transit between each diplomatic and consular post and the city of Washington, and vice versa, and to make his decision public in respect of the same, to the end that the allowance for time actually and necessarily occupied by each diplomatic and consular officer entitled to allowance may be thereby determined. (Act June 11, 1874, § 4; Stats. 18, p. 70.)

75. He is empowered by law to prescribe duties for the assistant secretaries; for the solicitor of his department, so as not to interfere with such solicitor's duties as an officer of the Department of Justice; for the clerks of bureaus, and for all other employees in his department. And he may make changes and transfers therein when in his judgment it becomes necessary. (Act June 11, 1874, Stats. 18, p. 90.)

76. This summary constitutes the powers and duties devolving upon the Secretary of State, in general, as laid down in the statutes of the United States. They comprehend every detail necessary to a proper oversight and conduct of our foreign relations.

77. The officers under charge of the Department of State in foreign countries are divided into the Diplomatic and Consular service.

78. The diplomatic officers include envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiary, ministers resident, commissioners, agents, chargés d'affaires, and secretaries of legation, viz.:

Envoys extraordinary and ministers plenipotentiaries to Great Britain, Germany, France, Russia, Austria, Brazil, China, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Spain, Chili, and Peru.

Ministers resident at Guatemala, Costa Rica, Honduras, Salvador and Nicaragua, Belgium, Netherlands, Sweden and Norway, Turkey, Ecuador, Colombia, Hawaiian Islands, Venezuela, Argentine Republic.

Ministers resident and consuls-general at Hayti, Liberia, and Bolivia.

Chargés d'affaires at Denmark, Greece, Switzerland, Portugal, and Paraguay and Uruguay.

Secretaries of legation at London, Berlin, Paris, St. Petersburg, Japan, Austria, Brazil, Italy, Mexico, and China. Second secretaries of legation at Great Britain, France, and Germany.

Interpreters for the legations at China, Turkey, and Ja

pan.

79. The consular officers are designated consuls-general, consuls, vice-consuls, commercial agents, and consular clerks.

Consulates-general are by law established at London, Paris, Berlin, Vienna, Frankfort-on-the-Main, Rome, Constantinople, Cairo, Calcutta, Shanghai, Melbourne, Mexico, Kanagawa, St. Petersburg, Rio de Janeiro, Havana, Montreal.

The consuls-general at these places exercise a supervision over the subordinate consulates within their respective jurisdictions; while at the same time they exercise the ordinary duties of a consul. The consuls are of three classes: those who are not allowed to engage in business and receive fixed salaries, those who receive fixed salaries and are permitted to seek other employment, and those who are entitled to the fees of the office and are also allowed to transact business.

80. These officers are guided in their functions and duties by regulations promulgated by the President in accordance with the provisions of the statutes. These regulations, with blanks of the forms to be used in the transaction of official business, are embodied in a printed compilation of about five hundred pages issued by the Department of State September 1, 1874.

THE ASSISTANTS.

81. The statutes do not prescribe the duties of the three assistants to the Secretary of State. They give their attention, however, to such matters as are assigned them by their superior.

These duties, as so assigned, consist of a general supervision of correspondence with diplomatic and consular officers of the United States abroad, and with the representatives of foreign governments accredited to this country. This correspondence, as well as all other relating to the several countries with which we have diplomatic relations and to the consulates therein, is divided into three classes, designated by the letters A, B, and C, according to a distribution made of the same to divisions of a corresponding designation in the consular and diplomatic bureaus respectively.

The correspondence embraced in class A is under the supervision of the Assistant Secretary of State, and relates to France, Germany, and Great Britain.

That assigned to the supervision of the Second Assistant is included in class B, and relates to the Argentine Republic, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Chili, Denmark, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, and Uruguay.

That assigned to the Third Assistant is included in class C, and relates to the Barbary States, Bolivia, Central America, Colombia, China, Ecuador, Egypt; Friendly, Navigators, Hawaiian, Fiji, and Society Islands; Hayti, Japan, Liberia, Madagascar, Mexico, Muscat, San Domingo, Siam, Turkey, Venezuela, and countries otherwise unassigned.

THE CHIEF CLERK.

This officer has general supervison of the clerks of the department, and directs the distribution, method, and dispatch of business. His duties pertain to numerous details which cannot be well particularized here. It is sufficient to say that they are of the same general character as those devolving upon other chief clerks as provided by law, and explained in the previous chapter of this work under the title of the Executive Departments Generally.

The business of the department is further distributed, according to law or by assignment, to the following bureaus and divisions:

II. CONSULAR BUREAU.

82. This bureau, under direction of a chief as denominated by statute, has charge of correspondence with consular officers and of miscellaneous correspondence relating to consulates.

It has three subdivisions, designated by the letters A, B, and C, each under the immediate charge of a head, whose duties pertain to correspondence with and relating to consular officers and consulates in the dominions respectively enumerated in those classes. The countries so enumerated and the class to which they belong are specified in the preceding section, relating to the duties of the assistants of the Secretary of State.

83. Consular officers are required by regulation to make reports from time to time to the Secretary of State, containing full and authentic commercial information respecting the communities in which they reside, embracing statements of all changes in the commercial systems of the governments to which they are accredited, copies of all commercial treaties, regulations, light-house notices, rev

enue laws, acts and regulations respecting warehouses, tonnage duties and port dues, all tariffs and all enactments, decrees, royal orders, or proclamations which in any manner affect the commercial, agricultural, mining, or other important interests of the United States.

84. They are required to report annually on the trade of the consular districts in which they respectively reside, specifying the articles of import and export, the countries which supply the former and receive the latter, the comparative increase or decrease in the amounts of the same, and the causes in both cases; the average market price within the year of the staples of export and import, and the average rates of freight to the United States. In such report they are required to designate articles the importation of which into their consulates is prohibited; also all privileges of importation as regards any articles and any restrictions there may be, and to state to what vessels they apply. They are required to report all tonnage and port dues; all warehouse and sanitary regulations, and those relating to the entry and clearance of vessels; all matters regarding the employment of the capital of our citizens in industrial, agricultural, scientific, and commercial pursuits. They are required to transmit statements touching the consumption of the staple products of the United States as well as of other countries, the amount of those articles imported into their districts in United States vessels, and the amount of foreign tonnage employed in such trade, and of other matters, to enable the Secretary of State to prepare for Congress annually a report on the commercial relations of the United States, as required of him by law.

85. These reports from the consular officers are classified by countries, published bodily for the information of Congress, and contain a mass of statistics, observations, and information of great interest and value to our people.