all usages and regulations to the contrary notwithstanding; and if it should appear from these certificates that there is not contraband merchandise on board, the said ships shall be left to pursue their destination. If, on the contrary, it should appear from these certificates that the said ships have contraband merchandise on board, and the commander offers to deliver them up, the offer shall be accepted, and the ship left at liberty to prosecute her voyage, unless the quantity of contraband goods should be too great to admit of being taken on board of the ship of war or cruiser; in this case the ship shall be carried into port for the purpose of there delivering the said goods.

Should a ship be found without the passports or the certificates above required, the business shall be examined by competent judges or tribunals; and if it should appear from other documents or proofs admissible by the law of cations that the ship belongs to citizens of the neutral power, it shall not be condemned, and it shall be set at liberty with its cargo, contraband goods excepted, and shall have leave to prosecute its voyage.

Should the captain named in the passport happen to die or be removed, and another shall have been appointed in his place, the ship and cargo shall be nevertheless secure, and the passport shall remain in full force.

XVIII. If the vessels belonging to citizens of the one nation or the other shall be met along the coast, or on the high seas, by any ship of war or cruiser belonging to the other, to prevent all disorder, the said ships or cruisers shall keep beyond the reach of cannon shot, and shall send their boat on board the merchant vessel so met with. They shall not be allowed to send on board more than two or three men to demand from the master or captain of the ship the exhibition of his passport concerning the property of said 'ship, executed agreeable to the form prescribed in the 14th article, as also the certificates above-mentioned relative to the cargo. It is expressly agreed that the neutral captain shall not be obliged to go on board the visiting ship for the purpose of there shewing the papers demanded, or for any other information whatever.

XIX. It is expressly agreed by the parties, that the above stipulations relative to the condud to be observed at sea by the cruisers of the belligerent party towards the vessels of the neutral party shall apply only to ships sailing without convoy: and in case, when the said ships shall be convoyed, the intention of the parties being to observe all the respect due to the protection of the flag hoisted on board ships of the state, no visit shall be made. But the verbal declaration of the commander of the escort, that the ships under his convoy belong to the nation whose flag he carries, and that they have not any thing contraband on board, shall be taken by the respective cruisers as amply sufficient. The two parties bind themselves recipro

cally

cally not to admit under protection of their convoys any vessels carrying contraband merchandise destined for an enemy.

XX. In case when the ships shall be taken or stopped, under alleged grounds of their carrying any contraband articles to the enemy, the captor shall give a receipt of the ship's papers which he shall detain, which receipt shall be subjoined to a declaratory list of the said papers. He shall not be permitted to force or open the hatches, coffers, chests, drawers, bales, &c. found on board ships, nor to carry off the smallest article of the effects, before the cargo has been disembarked in presence of the offcers competent to make an inventory of the said effects. They cannot in any manner be sold, exchanged, or alienated, unless, after a legal process, the competent judge or judges have passed upon the said effects a sentence of confiscation (excepting always the ship and the other objects that it contains).

XXI. In order that the vessel and the cargo may be watched with care, and in order to prevent mistakes, it is decreed that the master, captain, or supercargo of the captured ship cannot be taken from on board, either while the ship is at sea, after being taken, during the proceedings against it, its cargo, or any thing relative to it.

In case of the ship belonging to either party being taken, seized, and retained for judgment, its officers, passengers, and crews shall be treated with humanity; they cannot be imprisoned nor robbed of their clothes or pocket money, not 'exceeding for the captain, supercargo, and second, five hundred dollars each; and for the sailors and passengers one hundred dollars each.

XXII. It is moreover agreed on, that in every case the tribunals appointed for prize causes in the countries whither the prizes shall be taken, shall alone be competent to try them; and every judgment which the tribunal of either party pronounces against a ship, or merchandise, or property, reclaimed by the citizens of the other party, the sentence or decree shall make mention of the reasons or motives which have determined this judgment, of which an authentic copy, as well as of all the proceedings relative to it, shall, on their requisition, be delivered without delay to the captain or agent of the said ship, after paying the expenses.

XXIII. And finally, in order more effectually to provide for the respective security of the citizens of the two contracting parties, and to prevent the injuries to be feared from ships of war or privateers of either party, all the commanders of ships of war or privateers, and all the citizens of both parties shall refrain from all violence against one another, and from every personal insult. If they act in a contrary manner, they shall be punished, and bound over in their persons and properties to give satisfaction and reparation for the damage, with interest, of whatever kind the said damage may be.

VOL. XII.

Q

To

To this effect, all the captains of privateers, before receiving their commissions, shall become bound before a competent judge, to give security by two responsible cautions at least, who shall have no interest in the said privateer, and whom each, as well as the captain, shall engage individually for the sum of 7,000 dollars, or 36,820 francs, if the said vessels carry more than 150 sailors or soldiers, for the sum of 15,000 dollars, or 73,670 francs, which shall serve to repair the damage that the said privateers, their officers or crews, or any of them, shall have committed during their cruise contrary to the dispositions of the present Convention, or to the laws and instructions which ought to be the rule of their conduct: besides this, the said commission shall be revoked and annulled in every case where an aggression has been committed.

XXIV: When the ships of war of the two contracting parties, or those which their citizens shall have armed, shall be admitted with their prizes into the ports of either of the two parties, the said public or private vessels, as well as their prizes, shall not be obliged to pay any duties, either to the fficers of the place, or to the judges, or to any others. The said prizes, entering in the harbours or ports of one of the two parties, shall not be arrested or seized, and the officers of the place shall not take cognizance of the validity of the said prizes, which are to be suffered to go out, and be conducted with full freedom and liberty to their ports, by the commis-sions which the captains of the said vessels shall be obliged to shew. It is always understood, that the stipulations of this article shall not extend beyond the privileges of the most favoured nations.

XXV. All foreign privateers, having commissions from a State or Prince at war with one or other nation, cannot arm their vessels in the ports of either nation, or dispose of their prizes there, or in any manner exchange them. They shall not be allowed to buy provisions further than the necessary quantity to gain the nearest port of the State or Prince from whom they shall have received their commissions.

XXVI. It is further agreed that neither of the two contracting parties shall receive pirates in its ports, roads or cities, and shall not permit any of its inhabitants to receive, protect, support, or conceal them in any manner, but shall deliver up to due punishment such of its inhabitants as shall be guilty of the like acts or crimes: the ships of those pirates, as well as their effects and merchandise, shall be seized wherever they shall be discovered, and restored to their proprietors, agents, or factors, duly authorized by them, after having proved their right before judges competent to decide respecting the property.

If

If the said effects have passed by sale into other hands, and the purchasers were or might be informed, or have suspected that the said effects were carried away by pirates, they shall be equally restored.

XXVII. Neither of the two nations shall interfere in the fisheries of the other upon its coasts, nor disturb it in the exercise of the rights which it now has, or may acquire on the coasts of Newfoundland, in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, or elsewhere on the coast of America, or the North of the United States; but the whale and seal fishery shall be free for the two nations in all parts of the world.

The Convention shall be ratified on both sides in due form, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in the space of six mouths, or sooner if it be possible. In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the above articles, as well in the French as in the English language, and have placed their seals, declaring, nevertheless, that the signature in two languages shall be cited as an example, and shall not prejudice. either of the two parties.

Done at Paris, the Sth day of Vendémiaire, the 9th year of the French Republic, and the 3d day of September, 1800.

(Signed)

JOSEPH BONAPARTE.

C. P. FLEURIEU.

ROEDERER.

OLIV. ELSWORTH.

W. R. DAVIE.

W. V. MURRAY.

For an exact Copy,

C. M. TALLEYRAND.

REMARK S.

The papers last received from Paris, have brought us a copy of the Convention, as it is called, between France and America. Our readers will recollect, that, so lately as the month of July, there was little prospect of such an accommodation taking place. The Corsican Usurper discovered a disposition rather hostile than otherwise towards Mr. Adams, whose humble supplicants were treated with every mark of disrespect, not to say contempt and ridicule. It is evident that, at that time, Bonaparte had no desire to form a convention with them, but to wait the result of the ensuing election

of President of the United States, which was likely to transfer the treaty-making power from Adams to Jefferson, and thereby secure to France every gratification and advantage that her cormorant vanity and ambition could demand. The change in the Corsican's conduct, and the sudden conclusion of the present Convention, we do not scruple to attribute to the unexpected dispute between Great Britain and Denmark, which, joined to the strange conduct of the Emperor of Russia, has excited, in the minds of the French, malignant and cowardly hopes of seeing the Northern powers combine for the purpose of reviving and enforcing those exploded claims, which our country ever has resisted, and which, while she has powder, ball, and British blood, we trust she ever will resist.

But our opinion, as to the motives of the Convention, does not rest so much on extraneous circumstances, as on the internal evidence of that instrument itself, which appears to have been made, and promulgated, as a protest against those principles of public law, to which Great Britain adheres, and from which, it was well known, she cannot and will not depart.

The great points in dispute, between France and America, are left entirely unsettled by the Convention. France complained of the inexecution, in several instances, of the Treaties and Convention of 1778 and 1768; America complained of the spoliations committed on her commerce, of the insults offered to her flag, of the national frauds practised on her merchants, of the imprisonment, the castigation, and the murder, of her mariners. The professed object of the mission to France was to obtain "satisfaction for insult, and reparation for injury." This was the language of the President, as well as of all those who attempted to defend his negotiating measures. But, behold! instead of obtaining