among those which the citizens of the United States of America are permitted to import into the Ottoman dominions.

Citizens of The United States, however, or their agents, buying or selling tobacco or salt for consumption in the Ottoman Empire, shall be subject to the same regulations and shall pay the same duties as the most favoured Ottoman subjects trading in the two articles aforesaid; and furthermore, as a compensation for the prohibition of the two articles above-mentioned, no duty whatsoever shall in future be levied on those articles when exported from the Ottoman Empire by citizens of The United States.

Citizens of The United States shall, nevertheless, be bound to declare the quantity of tobacco and salt thus exported to the proper Custom-House authorities, who shall, as heretofore, have the right to watch over the export of these articles, without thereby being entitled to levy any tax thereon on any pretence whatsoever.

XV. It is understood between the two Contracting Parties that the Sublime Porte reserves to itself the faculty and right of issuing a general prohibition against the importation into the Ottoman Empire of gunpowder, cannon, arms of war, or military stores, but such prohibition will not come into operation until it shall have been officially notified, and will apply only to the articles mentioned in the decree enacting the prohibition. Any of these articles which have not been so specifically prohibited shall, on being imported into the Ottoman Empire, be subject to the local regulations, unless the Legation of the United States of America shall think fit to apply for a special licence, which will in that case be granted, provided no valid objection thereto can be alleged. Gunpowder, in particular, when allowed to be imported, will be liable to the following stipulations:

1. It shall not be sold by citizens of The United States in quantities exceeding the quantities prescribed by the local regulations.

2. When a cargo or a large quantity of gunpowder arrives in an Ottoman port, on board a vessel of The United States, such vessel shall be anchored at a particular spot, to be designated by the local authorities, and the gunpowder shall thence be conveyed, under the inspection of such authorities, to depôts, or fitting places designated by the Government, to which the parties interested shall have access under due regulations.

Fowling-pieces, pistols, and ornamental or fancy weapons, as also small quantities of gunpowder for sporting, reserved for private use, shall not be subject to the stipulations of the present Article.

XVI. The firmans required for merchant vessels of The United States of America, on passing through the Dardanelles and the

Bosphorus, shall always be delivered in such manner as to occasion to such vessels the least possible delay.

XVII. The captains of merchant vessels of The United States, laden with goods destined for the Ottoman Empire, shall be obliged, immediately on their arrival at the port of their destination to deposit in the Custom-House of said port a true copy of their manifest.

XVIII. Contraband goods will be liable to confiscation by the Ottoman Treasury; but a report, or proces verbal, of the alleged act of contraband, must, so soon as the said goods are seized by the authorities, be drawn up and communicated to the Consular authority of the citizen or subject to whom the goods said to be contraband shall belong; and no goods can be confiscated as contraband, unless the fraud with regard to them shall be duly and legally proved.

XIX. All merchandize, the produce or manufacture of the Ottoman dominions and possessions, imported into The United States of America, shall be treated in the same manner as the like merchandize, the produce and manufacture of the most favoured nation.

All rights, privileges, or immunities, which are now or may hereafter be granted to, or suffered to be enjoyed by the subjects, vessels, commerce, or navigation of any foreign power in The United States of America, shall be equally granted to, and exercised and enjoyed by the subjects, vessels, commerce, and navigation of the Sublime Porte.

XX. The present Treaty, when ratified, shall be substituted for the Commercial Convention of the 16th of August, 1838, between the Sublime Porte and Great Britain, on the footing of which the commerce of The United States of America has been heretofore placed, and shall continue in force for 28 years from the day of the exchange of the ratifications; and each of the two Contracting Parties being, however, at liberty to give to the other, at the end of 14 years (that time being fixed, as the provisions of this Treaty will then have come into full force), notice for its revision, or for its determination at the expiration of a year from the date of that notice, and so again at the end of 21 years.

The present Treaty shall receive its execution in all and every one of the provinces of the Ottoman Empire; that is to say, in all the possessions of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, situated in Europe or in Asia, in Egypt, and in the other parts of Africa belonging to the Sublime Porte, in Servia, and in the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia.

XXI. It is always understood that the Government of The United States of America does not pretend, by any Article in the

present Treaty, to stipulate for more than the plain and fair construction of the terms employed, nor to preclude in any manner the Ottoman Government from the exercise of its rights of internal administration where the exercise of these rights does not evidently infringe upon the privileges accorded by ancient Treaties or by the present Treaty to citizens of The United States or their merchandize.

XXII. The High Contracting Parties have agreed to appoint, jointly, Commissioners for the settlement of a tariff of CustomHouse duties, to be levied in conformity with the stipulations of the present Treaty, as well upon merchandize of every description, being the produce or manufacture of The United States of America, imported into the Ottoman Empire, as upon articles of every description the produce or manufacture of the Ottoman Empire and its possessions, which citizens of The United States or their agents are free to purchase in any part of the Ottoman Empire for exportation to The United States or to any other country. The new tariff, to be so concluded, shall remain in force during 7 years, dating from the date of the exchange of the ratifications.

Each of the Contracting Parties shall have the right, a year before the expiration of that term, to demand the revision of the tariff. But if, during the 7th year, neither the one nor the other of the Contracting Parties shall avail itself of this right the tariff then existing shall continue to have the force of law for 7 years more, dating from the day of the expiration of the 7 preceding years; and the same shall be the case with respect to every successive period of 7 years.

XXIII. The present Treaty shall be ratified and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Constantinople in 3 calendar months, or sooner, if possible, and shall be carried into execution when ratified.

Done at Constantinople, on the 25th day of February, 1862. (L.S.) EDWARD JOY MORRIS. (L.S.) AALI.

CORRESPONDENCE between Great Britain, France, Spain and The United States, respecting the Affairs of Mexico; the Non-Settlement of Claims of British Bondholders and others; the Murder of the British Vice-Consul at Tasco; the Spanish Occupation of Vera Cruz; the Suspension of Diplomatic Relations, and the Combined Operations of Great Britain, France and Spain against Mexico.*—1861, 1862.

(Extract.)

No. 1.-Lord J. Russell to Sir C. Wyke.

Foreign Office, March 30, 1861. A PASSAGE to Vera Cruz having been ordered for you on board the contract packet appointed to leave Southampton on the 2nd of April, you will embark on board that vessel, and on your arrival at Vera Cruz proceed at once to Mexico. You will probably find Mr. Mathew already in diplomatic communication with the Constitutional Government; for Her Majesty's Government can hardly doubt that it will have willingly acceded to the conditions on which the re-establishment of friendly intercourse has been made to depend.

The instructions addressed to Mr. Mathew, both before and since the final triumph of the liberal party, made the recognition by Great Britain of the Constitutional Government contingent upon the acknowledgment by that Government of the liability of Mexico for the claims of British subjects, who, either in their persons or in their property, for a long series of years, can be proved to have suffered wrong at the hands of successive Governments in Mexico.

If Mr. Mathew should not have obtained any such concession from the Constitutional Government before your arrival, you must use your own discretion as to the time at which you should present your credentials. It is, of course, desirable that the reestablishment of regular diplomatic intercourse with Mexico should not be delayed, but it might happen that the manifestation of any undue eagerness on your part to bring about such a state of things might encourage the Constitutional Government to withhold the preliminary concession which Mr. Mathew was instructed to require.

Her Majesty's Government have all along declared that they had no desire to prejudge the quarrel between the two parties who have been long arrayed against each other in Mexico, or to side with one party against the other. Had the party of General Miramon shown a due regard for international obligations, and for the rights of British subjects, the British Legation would not have

* Laid before Parliament, 1862.

been withdrawn from the city of Mexico. That step was forced upon Her Majesty's Government by continual disregard of the rights of British subjects, and of the obligations of international engagements, which rendered it impossible for Her Majesty's Government to continue to hold relations with the constituted authorities. But if the newly established Government should evince a disposition to act on different principles you will state to it without hesitation that the friendly feelings of Her Majesty's Government for Mexico have undergone no change, notwithstanding the grievous wrongs which British subjects have sustained at the hands of the successive Governments of that Republic; that the policy of the British Government with regard to Mexico is a policy of non-intervention, and that the British Government desire to see Mexico free and independent, and in a position to regulate the civil administration of the country, to maintain internal peace, and to discharge its international duties without the active intervention of any foreign Power whatever. Her Majesty's Government cannot doubt that such assurances as these will induce the Mexican Government to rely with confidence on the disinterestedness of any advice or suggestions which you may see occasion to offer to it, though I would caution you against obtruding such advice upon it, and still more against entering into any contest with the Representative of any other Power for exclusive influence over the councils of the Government.

I would, moreover, particularly caution you against taking any part in the political questions which may arise between contending parties in the State. A British Minister can never safely interfere in such matters; but as the representative of a country possessing liberal institutions, and therefore desiring to see other nations enjoying the same blessing, he will always be looked upon with respect, and will have more real influence for good in proportion as he keeps aloof from the factions or disputes of rival parties in the State.

Your earliest attention after your arrival in Mexico must be given to the question of British claims. You are aware that it has not been the custom of Her Majesty's Government, although they have always held themselves free to do so, to interfere authoritatively on behalf of those who have chosen to lend their money to foreign Governments, and the Mexican bondholders have not been an exception to this rule. The Constitutional Government, however, while established at Vera Cruz under the presidency of Señor Juarez, concluded with Captain Dunlop, two years ago, an arrangement by which it was stipulated that 25 per cent. of the Customs receipts at Vera Cruz and Tampico should be assigned to the British bondholders, and 16 per cent. to the holders of Con