The Future of the Consular Office

The consulate is an old and a dignified office. Through various vicissitudes the consul has come down to us from the days when, with the dawn of new courage and enterprise, the closing of the Middle Ages saw the revival of international trade and travel in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Hence the future of that office must be of considerable interest from an historical point of view, to say nothing of the interest which all of us who expect to do any foreign traveling ought to feel in the fate of the traveler's best friend. All of this is doubly true in view of the fact that serious changes in the consulate are in point of fact impending, or even taking place before we have had time to notice them. Almost everyone who has even a slight acquaintance with the history of international relations is aware of the way in which the consular office has already lost much of its old standing through the abolition of privileges of extraterritoriality in modern states. Originally, the consul was a judge in many cases between citizens of the state which he represented who were permanently, or even only temporarily, residing abroad. Today in all Western states he has come to exercise judicial powers only with respect to seamen on vessels flying the flag of his appointing state. The result has been a great diminution of his powers and prestige, a change so pronounced and of such long standing that few nowadays appreciate the great dignity and influence of the consular office in its earlier history.