Art. VII. In cases where by tempest, or other accident, French ships or vessels shall be stranded on the coafts of the United States; and ships or vessels of the United States shall be stranded on the coasts of the dominions of the Most Christian King; the consul or vice-conful, nearest to the place of shipwreck, shall do whatever he may judge proper, as well for the purpose of saving the said ship or vessel, its cargo and appurtenances, as for the storing and security of the effects and merchandise saved. He may take an inventory of them, without the intermeddling of any officers of the military, of the cuftoms, of justice, or of the police of the country, otherwile than to give to the consuls, vice-confuls, captain and crew of the vessel, shipwrecked or stranded, all the fuccour and favour which they shall ask of them, either for the expedition and security of the saving and of the effects saved, as to prevent all disturbance. And in order to prevent all kinds of dispute and discussion, in the faid cafes of shipwreck, it is agreed, that when there shall be no conful or vice-conful to attend to the saving of the wreck, or that the residence of the faid couful or vice-conful (he not being at the place of the wreck) shall be more diftant from the said place, than that of the competent judge of the country, the latter shall immediately proceed therein with all the dispatch, certainty and precautions, prescribed by the respective laws; but the said territorial judge shall retire, on the arrival of the conful or vice-conful, and shall deliver over to him the report of his proceedings, the expenses of which the conful or vice-conful shall cause to be reimbursed to him, as well as those of saving the wreck. The merchandise and effects saved shall be depofited in the nearest custom-house, or other place of fafety, with the inventory thereof, which shall have been made by the conful or vice-confuls, or by the judge who shall have proceeded in their absence, that the said effects and merchandise may be afterwards delivered, (after levying therefrom the costs) and without form of process to the owners, who, being furnished with an order for their delivery from the nearest conful or vice-conful, shall re-claim them by themselves, or by their order, either for the purpose of re-exporting such merchandise, in which cafe they shall pay no kind of duties of exportation; or for that of felling them in the country, if they be not prohibited there; and in this last cafe, the faid merchandise, if they be damaged, shall be allowed an abatement of entrance duties, proportioned to the damage they have fustained, which small be ascertained by the affidavits taken at the time the vessel was wrecked or struck. Art. VIII. The confuls or vice-confuls shall exercise police over all the vessels of their respective nations; and shall have on board the faid vessels, all power and jurisdiction in civil matters: in all the disputes which may there arife, they shall have an entire inspection over the said vessels, their crews, and the changes and substitutions there to be made: for which purpose they may go on board the said vessels whenever they may judge it neceffary. It being well understood, that the functions hereby allowed shall be confined to the interior of the - vessels, and that they shall not take place in any case which shall have any interference with the police of the ports where the faid vessels shall be. Art. IX. The confuls and vice-confuls may cause to be arrefted the captains, officers, mariners, failors, and all other perfons, being part of the crews of the vessels of their respective nations, who shall have deferted from the said vessels, in order to fend them back and transport them out of the country. For which purpose, the said confuls and vice-confuls shall address themselves to the courts, judges, and officers competent; and shall demand the said deserters in writing, proving by an exhibition of the registers of the vessel or ship's roll, that those men were part of the said crews: and on this demand so proved, (laving, however, where the contrary is proved) the delivery shall not be refused: and there shall be given all aid and affiftance to the faid confuls and vice-confuls for the search, seizure and arrest of the faid deferters, who shall even be detained and kept in the prisons of the country, at their request and expenfe, until they shall have found an opportunity of sending them back. But if they be not sent back within three months, to be counted from the day of their arrest, they shall be fet at liberty, and shall be no more arrested for the same cause. Art. X. In cases where the respective subjects or citizens shall have committed any crime, or breach of the peace, they shall be amenable to the judges of the country. Art. XI. When the faid offenders shall be a part of the crew of a veffel of their nation, and shall have withdrawn themselves on board the faid vessel, they may be there seized and arrested by order of the judges of the country: these shall give notice thereof to the conful or vice-conful, who may repair on board, if he thinks proper: but this notification shall not in any cafe, delay execution or the order in question. The perfons arrested shall not afterwards be fet at liberty, until the conful or vice-conful shall have been notified thereof; and they shall be delivered to him, if he requires it, to be put again on board of the vessel in which they were arrested, or of others of their nation, and to be fent out of the country. Art. XII. All differences and suits between the subjects of the Moft Christian King in the United States, or between the citizens of the United States within the dominions of the Moft Chriftian King, and particularly all disputes relative to the wages and terms of engagement of the crews of the respective vessels, and all differences of whatever nature they may be, which may arife between the privates of the said crews, or between any of them and their captains, or between the captains of different vessels of their nation, shall be determined by the respective confuls and vice-confuls, either by a reference to arbitrators, or by a fummary judgment, and without costs. No officer of the country, civil or military, shall interfere therein, or take any part whatever in the matter; and the appeals from the faid confular sentences shall be carried before the tribunals of France, or of the United States, to whom it may appertain to take cognizance thereof. Art. XIII. The general utility of commerce having caused to be established, within the dominions of the most Christian King, particular tribunals and forms for expediting the decifion of commercial affairs, the merchants of the United States shall enjoy the benefit of these establishments; and the Congress of the United States will provide, in the manner most conformable to its laws, for the establishment of equivalent advantages in favour of the French merchants, for the prompt dispatch and decifion of affairs of the fame nature. XIV. The subjects of the Most Christian King, and citizens of the United States, who shall prove by legal evidence, that they are of the faid nations respectively, shall, in confequence, enjoy an exemption from all personal service in the place of their fettlement. XV. If any other nation acquires, by virtue of any convention whatever, treatment more favourable with respect to the consular pre-eminences, powers, authority and privileges, the confuls and vice-confuls of the Most Christian King, or of the United States, reciprocally shall participate therein, agreeably to the terms stipulated by the second, third and fourth articles of the treaty of Amity and Commerce concluded between the Most Christian King and the United States. Art. XVI. The present convention shall be in full force during the term of twelve years, to be counted from the day of the exchange of ratifications, which shall be given in proper form, and exchanged on both sides within the space of one year, or fooner if possible. In faith whereof, we, ministers plenipotentiary, have signed the present convention, and have thereto set the seal of our arms. Done at Versailles the fourteenth of November, one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight. Signed L. C. DE MONTMORIN, THOMAS JEFFERSON. PROCLAMATION. (L. S.) (L. S.) And whereas the said convention has been duly ratified and confirmed by me on the one part, with the advice and confent of the senate, and by his Most Christian Majesty on the other, and the said ratifications were duly exchanged at Paris on the first day of January in the present year. Now, therefore, to the end that the said convention may be observed and performed with good faith on the part of the United States, I have ordered the premises to be made public, and I do hereby enjoin and require all persons bearing office, civil or military, within the United States, and all others citizens or inhabitants thereof, or being within the fame, faithfully to observe and fulfil the faid convention, and every clause and article thereof. In teftimony whereof I have caused the seal of the United GEORGE WASHINGTON. THOMAS JEFFERSON. THE DEFINITIVE TREATY BETWEEN GREAT-BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Signed at Paris, September 3, 1783. In the name of the most holy and undivided Trinity. T having pleased the Divine Providence to dispose the hearts of the most serene and most potent prince George the Third, by the grace of God, King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburgh, arch-treasurer and prince elector of the holy Roman empire, &c. and of the United States of America, to forget all past misunderstandings and differences, that have unhappily interrupted the good correfpondence and friendship which they mutually wish to restore; and to establish such a beneficial and fatisfactory intercourse between the two countries, upon the ground of reciprocal advantages and mutual convenience, as may promote and secure to both perpetual peace and harmony, and having, for this desirable end, already laid the foundation of peace and reconciliation, by the provisional articles figned at Paris, on the 30th of November, 1782, by the commiffioners empowered on each part, which articles were agreed to be inferted in, and to constitute the treaty of peace proposed to be concluded between the Crown of Great-Britain and the faid United States, but which treaty was not to be concluded until terms of peace should be agreed upon between GreatBritain and France, and his Britannic Majesty should be ready to conclude fuch treaty accordingly; and the treaty between Great-Britain and France having fince been concluded, his Britannic Majesty and the United States of America, in order to carry into full effect the provisional articles above mentioned, according to the tenor thereof, have constituted and appointed, that is to say, his Britannic Majesty on his part, David Hartley, |