CONSTITUTIONS 



CONSUL 



437 



parliamentary representative!* of the nation. A 

 CMM-I itutiniKil monarchy is one in which the 

 sovereign is restricted in his powers by chambers 

 of the representatives of the people ; the 'granting 

 of a constitution ' accordingly means the trans- 

 forming of a monarchy more or less nearly al>Holute 

 into a constitutional state. The constitutions of 

 tin- various countries will !>< found under FRANCE, 

 < , i i: y v \ v , \c. , and see the list of articles appended 

 to POLITICS. 

 Constitutions, APOSTOLIC. See APOSTOLIC 



CONSIII r riuNs. 



Consubstantiation, as opposed to Transub- 

 stantiation (q.v.), is the Lutheran doctrine that 

 in the eucharist the body and blood of Christ 

 are, in a way not to be explained, in, with, and 

 under the unchanged bread and wine. See LORD'S 

 SUPPKK. 



Consuetudinary or CUSTOMARY LAW is an 

 unwritten law established by usage and derived by 

 immemorial custom from remote antiquity. When 

 universal, it is called common law ; when par- 

 ticular, it is called custom in a narrower sense, as 

 the custom of a trade or of a district. See CUSTOM, 

 COMMON LAW. 



Consul, the title of the two highest ordinary 

 magistrates in the Roman republic. The idea of 

 two supreme magistrates or joint-presidents of the 

 state seems to nave been interwoven with the 

 earliest conceptions of political organisation in 

 Rome. After the expulsion of Tarquin, Lucius 

 Junius Brutus and Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus 

 were chosen joint heads of the state ; but the 

 title of consules seems first to have been introduced 

 about 300 B.C. At first, the consuls seem to have 

 differed from the kings in little else than their 

 limited tenure of office, and the power which their 

 fellow-citizens retained of calling them to account 

 at its termination. They never assumed the golden 

 crown, but their dress in almost every other respect 

 was regal. They made peace and negotiated foreign 

 alliances, had the supreme command of the army, 

 and appointed the public treasurers. They like- 

 wise exercised the judicial functions of royalty. 

 Dates were always determined by naming the con- 

 suls of the year. The symbol of their authority 

 was the bundle of rods (fasces), with the axe in 

 the centre, which was carried before them by 

 twelve lictors. For a considerable period the con- 

 suls were chosen exclusively from the populus or 

 patricians, as opposed to the plebs. At length, 

 however, two plebeian officers called trilmtii plebis 

 were appointed as a sort of democratic rivals to the 

 aristocratic consuls. The result of this rivalry was 

 that the consulship was opened to plebeians, the 

 famous Lex Licinia (367 B.c. ) ordaining that one 

 of the consuls should belong to that order. This 

 law was more stringently re-enacted in 342, and 

 from that time it was customary for one of the con- 

 suls to be a plebeian. This same law prohibited any 

 individual from holding the same office within ten 

 vears, but the enactment was often suspended. 

 The appointment of Censores (443) and of Prcetores 

 (367) relieved the consuls of many of their judicial 

 functions. In the government of the provinces, the 

 aid of the former consuls was called in, the consul 

 thus appointed having the title of pro-consul. In 

 smlden and critical emergencies, the consuls were 

 either superseded by a Dictator (q.v.), or absolute 

 power for the occasion was conferred on them by 

 the decree of the senate, which ran in the famous 

 formula : Videant consoles ne quid respublica detri- 

 menti capiat ' Let the consuls look to it that 

 the state take no harm." The consuls were in- 

 augurated by a great procession to the Capitol 

 and a sacrifice to Jupiter Capitolinus. The shadow 

 of the consulate survived the downfall of liberty ; 



but the election of the consuls was taken from 

 the people and conferred on the senate. Then 

 tlicir nnmlicr was increased; they were divided 

 into classes ; till at last the office liecame a mere 

 honorary appoint incut conferred by the emperor. 



The title of consul was revived in the French 

 republic after the revolution of the 18th Brnmaire, 

 ami lasted till the coronation of Napoleon as 

 emperor, 18th May 1804. 



Consul, MERCANTILE, the name given to those 

 officers whom the state maintains in foreign coun- 

 tries for the protection of its trade and vindication 

 of the rights of its merchants, and to whom the 

 further duty is assigned of keeping the home 

 government informed of all facts bearing on the 

 commercial interests of the country. The practice 

 of appointing such officers originated among the 

 trading communities of Italy about the middle of 

 the 12th century, and gradually extended itself ; 

 and in the 16th century had been adopted by all 

 the countries of Europe. In addition to their 

 commercial duties, otners of a more strictly 

 political kind were frequently confided to consuls 

 in places in which there was no ambassador or 

 political agent. In almost all civilised countries 

 consuls are divided into consuls-general, consuls, 

 vice-consuls, and consular agents. The consul's 

 first duty on his arrival is to exhibit his commis- 

 sion to the authorities of the country to which he 

 is accredited, in order that he may obtain their 

 sanction to his appointment. This sanction is 

 communicated to him in a document called an 

 exequatur, which secures to him the enjoyment of 

 such 'privileges, immunities, and exemptions as 

 have been enjoyed by his predecessors, and as are 

 usually granted to consuls in the country in which 

 he is to reside.' 



The general duties of English consuls are com- 

 municated to them in printed instructions. In 

 these the consul is ordered to make himself con- 

 versant with the laws and general principles which 

 relate to the trade of Great Britain with foreign 

 parts, and with the language and municipal laws 

 of the country wherein he resides. Further, it is 

 his duty to protect his countrymen in the lawful 

 exercise of their trade, to quiet their differences, 

 to obtain the redress of injuries done them fail- 

 ing which, to report the matter to the English 

 ambassador at the capital of the country and 

 to forward to the Secretary of State for Foreign 

 Affairs an annual return of the trade carried on at 

 the different ports within his consulate, as well as 

 a quarterly account of the market prices of agri- 

 cultural produce during each week of the quarter, 

 the course of exchange, &c. The consul must 

 afford relief to British seamen or other subjects 

 wrecked on the coast, and endeavour to procure 

 them the means of returning to England. The 

 commanders of British war-ships touching on the 

 coast are entitled to call on him for intelligence, 

 and aid in procuring supplies of water, provisions, 

 and the like ; and it is his duty to endeavour to 

 recover all wrecks and stores, &c. of queen's ships, 

 whether found at sea and brought into the port 

 at which he resides, or thrown on the coast. As 

 regards his ' privileges and immunities,' a consul 

 engaged in trade is amenable to the civil jurisdic- 

 tion of the state to which he is accredited, but 

 a consul sent out from this country, and not 

 engaging in trade, has always been exempted from 

 the taxes of the country in which he resides. 

 A consul can perform all the acts of a notary- 

 public, all deeds executed by him being acknow- 

 ledged as valid by our courts of law. The fiction 

 is, that the consulate is the territory of the country 

 from which the consul is sent, and, consequently, 

 that deeds and acts done within it, or under the 

 consul's seal, are done in England. Hence the 



