834 



MINISTER MINK. 



represent their government. The third class con- 

 sists of the ministers resident (tninistres resident, 

 ministres charges d'affaires), to whom less honour is 

 generally paid. They, however, like the former, 

 are stylet! by courtesy excellency. Of still lower 

 rank are the charges d'affaires. According to the 

 regulations adopted by the congress of Vienna, the 

 number of classes has been reduced, so that there are 

 at present only ambassadors, envoys extraordinary, 

 and ministers plenipotentiary, and charges d'affaires. 

 Persons who are sent merely to conduct the private 

 affairs of their monarch or his subjects in a foreign 

 place are called agents, or residents; and where 

 they are occupied chiefly with subjects of a com- 

 mercial character, they are called consuls, (q. v.) 

 They are not considered diplomatic persons, and do 

 not enjoy privileges accordingly. The 'legati a latere 

 (q. v.) enjoy the privileges and honours of ambassa- 

 dors. Ambassadors and even ministers plenipo- 

 tentiary have young gentlemen with them, called 

 attaches, who have no particular charge, but merely 

 this title to connect them with the legation, and to 

 give them thus admission into the highest society. 

 Sometimes they are sons of noble families, who are 

 preparing themselves for diplomatic offices, but think 

 it beneath their dignity to accept an appointment 

 as secretary of legation. The suite of amlwissadors 

 always includes more individuals than the business 

 of the embassy requires, a certain degree of pomp 

 being considered necessary. An ambassador has 

 generally three, always two secretaries of legation ; 

 other ministers often but one. A foreign minister 

 receives letters of credence from his court, which, 

 after having delivered an attested copy of it to the 

 secretary of state, he gives himself to the monarch, 

 or head of the government, if he is an ambassador, in 

 a public audience, if not, in a private audience. 

 After the reception of the credentials, the minister is 

 said to be acknowledged. In some countries, he 

 puts the arms of his nation or sovereign on his man- 

 sion. After his credentials have been received, he 

 makes formal visits to the other ambassadors, to be 

 recognised by them as such. From the moment 

 that a minister enters the territory of the sovereign 

 to whom he is sent, his person is held sacred and in- 

 violable, and he acquires important privileges. To 

 these belongs, first of all, his freedom from territorial 

 restrictions ; that is, he is not regarded as an inhab- 

 itant of the country, but his person, suite, house, 

 equipage, &c., are considered as never having left 

 the country to which he belongs, and as being with- 

 out the jurisdiction of that in which he actually 

 resides. From this follows the freedom of foreign 

 ministers from the civil and criminal law ; and the 

 same applies to their suite ; and all property belong- 

 ing to him as minister is free from all taxes, &c. No 

 common police-officer, tax-gatherer, or other public 

 servant, can enter his hotel, and make inquisition, as 

 in the house of a private citizen. But whether his 

 hotel shall be a place of refuge for transgressors, and 

 whether the delivery of them may be refused to the 

 state-officers, are questions equally doubtful and im- 

 portant. The privilege formerly appertaining to am- 

 bassadors, by means of which, upon hanging up the 

 arms of their sovereign, they could exempt from the 

 laws of the land the whole quarter of the town or 

 city in which their hotel happened to stand, is abol- 

 ished as an abuse. The freedom from taxes of all 

 property belonging to the embassy has been subjected 

 to many restrictions, in consequence of the occurrence 

 of abuses of this privilege. Foreign ministers are 

 not free from bridge and turnpike tolls, or letter- 

 postage. One of their especial privileges is that of 

 worshipping according to the forms of their own 

 religion in countries where their religion is not tol- 



erated. In transacting business, they sometimes 

 have immediate intercourse with the sovereign him- 

 self, and then address him in a private audience 

 orally, or by the delivery of memorials; but more 

 commonly their intercourse is through the minister 

 for foreign affairs. This state of things continues 

 till the termination of the embassy, which may occur 

 in different ways, either by the expiration of the term 

 of the credentials, by a recall, by a voluntary or 

 compulsory departure, or by the decease of the min- 

 ister. A recall occurs when the object of the em- 

 bassy is obtained or defeated; sometimes it takes 

 place in consequence of a misunderstanding, and 

 sometimes from private reasons. A minister often 

 voluntarily leaves a court, without being recalled, 

 when he thinks he suffers personal injuries, contrary 

 to the laws of nations. There are cases, however, 

 in which a minister is compelled to leave a court, 

 when it is termed a removal. In general, an embassy 

 is considered as ended from the moment when the 

 minister shows his letters of recall, or receives his 

 passports for his journey home. When these are 

 furnished him, he must leave the country, but his 

 person remains inviolable even in case of war, and 

 he is allowed to retire unmolested. The Ottoman 

 Porte alone claims to be exempted from this regula- 

 tion, since it imprisons in the Seven Towers the 

 ministers of states with which any misunderstanding 

 happens to occur. At the peace with Russia, how- 

 ever, in 1813, it engaged never to exercise this power 

 for the future upon Russian ambassadors. The same 

 inviolability of person is enjoyed in the other Euro- 

 pean states, although only in time of peace, by 

 couriers and expresses, as also by persons who, 

 without any public character as envoys, are intrusted 

 by their governments with the transaction of affairs 

 of importance, and requiring secrecy and dispatch; 

 but these are not allowed to assume the state of a 

 minister, and, in their relations to other citizens, are 

 regarded as private persons merely. All these re- 

 gulations have naturally been introduced among the 

 European powers since the establishment of the 

 permanent residence of foreign ministers, that is, 

 since the peace of Westphalia. Republics do not 

 send ambassadors, in the European sense of the word. 

 Venice, indeed, formerly sent ambassadors ; but the 

 United States send only ministers plenipotentiary 

 and charges d'affaires, although the constitution uses 

 the term ambassador. Prussia alone, among the 

 principal European powers, neither sends nor receives 

 ambassadors. A history of European diplomacy, 

 since the peace of Westphalia, would be a very im- 

 portant work, in regard to politics, national law, 

 and the progress of civilization, and is still a desid- 

 eratum. Fiassan has made some excellent contri- 

 butions towards it. A useful work, and one which 

 gives instruction and examples in regard to all the 

 relations and objects of embassies, is the Manuel 

 diplomatique, ou Precis des Droits et des Fonctions 

 des Agens diplomatigues,suivi d'un Recueil d' Actes et 

 d' Offices, pour servir de Guide aux Personnes qui se 

 destinent d la Carriere politique, by Charles von 

 Martens (Leipsic, 1822). The law of European 

 embassies has been particularly treated of by F. 

 von Moshamm (Landshut, 1806). 



MINK (mustela). The European mink (M. lutre- 

 ola) inhabits the northern parts of Europe, and lives 

 on the banks of streams, feeding on frogs, craw-fish, 

 &c. It is of a brownish-red colour. It has a strong 

 musky smell, and its fur is very fine. The animal 

 known in America under the name of mink is so 

 similar to the European quadruped of the same name 

 that they have been generally confounded with each 

 other. The common name of both species is derived 

 from the Swedish mcenk. The American nnirnal is 



