ENVOY, a diplomatic minister of the second order, i. e., inferior in rank to an ambassador. Envoys ordinary and extraordinary, ministers plenipotentiary, the inter nuncios of the pope, and all other inferior diplomatic ministers, differ from ambassa dors in this, that although they receive their credentials, like ambassadors, immediately from their sovereign, they represent not his personal dignity, but only his affairs. They stand to him just as an ordinary agent does to his principal, and their acts or promises are his in a business, though not in a personal sense. It is said that this class of diplomatists was first introduced by Louis XI. of France, towards the end of the 15th century. The E. is superior in rank to the chargé d'affaires, whose credentials proceed from the ministers of the state from which he is sent, and are addressed to the minister of the state to which he'is sent; or are a mere delegation from an ambassador or E. to conduct the affairs of the mission in his absence. Consuls (q.v.) are not gen
erally reckoned among diplomatic ministers, though, where they have diplomatic duties to perform independently of an ambassador or E., they are accredited, and treated as ministers. According to the division of diplomatic agents into four classes, which was made by the great powers at the congress of Vienna in 1815—viz.: 1. Ambassadors, legates, and nuncios; 2. Envoys, ministers, and other agents accredited to sovereigns; and 3. Charges d'affaires, accredited by and to the departments of foreign affairs—an E. would be of the second, and a charge d'affaires of the third rank. But the practice of this country has interjected between the ambassador and the E. a second class, called envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary, which, of course, throws the ordi nary E. into the third, and the chargé d'affaires into the fourth class. See CilARGk