LAW. 



625 



oc Nations 



Ftafl pow. 



tie ni ei- 

 Bony. 



i given 



*M- 



MML 



of ami- 



time, if they are both of the same order. Sometimes, 

 on the contrary, one minister has several letters of cre- 

 dence ; this happens when he is sent to several sove- 

 reigns, or to one sovereign in different qualities. 



5. Minister* to whom a negotiation is confided must 

 also produce their full powers, specifying the degree 

 of authority with which they are vested. These full 

 powers are either general or special, as circumstances 

 may require. A full power may be enclosed in the 

 letter of credence ; but if it be separate from it, it is 

 commonly drawn up in form of a letter patent. Mi- 

 nisters sent to a congress, without being furnished 

 with letter* of credence to any court, produce only 

 their full powers, which they exchange with each 

 other, and which answer the purpose of letters of cre- 

 dence. Sometime* the full powers produced at a con- 

 gress are put into the hands of the mediators. 



6. The minister who ia to carry on a negotiation is 

 furnished with instructions ; these are to be his guide 

 in his general conduct towards the court to which he 

 is sent, and toward* the ministers of other courts whom 

 he may find there, and particularly in the manner of 

 opening and conducting his negotiation. These in- 

 struction*, as well as those that it may be necessary to 

 dispatch to him in the course of his embassy, being in- 

 tended for himself alone, are not usually produced to 

 the court to which he ia sent, unless his own court orders 

 him to do it, or unless he, from urgent motives, thinks 

 kunasif justifiable in communicating certain passages 

 of them. Sometimes he ha* two set* of instruction*, 

 the one nul>lic and the other secret. 



7. All inibejseadori have now an indisputed right to 

 the title nf ricrUnKy ; but, of all ministers, they only 

 nave that right. If it i* sometimes given to the en. 

 oys extraordinary of kings, and even to other minis- 

 ter* of tfct second order, it is because it is due to them 

 in some other quality than that of minister ; or else it 

 is given them out of mere complaisance. 



8. The ambassador is distinguished from ministers 

 of the inferior orders by many points of the ceremonial. 

 Thi*. however, depend* so much on the particular 

 wage* of each court, that we can mention only such 

 points as are mo*t generally received: such is the 

 right of going on visits. &r. of ceremony, in a coach 

 and six, of ornamenting the hone* with /focAi, of being 

 minted with military honours, of being admitted to 

 ball* and feast*, and at court on all days of ceremony. 

 Great courts grant les to ministers of the second and 

 thin! ardor than the little courts do ; these sometimes 

 yield as much t-> minister* of the third order as the 

 former do to tnme of toe second. 



9. The audience* to which minister* of the first and 

 second littler are admitted in the course of their mis- 

 sion are either ordinary or extraordinary, and the lat- 

 ter are either private or public. These' last take place 

 when there is a notification to be made in ceremony, 

 as also at taking leave. 



10. All foreigner* are under the protection tf the 

 law of nation* ; but foreign ministers of the differ- 

 ent orders enjoy a higher degree of inviolability 

 than that insured to all foreigner* by the general 

 law of nations, which extends no further than pro- 

 tection from injury. This inviolability they derive 

 from the dignity of the state they represent, and from 

 the interest that every nation take* in the honour and 

 security of those who are to transact its affair* in fo- 

 reign countrie*. The sovereign, then, must be care- 

 ful to abstain tram every kind of violence against the 

 person of a public minister sent to his court ; and he 



VOL. XII. PAKT II. 



ought to punish, to the utmost rigour of the law, and Law 

 as crimes of state, every act of violence committed of Nations. 

 against him by others: provided, however, that the 1 T*** / 

 offender commits such violence against the minister 

 knowing him to be such, and provided he be subject 

 to the jurisdiction of the sovereign. All the powers of 

 Europe acknowledge this inviolability in ministers of 

 all the orders from the moment they enter their terri- 

 tory till they quit it; so that Christian states per- 

 mit even the minister of an enemy, residing at their 

 courts at the breaking out of a war, to return home in 

 perfect security. The Turks only have preserved the 

 barbarous custom of imprisoning foreign ministers on 

 account of a rupture with their courts. In the course 

 of a war, no minister can pass through, or enter in 

 safety, the territory of an enemy, unless express per- 

 mission has been first obtained. 



11. The universal law of nations acknowledges in His exter- 

 the minister a perfect independence in every thing ritoriality. 

 that concerns, directly or indirectly, his functions as 

 minister, and considers him in that respect as exter- 

 ritorial. But that part of the law of nations which is 

 founded on custom, extends this exterritoriality still 

 further. According to it, the minister, his retinue, his 

 house, and his carriages, are usually considered with 

 regard to the rights of sovereignty as out of the terri- 

 tory where the minister resides, and as in the state 

 from which he is sent. This is what is now under- 

 stood by exterritoriality. As it is, however, the effect 

 of the will of nations, it is susceptible of limitation, 

 and is, in fact, limited in many respects. 



12. In virtue of this exterritoriality, the minister Exemption 

 and all those belonging to his retinue, as well as his f himself 

 property, are exempted from the civil jurisdiction of and fefinue 

 the state. The minister can be cited before no tribu E 



jurisdiction, 



nal except that of the sovereign who sends him ; but how fa, ex . 

 we must except here, first, When he is a subject of the leaded 5 

 state to which he is sent, or when he is in the service 

 of the state to which he is sent; second, When he has 

 voluntarily acknowledged the jurisdiction of that state; 

 third, When, as plaintiff, he is bound to submit to the 

 jurisdiction to which the defendant is subject ; and 

 consequently is obliged to plead, in case of an action 

 against him arising from the process ; fourth, With re- 

 spect to property, that which belongs to him in any 

 other quality than that of minister is subject to the 

 jurisdiction of the state, and may be seized on for 

 causes not connected with the quality of minister. 

 Though, strictly (peaking, the property belonging to 

 him as minister is exempt from seizure during the time 

 of his mission ; yet, the mission once terminated, if 

 he attempt to quit the state without paying his debts, 

 the state may refuse to let him depart, or at least to 

 carry away his property ; and may even seize upon it. 

 There are instances of this right having been exercised, 

 though generally it is not. 



13. Ministers and their retinue (the latter less gene- from crimi- 

 rally) are exempt from the criminal jurisdiction of nal juiisdic- 

 the state to which they are sent. A crime, then, com. tioiu 

 mitted by a minister, does not deprive him of the spe- 

 cial protection of the law of nations, and of that invio- 

 lability which the interest of his sovereign requires 



him to preserve. Nevertheless if it be some crime im- 

 mediately against the safety of the state, the sovereign 

 has a right to act against him as against an enemy of the 

 state. If the safety 'of the state require it, his person 

 may be seized, and he may even be put to death like 

 another enemy. But, on account of the consequences, 

 it would be dangerous to establish the principle. It is 

 4 I 



