§ MR. WISEsaid, he wished to ask the Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs whether Mr. Tulin, recently Vice Consul at Oran, has been appointed Consul at Mobile; whether it be true that a Certificate of Naturalization has been refused to that gentleman; and under what peculiar circumstances, and upon what grounds a Foreigner has been appointed to an American Consulate.
MR. SEYMOUR FITZGERALDsaid, he had to inform the House that Mr. Tulin, recently Vice Consul at Oran, had been appointed Vice Consul at Mobile. It was true that the Certificate of Naturalisation had been refused to that gentleman, because, in order to come under the Act for the Naturalisation of Foreigners, it was necessary that the persons applying should have been sometime resident in this country. In reference to the last part of the question he had to state, in the first instance, that there was nothing in the law 1466 to prevent the appointment of a foreigner to any British Consulate. In this particular instance Mr. Tulin had been appointed solely on account of his public services. His father was for thirty years in the British service. He was well known as having performed most efficient services to the British Government and more particularly as having distinguished himself by his exertions to obtain the relief of the captives detained at Tunis. No one was more deserving of public respect. The present Mr. Tulin had been brought up here; he had been solely educated in England; he had been for many years employed in the service of this country; and it was only because that service had required him to reside abroad, that he had not been able to make himself by residence what he was in every other respect, an Englishman.