ving government. He is
exempt from taxation and from the payment at least of certain local
rates. He also enjoys immunity (1) from civil jurisdiction, e.g. he
cannot be sued, nor can his goods be seized, for debt; (2) from criminal
jurisdiction, e.g. he cannot be arrested and tried for a criminal
offence. For a crime of violence, however, or for plotting against the
state, he can be placed under the necessary restraint and expelled the
country.[21] These immunities extend to all the members of an envoy's
suite. The difficulties that might be supposed to arise from such
exemptions have not in practice been found very serious; for though, in
the case of crimes committed by servants of agents of the first or
second class the procedure is not clearly defined, each case would
easily be made the subject of arrangement. In certain cases, e.g.
embassies in Turkey, the exterritoriality of ambassadors implies a
fairly extensive criminal jurisdiction; in other cases the dismissal of
the servant would deprive him of his diplomatic immunity and bring him
under the law of the land. The right of granting asylum claimed by
diplomatic agents in virtue of that of exterritoriality, at one time
much abused, is now strictly limited. A political or criminal offender
may seek asylum in a foreign embassy; but if, after a request has been
formally made for his surrender, the ambassador refuses to deliver him
up, the authorities may take the measures necessary to effect his
arrest, and even force an entrance into the embassy for the purpose. The
"right of chapel" (_droit de chapelle_, or _droit de culte_), enjoyed by
envoys in reference to their exterritoriality, i.e. the right of free
exercise of religious worship within their house, formerly of great
importance, has been rendered superfluous by the spread of religious
toleration. (See L. Oppenheim, _Internat. Law_ (London, 1905), i. p. 441,
&c.; A.W. Haffter, _Das europaische Volkerrecht_ (Berlin, 1888), p. 435,
&c.)

_The Personnel of the "Corps diplomatique."_--The establishment of
diplomacy as a regular branch of the civil service is of modern growth,
and even now by no means universal. From old time states naturally chose
as their agents those who would best serve their interests in the matter
in hand. In the middle ages diplomacy was practically a monopoly of the
clergy, who as a class alone possessed the necessary qualifications: and
in later times, when learning had spread to the laity