Agents of and the Fourth form of Government is combined with Representative institutions, the Sovereign can only bind the Nation through the agency of a Responsible Minister 32. Diplomatic 192. The third Order of Diplomatic Agents comthe Third prises Ministers, Resident Ministers, Residents, Ministers Chargés d'Affaires. The distinction between the Minister Chargé d'Affaires, and the simple Chargé d'Affaires, who ranks in the fourth Class of diplomatic Agents, consists in the circumstance that the former is accredited by the Sovereign to the Sovereign as Minister, the title of Minister being engrafted upon that of Chargé d'Affaires ". Martens cites as an early example of this particular species of Diplomatic Agent, the Minister Chargé d'Affaires of the King of Sweden accredited to the Padischah of the Ottomans in 1784. The fourth Order consists of Diplomatic Agents accredited by the Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Minister of Foreign Affairs. These are either sent out originally with express Credentials from the Minister of Foreign Affairs as Chargés d'Affaires, or have been sent out originally furnished with a Commission from the Sovereign, as Secretaries of Embassy or Secretaries of Legation; and in the latter case they are orally invested with the Charge of the Embassy or Legation by the Ambassador or Minister himself to be exercised during his absence from the seat of his mission. They are accordingly announced in this character by him before his departure to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Court, to which he is accredited. This fourth Order of Diplomatic Agent is not entitled to confer with the Chief of the State, but 32 Envoys as distinguished from Ambassadors, (Oratores or Legati,) are designated in Latin, Inviati or Ablegati. 33 Credentials from the Sove reign are necessary to give to the Chargé d'Affaires the character of Minister ad interim. 34 Précis du Droit des Gens, T. 11. § 194. only with the Minister of Foreign Affairs to whom he is accredited, and this rule is maintained in the case of Republics, as well as of Monarchical States. Wheaton cites an instance from the Archives of the United States, in which the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs notified formally to the Chargé d'Affaires of an European Power of the highest rank, that "he could hold official intercourse only with a Department of State; that he had no right to converse with the President on matters of business, and might consider it a liberal courtesy, if he was presented to him at all."35 Consuls, as such, are Commercial not Political Agents, and accordingly do not belong to any of the four orders of Diplomatic Agents, but the office of Chargé d'Affaires is sometimes combined with that of Consul-General in the same individual, who has thus the character of a Diplomatic Agent engrafted upon the Commercial character of Consul. Missions. §193. Every Nation may determine for itself in Resident what character it will accredit a Diplomatic Agent, whether it will confer upon him, by its Credentials, the full Representative character which belongs to the Ambassador or highest class of Diplomatic Agent, or will only confer upon him limited rank. But this absolute discretion upon the part of a Nation to accredit its Diplomatic Agents under any character which it may choose, is limited to occasional and temporary Missions, as distinguished from Missions personally resident at a Foreign Court. No Nation can insist as a matter of Right, that a Diplomatic Agent on its behalf shall be permanently entertained by another Nation. Grotius 36 held that Permanent Lega 35 Elements, p. III. c. 1. § 6. The President, under the Constitution of the United States, PART I. receives Ambassadors and other 36 Optimo autem jure rejici U tions (assiduæ legationes) might be with right excluded by all Nations, but the practice to maintain Resident Legations at Foreign Courts had in the course of the following century become so general amongst the European Nations, that Vattel, whilst holding that a Nation is not under an obligation to suffer at all times the residence of a Foreign Minister, is of opinion, that any Nation, which refuses to entertain a Resident Minister from a Foreign Power, must allege very good reasons for its conduct in this respect, if it wishes to avoid giving offence. Such reasons may arise from particular circumstances, but there are also ordinary reasons which may be always in force, such as relate to the Constitution of a Government and the State of a Nation. In the absence however of any such reason, the Usage of two centuries may now be said to justify the Nations of Europe in relying upon the Comity of one another to entertain permanently their duly accredited Diplomatic Agents. As the same Usage, however, requires in regard to Resident Missions, that Nations should accredit and receive Diplomatic Agents of equal rank, the special rank of the Diplomatic Agents to be accredited and entertained on either side must be a subject of mutual agreement between States. The practice of accrediting and entertaining Ministers of the first Class has been hitherto confined to Crowned Heads, Sovereign Princes enjoying Royal Honours, and the Great Republics. There is no rule which prevents a Nation accrediting several Diplomatic Agents of equal or unequal rank to the same Nation or the same person possunt, quæ nunc in usu sunt legationes assiduæ, quibus quam non sit opus, docet mos antiquus, cui illæ ignoratæ.—De Jure B. et P. L. II. c. 18. § 3. 37 Droit des Gens, L. 4. § 66. as its Diplomatic Agent to several Nations 38. On the other hand, the same person may be accredited to the same Court by one Sovereign Prince as his Ambassador, and by another Sovereign Prince as his Envoy Extraordinary, or by both Princes as their Envoy Extraordinary. Thus the Austrian Ambassador used frequently to have separate Credentials to Foreign Courts, as Envoy Extraordinary of the Duke of Parma. The Prussian Minister in the present day has for the most part Credentials from the King of Prussia and from the Grand Duke of Saxe. and Wa Chargés man Porte. $194. Agents for the private affairs of Princes, and Moldavian such as have only the title of Resident or Counsellor lachian of Legation or Agent, are not members of the Diplo- d'Affaires matic Body, in other words, they do not represent at the Otto. their respective Nations for Political purposes, and they are not entitled to any Diplomatic privilege or immunity. To this class belong the Chargés d'Affaires of the Hospodars of Moldavia and Walachia, who reside at the Ottoman Porte, and for whom the Emperor of Russia stipulated by the sixteenth Article of the Treaty of Kutschauk Kainardii, (anno 177439,) that they should be treated by the Porte with kindness, and notwithstanding their little importance, should be considered as persons so far enjoying the Right of Nations, as to be safe from personal violence. This is an exceptional case founded altogether on the provisions of a special Convention, whereby the Porte agreed to restrict the exercise of its Rights of Sove 38 It is not an unusual practice for Non-Germanic Powers to accredit one and the same Minister to divers States of the Germanic Confederation. 39 Marten's Recueil, Tom. II. P. 305. Lesquels vielleront aux affaires concernant les dites Prin- Letters of reignty over certain of its own Subjects, whilst charged with the functions of Agent on behalf of the Hospodars at the central seat of the Ottoman Government. But this Treaty-engagement has not conferred the Diplomatic Character on these Chargés d'Affaires, nor are they received into the body of Diplomatic Agents resident at the Ottoman Porte 40. $195. A Public Minister, who is sent to represent his Sovereign at the Court of another Sovereign, ought to be expressly authorised for that purpose, and the Sovereign to whom the mission of the Minister is addressed, ought to be duly certified of his authority to present himself as the Representative of his Sovereign. Every Public Minister is accordingly furnished by the Sovereign or Chief of the State, which delegates him, with Letters of Credence, (Literæ fidei sive credentiales,) which are addressed to the Sovereign or Chief of the State in the case of States which are under a permanent Sovereign or chief Magistrate ; but in the case of Unions or Confederations of States, which are for the most part under a temporary President, the letters of Credence are addressed to the States themselves. The reason for this distinction of practice in the case of Unions or Confederations of States is to be found in the circumstance, that as the President of an Union or Confederation is a temporary Officer, if the Credentials of Foreign Min 40 These Chargés d'Affaires are properly speaking Agents for the affairs of the Principalities, transacting business with the Home Department at Constantinople. It has been the practice in the Ottoman Empire for the Governors of Provinces to be represented at the Central Seat of Administration by an Agent, (termed in the Turkish language, Kayson Kehagasi,) and as the lives of such agents were always in jeopardy, if a political crisis arose, a stipulation for the safe conduct of the Agents of the two Principalities was introduced into the Treaty of Kainardji. |