The third important privilege of an ambassador is, that his residence enjoys a security similar to that of his person and property : it is not only protected from open outrage, but it is likewise exempted from being searched or -visited, whether by the police, by revenue ufficers, or under colour of legal process of any description whatever.
This privilege has sometimes been con strued to extend so far, as to make the ambassador's residence an asylum to which any offender might flee and be out of the reach of the law ; but the govern ment may, in such a case, demand that the offender be given up, and if he is an offender against the state, in case of a refusal on the part of the ambassador, and if the circumstances require it, he may be taken by force.
This privilege of asylum, as it is called, was formerly granted in some cities to the whole quarter in which the ambas sador resided ; such was the case at Madrid, till in the year 1684 it was con fined to the residence itself. Such also was the case at Rome to a much later date ; and even at the present day some vestiges of this immunity still remain, but since 1815 it has been confined to cases of correctional police.
There are some other privileges which, though not essential to the character of ambassadors, are yet very generally ad mitted. Ambassadors are, for instance, in all civilized countries allowed the free exercise of their religion ; they are in general exempted from direct taxation ; and they are usually allowed to import their goods without paying any custom-, house duties : this last privilege, how ever, being extremely liable to abuse, has sometimes been limited. At Madrid since the year 1814, and at St. Petersburg since 1817, ambassadors are allowed six months to import their goods free of cus toms, and after that time their exemption ceases. At Berlin they are only allowed to import goods until the duties payable amount to a certain sum.
If any violence has been offered to an ambassador, or any of his privileges have been infringed, although he may himself, if he chooses, prosecute the offender, it is more usual for him to demand satis faction of the government, and it is their duty to bring the offender to punish• went.
The title of ambassador, in the more limited sense of the word, as it is used at present, is confined to diplomatic ministers of the highest order. Ambassadors, in this sense of the word, hold an office of very exalted rank ; their credentials are addressed immediately from their own sovereign to the sovereign to whom they are sent ; with whom they thereby are entitled to treat personally, without the intervention of his ministers, in the same manner as their master would if he were present. This is a power, however, which, at least in free states, where the ministers alone are responsible for the acts of the government, exists rather in name than in reality. The ambassadors, properly so called, are deemed to repre sent not only the interests, but likewise the person and dignity of their master or of their state ; but this representative character, as it is called, amounts in reality to little more than the enjoyment of certain marks of distinction ; the prin cipal of which are, that an is always styled Your Excellence,' which was the mode of addressing a sovereign prince • 2. That he takes pre
cedence next after princes of the blood royal, &c.
Ambassadors are of two kinds:—l. Those who reside regularly at the court at which they are accredited, to perform the usual duties of their office ; 2. Those who are sent on special occasions, either on missions of important business, as the ne gotiation of a treaty, or more frequently on some errand of state ceremony, such as to be present at a coronation or a mar riage. The designation of Ambassador Extraordinary was originally appropriated to those of the second kind (such as be longed to the first being styled Ordinary Ambassadors); but the title of Extraor dinary, being considered more exalted, is now usually bestowed even on those who are regularly resident. To the highest order of minister belong also the Legates and Nuncios of the rope. [LEGATE; Nutscio.] The rank and pomp annexed to the office of ambassador being attended with considerable expense, and having fre quently occasioned embarrassments and disputes, it was found expedient to employ ministers under other denominations, who, though inferior in point of dignity, should be invested with equal powers. The chief difference by which all the lower orders of diplomatic agents are distinguished from ambassadors, properly so called, is, that they are the representatives not of the personal dignity of their prince, but only of his affairs and interests, in the same manner as an ordinary agent is the repre sentative of his principal. Diplomatic ministers of the second order receive their credentials (like ambassadors) immedi ately from their own sovereign. To this order belong envoys, ordinary and extra ordinary, ministers plenipotentiary, the internuucios of the pope, and the Austrian minister at Constantinople, who is styled internuncio and minister plenipotenuary. The distinction of ministers into those of the first and those of the second order be gan to prevail towards the end of the fifteenth century, and is said to have been originally introduced by Louis XI. of France. [ENvor.] There is likewise a third order of di plomatic agents, which does not appear to have been recognised till towards the be ginning of the eighteenth century. Those who belong to it are known by the title of Charges d'Affaires (which is said to have been given by a prince, for the first time, to the Swedish minister at Constanti nople, in 1748), Resident, or Minister. Their credentials are given them by the ministers of state in their own country, and are addressed to the ministers of the country they are sent to ; except in the case of the diplomatic agents of the Han seatic towns, whose credentials are ad dressed to the sovereign. In this order may also be included the ministers whom an ambassador or envoy, by virtue of an authority from his prince or state, ap points (usually under the title of Charge d'Affaires) to conduct in his absence the affairs of his mission., [CHARGE' D'AD