powers and privileges; these, to a great extent, they still retain.' Classification of Consuls. Consular officials are usually classified into consuls-general, consuls, vice-consuls, and consular agents, and each state, by its municipal law, determines the manner of appointment, the tenure of office, and the special duties of its consular representatives in foreign ports. In this way a state may confer upon its consuls such power and jurisdiction as it wishes them to exercise, provided such exercise of jurisdiction is sanctioned by the usage of nations, or has been conceded by treaty. In the Christian states of Europe and America consuls have none of the privileges and immunities of ambassadors. In the Levant, however, in many Asiatic and African ports, and in the islands of the sea, they perform the duties and are entitled to the exemption of public ministers. By whom Appointed. Consuls are appointed by the sovereign, or chief executive authority of the state which they represent, subject to such restrictions in the matter of citizenship, character, and qualifications as are determined by its municipal laws. They are provided with commissions, or letters of appointment, which are submitted, through their ministers, to the Department of Foreign Affairs of the state in which they are to perform consular duty. If that government consents to recognize them in the capacity of consuls, an exequatur is issued, upon the receipt of which they are authorized to enter upon the performance of their duties. For misconduct or crime, or for acts in excess of their jurisdiction, the exequatur may be withdrawn or revoked at any time; and if this action be taken for just and sufficient cause, the government of the state which the consul represents will have no reasonable ground of complaint.' II Phillimore, pp. 258-262; I Halleck, pp. 310, 311; Heffter, §§ 244, 245: Dainese vs. Hale, 91 U. S. 13; I Lorimer, chap. vii. This procedure is by no means uncommon. In October, 1793, the exequatur of the French consul at Boston was withdrawn for having taken part in an attempt to rescue a vessel out of the hands of the United States marshal, which had been brought in as a French prize, Manner of Appointment in the United States. The members of the United States Consular Establishment are arranged into three principal classes-consuls-general, consuls, and commercial agents. They are appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate. They receive fixed salaries, augmented in certain cases by fees, and those whose salaries exceed one but upon which process had been served at the suit of the British consul, who claimed that she had been illegally captured in the neutral waters of the United States.Hildreth, History of the U. S. vol. iv. p. 437; I Dig. Int. Law, §§ 113, 114, 115, 116. Another and more remarkable case occurred in 1861. In order to protect British commerce, Her Majesty's Government was desirous that the Confederate states should observe the last three articles of the Declaration of Paris; accordingly Mr. Bunch, the British consul at Charleston, S. C., was instructed to communicate this desire to the Confederate authorities. The United States thereupon demanded that Mr. Bunch should be removed from his office, on the ground that the law of the United States forbade any person, not specially appointed, from counselling, advising, or interfering in any political correspondence with the government of any foreign state in relation to any disputes or controversies with the United States. It was contended that Mr. Bunch should have known of the existence of this law, and should have communicated it to his government before obeying their instructions. It was also urged that the proper agents to make known the wishes of a foreign government were its diplomatic, and not its consular, officers. On these grounds Mr. Bunch's exequatur was withdrawn. Boyd's Wheaton, p. 305; United States Diplomatic Correspondence, 1862, p. 1. 1 Section 1690 Revised Statutes; I Dig. Int. Law, §§ 113, 114. The duties of consular officers of the United States are determined in part by municipal law and in part by treaty stipulations, and by the requirements of the law of nations." They are required to act in behalf of owners of stranded vessels," to receive from the masters of American vessels, upon their arrival in port, their registers, sea-letters, and Mediterranean passports, and to return them when a proper clearance has been obtained, by such masters, from the port authorities. They are required to make reclamation of deserters from merchant vessels, and, when treaty stipulations authorize it, to demand from the local authorities such assistance as they may need to effect their capture and return. They are also required to certify invoices of merchandise which it is proposed to import into the United States, and to require satisfactory evidence, by oath if need be, of their correctness. They are to keep lists of seamen shipped and discharged by them, and of vessels arrived and Halleck, vol. i. pp. 315, 316, gives a full list of the legal and acting titles of United States consuls. For fuller information as to their powers and duties, see the official Regulations Prescribed for the Consular Service of the United States, Washington, December 31, 1896. b Revised Statutes of the United States, § 4238. Ibid. §§ 4309, 4310. Ibid. SS 4598 - 4600. • Revised Stat. of the United States, § 2852. thousand dollars per annum are forbidden to engage in trade. Consular positions of the highest class can only be filled by citizens of the United States. Their general duties are ascertained and fixed by law. The President is empowered to define the territorial limits of the different consulates, and to make all needful regulations for the consular service.' The Duties of Consuls. It is the duty of the consular representatives of a state to watch over its commercial interests, to supervise the execution of commercial treaties, and to assist, by interference and counsel, such of their fellow-citizens as may be sojourning, either permanently or temporarily, at the place of their official residence. They are authorized to adjust disputes arising on board vessels of their own nation, to hear and act upon complaints of members of their crews, to issue and countersign passports to their fellow-citizens, to authenticate the judgments of foreign courts by their consular seal, and, if the local laws permit, to act as administrators upon the estates of decedents of their own nationality. They are also authorized to register births, marriages, and deaths, and may solemnize marriages when the contracting parties are of the same nationality as themselves, unless forbidden to do so by the municipal law of their own states, or that of the state in which they officially reside. They are permitted to exercise a certain voluntary jurisdiction over their fellow-citizens in cases f cleared, with an account of the nature and value of their cargoes. They are to care for destitute seamen, and to cause the same to be transported to the United States, and are to procure and transmit to the State Department such authentic commercial information respecting the country in which they reside as may be required by the head of that department. They are authorized to solemnize marriages between persons who would be permitted by law to marry if resident in the District of Columbia, and may take possession, in certain cases, of the personal estates of any citizen of the United States who may die within their consular jurisdiction leaving no legal representatives. They may sell such of this property as is of a perishable nature to pay debts due from the estate, transmitting the residue to the Treasury of the United States.* 'Section 1752 Revised Statutes. This power was last exercised by President Cleveland in the preparation of a volume of Consular Regulations, bearing date December 31, 1896. Ibid. § 1708. Ibid. § 4577. h Ibid. § 1712. Ibid. § 4082. Ibid. § 1709. with which the local law has no concern; but no contentious jurisdiction can be exercised over their fellow-countrymen without the express permission of the state in which they reside, and no Christian state has, as yet, permitted the criminal jurisdiction of foreign consuls.' Privileges of Consuls. Although consuls, as such, are not clothed with the diplomatic character, and are, for that reason, not entitled to any of the peculiar immunities which attach to diplomatic office, they nevertheless enjoy certain privileges which are sanctioned by the general usage and practice of nations, and are, therefore, recognized as rules of international law. They are entitled in general to such privilege and freedom of movement as are necessary to enable them to properly perform the duties intrusted to their charge; they are also presumed to be entitled to all the powers and privileges which their predecessors have enjoyed, and may properly claim any 1 II Phillimore, § 249. No foreign power can, of right, institute or erect any court of judicature of any kind, within the jurisdiction of the United States, but such only as may be warranted by and be in pursuance of treaties. The admiralty jurisdiction, which has been exercised in the United States by consuls of France, not being so warranted, is not of right.-Glass vs. Sloop Betsey, 3 Dallas, 6. The principles of international law, as they are recognized in Europe, afford no warrant for the exercise of judicial powers by consuls, but the rights and duties of those functionaries depend, both for their authority and extent, upon the treaties subsisting between the governments exchanging this species of commercial agent.-II Opin. Att.-Gen. p. 378. Foreign consuls are entitled to no immunities beyond those enjoyed by foreigners coming in a private capacity to this country, except that of being sued and prosecuted exclusively in the Federal courts. Whenever a foreign consul is guilty of illegal or improper conduct, he becomes liable to a revocation of his exequatur, and to be punished according to our laws, or he may be sent back to his own country, at the discretion of our government.II Ibid. p. 725. A consul, though a public agent, is supposed to be clothed with authority only for commercial purposes. He has an undoubted right to interpose claims for the restitution of property belonging to subjects of his own country, but it is not competent for him, without the special authority of his government, to interpose a claim on account of the violation of the territorial jurisdiction of his country.-The Anne, 3 Wheaton, 435. A consul of a foreign power, though not entitled to represent his sovereign in a country where the sovereign has an ambassador, is entitled to intervene for all subjects of that power interested. Robson vs. the Huntress, 2 Wallace, Jr., 59. right exercised by a consul of another nation, unless such right is based upon treaty stipulations. They are generally regarded as exempt from arrest for political reasons, and are not subject to personal imposts, or liable to the performance of personal services; they are also exempt from the quartering of troops, and, in general, from such restrictions as are calculated to interfere with the efficient performance of their consular duties. They are usually permitted to place their national flags and coats-of-arms over their offices, and in most states their archives are regarded as inviolable.' They may engage in business, if the municipal law of their own country permits them to do so, and may be prohibited from so doing by the same authority. They are in all respects amenable to the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the state in which they are resident, unless exempted therefrom by treaty stipulations. They may sue or be sued in its courts, they are subject to service of process, both civil and criminal, and judgments obtained against them may be satisfied out of their private property.' 1 II Phillimore, § 246; I Twiss, §isters within the law of nations, or 223; Laurence, Int. Law, § 148; Hall, § 105; vol. xx. Revue de Droit International, pp. 229–245, 305, 609; xxii. ibid. pp. 336-348; I Lorimer, chap. vii.; I Halleck, p. 315. 2 Hall, § 105, p. 318; I Halleck, pp. 315-324; II Phillimore, pp. 296300; I Twiss, pp. 378-380; I Wildman, p. 130; Manning, pp. 113, 114; I Dig. Int. Law, §§ 120-123. A consul is not entitled by the law of nations to the immunities and privileges of an ambassador or public minister. He is liable to civil suits, like any other individual, in the tribunals of the country in which he resides. — Gettings vs. Crawford, Taney, 1. A consul is not a public minister, nor entitled to the privileges attached to the person of such an officer.-I Opin. Att.-Gen. p. 41. Foreign consuls and vice-consuls are not public min the acts of Congress, but are amenable to the civil jurisdiction of our courts; and in the case of the Genoese consul (2 Dallas, 297) it was held that they were not privileged from prosecutions for misdemeanors.-1 Opin. Att.-Gen. p. 406. Foreign consuls are entitled to no immunities beyond those enjoyed by foreigners coming in a private capacity to this country, except that of being sued and prosecuted exclusively in the Federal courts. Whenever a foreign consul is guilty of illegal or improper conduct, he becomes liable to a revocation of his exequatur, and to be punished according to our laws, or he may be sent back to his own country, at the discretion of our government.-II Ibid. p. 725. A consul is not privileged from legal process by the general laws of nations, nor is |