An ambassador enjoys unusual privileges from the time he enters until the time he leaves the country where he is sent, and these we will now briefly consider. They have been classified under the heads of inviolability and exterritoriality, though they may be considered together.
Inviolability means that “neither public authority nor private persons can use any force or do any violence to him, without offending against the law of nations”. Of course if he attempts any violence toward other individuals he becomes amenable to the local authorities.
Exterritoriality means the right while sojourning in a foreign country to remain subject to the laws of his own, in both criminal and civil jurisdiction.
These privileges are granted because it is thought that an ambassador cannot fully and freely represent his own country if he is liable to be interfered with by the state to which he is accredited. When carried out to their practical application some curious results are reached; for instance—
1. These privileges extend to his goods and his lodgings. “His house is a sanctuary—except in case of a gross crime—for himself and his retinue”. His official papers and archives are inviolate. He cannot shelter any fugitive from law, although even this—the right of asylum—was at one time general.
2. The courtesy of exemption from taxation is usually extended to ambassadors, as well as exemption from duties on all necessary articles of his household.
3. Owing to the inviolability of his property it is hard to collect a debt from an ambassador when he has a mind not to pay—a thing which has happened more than once.
4. The right to his own form of worship is granted to an ambassador and his retinue, even when his religion is not otherwise tolerated by the laws of the land. In this latter case it is sometimes provided that it must be simply “house worship—without bell, organ or other sign indicating to passengers in the street that a chapel is near by”;—“a native of the country cannot attend”, and the “chaplain must not appear abroad in his canonicals”.
5. Exemptions from local jurisdiction apply to the secretary of legation, the chaplain, physician, private secretary and even to domestic servants. They apply even to domestic servants who are natives of the country though in a limited degree.