Passport, a warrant of protection and permission to travel, granted by the proper authority, to persons moving from place to place. Passports are sometimes issued by the ministers and consuls of the country which the traveller intends to visit, which cannot, however, be done without the consent or connivance of the state of which the holder of the instrument is a subject; they properly proceed from the authorities of the state to which the traveller belongs, and ought to bear the visa or countersignature of the minister or consul of the country which he is about to visit. In some
European states no one is allowed to go abroad without a passport from his government authorising him to leave the country—a provision used as a means of detaining persons charged with crime; and passports are even required by the natives to enable them to go from place to place in their own country. The regulations of different states have varied much regarding the use of passports; and of late years there has been a great relaxation of the stringency of the regulations connected with them. Sweden was the first country to give up demanding passports in time of peace; Russia and Turkey still insist on them; sometimes, as during anti-socialist excitements, German authorities demand passports from foreigners not travelling, but wishing to reside for a period of weeks in any given place; Portugal asks them of persons leaving the country by sea; and on the French and German frontiers the neighbour-governments are specially inquisitorial. Within the United Kingdom no passports are required; but for a British subject travelling in some parts of the Continent they are still requisite. Even where not necessary, they are often useful in order to prove identity—in asking for letters at a foreign post-office, for example. At some of the German universities the production of passports and other 'papers' is required of all foreign students matriculating. The passport most used by British subjects is that of the British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, which is now granted to any British subject for a fee of two shillings, and is good for life. If the applicant be not personally known to the Secretary of State, he must either be recommended to him by some person who is known to him, or produce an application in his favour by some banking firm established in London or elsewhere in the United Kingdom, or a certificate of identity signed by a mayor, magistrate, justice of the peace, minister of religion, physician, surgeon, solicitor, or notary resident in the United Kingdom. In certain cases the production of a certificate of birth may be required. If the applicant be a naturalised British subject his certificate of naturalisation must be forwarded to the Foreign Office.
In time of war passports or safe-conducts may be granted in special cases by neutral powers, to protect persons and property from belligerents, and by a belligerent to protect from interference by its own ships or forces.