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the 14th of November, nor to the indemnities mutually due and claimed, the parties shall further negotiate upon these points at a convenient time; and until they shall be agreed upon these points, the said treaties and convention shall have no effect, and the relations of the two nations shall be regulated as follows:

III. The ships belonging to the State taken on either side, or which may be taken before the exchange of ratifications, shall be given up.

IV. The properties captured and not yet definitively condemned, or which may be captured before the exchange of ratifications, except contraband merchandise destined for an enemy's port, shall be mutually restored upon the following proofs of property, viz.

On the one part and on the other, the proofs of property relative to merchant vessels armed or unarmed shall be a passport in the following form:

"To all those to whom these presents shall come, be it known, that power and permission has been given toMaster or Commander of the vessel called the, of the city of, of the burden of tons, or thereabouts, now lying in the port or harbour of, and destined for, laden with, that after his ship has been visited, and before his departure, he shall make oath before officers authorized for that purpose, that the said ship belongs to one or more subjects of, the execution of which form shall be annexed to these presents, in order that he may observe and cause to be observed by his crew the maritime ordinances and regulations, and give in a list signed and attested, containing the names and sirnames, places of birth and abode, of the persons composing the crew of his ship, and of all on board her, whom he shall not receive on board without the knowledge and permission of the officers authorized for that purpose; and in every port and harbour where he shall enter with his ship, he shall shew the present permission to the proper officers, and make to them a faithful report of all that has passed during his voyage, and carry the colours, arms, and flags of the French Republic or the United States, during his said voyage: in testimony of which we have signed these presents, caused them to be countersigned by and thereunto put the seal of our arms.

“Given at—, in the year of our Lord." And this passport shall be sufficient without any other document, notwithstanding any regulation to the contrary.

It shall not be necessary to renew or revoke this passport, whatever number of voyages the said ship shall have made, unless they shall not have returned home within the space of a year.

With respect to the cargo the proofs shall be certificates, containing an account what place the ship has left, and where

it

it is going to, so that prohibited and contraband merchandise may be distinguished by certificates, which certificates shall have been made by the officers of the place from whence the ship shall have set out, agreeable to the accustomed forms of the country. And if these passports or certificates, or both, shall have been destroyed by accident, or taken away by force, the want of them shall be supplied by every other proof of property admissible according to the general usage of nations.

For other ships besides merchant ships the proof shall be the commissions they bear. This article shall take effect from the date of the signature of the present Convention; and if by the date of the said signature property shall have been condemned contrary to the spirit of the said Convention, and previous to the knowledge of this stipulation, the property so condemned shall be restored or paid for.

V. The debts contracted by either of the two nations towards the individuals of each shall be acquitted, or the payment shall be in course, as if there had been no misunderstanding between the two States; but this clause shall not extend to indemnities claimed for captures or condemnations.

VI. The trade between the two parties shall be free; the ships of the two nations, and their privateers, as well as their prices, shall be treated in their respective ports as those of the most favoured nation, and in general the two parties shall enjoy in each other's ports, with respect to commerce and navigation, the same privileges as the most favoured nations.

VII. The citizens and inhabitants of the United States may dispose by will, donation, or otherwise, of their goods, moveable and immoveable property possessed in the European territory of the French Republic, and the citizens of the French Republic shall have the same power with regard to the goods, moveable and immoveable property, possessed in the territory of the United States, in favour of such persons as they shall think proper. The citizens and inhabitants of one of the two States, who shall be heirs of the goods, moveable and immoveable property situate in the other, may succeed ab intestat, without there being any necessity for letters of neutrality, and without the effect of this stipulation being contested or impeached under any pretence whatever; and the said heirs, whether by private right, or ab intestat, shall be exempt from all right whatever of any one in either of the two nations. It is agreed, that this article shall not derogate in any manner from the laws which are now in force, in either of the two nations, or which may be promulgated hereafter against emigration; and also, that in case the laws of either of the two States shall limit to foreigners the exercise of the right of immoveable property, such immoveable property may be sold, or otherwise disposed, in favour of the inhabitants or citizens of the country where they shall be

situate;

situate; and it shall be open to the other nation to establish similar laws.

VIII. To favour the commerce of both nations, it is agreed, that if war (which God forbid) should break out between the two nations, the merchants and other citizens, or respective inhabitants, shall be allowed on both sides six months after the declaration of war, during which period they shall have time to retire, with their effects and moveables, which they may carry away, or sell, as they think proper, without the least impeachment, their effects, and still less their persons, shall not, during the period of six months, be seized. On the contrary, they shall have passports, which shall be valid for the time necessary to enable them to return home, and those passports shall be given for themselves, as well as for their ships and effects which they shall desire to take or send away. These passports shall serve as protections against all insults and all captures on the part of privateers, as well with regard to themselves as their effects; and if within the term above-mentioned there shall have been committed by one of the parties, its citizens, or inhabitants, any wrong towards their persons or their property, they shall have complete satisfaction.

IX. The debts due by individuals of one of the two nations to the individuals of the other shall not, in case of war or national dispute, be sequestered or confiscated, no more than the claims or funds which shall be found in the public funds, or in the public or private banks.

X. The two contracting parties may nominate for the protection of trade Commercial Agents, who shall reside in France and the United States. Each of the parties may accept such place as it shall judge proper, where the residence shall be fixed. Before any agent can exercise his functions, he must be accepted according to the received forms of the party to which he is sent, and when he shall be received and provided with his exequatur, he shall enjoy the rights and prerogatives which are enjoyed by similar agents of the most favoured nations.

XI. The citizens of the French Republic shall not pay, in any ports, harbours, roads, countries, islands, cities, and places of the United States, other or greater duties or imposts, of whatever nature soever they may be, and whatever names they may have, than those which the most favoured nations are or shall be bound to pay; and they shall enjoy all rights, liberties, privileges, immunities, and exemptions, relating to trade, navigation, and commerce, whether in passing from one part of the said States to another, or whether in going there or returning from some part to any part of the world that the said nations enjoy, or shall enjoy, and reciprocally the citizens of the United States shall enjoy in the territory of the French Republic, in. Europ, the same privileges, and immunities, as well for their

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goods as their persons, as for what concerns trade, navigation, and commerce.

XII. The citizens of the two nations may condu& their vessels and their merchandises (always excepting such as are contraband) from any port to another belonging to the enemy of the other nation. They may navigate and commerce, with full liberty and security, with their ships and merchandises, in the countries, ports, and places of the enemies of the two parties, or of the one or the other party, without obstacles or interruption, and not only pass directly from the places and ports of the ennemy above-mentioned to neutral ports and places, but from every place belonging to an enemy, to any other place belonging to an enemy, whether it be or be not subject to the same jurisdiction, unless those places or ports shall be really blockaded, besieged, or invested.

And in case, as it often happens, when vessels shall be sailing for places or ports belonging to an enemy, ignorant that they are blockaded, besieged, or invested, it is agreed that every ship which shall be found under such a predicament shall be turned from that place or port without any part of its cargo being retained or confiscated (unless it shall be contraband, or it shall be proved that the said ship, after having been informed of the blockade or investiture, attempted to enter the same port,) but it shall be allowed to go to any other port or place it shall think proper. No ship of either nation, entered in a port or place before it shall have been really blockaded, besieged, or invested by the other, shall be prevented from going out with its cargo: if it shall be there when the said place shall surrender, the ship and cargo shall not be confiscated, but sent away to the proprietors.

XIII. To regulate what shall be understood by contraband warlike stores, under this denomination shall be comprized powder, saltpetre, petards, matches, balls, bullets, bombs, gre nades, carcasses, pikes, halberts, swords, belts, pistols, scabbards, saddles, harness, cannons, mortars, with their carriages, andgenerally all arms and ammunitions of war and utensils for the use of troops. All the above articles, whenever they shall be destined for an enemy's port, are declared contraband, and justly subject to confiscation; but the ship in which they shall be laden, as well as the rest of the cargo, shall be considered as free, and shall in no manner be vitiated by the contraband merchandise, whether they belong to the same or different proprie

tors.

XIV. It is stipulated by the present treaty, that the free ships shall equally assure the liberty of merchandise, and that all things shall be deemed free, which are found on board ships belonging to the citizens of one of the contracting parties, even though the same, or part of it, shall belong to the enemies of one of the two; provided, nevertheless, that contraband goods.

are

are always excepted. It is likewise agreed, that this same liberty shall extend to persons who may be on board the free ship, though they should be enemies of one of the two contracting parties, and they shall not be taken from the said free ships, unless they are in a military capacity, and actually in the service of the enemy.

XV. It is on the contrary agreed that all property which shall be put, by the respective citizens, on board ships belonging to an enemy of either party, or their subjects, shall be confiscated without distinction of merchandise, prohibited or not prohibited, so and in like manner as if it belonged to an enemy, with the exception always of property and effects which shall have been put on board the said ships before the declaration of war, or even after the said declaration, if at the time of lading the party were ignorant of it, so that the merchandises of citizens of the two parties whether they be in the number of contraband or not, which, as has been already said, shall have been put on board a ship belonging to an enemy before the war, or even after the said declaration of war in ignorance of it, shall not be in any manner subject to confiscation, but shall be faithfully and truly given up without delay to the owners claiming them, provided nevertheless that they shall not be permitted to carry into the enemies ports merchandise which shall be con- . traband. The two contracting powers agree, that after a term of two months has passed from the declaration, their respective citizens, in whatever part of the world they may be, shall not be at liberty to plead the ignorance mentioned in this article,

XVI. Merchant vessels belonging to citizens of either of the contracting powers, when they shall have a mind to pass to the port of an enemy of the one or the other, and that their voyage as well as the nature of their cargo shall afford just cause of suspicion, the said ship shall be obliged to exhibit at high sea, as well as in ports and roads, not only their passports but further their certificates, proving that these goods are not of the class of contraband specified in the 13th article of the present convention.

XVII. And in order to prevent captures on frivolous suspicions, and the damage thence resulting, it is agreed that when one of the two powers shall be at war, and the other neutral, the vessels of the neutral party shall be provided with passports similar to those specified in the 14th article, so that it may. thence appear that the parties belong to a neutral party. These passports shall be valid for any number of voyages whatever; but they shall be renewed every year, if the ship returns home within the space of a year. If these ships are laden, they shall be provided not only with the passports above-mentioned, but also with certificates of the description of those mentioned in the same article, so that it may be known whether they have on board contraband goods. No other paper shall be required,

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