Consul (office)

“ Do you who can with indiscriminate pleasure rejoice in both the blessings of the Republic [in the Consuls of the East and West] join your favouring vote. He who is worthy of so high an office as [Pg 172] the Consulship may well be chosen by the judgment of both' [Emperor and King] .
[An important letter, as showing the extent to which concurrent choice of Consuls was vested in Rome, or rather Ravenna, and Constantinople.]
2. King Theodoric to Felix, Vir Illustris, Consul Ordinarius, a.d. 511 (4th of the Indiction) . ”

“ The safest parties to deal with are the Consuls; they are all merchants of antiquities, but even they are not always to be relied upon, as they have families to support and human nature is weak. What wonder if a consul who has to maintain dignity and an office, should take advantage of circumstances and drive a sharp transaction whenever he finds a rich flat. ”

“ The reader must bear in mind that Lady Hester Stanhope imagined that the consul, here alluded to in such ungentle terms, could have no authority over travellers or residents not occupied in mercantile pursuits, as he was a consul appointed by the Levant Company, and not by Government: but it is no longer so now that the Foreign Office appoints them. ”

“ Dabney, succeeded by his son; another son was at one time in the service. ↑ One consul, serving in 1830 but not in 1845, was again in office. ↑ In 1859 there were 49 consuls who had been appointed from the South, and 124 from the North; almost all those from the South had disappeared in 1861; all the 69 unchanged were small posts and consisted largely of whole sets of consuls not yet reached, as those of Spain, Brazil, Peru, and Argentine Republic. ↑ There are in addition seven cases in which relatives of an officer seem to have obtained positions. ”

“ But in a large state there arise many men of various dispositions. At some other period, and under another consul, who, like the present, may have an army at his command, some false accusation may be credited as true; and when, with our example for a precedent, the consul shall have drawn the sword on the authority of the senate, who shall stay its progress, or moderate its fury?
Our ancestors, conscript fathers, were never deficient in conduct or courage; nor did pride prevent them from imitating the customs of other nations, if they appeared deserving of regard. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Four of them were from citizens in various parts of the United States who seemed to regard the consul at Coralio as a cyclopædia of information. They asked long lists of questions, numerically arranged, about the climate, products, possibilities, laws, business chances, and statistics of the country in which the consul had the honour of representing his own government.
“Write ’em, please, Billy,” said that inert official, “just a line, referring them to the latest consular report. Tell ’em the State Department will be delighted to furnish the literary gems. Sign my name. ”

“ Such great hope was entertained that the affairs of the republic would be prosperously managed by him, that the charge which properly belonged to the two consuls was entrusted to the valour of one young man. What was ever so extraordinary as for a man to be released from all laws by a formal resolution of the senate, and made consul before he was of an age to undertake any other magistracy according to the laws? What could be so incredible, as for a Roman knight to celebrate a second triumph in pursuance of a resolution of the senate? ”

“ The authority of consul was usurped by both Cinna and Marius. The consuls were elected by the comitia of the centuries. They could not appear in public without the protection of twelve lictors, who bore bundles of twigs (fasces) and walked in single file before their chiefs. ”

“ Therefore your authority, and the preeminent dignity of the consul, had this great effect, that every one thought that he was committing a shameful crime if he did not come to that summons. And this same consul, when that incredible multitude, when Italy itself I might almost say, had come to Rome, summoned you repeatedly to the Capitol; and at that time you had an opportunity of seeing what great power excellence of natural disposition and true nobleness have. ”

“ Other distinctions of the consuls were the curule chair (sella curulis) , and the toga with the purple hem (toga praetexta) . The ivory sceptre (scipio or sceptrum) and purple toga were not distinctions of the consuls in general, but only when they celebrated a triumph. Under the empire a consul was sometimes distinguished by the senate with a sceptre bearing an eagle on the top, but his regular ensigns consisted of the toga picta, the trabea, and the fasces, both within and without the city.—The consuls were the highest ordinary magistrates at Rome. ”

“ Since the theory of the persistence of the republican constitution was of the essence of the Principate, the consuls necessarily lost little of their outward position and dignity under the rule of the Caesars. The consulship was the only office in which a citizen, other than a member of the imperial house, might have the princeps as a colleague, and in the interval between the death or deposition of one princeps and the appointment of another the consuls resumed their normal position as the heads of the state (cf. Herodian ii. 12) . ”

“ The age at which a person was eligible to the consulship was fixed in B.C. 180, by the lex annalis [Lex Annalis] , at 43.—The election of the consuls always took place in the comitia of the centuries, some time before the expiration of the official year of the actual consuls, and the election was conducted either by the actual consuls themselves, or by an interrex or a dictator, and the persons elected, until they entered upon their office, were called consules designati. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Vice-consuls are sometimes, and agents-consular are always, appointed by the consul, subject to the approval of the home State. Admittance of consuls takes place through the so-called exequatur, granted by the head of the admitting State. [775] The diplomatic envoy of the appointing State hands the patent of the appointed consul on to the Secretary for Foreign Affairs for communication to the head of the State, and the exequatur is given either in a special document or by means of the word exequatur written across the patent. ”

“ The senators, instructed by the counsels of Appius, both collectively addressed the tribunes with kindness and courtesy, and the men of consular rank, according as each possessed private personal influence over them individually, and, partly by conciliation, partly by authority, prevailed so far as to make them consent that the powers of the tribunician office should be beneficial to the state; and by the aid of four tribunes against one obstructor of the public good, the consuls carried out the levy. ”

“ When the consul displayed the standard of the republic, each citizen bound himself, by the obligation of an oath, to draw his sword in the cause of his country, till he had discharged the sacred duty by a military service of ten years. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The consul also appointed the place and time at which the troops of the socii, each part under its own leader, had to meet him and his legions. The infantry of the allies in a consular army was usually equal in numbers to that of the Romans; the cavalry was generally three times the number of the Romans: but these numerical proportions were not always observed. The consuls appointed twelve praefects as commanders of the socii, and their power answered to that of the twelve military tribunes in the consular legions. ”

“ The consul represents the interests of the citizens of the state in whose service he is, in matters of authentication of acts under seal, in administration of the property of citizens within his district, in taking charge of effects of deceased citizens, in arbitration of disputes voluntarily submitted to him, visé of passports, and minor services. ”

“ Warden in his treatise on 'The Origin and Nature of Consular Establishments,' that the consul was originally an officer of large judicial as well as commercial powers, exercising entire municipal authority over his countrymen in the country to which he was accredited. ”

“ SEVENTH CITIZEN. Therefore let him be consul. The gods give him
joy, and make him good friend to the people!
ALL. Amen, amen. God save thee, noble consul!
Exeunt citizens
CORIOLANUS. Worthy voices!
Re-enter MENENIUS with BRUTUS and SICINIUS
MENENIUS. You have stood your limitation, and the tribunes
Endue you with the people's voice. Remains
That, in th' official marks invested, you
Anon do meet the Senate.
CORIOLANUS. Is this done?
SICINIUS. The custom of request you have discharg'd.
The people do admit you, and are summon'd
To meet anon, upon your approbation. ”

“ It never causes me surprise when I see the efforts made by persons of limited means to obtain the situation of Consul in a continental town.
In spite of one's being, as it were, tied to one's residence,—and that not one's home,—there are advantages which counterbalance the evil. The place carries with it a certain degree of consequence. One feels oneself suddenly a man of influence, and a respectable public character. I have heard one, certainly far from being high on the list of these functionaries, termed by a humbler inhabitant of his "residence," the "Premier Consul." ”

“ The office of prætor was instituted partly because the consuls being often wholly taken up with foreign wars, found the want of some person to administer justice in the city; and partly because the nobility, having lost their appropriation of the consulship, were ambitious of obtaining some new honor in its room. He was attended in the city by two lictors, who went before him with the fasces, and six lictors without the city; he wore also, like the consuls, the toga pretexta, or white robe fringed with purple. ”

“ To prevent this unfettered tyranny from lasting for ever, he said he would propose an enactment that a commission of five should be appointed to draw up in writing the laws which regulated the power of the consuls. Whatever jurisdiction over themselves the people gave the consul, that and that only was he to exercise; he was not to regard his own licence and caprice as law. When this measure was promulgated, the patricians were apprehensive lest in the absence of the consuls they might have to accept the yoke. A meeting of the senate was convened by Q. Fabius, the prefect of the City. ”

“ The general assistance which the quaestors were meant to render to the consuls was extended, as we saw, [1003] in the year 421 B.C. to their activity in the field. Each consul or praetor who assumed a military command was given a particular quaestor (the dictator being exempted from what was regarded as a limitation on the discretionary powers of the magistrate) , and, [215] after the custom had grown up of extending the imperium, these assistants accompanied the proconsuls and propraetors to their provinces. ”

“ And as consuls are the representatives of their governments, they shall never be arrested; their houses shall never be sealed, and no troops shall ever be quartered in them.
The abovementioned Consul, with his people and slaves, is therefore exempted from Haratsh, Avariz, Hassabié-Ahtshessi, and all other taxes, impositions, &c. If any one has a lawsuit with 202him, it shall be heard no where but at my Sublime Porte. ”

“ Messina, Saturday, May 12, 1787.
Among other things we were told by the consul, that although it was not indispensably necessary, still it would be as well to pay our respects to the governor, a strange old man, who, by his humours and prejudices, might as readily injure as benefit us: that besides it always told in his (the consul's) favour if he was the means of introducing distinguished personages to the governor; and besides, no stranger arriving here can tell whether some time or other he may not somehow or other require the assistance of this personage. ”

“ One would like to paint, for the satisfaction of readers at home, a picture of the position occupied by an English Consul-General in a city like Tunis. It is no sinecure which he holds. Here he is to be found day after day seated in his big chair at his big table, dealing with all manner of documents and applications on a thousand different subjects. In the outer room are the trusted clerks of the Consulate, and beyond that room is a little apartment arranged very much after the fashion of a tiny police-court. ”