a common understanding on the subject, and established Three Classes 26:

1. Ambassadors, Legates or Nuncios.

2. Envoys, Ministers, and others accredited to Sovereigns, (auprès des Souverains.)

3. Chargés d'Affaires accredited to Ministers of Foreign Affairs.

This classification proceeded upon a very intelligible distinction between the functions exercised by each Class. The Ambassador is accredited by a Sovereign to a Sovereign, and represents the personal dignity of his Constituent, as well as the public affairs of the Nation over which his Constituent rules. The Envoy or Minister is similarly accredited by a Sovereign to a Sovereign, but he represents only the affairs of the Nation over which his Constituent rules. The Chargé d'Affaires is not accredited by the Sovereign to the Sovereign, but is accredited by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. At the subsequent Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle, (21 Nov. 1818,) the five Great Powers there assembled agreed to institute a Class intermediate between the Envoy and the Chargé d'Affaires, to which they gave the title of Ministers Resident accredited to Sovereigns. The distinction thus introduced was not very logical, seeing that the extent of the second Class remained the same, and that the second is sufficiently large to include the third. The reasons for the introduction of this intermediate Class may be traced to the unwillingness of the Great Continental Powers to allow their Ministers of the Second Class to give way to the Ministers

26 Réglement sur le rang entre les Agens Diplomatiques, being the seventeenth of the documents

annexed to the Final Act of the Congress. Martens, N. R. II. p. 449.

of the same Class who represented the Minor Powers of Germany, and who might be entitled by Seniority, agreeably to the regulations of the Congress of Vienna, to take precedence of the Envoys of the Great Powers. The introduction of a Third Class under the title of Ministers Resident, accredited to Sovereigns, enabled the Minor Powers to avoid all contest with the Great Powers, and at the same time to have the services of Diplomatic Agents who were Public Ministers properly speaking.

Diplomatic 190. Diplomatic Agents of the first class alone the First enjoy by the Custom of Nations, as well as under the

Agents of

Class.

regulations of the Congress of Vienna, the full attributes of the Representative Character. They are accordingly entitled to the same honours as would be paid to the person of the Sovereign, whom they respectively represent. The precise nature of the Ceremonial, to which Ambassadors are entitled, depends upon the usage of the particular State to which they are accredited. It was provided by the fifth of the Rules adopted at the Congress of Vienna, that each State should settle an uniform mode of reception for Diplomatic Agents of each Class, so that the discretion of each State is left unfettered, provided it is not guilty of partiality towards the Representative of any one State. The third of the same rules provided, that Diplomatic Agents on an extraordinary Mission, should not by reason thereof (à ce titre) enjoy any superiority of rank; so that the Ambassador Extraordinary can claim no privilege or precedence over the Ordinary Ambassador. The Papal Nuncio at present takes his place amongst

27

27 The Ambassadors of the Roman Catholic Princes, including the Roman Emperor of the Germans, were accustomed in

former times to cede precedence to the Papal Nuncio, but those of Russia and the Ottoman Porte did not recognise any such rule.

the Ambassadors in the order of Seniority, as it is provided by the fourth of the same rules, that Diplomatic Agents of the same Class shall take rank and precedence according to the date of the Official notification of their arrival at the Court, to which they are accredited.

The practice of accrediting Diplomatic Agents of the first Class is confined to the States which are entitled to Royal Honours. Such Honours were formerly enjoyed exclusively by Monarchical States, and the Republics of Venice and the United Netherlands were for some time exceptional instances of such honours being shared by States not having a Monarchical form of Government; at the same time, the Ambassadors of these powerful Republics were accustomed to yield precedence to the Representatives of Crowned Heads 28. The Grand Duchies of Germany, the Electorate of Hesse, the Swiss and Germanic Confederations, are European States entitled to Royal Honours, and they are accordingly entitled to accredit Diplomatic Agents of the first Class. The rank and precedence of Sovereign Princes are not determined by any Conventional rule analogous to that which determines the rank and precedence of their Diplomatic Agents; but amongst Sovereign Princes entitled to Royal Honours, the custom prevails for such, as have not the title of Emperor or King, to concede precedence on all occasions to Emperors and Kings. There exist in Europe, in the present day, several Independent Princes who do not enjoy Royal Honours; such, for instance, as the Members of the Germanic Confederation below the rank of Grand Duke or Elector. These yield

28 Vattel, Droit des Gens, L. II. § 38. Klüber, § 91.

precedence to Princes entitled to Royal Honours. There are also European States which enjoy an Independence modified by Treaties, such as Monaco and Kniphausen. Such States rank after all the States which enjoy an absolute Independence, and under the provisions of the Conventions, by which their Independence is modified, are represented for all political purposes by the Diplomatic Agents of the Protecting Power. The rules of precedence, which are observed amongst Independent Sovereign Powers, rest upon Usage and general acquiescence. The question of determining the relative rank of Independent States by a positive Compact, was taken into consideration at the Congress of Vienna; but difficulties having arisen in regard to the rank to be assigned to the Great Republics, the further discussion of the question was adjourned indefinitely, and the Congress limited its action to the regulation of the rank and precedence of the Diplomatic Agents of Independent States 30.

Diplomatic $191. The second Order of Diplomatic Agents inthe Second cludes Envoys, Envoys Extraordinary, Ministers Ple

Agents of

Class.

29 The title of courtesy of a Great Republic, such as Venice and Genoa, was Serenissima Respublica. A similar title is in the present day assigned to Confederations. Thus the Germanic Confederation is addressed by the title of "the Most Serene," and Diplomatic Agents are accredited to the Most Serene Sovereign Princes and Free Cities of the Germanic Confederation. Titles of a Religious character originally conferred by the Holy See, are still used in addressing certain Sovereign

Princes. Thus the titles of the Very Christian or Most Christian King, and Firstborn Son of the Church, is given to the Kings of France; the King of Spain has been styled since 1496, the Catholic King; the Kings of England, since 1591, Defenders of the Faith; the King of Poland, the Orthodox King; the King of Portugal, since 1748, the Very Faithful King; the King of Hungary, since 1758, the Apostolic King.

30 Klüber, Droit des Gens, $94.

nipotentiary, and Internuncios". Diplomatic Agents of the second Class are not clothed with the peculiar character which attaches to diplomatic Agents of the first Class, and which is derived from the dignity of the Sovereign whom they represent. Accordingly, they cannot demand of right a personal audience of the Sovereign to whom they are accredited. Such a Right is the distinctive privilege of a Diplomatic Agent of the first Class. In all other matters which concern him, as the Mandatary of his Nation, a diplomatic agent of the second Class does not differ in any material respect from a Diplomatic Agent of the first Class. There was a period when the etiquette of European Courts confined the privilege of personal intercourse with the Sovereign, at whose Court he was accredited, to an Ambassador as distinguished from an Envoy, but the usage of the present day authorises Diplomatic Agents of the second Class to confer personally on suitable occasions with the Sovereign to whom they are accredited. The privilege of personal intercourse with the Sovereign in the case of an Ambassador was not at any time considered to give to verbal conferences with the Sovereign the character of Official acts binding upon his government. International Negociations were then, as now, conducted through a Minister of Foreign Affairs, and it was through him alone that binding Official acts could be concluded by an Ambassador. In the present day the observation is still more generally applicable, as wherever the Monarchical 31 The Austrian Internuncio of Vienna is now observed by the at Constantinople took prece- Porte. Ch. de Martens, Guide dence formerly, under treaties Diplomatique, c. 10. § 65. Comte with the Ottoman Porte, of all du Garden, Traité Complet de Ministers of the Second Order. Diplomatie, L. 5. § 3. The regulation of the Congress