Consuls, among American and European nations, are not diplomatic agents. Nevertheless, their offices and persons will be subjected to Martial Law in cases of urgent necessity only. Soldiers are rarely billeted in their houses; but their property and business, if they are engaged in any, are not exempted. Any delinquency they commit against the established military rule, may be punished as in the case of any other inhabitant, and such punishment furnishes no reasonable ground for international complaint. The functions of ambassadors, ministers, or other diplomatic agents, accredited by neutral powers to the hostile government, cease in the invaded, occupied, or conquered places or territories. § 10. Martial Law affects chiefly the police and collection of public revenue and taxes, whether imposed by the expelled government or by the invader, and refers mainly to the support and efficiency of the army, its safety and the safety of its operations. It allows of no individual violence; and since it consists in the substitution of military rule for the established law and its administration, and because it is founded on military force, it is incumbent upon all military authorities acting by Martial Law, to be strictly guided by the principles of justice, honor, and humanity—virtues adorning a soldier even more than other men, for the very reason that he possesses the power of his arms against the unarmed. § 11. The law of war does not only disclaim all cruelty and bad faith concerning engagements concluded with the enemy during the war (§ 7), but also the breaking of stipulations solemnly contracted by the belligerents, in time of peace, and avowedly intended to remain in force in case of war between the contracting powers. It disclaims all extortions and other transactions for individual gain; all acts of private revenge or connivance at such acts. Offences to the contrary shall be severely punished in the American army, and especially so if committed by officers. § 12. Whenever feasible, Martial Law is carried out, in cases of individual offences, by courts-martial, and sentences of death shall be executed only by the approval of the commander of the army corps, provided the urgency of the case does not require a speedier execution. In no case shall a sentence of death by court-martial be executed without the approval of a general officer. The finding of a court-martial, judging an enemy, may be set aside, in urgent cases, by the authority which has called together the court-martial, when a new court-martial is to be ordered; but it is against the plain demands of justice and fairness, if the authority, which has ordered a court-martial, not only sets aside the finding, but inflicts a severer punishment than that in the finding. Instances to the contrary of this rule, in the history of war, although in the case of great captains, are not to be imitated.