with the then prevailing custom, sent their coaches to attend the ceremony. Anticipating disturbance the Duke. of York had ordered out a troop of horse and some companies of foot, but the officers, having received no instructions to interfere actively in the event of a fray, remained calm spectators of a scene of confused fighting. For each of the rival ministers had made preparations to contest the question of precedence by force of arms. But the Spaniards, having brought over some guards from Ostend, enlisted in their service certain English, and substituted covered chains for their ordinary carriage traces, cut loose and killed the Frenchmen's coach-horses, and so carried the day by rendering it impossible for their adversaries to proceed. Several persons on both sides were killed on the spot. Vatteville, however, bought his victory dearly. Upon the first news of the incident Louis ordered the Spanish ambassador in Paris to depart within twenty-four hours, and instructed his minister at Madrid to take instant leave unless he obtained complete satisfaction for the insult offered to the French Crown. Philip IV., infirm and ailing, was in no condition to resist the demands of his all-powerful son-in-law. He agreed to recall Vatteville, to instruct his ambassadors to absent themselves from all ceremonies at which those of France should assist; and to make through the newly-appointed Spanish representative at Paris a formal declaration of his orders. But this temporary settlement did not prevent the subsequent revival of the dispute. contests. Similar contests' have been waged with similar heat, Other though fortunately without its more outrageous features, between the representatives of France and the King of the Romans, of Portugal and Hungary, of the Venetian Republic and the Electorates, and between ministers of many small powers. Sweden refusing to yield place to 1643-1648 France at the Congress of Westphalia, to avoid controversy between the two allies, separate sessions were held at Munster and Osnaburg. 1 Wicquefort, pp. 221-235. A. D. 1600 A.D. The Congress 1815. The negotiations of Elizabeth and Philip III. brought about in 1600 by the mediation of Henry IV. of France came to an abrupt conclusion in consequence of the claim advanced by the English, on the ground of ancient practice with regard to Castile, to precedence of the Spaniards. Even the order of signature of treaties has been erected into a point of national honour, and has endangered many settlements1. At length the Powers became convinced of the neof Vienna, cessity for arriving at some general agreement for the prevention of these irritating and ceaseless disputes, and on March 19th, 1815 the representatives of the eight" great states assembled in Congress at Vienna signed the following regulation: Regula Eight Powers, 19th March, 1815. "In order to prevent in future the inconveniences tion of the "which have frequently occurred, and which may still "occur, from the claims of Precedence among the dif "ferent Diplomatic Characters, the Plenipotentiaries of "the Powers who signed the Treaty of Paris have agreed on the following Articles, and think it their duty to "invite those of the other Crowned Heads to adopt the "same regulations. Preamble. Division "Art. I. Diplomatic Characters are divided into three. "classes. "That of Ambassadors, Legates, or Nuncios. "That of Envoys, Ministers, or other persons accredited "to Sovereigns. "That of Chargé d'Affaires, accredited only to the "Ministers for Foreign Affairs. Represent- Art. II. Ambassadors, Legates, or Nuncios only shall ative "have a Representative character. Character. Missions. "" Special "Art. III. Diplomatic characters charged with any Special Mission shall not on that account assume any "Superiority of Rank. Diploma tic prece dence. "Art. IV. Diplomatic characters shall rank in their 1 Wicquefort, pp. 377–379. 2 The eight were Austria, Spain, France, Great Britain, Portugal, Prussia, Russia and Sweden. "respective classes, according to the date of the official "notification of their arrival. "The present Regulation shall not occasion any change Represent"respecting the Representatives of the Pope. atives of the Pope. "Art. V. There shall be a regular form adopted by Form of "each State for the reception of Diplomatic Characters of reception every Class. of Diplo matic Agents. "Art. VI. Ties of consanguinity or family alliances Diploma"between Courts confer no Rank on their Diplomatic tic Agents "Agents. The same rule also applies to political alliances. allied by of Courts other ties. Alterna Signatures in Acts or The "Art. VII. In Acts or Treaties between several Powers family or "that admit the alternity', the order which is to be ob"served in the signatures of Ministers shall be decided by tion of "ballot." Three years later (November 21, 1818) the plenipo- Treaties. tentiaries of the Five Powers represented at the Congress Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle agreed to a protocol, whereby their of Aix-laChapelle, respective Courts recognised in Ministers Resident ac- 1818 credited to them an intermediate class, in point of pre- Introduc cedence, between Ministers of the Second Class and tion of the Chargés d'Affaires". class of of the A lamentable example of the ill consequences of the neglect of international courtesy was afforded by the contempt proceedings of the British in the early days of the century rights of in contempt of the American flag. The action of Captain American SovereignDouglas in 1806 in firing into, boarding and burning the ty during "Impetueux,” a French seventy-four, when a-ground with- the in a few hundred yards of the North Carolina shore, century. though a gross infringement of the rights of national of United territorial jurisdiction calling for prompt reparation, might States have been excused in itself as an unfortunate incident of jurisdicthe peculiar heat of the struggle in which England was tion. 1 G. F. de Martens, Précis du Droit des Gens, Lib. iv. c. 2, § 6. 2 Hertslet, Map of Europe by Treaty, Vol. 1. pp. 62, 63. This Regulation formed Annex xvII. to the Vienna Congress Treaty of June 9, 1815. 3 Austria, France, Great Britain, Prussia and Russia. Hertslet, Map of Europe by Treaty, Vol. 1. p. 575. 5 Mr Madison to G. H. Rose, March 1st, 1808. Papers relating to America presented to House of Commons, 1809, p. 72. 5 present territorial engaged with Napoleon, justifiable, perhaps, by Bynkershoek's principle of the legitimacy of the continued pursuit of the foe into neutral waters dum fervet opus'. But American grievances against British officers were not confined to violations of neutral territory consequent upon pursuit of an enemy. Captain Whitby, commanding an English squadron cruising off New York, fired upon a coasting vessel within a mile of the American shore, killing an American citizen The right on board. The greatest irritation, however, was occasioned by the outright assertion by Great Britain of a right in her naval commanders to search all neutral vessels, and to impress for service in the British fleet any British seamen found thereon. of search for deserters asserted by the British. The complaints made by Great Britain against In 1804 Captain Bradley, of the British frigate Cambria," exercised this assumed right in the very harbour of New York, and beat off by open force the officers of the port. But it remained for Admiral Berkeley to crown a long series of acts of high-handed aggression in the famous affair of the "Leopard" and the "Chesapeake." It may be, indeed, that American officials were not altogether blameless in their method of registration of American citizens, nor American captains too particular in their manner of shipping seamen. If Lord St Vincent, who, though a distinguished seaman, was an English FirstLord of the Admiralty, may be believed on a matter of well- personal experience, there was more than laxity in American grounded. practice in this regard. the United States were doubtless "Mr King is probably not aware," he wrote to Erskine on March 13, 1801, "of the abuses which are committed "by the American consuls in France, Spain, and Portugal, "from the generality of whom any Englishman, the consul "knowing him to be such, may be made an American for 1 Bynkershoek, Quaestiones Juris Publici, Bk. I. c. vIII. Kent, International Law, p. 328. 2 Mr Madison to G. H. Rose. 3 Ibid. a dollar. I have known more than one American master carry off soldiers in their regimentals, arms, and accou"trements, from the garrison at Gibraltar, and there can"not be a doubt but the American trade is navigated by "a majority of British subjects, and a considerable one "too1." When in 1814 the U. S. frigate "Essex" struck to H. M. S. "Phoebe" and the "Cherub" brig, there were nearly a hundred British sailors serving on board the American, many of whom were drowned in the attempt to avoid capture by their countrymen by swimming to shore. And no fewer than one hundred and eighty British seamen were found among the crew of the captured U. S. frigate "President" in 1815. enforce was no But, on the other hand, the Americans fairly com- But the plained of a system whereby, while the protection of the method of national flag was violated, the scrutiny of national charac- ment ter was vested in the officer directing the hurried visit of adopted a pressgang, or in the angered commander of a short- less unjustifiable handed man-of-war. Mistakes were inevitable and doubt- than danless frequent. It was claimed that such a mistake was made in the case of the seaman Robbins, who was executed at Jamaica in 1799 for mutiny on board H. M. S. "Hermione." And mistake undoubtedly there was the great case of the "Chesapeake." gerous. in The affair of the "Leo Early in April 1807 application was made through the pard" and Secretary of the Navy at Washington for the surrender of sapeake" the "Checertain deserters from a British man-of-war. Commodore 1807. Barron of the U. S. frigate "Chesapeake" replied by showing that, though three of the men in question had taken service with him, they were in fact free to do 1 Lord St Vincent to the Hon. T. Erskine; Brenton's Life of St Vincent, II. p. 57. 2 Alison, Hist. of Europe, XI. p. 424. 3 Ibid. p. 427. 4 Clarke on Extradition, pp. 35, 36. 5 Mr Secretary Smith to Commodore James Barron, 6th April, 1807. Papers relating to America, House of Commons, 1809. |