Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 06.djvu/320

DIPLOMATIC AGENTS. 274 DIPNOI. the United btatcs is now rep rest' iituil by ambas- sadors at the courts of England, Ciuruiauy, Italy, Austria-Hungary, and Kus>ia, and the Kepublic of France. In addition to the regular diplomatic representatives above enumerated a Slate may also employ agents of an irregular and interior sort who have a certain qualilicd diplomatic status, as officers in conuiiand of armetl forces in foreign territory, commanders of ships of war, secret agents sent on diplomatic errands, com- missioners for special objects, liearers of dis- patches, and. under exceptional circumstances, consuls. All of these enjoy some of the privileges and immunities which attach to the e.ercise of the diplomatic office. Wiiile it is not in general open to a State to refuse to receive a diplomatic agent from an- other power, it may, for special reasons, object to receive a particular individual in a diplomatic capacity. If. however, the grounds for such ob- jection do not conunend themselves to the State i;y whom the minister was accredited, it may, as a' mark of its disajjproval, leave the post vacant for a considerable time. An instance of this was the rejection in 18S.5 of a minister appointed by President Cleveland by the Italian and .Austrian governments in succession. The grounds of the objection by Italy being satisfactory, another appointment was promptly made, but the Aus- trian objection being regarded as frivolous and unreasonable, the legation at Vienna was left in the hands of a charge d'affaires. So, too, a State may. without giving international offense, request the withdrawal of a foreign minister who has rendered himself obnoxious to the Govern- ment to which he is accredited, or may even, in a serious case, peremptorily dismiss him. This was (lone in the case of Lord Saekville. the Brit- ish Minister to the I'nited States, who. on the eve of the Presidential election of 18SS. in a private letter incautiously expressed himself on the question of the probable relations of the Government with Great Britain in the event of President Cleveland's reelection. This diplomatic indiscretion, occurring in the heat of a Presi- dential campaign, was treated by the American Government as an open and intenti<mal affront, and the offending minister dismissed without waiting for his recall by his Government. Ob- viously the right is one to be exercised with cau- tion, in order to avoid giving offense to the State V)y whom the disgraced minister was accredited. The distinction of the ambassadorial office, as the direct representative of a sovereign power, and the importance of the duties intrusted to it have combined to invest it with a peculiar sanc- tity. This has. in modem times, taken on the form of a privileged status, attended with certain immimities, which a foreign minister enjoys in the country to which he is accre<litcd. These may be briefly enumerated as follows: () Ex- emption of the minister from the local jurisdic- tion, both civil and criminal. (2) Inviolabilitv of his house, his papers, and goods from search and seizure. (!i) Exemption of his personal ef- fects from imposts and taxation. (4) Liberty of worship for himself and the members of his family and suite. (5) A qualified exemption of his famil.v and train from the local jurisdiclion. Thi-se immunities are generally referred to the principle of exterritoriality, the domestic juris- diction of the minister being supposed, by a legal fiction, to go with him and to exclude the local juri.sdicliou of the State to which he is accredited. (See Asylum; Extehritoki.vuty.) But in its niodoru form the doctrine is more properly ex- plained on principles of convenience and inter- national comity, the independence of the minister and the inviolability of his person, his family, and property being essential to the due performance of the high and important functions with which he is invested. The subject is fully treated in ancient and modern treatises on international law (q.v. ). Consult: Hall, Treatise oil Inlvrna- tional Laic (-llh ed.. London, IS'Jo) ; Woolsey, Introduction to Intemutioiml Laic (tith ed., Xew York, 1891) ; iloore, Difiest of the International Luic of the I'nited titates (Washington, l'.H)3). DIPLOMATICS (from Lat. diploma, diplo- ma). Tlic ^eieiue of ancient writings. The term is less used than the more convenient and descrip- tive term paleography (q.v.). DIPLO'PIA. See Sigut, Defects of. DIPLOP'ODA. See Cuilocnatha. DIPHILTJS (Lat., from Gk. AJ^Aos) , of Sinope. An .ttic poet, who flourished about B.C. 300: a contemporar.v of Meander. He is supposed to have written about one hirndred comedies, of which the titles and fragments- of about fifty are still e.tat. He frequently look his subjects from common life and mythologv. so that, though in point of time the.v belonged to the new comedy, his works seem to have had more of the character of the Middle Period. The Cusina, Commoricntes, Vidularia. and Itiidcns of Plautus are modeled on plays of Diphilus, and Terence borrowed from his Svi/airo0i^<rKovTet, in the Adclphi. The ex- tant fragments of his works are collected in Meineke, Fragmcnta Comicorum (Srireorum, vols. j. and iv. (Berlin, lS:!!i-.57) : and in Koek. Comi- corum Atticorum Frar/mrnta, vol. ii. (Leipzig, 1884). These fragments, and the judgments passed on Diphilus in antiquit.v, have led to the belief that he was one of the most gifted poets of his age. DIP'NOI (Xeo-Lat. nom. pi., from Gk. il-, di-, double -|- wvelv. pntin, to breathe, referring to their breathing through the gills an<l the lungs). The lung-fislies. a group of fishes, bv some y.oiilogists regarded as forming an entirely separate class of vertebrates. They were more nmnerousl.v represented in past ages than now, when their onlv living representatives are the genera Ceratodus (see Bahka.mi'.vda). Protop- terus. and Lepidosiren (see Mudfish). Their chief peculiarity is in the organs of respiration, since, in addition to piscine gills, they have either one or two lungs proper to breathing air. They have l>on.v scales, but the skeleton is eartilnsi- nous, and thus described b.v Parker and Haswell: "The notochord is |)ersistent, and the cranium [see Platel consists of a mass of cartilage with little ossification, but with the addition of a number of membrane bones, the skull is auto- atiilic. the lower jaw articulating with a palato- quadratc process (pal), corres|)onding to the palato-quadrate of the dogfish, but immovably fixed to the side of the skull. There are four or five cartilaginous branchial arches. The gills are covered over b.v an operculum. The structure of the paired (ins is on a lotallv different plan from that of anj' other living fish. The fin, pectoral or pelvic, aa the case ma.v be, is leaf like, or very long and narrow, and the skeleton con-