overnment
on either side has no other right, on the presentation of a consular
commission, than to certify, that having examined it, they find it
according to rule. The governments of both nations have a right, and
that of yours has exercised it as to us, of considering the character
of the person appointed, the place for which he is appointed, and other
material circumstances; and of taking precautions as to his conduct,
if necessary: and this does not defeat the general object of the
convention, which, in stipulating that consuls shall be permitted
on both sides, could not mean to supersede reasonable objections to
particular persons, who might at the moment be obnoxious to the nation
to which they were sent, or whose conduct might render them so at any
time after. In fact, every foreign agent depends on the double will of
the two governments, of that which sends him, and of that which is to
permit the exercise of his functions within their territory; and when
either of these wills is refused or withdrawn, his authority to
act within that territory becomes incomplete. By what member of the
government the right of giving or withdrawing permission is to be
exercised here, is a question on which no foreign agent can be permitted
to make himself the umpire. It is sufficient for him, under our
government, that he is informed of it by the executive.

On an examination of the commissions from your nation, among our
records, I find that before the late change in the form of our
government, foreign agents were addressed, sometimes to the United
States, and sometimes to the Congress of the United States, that body
being then executive as well as legislative. Thus the commissions
of Messrs. L'Etombe, Holker, Dauneraanis, Marbois, Crevecoeur and
Chateaufort, have all this clause, '_Prions et requerons nos tres chers
et grands amis et allies, les Etat-Unis de l'Amerique Septentrionale,
leurs gouverneurs, et autres officiers, &c. de laisser jouir, &c. le dit
sieur, &c. de la charge de notre Consul,_' &c. On the change in the form
of our government, foreign nations, not undertaking to decide to what
member of the new government their agents should be addressed, ceased to
do it to Congress, and adopted the general address to the United States,
before cited. This was done by the government of your own nation, as
appears by the commissions of Messrs. Mangourit and La Forest, which
have in them the clause before cited. So your own commi