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 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION Diplomatic

privileges

and

practices, the classification

of diplomatic agents, the position of Sovereigns

and of

property owned by them in foreign countries, the framework of treaties and conventions, ratifications, and other subjects treated of in the following chapters, may be considered as forming a part of International Law, and

most treatises on that science deal with them. But it was thought that their fuller discussion might be of practical utility, not only to members of the services, but also to the general public and to writers who occupy themselves with international affairs. Hence the origin of the present work, believed to be the earliest of its kind published in England. It has had its forerunners in other languages. Amongst them must be mentioned, in the first place, the

well-known Guide Diplomatique of Charles de Martens, of which the latest edition, by F. H. Geffcken, came out in 1866, and the Cours de Droit Diplomatique of PradierFodere, containing lectures delivered by him at the University of Lima from 1877 to 1879. Vol. iii of Garden's Traite Complet de Diplomatie, published

anonymously in 1833, includes various documents of importance. The Guide Pratique des Agents Politiques of Garcia de la Vega (Brussels, 1873), and the Gtiia Prdctica del Diplomdtico Espanol, by de Castro y Casaleiz, of which a second edition appeared in 1886, are useful for Belgian and Spanish practice and documentary forms. In German we have vol. ii of Schmelzing's Systematischer Grundriss des praktischen Volker-Rechtes,