Consuls serve within jurisdictions of smaller size or importance or are assigned to certain places or seaports.

In precedence a consul-general ranks with, but after, a commodore in the navy or a brigadier-general in the army, and with a secretary of an embassy; but when thrown together in matters other than of a diplomatic nature the consul-general takes precedence. He is entitled in the port or ports within his jurisdiction to a salute of eleven guns. A consul under the same circumstances is entitled to a salute of seven guns and a vice-consul to one of five guns.

A vice-consular officer takes the place and exercises all the functions or powers of a consul-general or consul when the latter is temporarily absent or relieved from duty.

A deputy-consular officer is a subordinate of a consul-general or consul, under whose supervision he exercises consular functions which are generally of a routine character. He never assumes the responsible charge of the office, that being the duty of the vice-consul.

A consular agent is an officer subordinate to a consul-general or consul, exercising similar powers at ports or places different from those at which the consulate-general or consulate is situated. He acts under the direction of his principal and is paid from the fees of his office.

There are thirty consular assistants who are appointed by the President and hold office during good behavior. They may be assigned from time to time to such consular offices and with such duties as the secretary of state may direct.

Marshals are provided for certain of the consular courts in China and Turkey, where the American consuls are invested with judicial powers over American citizens. Their duties are to execute all process issued by the ambassador or minister of the United States or by the consuls at the port in which they reside and to perform the duties required in the regulations of the consular court.

As a matter of explanation of the general policy of the United States, it may be well to quote a letter of Secretary Fish

written April 7, 1876, which says that "the experience of the government has demonstrated the inconvenience and often serious embarrassment resulting from the appointment of naturalized citizens to consulates within the country of their nativity, while with regard to appointments in other countries they stand on the same footing as all other citizens."1

105. Exequatur-Installation of the Consul.-After the appointment of a consul, the sending government remits to the government of the country within whose jurisdiction his post exists his commission. This is done through its diplomatic representative accredited to that government, accompanied by instructions to apply for an exequatur. An exequatur is called in Turkey a barat.

By an exequatur is meant a recognition of the consul by the foreign receiving state, and a warrant that he is permitted to proceed to perform the duties of his office as consul in the jurisdiction or territory for which he is appointed in accordance with law and usage.

The conveyance of the exequatur may be by a formal document or letter patent signed by the sovereign and countersigned by the minister of foreign affairs, or it may be simply a notification that he is recognized and an exequatur granted, or it may be as in Austria that his commission is indorsed with the word "exequatur" and stamped with the imperial seal.

If the foreign state accords the exequatur without reservation, the rights, privileges, and immunities of the consul will be, as mentioned before, determined by the treaties and by the general principles of international law governing consular relations. If there are restrictions or interpretations that the receiving state desires to place upon the consular office to which the appointment has been made, such conditions will be named in accompaniment of the exequatur. If the state by which the consul is appointed accepts the exequatur with its restrictions the two states will be bound by the agreement.

1 Moore's "Digest," vol. V, p. 11, and Schuyler's "American Diplomacy,"

All states can refuse, by withholding an exequatur, to receive consuls on personal grounds or to receive them only in certain parts of their territory, so that a state has the right, if it so declare, to limit the exercise of consular functions by certain conditions. These conditions, however, must apply to consuls of all nations and not be based upon personal or national considerations. Such conditions, moreover, must not be in violation of any treaty existing between these two countries.

The exequatur once granted, it becomes a duty on the part of the granting state to notify the local authorities and to give such publicity as may be necessary to inform the general public as well as the nationals of the state to which the consul belongs who happen to be residing within his district. It is established usage that the district named by the sending state should, as a rule, be accepted by the receiving state, as it is more particularly a matter of convenience of the sending state.

In case of unsettled or changed political conditions in the district to which the consul is to be sent, the sending state has the right of naming the authorities to which application for an exequatur should be made, as it may easily involve a grave political question. This is even a graver matter when the receiving government grants recognition to a government by giving an exequatur to a consul of their appointment.

It is not always necessary to ask for and obtain a formal exequatur for a consular agent. Frequently, on application, the foreign minister of the receiving state gives such exequatur in the form of a certificate of recognition.1

In the case of delay, due to absence of the proper central authorities or the distance of the capital from the district of the newly appointed consul, he may proceed to his post and enter upon the discharge of his duties on receiving permission from the proper local authorities of the place to act in his official capacity until the exequatur arrives.

If a consul be guilty of illegal or improper conduct, he is liable to have his exequatur revoked, and if his conduct be

1 Stowell, "Le Consul," pp. 257, etc.

criminal to be punished according to the laws of the country, or he may be sent out of the country at the option of the offended government.

There have been a number of cases of the revocation of an exequatur as well as a refusal to grant it by various govern

ments.

Mr. Eugene Schuyler, in his work "American Diplomacy," says "refusals to grant the exequatur are not uncommon. An English consul was refused by Russia in the Caucasus because it was alleged he was hostile to the Russian Government and had expressed strong opinions about Russian movements in Asia. In our own history, without going further, a consul recently appointed to Beirut was rejected by Turkey because he was a clergyman and might be too much connected with the missionaries; another was rejected by Austria on account of his political opinions, he having previously been an Austrian subject."

During the Civil War, in 1861, Mr. Bunch, the British consul at Charleston who was exercising consular functions under an exequatur from the United States Government, had this exequatur revoked on account of various communications he had entered into with the Confederate Government and also because his conduct had all along "been that not of a friend to this government or even of a neutral, but of a partisan of faction and disunion." The British Government, although denying the charge that Mr. Bunch had acted as a partisan, did not dispute the President's right to withdraw Mr. Bunch's exequatur. Mr. Bunch continued to reside in Charleston during the time it remained in possession of the Confederate Government.

Conviction of a person by a United States military commission at Manila of publishing seditious newspaper matter in violation of the articles of war precluded the recognition of such person as the consular agent of a foreign power at that place.

The fundamental rights and privileges of consular officers

depend, as has been said, upon the principles of international law and the customs and usages of nations. Certain rights and privileges are, however, formally guaranteed by treaties and consular conventions. The principal rights and privileges from all of these sources are given in the following paragraphs in succession, but it must be remembered that these vary with the nations concerned, and reference must be made to various treaties and to the consular regulations for the nations concerned.1

The following rights and privileges of consular officers are more or less general, the consular regulations of the various countries entering into fuller details. They are:

1. Those rights and privileges that arise under the favorednation clause by which can be claimed all those granted consuls of other countries.

2. The inviolability of the archives and public papers of the consulate.

3. Exemption from criminal arrest except for grave infractions of the law.

4. Exemption from obligations to appear as a witness except through deposition.

5. Exemption from taxation except in certain cases.

6. Exemption from military billeting and service and from other public services.

7. The right to communicate with his nationals in temporary or permanent residence.

8. The right to communicate and correspond with his government and its agents.

9. The right to correspond with the local authorities upon official matters.

10. The right to display the arms of his country and upon proper occasions to display the flag of his country upon or over the consular office or dwelling.

11. The right to take depositions.

1 Treaties of the United States. U. S. Consular Regulations, 1896.