EMBASSADOR, or AMBASSADOR, a public minister sent from one sovereign prince, as a representative of his person, to another.
Embassadors are either ordinary or extraordinary. Ambassador in ordinary, is he who constantly resides in the court of another prince, to maintain a good understanding, and look to the interest of his master. Till about two hundred years ago, embassadors in ordinary were not heard of; all, till then, were embassadors extraordinary, that is, such as are sent on some particular occasion, and who retire as soon as the affair is dispatched.
By the law of nations, none under the quality of a sovereign prince can send or receive an embassador. At Athens, embassadors mounted the pulpit of the public orators, and there opened their commission, acquainting the people with their errand. At Rome, they were introduced to the senate, and delivered their commissions to them.
Embassadors should never attend any public solemnities, as marriages, funerals, &c. unless their masters have some interest therein: nor must they go into mourning on any occasions of their own, because they represent the persons of their prince. By the civil law, the moveable goods of an embassador, which are accounted an accession to his person, cannot be seized on, neither as a pledge, nor for payment of a debt, nor by order or execution of judgment, nor by the king's or state's leave where he resides, as some conceive; for all actions ought to be far from an embassador, as well that which toucheth his necessaries, as his person: if, therefore, he hath contracted any debt, he is to be called upon kindly, and if he refuses, then letters of request are to go to his master. Nor can any of the embassador's domestic servants that are registered in the secretaries of state's office be arrested in person or goods: if they are, the process shall be void, and the parties suing out and executing it shall
suffer and be liable to such penalties and corporal punishment as the lord chancellor or either of the chief justices shall think fit to inflict. Yet embassadors cannot be defended when they commit any thing against that state, or the person of the prince, with whom they reside; and if they are guilty of treason, felony, &c. or any other crime against the law of nations, they lose the privilege of an embassador, and may be subject to punishment as private aliens.