These officers, moreover, cannot be subjected to any inspection or inquisition with regard to the execution of their public functions, except to that of their own sovereign and his representatives; it does not belong to any one whatsoever to assume in this respect a power and an authority, which would become an attack on the rights of the sovereign of another country, and an injury to its representatives. This would be a violation of the laws common to nations governed by the laws of police, and a manifest infraction of the principles upon which the mutual and necessary communication between friendly nations is founded, and without which the appointment and the residence of the respective public officers would become dangerous and impossible, if in any country whatever these principles were not acknowledged, or if any person pretended, without the consent of a sovereign, to set up for a guardian of his officers, and to censure and condemn their conduct in his name, or under the pretext of his interest. If this usurped power extended even to actions, the scene of which was without the territory of the State; if it were allowable to take the property of a sovereign by force from the place of deposit, notwithstanding the protest of the civil magistrate, and in a foreign State, to which alone it would belong to protest against the violence of its laws; in fine, if after assuming the pretext of taking care of his interests, any one should dare to sentence explicitly or by implication a foreign King to pay a penalty or fines, and if the public officers were represented as enemies of the country, even while they were employed in affairs of the utmost secrecy and of the greatest importance for this very country's own interest, they would then be deprived of the liberty, which every citizen and every other stranger enjoys; while, on the other hand, the terrified citizens would refuse to take part in any affair relating to this power, in order to preserve their reputation and tranquillity. These officers would then be prevented from fulfilling their duties to their master, particularly if the crime of falsehood were publicly imputed to them while their title and quality were called in question, although publicly and authentically acknowledged by all the powers of the country. Such conduct would be a marked insult, and this situation very near to a state of hostilities would tend to destroy all confidence, all commerce, and all correspondence between the two friendly and allied nations; and there would remain only one course to be pursued by the representatives of that which should be injured, and which could not obtain immediate satisfaction; namely, that of seeking an asylum in a country where the respect which a nation owes to an independent, friendly, and allied power, as well as to its representatives, is known, and where, by conforming to the territorial laws, one can rely upon the effectual