Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 6.djvu/347

Rh list, or list of passengers, so that the consul may transmit to the registrar-general, for insertion in the Marine Register Book, a report of the passengers dying and children born during the voyage. The consul may even defray the expenses of maintaining, and forwarding to their destina tion, passengers taken off or picked up from wrecked or injured vessels, if the master does not undertake to proceed in six weeks; these expenses becoming, in terms of the Passenger Acts 1855 and 1863, a debt due to Her Majesty from the owner or charterer. Where a salvor is justified in detaining a British vessel, the master may obtain leave to depart by going with the salvor before the consul, who after hearing evidence as to the service rendered and the proportion of ship s value and freight claimed, fixes the amount for which the master is to give bond and security. In the case of a foreign wreck the consul is held to be the agent of the foreign owner. Much of the notarial business which is imposed on consuls, partly by statute and partly by the request of private parties, consists in taking the declarations as to registry, transfers, &c., mentioned in Schedules B, C, F, G, H, L of the Mercantile Shipping Act. Under commercial treaties with China, British consuls in the free ports of Canton, Amoy, Foo-chow-foo, Ningpo, and Shanghae have extensive judicial and execu tive powers. The same observation applies to Japan. (See Order in Council of 9th March 1805 and relative rules.) The position of United States consuls is minutely described in the Regulations, Washington, 1870. Under various treaties and conventions they enjoy large privileges and jurisdiction. By a treaty with Sweden in 1818 the United States Government agreed that the consuls of the two states respectively should be sole judges in disputes between captains and crews of vessels. By convention with France in 1857 they likewise agreed that the consuls of both countries should be permitted to hold real estate, and to have the &quot; police interne des navires a commerce.&quot; In Eastern Asia an exclusive jurisdiction, civil and criminal, is always stipulated in cases where United States subjects are interested. Exemption from liability to appear as a witness is often stipulated. The question was raised in France in 1843 by the case of the Spanish consul Soller at Aix, and in America in 1854 by the case of Dillon, tho French consul at San Francisco, who, on being arrested by Judge Hoffmann for declining to give evidence in a criminal suit, pulled down his consular flag. So, also, inviolability of national archives is often stipulated. The archives of a French consul in London were once seized by a collector of local taxes and sold by auction, and in 1858 the flag, seal, arms, and record-book of the United States consulate at Manchester were levied on for a private debt of the consul. To the consuls of other nations the United States Govern ment have always accorded the privileges of arresting deserters, and of being themselves amenable only to the Federal and not to the States courts. They also recognize foreign consuls as representative suitors for absent foreigners. The United States commercial agents, although appointed by the president, receive no exequatur. They form a class by themselves, and are distinct from the consul ir agents, who are simply deputy consuls in districts where there is no principal consul. France is distinguished among nations for an organization of trained consuls who have intimate relations with the diplomatic corps.

1em  CONSULATE OF THE SEA, A celebrated collection of maritime customs and ordinances in the Catalan language, published at Barcelona in the latter part of the 15th century. Its proper title is The Book of the Consulate, or in Catalan, Lo Libre de Consolat. The earliest extant edition of the work, which was printed at Barcelona in 1494, is without a title-page or frontispiece, but rt is described by the above-mentioned title in the epistle dedicatory pre fixed to the table of contents. The only known copy of this edition is preserved in the National Library in Paris. The epistle dedicatory states that the work is an amended version of the Book of the Consulate, compiled by Francis Celelles with the assistance of numerous shipmasters and merchants well versed in maritime affairs. According to a statement made by Capmany in his Codigo de los Costumbras Maritimas de Barcelona, published at Madrid in 1791, there was extant to his knowledge in the last century a more ancient edition of the Book of the Consulate, printed in semi-Gothic characters, which he believed to be of a date prior to 1484. This is the earliest period to which any historical record of the Book of the Consulate being in print can be traced back. There are, however, two Catalan MSS. preserved in the National Library in Paris, the earliest of which, being MS. Espagnol 124, con tains the two first treatises which are printed in the Book of the Consulate of 1494, and which are the most ancient portion of its contents, written in a hand of the 14th century, on paper of that century. The subsequent parts of this MS. are on paper of the 15th century, but there is no document of a date more recent than 1436. The later of the two MSS., being MS. Espagnol 56, is written throughout on paper of the 15th century, and in a hand of that century, and it purports, from a certificate on the face of the last leaf, to have been executed under the superintendence of Peter Thomas, a notary public, and the scribe of the Consulate of the Sea at Barcelona. The edition of 1494, which is justly regarded as the editio princeps of the Book of the Consulate, contains, in the first place, a code of procedure issued by the kings of Aragon for the guidance of the courts of the consuls of the sea, in the second place, a collection of ancient customs of the sea, and thirdly, a body of ordinances for the government of cruisers of war. A colophon at the end of these ordinances informs the readers that &quot; the book commonly called the Book of the Consulate ends here;&quot; after which there follows a document known by the title of The Acceptations, which purports to record that the previous chapters and ordinances had been approved by the Roman people in tho llth century, and by various princes and peoples in the 12th and 13th centuries. Capmany was the first person to question the authenticity of this document in his Memorias ]Iistoricas sobre la Marina, &c., de Barcelona, published at Madrid in 1779-92. M. Pardessus and other writers on maritime law have followed up the inquiry in the present century, and have conclusively shown that the document, v/hat3ver may have been its origin, has no proper reference to the Book of the Consulate, and is, in fact, of no historical value whatsoever. The paging of the edition of 1494 ceases with this document, at the end of which is the printer s colophon, reciting that &quot; the work was completed on 14th July 1494, at Barcelona, by Pere Posa, priest and printer,&quot; The remainder of the volume consists of what may be regarded as an appendix to the original Book of the Consulate. This appendix contains various maritime ordinances of the kings of Aragon and of the councillors of the city of Barcelona, ranging over a period from 1340 to 1484. It is printed apparently in the same type with the preceding part of the volume. The original Book of the Consulate, coupled with this a-ppendix, con stitutes the work vhich has obtained general circulation 