British Consul

“ Since the Consul went away on leave things seem to have been humming—two stabbing affrays, eight drunken seamen locked up, a mutiny on a tramp steamer, and now a yacht being cast away—a fairly decent list! And yet some stay-at-home people complain that British consuls are only paid to be ornamental! They should spend a week here, at Leghorn, and they'd soon alter their opinion. ”

“ I found my position as the wife of the British Consul in Damascus very different from what it had been in Brazil. A consul in the East as envoye of a Great Power is a big man, and he ranks almost as high as a Minister would in Europe. Nearer home a consul is often hardly considered to be a gentleman, while in many countries he is not allowed to go to Court. ”

“ WHITE, Sir WILLIAM ARTHUR (1824–1891) , diplomatist, the son of Arthur White, who was in the British consular service, and Eliza Lila, daughter of Lieutenant-general William Gardiner Neville, was born in 1824, and educated at King William's College, Isle of Man, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. He entered the consular service on 9 March 1857 as clerk to the consul-general at Warsaw. He frequently acted as consul-general; and on 9 Jan. 1861 he became vice-consul, again acting as consul-general for the greater part of 1862 and 1863. ”

“ The only method I can think of is to send to the British consul, and let him know what is pending. He is the only consul here to whom the Dey will grant an immediate unquestioning audience. You are active and strong, Mariano, and are, I believe, willing to aid me. ”

“ I would surely obtain a British passport if I were again travelling in regions where passports are needed in order to get along easily and without detentions.
Americans when abroad on the Continent very frequently call upon their consul, and would return to the hotel, telling us of the delightful hour spent in genial talk with their consul, and the information obtained from him, and letters of admission to galleries, museums, etc. Consistently I cannot pass myself off as a Yankee and go with them, but determine to visit the British consul, who ought perforce to be my own ”

“ I said, as we entered the midnight train for Leghorn. "But my own theory is that they were searching for some paper or other that you possess."
"What can my papers concern them?" exclaimed the jovial, round-faced Consul, a man whose courtesy is known to every skipper trading up and down the Mediterranean, and who is perhaps one of the most cultured and popular men in the British Consular Service. "I don't keep bank notes in that safe, you know. We fellows in the Service don't roll in gold as our public at home appears to think." ”

“ The present magnificently organized consular system of Germany is, then, one of the most remarkable outcomes of the establishment of the united empire. It was initiated by an act of the parliament of the North German Confederation (Nov. 8, 1867) , subsequently incorporated in the statutes of the Empire, which laid down the principle that the German consulates were to be under the immediate jurisdiction of the president of the Confederation (later the emperor) . The functions, duties and privileges of French and German consuls do not differ materially from those of British consuls ”

“ The German consul usually gave away large sums of money among the indigent in the British colony, and thus placed himself in a position that was very difficult to assail. If any powerful resident felt that the consul was not acting altogether in British interests, the latest subscription, probably a princely donation to some British charity, caused him to revise his hasty judgment. A man so truly charitable could not be guilty of meannesses such as he had suspected. ”

“ I had just rounded off my last sentence when he pointed to a house, half- native, half-European, in front of which was a staff bearing the British flag. With the generosity which marks the Englishman away from home I felt in my pockets and found a sixpence. I handed it to my companion; and with a "Talofa" the only Tongan I knew—I passed into the garden of the consulate. The consul himself came to the door when I knocked on the lintel. ”

“ They should have kept their council; but when a few thousand foreigners are bursting with joy over the fact that a ship under the British flag has been fired at on the high seas, news travels quickly; and when it came out that the pearl-stealing crew had not been allowed access to their consul (there was no consul within a few hundred miles of that lonely port) even the friendliest of Powers has a right to ask questions. The great heart of the British public was beating furiously on account of the performance of a notorious race-horse, and had not a throb to waste on distant accidents ”

“ As the powers and duties of consuls vary with the particular commercial interests they have to protect, and the civilization of the state in whose territory they reside, instead of abstract definition, we summarize the provisions on this subject of the British Merchant Shipping Acts. [4] Consuls are bound to send to the Board of Trade such reports or returns on any matter relating to British merchant shipping or seamen as they may think necessary. ”

“ The British consular system was made a service, its members being fairly remunerated and induced to make their occupation the profession of their lives; consequently the Government has at all times competent and reliable servants. ”

“ One would suppose that such a document would have elicited some inquiry.But Haji Wali was a Persian protege, and proceedings between the Consulates had commenced before the petition was presented. The pseudo-British subject, having been acknowledged as a real one, must be supported. Consuls, like kings, may err, but must not own to error. No notice was taken of the Indian petition; worse still, no inquiry into the slave-affair was set on foot [FN#7] ; and it was discovered that the passport having been granted by a Consul-General could not with official etiquette be resumed by a Consul. ”

“ The High Contracting Parties may each appoint a Diplomatic Representatives to reside permanently or temporarily at the Capital of the other, and may appoint a Consul-General, Consuls or Vice Consuls, to reside at any or all of the ports or places of the other which are open to foreign commerce. ”

“ If German consuls as a whole have been especially active and successful in promoting German commercial interests, it is not on account of the nature of the instructions received from their government, these instructions being to all intents and purposes similar to those issued to British consuls, but because particular care was taken to select consuls from a class of men imbued with the desire of increasing the greatness of their country by the promotion of German trade. ”

“ The American consular service has been frequently pointed out as a model to be followed in connexion with commercial matters. America, contrary to the European practice, has no consuls de carrière. Her consular representatives are appointed for a period of, as a rule, four years, andConsular Service. are selected in preference from commercial circles. Their work, as compared with that of British consuls, is rather limited, and they have nothing to monopolize their time like the shipping interests with which the British consular body is entrusted in most cor1r1trics=. ”

“ Pierre, Martinique
Oh, these comfortable American consuls of the tropics! They live among flowers and palms, arise late and go to their town offices by noon; then “business” grows dull and they bolt the office at three or four o’clock and take flight to a gardened home, in some cool mountain suburb, to rest from the wearisome grind of diplomacy. Would that we all might rise to the dolce far niente of an American consulate! But after all we need them; for if our flag is now seldom seen in out-of-the-way ports, who but the American consul will protect the wandering American? ”

“ And there were no boats afloat in America that could keep these dragons of the deep in harbour once they were ready to sail. There remained but one power to restrain them. The sense of justice. Not the Emperor's, for he had none. Not that of his ministers, for he controlled them. But the sense of justice of the people of France.
When a consul starts to go behind the government to which he is accredited and appeals in the name of a foreign power to the citizens of a country, he takes his reputation in his hands, and starts upon the forbidden paths that usually lead to disgrace and recall. ”

“ The new consul at Pretoria also reported that everything was as satisfactory as could be expected under the circumstances of war, and his official intercourse with the Transvaal Government afterwards fully justified this assertion. The republics displayed a proper attitude toward the consulate not only as representing American interests, but as representing Great Britain during the course of hostilities. Every facility was afforded the American consul for performing his duties. ”

“ After having been a distinguished minister, how many things more must be known to make a good consul! For there is no end to the variety of a consul’s attributions; and they are perfectly distinct from those of the other persons employed in foreign affairs. They demand a vast amount of practical knowledge which can only be acquired by a peculiar education. Consuls are called upon to discharge, for the advantage of their countrymen, and over the extent of their jurisdiction, the functions of judges, arbitrators, and promoters of reconciliation ”

“ The frequent wars of the succeeding century hindered the development of the consular system. Thus, though the system of consuls was regularly established in France by the ordinance of 1661, in 1760 France had consuls only in the Levant, Barbary, Italy, Spain and Portugal, while she discouraged the establishment of foreign consuls in her own ports as tending to infringe her own jurisdiction. It was not till the 19th century that the system developed universally. ”

“ It is now admitted that, apart from treaty, custom has established very few consular privileges; that perhaps consuls may be arrested and incarcerated, not merely on criminal charges, but for civil debt; and that, if they engage in trade or become the owners of immovable property, their persons certainly lose protection. This question of arrest has been frequently raised in Europe:—in the case of Barbuit, a tallow-chandler, who from 1717 to 1735 acted as Prussian consul in London, and to whom the exemption conferred by statute on ambassadors was held not to apply ”

“ It is possible that the out-of-date view that diplomatic and consular officers are purely political agents may be excessively retained in some instances, and that the assistance rendered by Her Majesty's Consuls to British trade might advantageously receive more encouragement and departmental recognition. ”

“ Is it not enough that you have involved us all in unspeakable difficulty and possible disgrace, that we are to receive words of contumely from lips like yours? One would think that you were the English Consul arrived here to make a representation in favour of his countryman, instead of being the individual who planned his plunder, occasioned his captivity, and endangered his life! ”

“ On the first point made by the Attorney General, this Court feels no difficulty in deciding, that a Vice Consul duly recognised by our Government, is a competent party to assert or defend the rights of property of the individuals of his nation, in any Court having jurisdiction of causes affected by the application of international law. To watch over the rights and interests of heir subjects, wherever the pursuits of commerce may draw them, or the vicissitudes of human affairs may force them, is the great object for which Consuls are deputed by their sovereigns ”

“ A day or two after his arrival at his post, a very dandified-dressed and full-blooded nigger walked into the Consulate, the window of which was not far from the ground, clapped Richard on the back in the most jovial manner, with his disagreeable "yah-yah" laugh. "How do, Consul? Come to shake hands—how do?" holding out his black paw, as if he were a condescending Royalty. There were some other Englishmen waiting about for different business, looking curiously to see what was going to be the attitude of the new Consul. ”

“ Now, with all their excellencies, it call hardly be denied that they are sadly apt to presume on any want of power in a neighbour. So it happens that the unfortunate consuls who are stowed away in the obscurer establishments, are apt to suffer from their caprice. Should it so happen that the particular flag over whose interests the consul is appointed inspector, should not have been displayed in the neighbourhood lately by any ship of war, the short memory of a pasha is in danger of forgetting that nation's claim to respect ”

“ But for this, I am persuaded much more might have been done in [229] the conduct of the war, and the United States might have had more effectual assistance, and France and Spain too fewer misfortunes to bewail.
I would, therefore, beg leave to propose, to appoint a consul without loss of time to reside at Nantes, and to him consign all vessels from the United States. I think it should be an American, some merchant of known character, abilities, and industry, who would consent to serve his country for moderate emoluments. Such persons are to be found in great numbers in the United States. ”