (see below); in France the See also:series of ordinances and See also:laws by which its modern constitution was fixed began in 1833. In See also:Germany progress was hindered by the See also:political conditions of the country under the old See also:Confederation; for the Hanse cities, which practically monopolized the oversea trade, lacked the means to establish a consular system on the French See also:model. The See also:present magnificently organized consular system of Germany is, then, one of the most remarkable outcomes of the establishment of the See also:united empire. It was initiated by an See also:act. of the See also:parliament of the See also:North See also:German Confederation (Nov. 8, 1867), subsequently incorporated in the statutes of the Empire, which laid down the principle that the German consulates were to be under the immediate jurisdiction of the See also:president of the Confederation (later the See also:emperor). The functions, duties and privileges of French and German consuls do not differ materially from those of See also:British consuls; but there is a great difference in the organization and personnel of the consular service. In France, apart from the consuls etas or consuls marchands, who are mere consular agents, selected by the government from among the traders of a (seabird), &c., who had See also:power to See also:fine or to expel from the See also:quarter. The Hanseatic See also:League (q.v.), particularly, had numerous settlements of this See also:kind, the earliest being the See also:Steelyard at See also:London, established in the 13th century. See also:town where it desires to be represented, and unsalaried, the consular body proper was, by the decrees of See also:July ro, r88o, and See also:April 27, 1883, practically constituted a See also:branch of the diplomatic service. It is recruited from the same See also:sources, and its members are free to See also:exchange into the See also:corps diplomatique, or See also:vice versa. Candidates for the diplomatic and consular services have to undergo the same training and pass the same See also:examinations, i.e. in the constitutional, administrative and judicial organization of the various powers, in See also:international law, commercial law and maritime law, in the See also:history of See also:treaties and in commercial and political See also:geography, in political See also:economy, and in the German and English See also:languages. They have to serve three years abroad or attached to some ministerial See also:department before they can enter for the examination which entitles them to an See also:appointment as attache or as consul suppleant. This assimilation of the consular to the diplomatic service remains See also:peculiar to France.' In Germany it was enacted by the law of See also:February 28, 18i3, that German consuls must be either trained jurists, or must have passed special examinations. The result of this system has been the establishment throughout the See also:world of an elaborate network of trained commercial experts, directly responsible to the central government, and charged as one of their See also:principal duties with the task of keeping the government informed of all that may be of See also:interest to German traders. These See also:annual consular reports were from the first regularly and promptly published in the Deutsche Handelsarchiv, and have contributed much to the wonderful expansion of German trade. The right to establish consuls is now universally recognized by Christian civilized states. Jurists at one time contended that according to international law a right of " ex-territoriality " attached to consuls, their persons and dwellings being sacred, and themselves amenable to See also:local authority only in cases of strong suspicion on political grounds. It is now admitted that, apart from treaty, See also:custom has established very few consular privileges; that perhaps consuls may be arrested and incarcerated, not merely on criminal charges, but for civil See also:debt; and that, if they engage in trade or become the owners of immovable See also:property, their persons certainly lose protection. This question of arrest has been frequently raised in See also:Europe: in the See also:case of Barbuit, a See also:tallow-See also:chandler, who from 1717 to 1735 acted as Prussian consul in London, and to whom the exemption conferred by See also:statute on ambassadors was held not to apply; in the case of Cretico, the See also:Turkish consul in London in 18o8; in the case of Begley, the United States consul at Genoa, arrested in See also:Paris in 184o; and in the case of De la Fuente Hermosa, Urukuayan consul, whom the Cour Royale of Paris in 1842 held liable to arrest for debt. In the same way consuls are often exempt from all kinds of rates and taxes, and always from See also:personal taxes. They are exempt from See also:billeting and military service, but are not entitled (except in the Levant, where also freedom from arrest and trial is the See also:rule) to have private chapels in their houses. The right of consuls to exhibit their national arms and flag over the See also:door of the See also:bureau is not disputed. Until the See also:year 1825 British consuls were usually merchants engaged in trade in the foreign countries in which they acted as consuls, and their remuneration consisted entirely of fees. An act of that year, however, organized the consular service as a branch of the civil service, with See also:payment by a fixed See also:salary instead of by fees; consuls were forbidden also to engage in trade, and the management of the service was put under the See also:control of a separate department of the foreign office, created for the purpose. In 1832 the restriction as to engaging in trade was withdrawn, except as regards salaried members of the British consular service. ' i.e. as regards the organization of the system. Consuls, or consuls-general, of other countries have sometimes a diplomatic or quasi-diplomatic status. Consuls-general charges d'affaires, e.g., See also:rank as diplomatic agents. Of these the most notable is the British agent and consul-general in Egypt, whose position is unique. The diplomatic agent of See also:Belgium at Buenos Aires, e.g., is See also:minister-See also:resident and consul-general, and the minister of See also:Ecuador in London is consul-general See also:charge d'affaires. The See also:duty of consuls, under the " General Instructions to British Consuls," is to advise His See also:Majesty's trading subjects, to quiet their See also:differences, and to conciliate as much as possible the subjects of the two countries. Treaty rights he is to support in a mild and moderate spirit; and he is to check as far as possible evasions by British traders of the local See also:revenue laws. Besides assisting British subjects who are tried for offences in the local courts, and ascertaining the humanity of their treatment after See also:sentence, he has to consider whether See also:home or foreign law is more appropriate to the case, having regard to the See also:con-• venience of witnesses and the time required for decision; and, where local courts have wrongfully interfered, he puts the home government in See also:motion through the consul-general or See also:ambassador. He sends in reports on the labour, manufacture, trade, commercial legislation and See also:finance, technical See also:education, exhibitions and conferences of the country or See also:district in which he resides, and, generally, furnishes See also:information on any subject which may be desired of him. He acts as a See also:notary public; he draws up marine and commercial protests, attests documents brought to him, and, if necessary, draws up See also:wills, powers of See also:attorney, or conveyances. He celebrates marriages in accordance with the provisions of the Foreign See also:Marriage Act 1892, and, where the ministrations of a clergyman cannot be obtained, reads the See also:burial service. At a seaport he has certain duties to perform in connexion with the See also:navy. In the See also:absence of any of His Majesty's See also:ships he is See also:senior See also:naval officer; he looks after men See also:left behind as stragglers, or in See also:hospital or See also:prison, and sends them on in due course to the nearest See also:ship. He is also em-powered by statute to advance for the erection or See also:maintenance of See also:Anglican churches, hospitals, and places of interment sums equal to the amount subscribed for the purpose by the resident British subjects. As the powers and duties of consuls vary with the particular commercial interests they have to protect, and the See also:civilization of the state in whose territory they reside, instead of abstract See also:definition, we summarize the provisions on this subject of the British Merchant See also:Shipping Acts .2 Consuls are See also:bound to send to the See also:Board of Trade such reports or returns on any See also:matter See also:relating to British merchant shipping or See also:seamen as they may think necessary. Where a consul suspects that the shipping or See also:navigation laws are being evaded, he may require the owner or See also:master to produce the See also:log-See also:book or other ship documents (such as the agreement with the seamen, the See also:account of the See also:crew, the certificate of See also:registration); he may See also:muster the crew, and See also:order explanations with regard to the documents. Where an offence has been committed on the high seas, or aboard ashore, by British seamen or apprentices, the consul makes inquiry on See also:oath, and may send home the offender and witnesses by a British ship, particulars for the Board of Trade being endorsed on the agreement for See also:conveyance. He is also empowered to detain a foreign ship the master or seamen of which appear to him through their misconduct or want of skill to have caused injury to a British See also:vessel, until the necessary application for See also:satisfaction or See also:security be made to the local authorities. Every British mercantile ship, not carrying passengers, on entering a See also:port gives into the custody of the consul to be endorsed by him the seamen's agreement, the certificate of registry, and the official log-book; a failure to do this is reported to the registrar-general of seamen. The following five provisions are also made for the protection of seamen. If a British master engage seamen at a foreign port, the engagement is sanctioned by the consul, acting as a See also:superintendent of Mercantile Marine Offices. The consul collects the property (including arrears of See also:wages) of British seamen or apprentices dying abroad, and remits to H.M. paymaster-general. He also provides for the subsistence of seamen who are ship-wrecked, discharged, or left behind, even if their service was with foreign merchants; they are generally sent home in the first British ship that happens to be in want of a See also:complement, and the expenses thus incurred See also:form a charge on the See also:parliamentary fund for the See also:relief of distressed seamen, the consul receiving a 2 See also instructions to consuls prepared by the Board of Trade and approved by the secretary of state for foreign affairs. commission of 22 % on the amount disbursed. Complaints by crews as to the quality and quantity of the provisions on board are investigated by the consul, who enters a statement in the log-book and reports to the Board of Trade. See also:Money disbursed by consuls on account of the illness or injury of seamen is generally recoverable from the owner. With regard to passenger vessels, the master is bound to give the consul facilities for inspection and for communication with passengers, and to exhibit his "master's See also:list," or list of passengers, so that the consul may transmit to the registrar-general, for insertion in the Marine See also:Register Book, a See also:report of the passengers dying and See also:children See also:born during the voyage. The consul may even defray the expenses of maintaining, and forwarding to their destination, passengers taken off or picked up from wrecked or injured vessels, if the master does not undertake to proceed in six See also:weeks; these expenses becoming, in terms of the Passenger Acts 1855 and 1863, a debt due to His Majesty from the owner or charterer. where a salvor is justified in detaining a British vessel, the master may obtain leave to depart by going with the salvor before the consul, who, after See also:hearing See also:evidence as to the service rendered and the proportion of ship's value and See also:freight claimed, fixes the amount for which the master is to give See also:bond and security. In the case of a foreign See also:wreck the consul is held to be the agent of the foreign owner. Much of the notarial business which is imposed on consuls, partly by statute and partly by the See also:request of private parties, consists in taking the declarations as to registry, transfers, &c., under the Mercantile Shipping Acts. Consuls in the Ottoman empire, China, Siam and Korea have extensive judicial and executive powers. Since the incorporation of the British consular service in the civil service there have been several proposals to " reform " the system with the view of increasing its usefulness, more particularly from the point of view of providing assistance to British trade abroad (see Reports of Special Committees of the See also:House of See also:Commons on the Consular Service, 1858, 1872,1903). It has been frequently urged that British consuls in their commercial know-ledge and intercourse with foreign merchants compare unfavourably, for example, with the consuls of the United States. It must be remembered, however, that there are points of striking dissimilarity between the duties of the consuls of these two countries. The See also:American consul is necessarily brought much into See also:touch with the trade and See also:commerce of the country to which he is assigned through the system of consular invoices (see AD VALOREM) ; in his See also:ordinary reports he is not confined to one stereotyped form, and when preparing special reports (a valuable feature of the United States consular service) he is liberally treated as regards any expense to which he has been put in obtaining information. He is practically free from the multifarious duties which the English consul has to See also:discharge in connexion with the mercantile marine, nor has he to.perform marriage ceremonies; and financially he is much better off, being allowed to retain as personal all fees obtained from his notarial duties. The See also:Committee of 1903 was appointed to in-See also:quire, inter alia, whether the limits of age—25 to 50—for candidates should be altered, and whether service as a vice-consul for a certain See also:period should be required to qualify for promotion to the rank of consul; whether means could not be adopted to give consular officers opportunities of increasing their See also:practical knowledge of commercial matters and to bring them more into personal contact with the commercial community. The suggestions of the committee as the result of its inquiries were adopted in principle by the Foreign Office. The consular service is now grouped into three See also:main divisions: (r) the general service; (2) Levant and See also:Persia; and (3) China, Japan, Korea and Siam. The general consular service is graded into three divisions: first grade, consuls-general, salary £1000 with local allowances; second grade, consuls-general and consuls, salary £800 and local allowances; third grade, consuls, salary £600, with local allowances. Vice-consuls have an annual salary of £350, rising by annual increments of £15 to £450. In the general consular service appointments are sometimes made to the higher officesfrom the ranks, but more usually from a select list of nominees, who must pass a qualifying examination. A proportion of the vacancies are reserved for competition amongst candidates who have had actual commercial exr erience. Divisions 2 and 3 are recruited by open competition. There were at one time a small number of commercial agents ) those business consisted in watching and See also:reporting on the commerce, See also:industries and products of special districts, and in answering inquiries on commercial subjects. Their duties were subsequently transferred to the consular See also:staff, and a new class of officers, consular attaches, created. The consular attaches See also:divide their time between special investigations abroad, and visits to manufacturing districts in the United See also:Kingdom. The headquarters of the commercial attaches in Europe, except those at Paris and See also:Constant'nople, were transferred to London, without defined districts, in 1907 (see Report on the System of British Commercial Attaches and A gents, 1908, Cd.361o). " See also:Pro-consuls " are frequently appointed for the purpose of administering oaths, taking affidavits or affirmations, and performing notarial acts under the Coln missioners for Oaths Acts 1889. The position of the United States consuls is minutely described in the Regulations, See also:Washington, 1896. Under various treaties and conventions. they enjoy large privileges and jurisdiction. By the treaty of 1816 with See also:Sweden the United States government agreed that the consuls of the two states respectively should be See also:sole See also:judges in disputes between captains and crews of vessels. (Up to 1906 there were eighteen treaties containing this clause.) By See also:convention with France in 1853 they likewise agreed that the consuls of both countries should be permitted to hold real See also:estate, and to have the " See also:police interne See also:des navires a commerce." In See also:Borneo,China, Korea, See also:Morocco, Persia, Siam, Tripoli and Turkey an extensive jurisdiction, civil and criminal, is exercised by treaty stipulation in cases where United States subjects are interested. Exemption from liability to appear as a See also:witness is often stipulated, The question was raised in France in 1843 by the case of the See also:Spanish consul Soller at See also:Aix, and in See also:America in 1854 by the case of See also:Dillon, the French consul at See also:San Francisco, who, on being arrested by See also:Judge See also:Hoffmann for declining to give evidence in a criminal suit, pulled down his consular flag. So, also, inviolability of national archives is often stipulated. To the consuls of other nations the United States government have always accorded the privileges of arresting deserters, and of being themselves amenable only to the Federal and not to the States courts. They also recognize foreign consuls as representative suitors for absent foreigners. The United States commercial agents are appointed by the president, and usually receive an exequatur. They form a class by themselves, and are distinct from the consular agents, who are simply See also:deputy consuls in districts where there is no principal consul. By a law of April 1906 the U.S. consular service was re-organized and graded, the office of consul-general being divided into seven classes, and that of consul into nine classes; and on See also:June 27 an executive order was issued by President See also:Roosevelt governing appointments and promotions. See A. de Miltitz, See also:Manuel des consuls (London and See also:Berlin, 1837–'843) ; See also:Baron See also: Econ. and Public Law," No. 18; and Fred. See also:Van Dyne, Our Foreign Service (See also:Rochester, N.Y., 1909). " CONSULATE OF THE SEA," a celebrated collection of maritime customs and ordinances (see also SEA LAWS) in the Catalan See also:language, published at Barcelona in the latter part of the 15th century. Its proper title is The Book of the Consulate, or in Catalan, Lo Libre de Consolat, the name being derived from the fact that it embodied the rules of law followed in the maritime cities of the Mediterranean See also:coast by the commercial judges known generally as consuls (q.v.). The earliest extant edition of the See also:work, which was printed at Barcelona in 1494, is without a title-See also:page or See also:frontispiece, but it is described by the above-mentioned title in the See also:epistle dedicatory prefixed to the table of contents. The only known copy of this edition is preserved in the National Library in Paris. The epistle dedicatory states that the work is an amended version of the Book of the Consulate, compiled by Francis Celelles with the assistance of numerous shipmasters and merchants well versed in maritime affairs. According to a statement made by Capmany in his Codigo de los costumbras maritimas de Barcelona, published at See also:Madrid in 1791, there was extant to his knowledge in the last century a more ancient edition of the Book of the Consulate, printed in semi-See also:Gothic characters, which he believed to be of a date See also:prior to 1484. This is the earliest period to which any See also:historical See also:record of the Book of the Consulate being in See also:print can be traced back. There are, however, two Catalan See also:MSS. preserved in the National Library in Paris, the earliest of which, being MS. Espagnol 124, contains the two first See also:treatises which are printed in the Book of the Consulate of 1494, and which are the most ancient portion of its contents, written in a See also:hand of the 14th century, on See also:paper of that century. The subsequent parts of this MS. are on paper of the r5th century, but there is no document of a date more See also:recent than 1436. The later of the two MSS., being MS. Espagnol 56, is written throughout on paper of the 15th century, and in a hand of that century, and it purports, from a certificate on the See also:face of the last See also:leaf, to have been executed under the superintendence of See also:Peter See also: In the next following century the work was translated into Dutch by Westerven, and into German by Engelbrecht, and it is also said to have been translated into Latin, An excellent translation into French of " The Customs of the Sea," which are the most valuable portion of the Book of the Consulate, was published by Pardessus in the second volume of his Collection des lois maritimes (Paris, 1834), under the title of " La Compilation connue sous le nom de consulat de la mer." See introduction, by See also:Sir Travers See also:Twiss, to the See also:Black Book of the See also:Admiralty (London, 1874), which in the appendix to vol. iii. contains his translation of " The Customs of the Sea," with the Catalan text. (T. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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