4. Exemption from the obligation of giving lodging to soldiers and from all public charge or service.

5. Exemption from all direct personal taxes, whether fiscal or municipal, and from every extraordinary impost. They will, however, not be entitled to such exemptions when they are subjects of the State in which they reside, or if, not being its subjects, they are engaged in some commerce, industry, or profession, or possess landed property.

6. The right to be summoned by an official notice whenever their testimony or presence may be deemed necessary in a Law Court of the Republic in which they reside, and to have a seat of preference in the Court House.

7. The right that they shall not be seized or arrested, except for the commission of an act which the penal legislation of the country of their residence qualifies as a crime or misdemeanour, and punishes as such.

8. The right that the local Ministers of Justice, or the Agent of the Government, shall not enter their houses, without previous notice given in writing, in which the time and the reason of the visitation shall be specified.

V. The Consuls-General and Consuls of the two States can appoint Vice-Consuls, Delegates, or Consular Agents in the cities, ports, and places of their Consular district, providing always that they are empowered to do so according to the laws of the country in whose service they are. Persons so appointed, however, shall not exercise their functions before they have been recognized by the Government of the territory.

Such Agents can be selected indiscriminately from among the citizens of both nations, as well as from among foreigners. They shall be furnished with a patent or letter of appointment from the functionary who has appointed them, under whose orders they may have to act, and shall be entitled to all the privileges and immunities stipulated in the present Convention.

VI. In cases when the Consuls-General, Consuls, or ViceConsuls are unable from any cause to act, or, in their absence or upon their death, their secretaries or clerks who have previously been presented as such to the proper authorities, and duly recognized, will be admitted, according to their rank, to the full exercise ad interim of the Consular functions, without any hindrance on the part of the local authorities; who, on the contrary, have to afford them assistance and protection, and enable them to enjoy, during their temporary exercise of Consular functions, all the exemptions, prerogatives, immunities, and privileges stipulated in this Convention.

VII. The Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents can apply directly to the authorities of the district in which [1875-76. LXVII.] 3 Y

they reside, and if necessary have recourse to the Supreme Government, through the medium of the Diplomatic Agent of their country if there be one, or if not, directly, to complain of any infraction of the existing Treaties, or of abuses committed by the public servants or authorities of the country to the injury of the nation in whose service the Consul is. They can likewise support their countrymen before the authorities of the country, in measures undertaken on account of injurious acts done by any functionary.

VIII. The Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents of the two nations, or their clerks, shall have the right of receiving in their offices, in the domicile of the parties, and on board the ships of their country, any declarations which captains, crews, passengers, traders and any other subjects of their country may have to make; it being understood that this right does not affect that which legally pertains to the judicial authorities of the country to take depositions in matters concerning their jurisdiction.

The Consuls-General and the Consuls shall likewise be empowered to receive testamentary dispositions in the same way as notaries and to draw up contracts which their countrymen or persons domiciled in the nation for which they act as Consul may resolve voluntarily to make, only in case the one and the other refer to property situate without the territory of the State in which the Consul resides, the laws followed in this being those of the nation served by the Consul.

The Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents shall further have the right to authorize in their respective offices all the contracts which involve personal obligations between one or more of their countrymen and other persons belonging to the nation in which they reside, as well as all those relating to the exclusive interests of the subjects of the country in which the stipu lation is made, provided always that such contracts, obligations, and stipulations are to be fulfilled and executed in some place within the country served by the Consular Agent who has authorized such deeds.

The testimonies and attestations of such deeds duly legalized by the said functionaries and impressed with their official seal or stamp shall be held as evidence both in and out of Courts of Justice in the two Contracting States, and shall have the same force and value as if they had been drawn up by notaries or other public functionaries of either nation, provided that such deeds be drawn up in the form required by the laws of the State to which belong the Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents, and afterwards shall have been sealed and registered, and submitted to all the other formalities required in such cases in the nation in which the deed has to take effect.

When there is doubt of the authenticity of a public document registered in a Consulate of either nation, its collation with the original cannot be denied to the interested party, who may demand it, and who is entitled to attend for the purpose when he may find it

convenient.

The said Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents can legalize every kind of documents issued by the authorities and functionaries of their nation.

They have to keep exposed to view in their offices a table of the Consular fees and of official charges.

IX. In the case of a citizen of one of the Contracting States dying intestate in the territory of the other, the local authorities should immediately give notice thereof to the proper Consular functionary in whose district the death has occurred, and who on his side should give the same notice to the local authorities, when he has prior knowledge of a decease. If no one present himself who, according to the laws of the country in which the death happened, is entitled to succeed to the defunct, the Consul-General, Consul, Vice-Consul, or Consular Agent of the nation to which the said defunct has belonged, shall be the legal representative of those of his fellow-citizens who are interested in the succession, and in such capacity shall exercise, as far as permitted by the laws of both nations, all the rights pertaining to the persons legally entitled to succeed, except that of receiving the moneys and effects, for which right a special authorization shall be always necessary, the said moneys and effects being in the meanwhile deposited in the power of a person satisfactory to the local authorities and to the Consul. If the heritage consist of landed property, the rights of the interested parties will be adjusted in conformity with the laws of each nation respecting foreigners.

X. In the cases to which the foregoing Article refers, the Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents shall have the right to proceed conjointly with the competent local authority to make the inventory of the property of their deceased countrymen, to counter-seal with the seal of their office the seals imposed by the local authority, and to take all the necessary measures for the conservation of the inheritance.

Consequently, they can with common accord proceed to the sale by public auction of all the movable property liable to deterioration, and of such as may be difficult to preserve, or for the disposal of which favourable opportunity offers; to deposit the effects and valuables included in the inventory; to collect the debts actually due, and to deposit the amount as well as the proceeds of sales effected or of income received in a public bank or to entrust

them to a person or corporation deemed satisfactory by the local authority and by the Consul.

Landed property can only be alienated by order of the local authority upon application of the Consul, and after the lapse of four years from the death of the owner, no heir or representative of the deceased having presented himself during that period. The proceeds of these sales, which are to be by public auction, shall be lodged in the banks of the State in which the property is situate.

XI. The Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents shall give notice of the death of their countrymen in the case contemplated by the preceding Article, and shall convoke, by means of the local periodicals and those of the country of the deceased, the creditors who may have claims upon the heritage, whether the succession be testamentary or ab intestato, in order that they may present their claims duly substantiated, in the place fixed by the laws of the respective nations.

When creditors having claims upon the succession, whether testamentary or intestate, present themselves and duly substantiate their claims, payment should be effected by the Consul-General, the Consul, the Vice-Consul or the Consular Agent within the term of 15 days, reckoned from the completion of the inventory, if there are funds which can be thus applied, and if not, immediately after the realization of the necessary sums, or within a term which may be fixed by common accord between the Consuls and the majority of the parties concerned.

If the Consuls refuse the payment of all or part of the claims, alleging the insufficiency of the inheritance to meet them, the creditors can apply to the competent local authority to have the estate declared insolvent.

Such declaration having been obtained in conformity with the local laws, the Consuls shall immediately deliver to the judicial authority or to the syndics of the meeting of creditors, as the case may be, all the documents, effects, and moneys pertaining to the inheritance, it being incumbent upon them to represent the absent heirs of their nationality who are minors or incapable, and who are without a legal representative.

XII. The Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Consular Agents shall perform the administrative acts to which the foregoing Articles relate with absolute independence of the local authority, except when the subjects of the nation in which the Consul resides, or those of a third Power, have pretensions upon the inheritance.

In such a case, when difficulties arise and pretensions are put forward, the Consuls and other Consular functionaries will not be entitled to decide them, and they should be submitted to the tribunals of the nation within whose con.petence their settlement lies.

In every case the Consuls-General, Consuls, and Consular Agents shall deliver the inheritance or its proceeds, as soon as they shall be demanded of them, to the heirs or to their legal representatives, or to whomsoever else may substantiate their claim to be considered owners before the tribunals of the nation.

XIII. The said Consular functionaries of either State shall take cognizance exclusively of acts of inventory and other proceedings indispensable for the conservation of the property left by sailors or passengers of their nation, deceased on land or on board vessels of their country, either on a voyage or in the port of arrival.

XIV. When there is no Consular functionary discharging the duties set forth in the foregoing Articles, the competent local authority shall proceed, according to the legislation of the country, to make the inventory of the effects, and to the liquidation of the property which has not been claimed by the parties concerned, and shall be obliged to render an account in the shortest time possible to the Legation of the nation of the deceased, or to the ConsulateGeneral, Consulate, Vice-Consulate, or Consular Agency nearest to the place in which the inheritance, whether testamentary or intestate, was left.

From the moment, however, that the Consular functionary nearest to the place in which succession has to be settled personally or by any deputy intervenes, the operation of the local authority shall be confined to the limits authorized by the foregoing Articles.

XV. The Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents, as ex officio representatives of their absent countrymen, require no special powers to entitle them to care for and protect their rights and interests; these may, however, be necessary for receiving moneys and effects.

XVI. The Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents may visit in person or send a deputy to visit ships belonging to their country admitted to free communication, may interrogate captains and crews, examine the vessel's log and sailing papers, receive statements concerning its voyage, and any occurrences during it, draw up the declarations, and facilitate the despatch of vessels of their country. They can also accompany captains and members of the crew before the tribunals, and into the administrative offices of the nation, to act as their interpreters and agents in the business which they may have to transact, or the demands they may have to put forward.

The proper authorities of the land shall give notice to the Consuls to enable them to be present at the declarations which captains and crews may have to make before the tribunals and in the local offices, in order to the avoidance of any ambiguity or misunderstanding which could impair the proper administration of justice.