EMBASSADOR, or AMBASSADOR, Si public minister sent from one sovereign prince, as a representative of his person, to another.
Embassadors are either ordinary or ex traordinary. Embassador in ordinary is he who constantly resides in the court of another prince, to maintain a good under standing, and lool- to the interest of his master Till about two hundred years ago, embassadors in ordinary were not heard of; all, till then; were embassadors extra ordinary ; that is, such as are sent on some particular occasion, and who retire as soon as the affair is dispatched.
By the law of nations, none under the quality of a sovereign prince can send or receive an embassador. At Athens, em bassadors mounted the pulpit of the pub lic orators, and there opened their com mission, acquainting the people with their errand. At Rome, they were introduced to the Senate, and delivered their com missions to them.
Embassadors should never attend any public solemnities, as marriages, funerals, &c. unless their masters have some inter est therein: nor must they go into mourn ing on any occasions of their own, because they represent the persons of their prince. By the civil law, the moveable goods of an embassador, which are ac counted an accession to his person, can not be seized on, neither as a pledge, nor for payment of a debt, not by order or execution of judgment, nor by the King's or state's leave where he resides, as some conceive; for all actions ought to be far from an embassador, as well that which toucheth his necessaries, as his person: if, therefore, he hath contracted any debt, he is to be called upon kindly, and if he refuses, then letters of request are to go to his master. Nor can any of the embas
sador's domestic servants, that are regis tered in the Secretaries of State's Office, be arrested in person or goods: if they are, the process shall be void, and the parties suing out and executing it shall suffer and be liable to such penalties and corporal punishment, as the Lord Chan cellor, or either of the chief justices, shall think fit to inflict. Yet embassadors cannot be defended when they commit any thing against that state, or the per son of the prince, with whom they re side; and if they are guilty of treason, felony, &c. or any other crime against the law of nations, they lose the privilege of an embassador, and may be subject to punishment as private aliens.