Consuls occupy a very different position from that of ambassadors and other public ministers. The office is a much older one, and its duties are confined to matters relating to commercial interests.

The history of this office is thus given by Davis in his recent work on International Law:6

"Consuls are persons appointed by the government of a state to represent its commercial interests, and those of its subjects in the principal ports of other nations.

"The practice of maintaining consular representatives in foreign ports and commercial cities dates back to the very beginning of modern commerce. It was developed among the commercial cities of the Mediterranean, and grew out of the exigencies and necessities of their intercourse with the Levantine cities, whose forms of government and systems of law were radically different from their own. The ships of foreign merchants were held to be navigated under the jurisdiction of the nation whose flag they carried; and the general practice was for vessels engaged in long sea voyages, some of which occupied a period of not less than three years, to have on board a magistrate, whose duty it was to administer the law of the country of the flag among all on board, not merely while the vessel was on the high seas, but while she was in a foreign port, loading or unloading cargo. This magistrate was termed the alderman in the ports of the North and Baltic seas, while in the Mediterranean ports he was designated by the familiar name of consul, and was the precursor of the resident commercial consul, who continues in the present day to exercise within merchant ships of his nationality, notwithstanding they are within the territorial jurisdiction of another state, a portion of the personal jurisdiction formerly exercised by the ship's consul. The exercise of this consular jurisdiction requires no fiction of exterritoriality to support it. Its limits are either regulated by commercial treaties, or, where it has originated in charter privileges, it is now held to rest upon custom.

3 Ward's Law of Nations, 11, 537.

4 Case of the Ambassador of Peter the Great (1708), Blackstone's Commentaries,Book l,Chapt.7.

5 Taylor vs. Best, 14 Common Bench, 487.

6 Davis on International Law, pages 211-12.

"The institution had become fully established, in much the same form as it now exists, at the end of the twelfth century, at which time Venice was represented in the East by consuls at Constantinople, Aleppo, Jerusalem, and Alexandria. The Eastern Empire maintained a consul at Marseilles, and foreign consulates had been long established and recognized at the port of Barcelona in Spain. These early consuls performed many of the duties of modern ambassadors and had something of their inviolable character. As a result of the general establishment of permanent missions in Europe in the seventeenth century, an important change was made in the consular function in all the states of the West. The diplomatic duties were transferred to the class of public ministers, to whom the character of inviolability was attached; and there remained to the consuls a class of duties of a commercial character, closely resembling those which they now perform. In the Levant, however, where no permanent missions were established, consuls continued to enjoy their powers and privileges; these, to a great extent, they still retain."

There are a number of different grades in the consular service.

"The United States differentiates the consular service more fully than most states, having the following: Consuls-general, vice-consuls-general, deputy consuls-general, consuls, vice-consuls, deputy consuls, commercial agents, vice-commercial agents, consular agents, consular clerks, interpreters, marshals, and clerks. The term 'consular officer,' however, includes only consuls-general, consuls, commercial agents, deputy consuls, vice-consuls, vice-commercial agents, and consular agents. The full officers are consuls-general, consuls, and commercial agents. The vice-consular officers are 'substitute consular officers,' and the deputy consuls-general, deputy consuls, and consular agents are 'subordinate consular officers.'

"Consuls-general ordinarily have a supervisory jurisdiction of the consuls within the neighborhood of their consulate, though, sometimes, they have no supervisory jurisdiction. This is often exercised by the diplomatic agent accredited to the same state.

"Most states have consuls-general, consuls, viceconsuls, consular agents; sometimes also, consular students." 7

Consuls do not have the privileges and immunities of ambassadors or other public ministers and are subject to the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the countries to which they are sent (except in the cases of consuls in Asiatic countries). A country to whom a consul is sent, however, has no right to interfere with him in the exercise of his consular duties.