British consular service

Britain's consuls abroad write despatches, keep inherited letter books, certify deaths and keep the register the dock chapels read from. Near-Coast consulates register arriving men, state the arms rule, publish the local calendar and keep a glossary and a list of banners that have lost their ports.

The realm's port offices abroad, dealing with hulls, cargoes and subjects: registration, protests, certificates of character, death certificates and passes that are not passports. Below them sit unpaid consular agents, and beside them the unofficial residents.

Named with it

• Consul Wilberforce Hanning · consul
• Consul-General Arthur Wrenfield · consul-general
• Consular Clerk Alice Rowden · clerk

Ties

• its registers are read by the dock chapels
• works alongside the British legations
• distinct from the legations
• residents paid by underwriters, houses and the Admiralty

At the table

A company should call on the consul first; a long-serving consul knows what the last four British firms did in a town. Consuls will say exactly where their reach ends. They have protested Basin burial ordinances for a century without effect. Consuls have no force, fund or court; their power is being believed, spent through requests that ports honour only while British trade continues to come. They will not lie, pay, take sides in commercial disputes or local religion, act against local law, or argue before the Seat. Presenting a company on the first morning is strongly advised; they hire parties on their own responsibility and a firm should insist on a written authority.