duties on articles imported or exported, and with all the munici pal ordinances and laws. (1) He must take especial notice of all prohibitions to prevent the export or import of any articles, as well on the part of the state wherein he resides, as of the government employing him, so that he may admonish all British subjects against carrying on an illicit commerce, to the detriment of the revenues, and in violation of the laws of either. And it is his duty to attend diligently to this part of his office, in order to prevent smug-gling, and consequent hazard of confiscation or detention of ships, and imprisonment of the masters and mariners. (2) It is also his duty to protect from insult or imposition British subjects of every description within his jurisdiction. If redress for injury suffered is not obtained, he is to carry his complaint by memorial to the British minister residing at the court on which the consulship depends. If there be none, he is to address himself directly to the court; and if, in an important case, his complaint is not answered, he is to transmit the memorial to his Majesty's secretary of state. (3) When insult or outrage is offered by a British subject to a native of the place, the magistrate thereof complains to the consul, who should summon, and in case of disobedience may by armed force (4) bring before him the offender, and order him to give immediate satisfaction; and if he refuse, he resigns him to the civil jurisdiction of the magistrate, or to the military law of the garrison; nevertheless always acting as counsellor or advocate at his trial, when there is question of life or property. (5) But if a British subject be accused of an offence alleged to have been committed within the dominion or jurisdiction at sea of their natural sovereign, it is then the duty of a British consul to claim cognizance of the cause for his sovereign, and to require the release of the parties, if detained in prison by the magistracy of the place, on any such accusation brought before them; and (1) Beawes, vol. 2. p. 421. Warden on Consuls, 245. (2) Beawes, vol. 2. 421. p. (4) Pardessus, 4 tom. 161, 2. 185. (5). Warden, 246. Beawes, (3) Beawes, vol. 2. p. 421. vol. 2. p. 422. Pardessus, 4 tom. that all judicial proceedings against them do instantly cease; and he is to demand the aid of the power of the country, civil and military, to enable him to secure and put the accused parties on board such British ship as he shall think fit, that they may be conveyed to Great Britain, to be tried by their proper judges (1). If, contrary to this requisition, the magistrates of the country persist in proceeding to try the offence, the consul should then draw up and transmit a memorial to the British minister at the court of that country; and if that court give an evasive answer, the consul should, if it be a sea offence, apply to the board of admiralty at London, stating the case; and upon their representation the secretary for the proper department will lay the matter before the king, who will cause the ambassador of the foreign state, resident in England, to write to his court abroad, desiring that orders may immediately be given by that government, that all judicial proceedings against the prisoner be stayed, and that he be released. (2) The commanders of vessels, within ten days after their arrival in any port in the Baltic or Denmark, are to deliver upon oath to the consul of the port a true manifest of the cargo; and if not delivered, it is the duty of the consul to detain the clearance outwards, and the dispatch passport or bill of health of such vessel (3). And by a recent statute (4) it is provided, that in case the port where any ship shall clear or take her departure from, on her homeward voyage, or any port within the limits of the charter granted to the East India Company, for Great Britain, shall not be under the British government, then the British consul resident at such port is to demand from the captain his manifest, and to require him to authenticate the same on oath, and he is to transmit duplicates thereof to the commissioners of the customs in England or Scotland, as the case may require. It is the duty also of British consuls to relieve all distressed British mariners, to allow them sixpence daily for their support, to send them home in the first British vessels that sail for England, and to keep a regular account of his disbursements, which he is to transmit yearly, or oftener if required, (1) Beawes, vol. 2. p. 422. Pardessus, 4 tom. 161, 2. 185. (2) See the case of Peter Horseman and his sailors, Beawes, vol. 2. p. 422. (3) 17 Geo. 3. c. 41. s. 5. 18 Geo. 3. c. 40. (4) 54 Geo. 3. c. 36. s. 11. to the navy office, attested by two British merchants of the place this is provided for by positive enactment (1). He is also to give free passes to all poor British subjects wishing to return home, directed to the captains of the king's pacquet-boats or ships of war, requiring them to take them on board. (2) The consul is not to permit a British merchant ship to leave the port where he resides without his passport, which he is not to grant until the master and crew thereof have satisfied all just demands upon them; and for this purpose he ought to see the governor's pass of a garrisoned town, or the burgomaster's ; unless the merchant or factor to whom the ship was consigned will make himself responsible. (3) It is also his duty to claim and recover all wrecks, cables, and anchors belonging to British ships found at sea by fishermen or other persons, to pay the usual salvage, and to communicate a report thereof to the navy board. (4) It has also been laid down, as a general rule that it is his special duty to establish, in a civil point of view, births, marriages, and deaths; to grant certificates of life, and to decide upon testimony cases of doubtful or disputed citizenship; and that he is appointed by the court of his country to act as commissioner in receiving evidences in important cases pending before them: and he is generally charged with the formalities of this business, and he is often requested to examine and verify affairs conducted by agents who have not satisfied the views of their constituents, and that in this respect he acts like an attorney-general, and is obliged to communicate to the party the result of his inquiry (5). However, in England it has been decided that a consul or viceconsul is not, properly speaking, a judicial officer, nor is his certificate to be admitted as evidence of the fact there stated; and that the certificate of a British vice-consul in a foreign country could not be received here as evidence of the amount of a sale, (1) Beawes, vol. 2. p. 423. Warden. 246, 7. 1 Geo. 2. stat. 2. c. 14. s. 12. Post, Appendix, vol. 3. (2) Abbott on Shipping, 172. Beawes, vol. 2. p. 423. Warden, 246, 7. 1 Geo. 2. stat. 2. c. 14. (3) Beawes, vol. 2. p. 423. Warden, 247. (4) Beawes, vol. 2. p. 423. Warden, 247. Pardessus, 4 tom. 180, 1. (5) Warden, 24, 5. 66 although by the law of that country he was constituted general agent for all absent owners of goods, and was authorized and compelled to make the sale in question, and grant his certificate. And Mansfield, Ch .J. said (1), "I thought at the trial it S6 was very difficult to bring this within any head of evidence: it "was somewhat analogous to the proceedings of courts and "other public functionaries; but I know no instances of such as "this being received. I dare say it would be evidence in any "other country. It came nearest to the case of judgments in "foreign courts, but we receive judgments under the seals of "court. The vice-consul is no judicial officer; he acts under a "wise regulation to prevent the improper disposition of da maged goods. They are put into warehouses appropriated to "them by government; the vice-consul must preside at the "auction. There is no rule in the English law which makes "his certificate evidence: he has been supposed to be an agent, "and he is to some purposes; so is an auctioneer in this country, "nevertheless his certificate is not evidence in a court of justice, "but what was done at the auction must be proved. The "business of the vice-consul is to see a fair sale; it is going "much further to say that his certificate shall bind the parties; any body present might have proved the facts. The chiro"graph of fines here proves itself, but the indorsement of the "proclamation of the fine must be proved by a compared copy "of the record." So it has been held that the Sound list and the Petersburgh list, which are documents transmitted by the British consuls abroad at those different places to the merchants at home, and which are publicly hung up at Batson's coffeehouse for the inspection of the public, and which state the arrival of the different ships at those places, are not evidence of the facts therein stated (2). The consuls and vice-consuls of his majesty are, however, by express enactment empowered to administer oaths in all cases respecting quarantine, in like manner as if they were magistrates of the several towns or places where they respectively reside (3). It is also laid down, that a consul is to attend, if requested, all arbitrations where property is concerned between masters of British ships and the freighters, being inhabitants of the place where he resides. (4) (1) Waldron v. Coombe, 3 Taunt. 166. Phil. Ev. 306. (2) Roberts v. Eddington, 4 Esp. Rep. 88. (3) 46 Geo. 3. c. 98. s. 9. (4) Beawes, vol. 2. p. 423. Warden, 247. It is said also to be an indispensible duty of his office, upon the complaint of their masters, to imprison disorderly seamen; but as he may thereby subject himself to an action for false imprisonment, he should be very cautious how he confines or punishes British seamen, or masters of ships, upon their mutual complaints against each other. (1) The consul should keep a regular and well-attested account, fairly written in a book for that purpose, of all his official transactions; stating therein the date of the arrival of every British ship, the master's name, name of the ship, burthen, quality of lading, place from whence she came, to whom consigned, and her departure (2). He should strictly mark the progress of the commerce of other nations in the place of his residence; study the means of improving that of his own; and he should prepare and transmit to his government annual or periodical reports, and intelligence to the secretary of state, concerning the quality and value of articles shipped to every port; and when he observes any decline in the commerce of his own country, he should notify it, assigning the cause, and proposing suitable remedies (3). It is expected from him that he should correspond with the ambassador from his sovereign residing at the court of the prince within whose dominions his consular station lies, and send him information of any transaction which may prove detrimental to the political or commercial interests of his king or country; and in case there is no ambassador or other public minister residing in the said court, he is to transmit his intelligence directly home to the secretary of state under whose department he serves. (4). It is his duty to support the dignity of his office, and thereby secure esteem and consideration (5). As a person invested with a public character, he has a right to demand audience of the prime minister or ministers of the sovereign or state wherein he resides, during the absence or nonresidence of ambassadors or other public ministers from his sovereign (6): he should com (2) Beawes, vol. 2. p. 423. (3) Beawes, vol. 2. p. 423. Warden on Consuls, 248. See Mac vol. 3. pp. 425. 432. 467.474. 493. (4) Beawes, vol. 2. p. 419. |