a perfect, firm, and inviolable peace and sincere friendship between Her Britannic Majesty and the Republic of Nicaragua, in all the extent of their possessions and territories, and between their subjects and citizens, respectively, without distinction of persons or places.

II. The two High Contracting Parties being desirous of placing the commerce and navigation of their respective countries on the liberal basis of perfect equality and reciprocity, mutually agree that the citizens of each may frequent all the coasts and countries of the other, and reside therein, and shall have the power to purchase and hold all kinds of property which the laws of the country may permit any foreigners, of whatever nation, to hold, and to engage in all kinds of trade, manufactures, and mining, upon the same terms with native subjects or citizens. They shall enjoy all the privileges and concessions in these matters which are or may be made to the subjects or citizens of any country; and shall enjoy all the rights, privileges, and exemptions, in navigation, commerce, and manufactures, which native subjects or citizens do or shall enjoy, submitting themselves to the laws there established, to which native subjects or citizens are subjected.

The ships of war and post-office packets of each Contracting Party respectively, shall have liberty to enter into all harbours, rivers, and places within the territories of the other, to which the ships of war and packets of other nations are or may be permitted to come; to anchor there, and to remain and refit; subject always to the laws of the two countries respectively.

The High Contracting Parties further engage that neither will grant any favour to any other nation, in respect of commerce and navigation, which shall not immediately become common to the other Contracting Party.

III. The High Contracting Parties agree that, in regard to the coasting trade, the ships, subjects, and citizens of each shall enjoy, in the dominions and territories of the other, the same privileges, and shall be treated in all respects in the same manner, as national vessels, and as native subjects and citizens.

IV. The Contracting Parties likewise agree, that whatever kind of produce, manufacture, or merchandize can be, from time to time, lawfully imported into the British dominions in British vessels, may also be imported in vessels of the Republic of Nicaragua; and that no higher or other duties upon the vessel or upon her cargo shall be levied and collected, whether the importation be made in vessels of the one country or of the other; and in like manner, that whatever kind of produce, manufacture, or merchandize can be from time to time. lawfully imported into the Republic of Nicaragua in its own vessels, may be also imported in British vessels; and that no higher or other duties upon the vessel or upon her cargo shall be levied or collected

whether the importation be made in vessels of the one country or of the other.

And they further agree, that whatever may be lawfully exported or re-exported from the one country in its own vessels to any foreign country, may in like manner be exported or re-exported in the vessels of the other country; and that the same bounties, duties, and drawbacks shall be allowed and collected, whether such exportation or re-exportation be made in British vessels, or in vessels of the Republic of Nicaragua.

V. No higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into the British dominions of any article the growth, produce, or manufacture of the Republic of Nicaragua, and no higher or other duties shall be imposed on the importation into the Republic of Nicaragua of any article the growth, produce, or manufacture of the British dominions, than are or shall be payable on the same or the like article being the produce or manufacture of any other foreign country. Nor shall any higher or other duties or charges be imposed, in either of the two countries, on the exportation of any article to the territories of the other, than such as are payable on the exportation of the same or the like article to any other foreign country.

No prohibition shall be imposed upon the importation of any article the growth, produce, or manufacture of the territories of either of the two Contracting Parties into the territories of the other, which shall not equally extend to the importation of the same or the like article being the growth, produce, or manufacture of any other country nor shall any prohibition be imposed on the exportation of any article from the territories of either of the two Contracting Parties to the territories of the other, which shall not equally extend to the exportation of the same or the like article to the territories of all other nations.

VI. No duties of tonnage, harbour, pilotage, lighthouse, quarantine, or other similar or corresponding duties, of whatever nature or under whatever denomination, levied in the name or for the profit of the Government, public functionaries, corporations, or establishments of whatever kind, shall be imposed in the ports of either country upon the vessels of the other country, which shall not be equally imposed in the like cases on national vessels.

VII. In order to prevent the possibility of any misunderstanding, it is hereby declared that the stipulations contained in the preceding Articles are, to their full extent, applicable to British vessels and their cargoes arriving in the ports of Nicaragua, and reciprocally to the vessels of the said Republic and their cargoes arriving in British ports, whether they proceed from the ports of the country to which they respectively belong, or from the ports of any other foreign

country; and, in either case, no discriminating duty shall be imposed or collected in the ports of either country on the said vessels. or upon their cargoes, whether such cargoes shall consist of native or of foreign produce or manufacture.

VIII. All vessels which, according to the laws of Great Britain, are to be deemed British vessels, and all vessels which, according to the laws of the Republic of Nicaragua, are to be deemed vessels of that Republic, shall, for the purposes of this Treaty, be deemed British vessels and vessels of Nicaragua respectively.

IX. It is likewise agreed, that it shall be wholly free for all merchants, commanders of ships, and other subjects or citizens of both countries, to manage, by themselves or agents, their own business in all the ports and places subject to the jurisdiction of each other, as well with respect to the consignments and sale of their goods and merchandize, by wholesale or retail, as with respect to the loading, unloading, and sending off their ships; they being, in all these cases, to be treated as subjects or citizens of the country in which they reside or are conducting their business, and to be subject to the laws of that country.

X. Whenever the citizens of either of the Contracting Parties shall be forced to seek refuge or asylum in the rivers, bays, ports, or dominions of the other, with their vessels, whether merchant or of war, public or private, through stress of weather, pursuit of pirates or enemies, or want of provisions or water, they shall be received and treated with humanity, and all favour and protection shall be given to them for repairing their ships, procuring provisions, and placing themselves in a situation to continue their voyage without obstacle or hindrance of any kind.

XI. If any ship of war or merchant-vessel of either of the High Contracting Parties should be wrecked on the coasts of the other, such ship or vessel, or any parts thereof, and all furniture and appurtenances belonging thereunto, and all goods and merchandize which shall be saved therefrom, or the produce thereof, if sold, shall be faithfully restored to the owners, upon being claimed by them or by their duly authorized agents; and if there are no such owners or agents on the spot, then the said ships or parts of ships, furniture, appurtenances, goods, and merchandize, or the proceeds thereof, if sold, as well as all the papers found on board such wrecked ship or vessel, shall be delivered to the British Consul or Vice-Consul, or to the Consul or Vice-Consul of the Republic of Nicaragua, in whose district the wreck may have taken place, upon being claimed by him, and on his giving a receipt or acknowledgment for the same; and upon payment by such Consul, Vice-Consul, owners, or agents, of only the expenses incurred in the preservation of the property, and of the salvage or other expenses which would have been payable in

the like case of a wreck of a national vessel. The charge for such salvage or other expenses shall be made and settled immediately, subject to such right of appeal on the part of the person paying the same as may exist in the respective countries. The goods and merchandize saved from the wreck shall not be subject to duties, unless cleared for consumption; in which case they shall be liable only to the same duties as if they had been imported in a national vessel.

XII. The subjects and citizens of either of the two Contracting Parties in the territories of the other shall be at full liberty to acquire, possess, and dispose of, whether by purchase, sale, donation, exchange, marriage, testament, succession ab intestato, or in any other manner whatever, every description of property which the laws of the country may permit any foreigners, of whatsoever nation, to hold. Their heirs and representatives may succeed to and take possession of such property, either in person or by agents acting on their behalf, in the ordinary form of law, in the same manner as subjects or citizens of the country; and in the absence of such heirs and representatives, the property shall be treated in the same manner as the like property belonging to a subject or citizen of the country under similar circumstances.

In none of these respects shall they pay upon the value of such property any other or higher impost, duty, or charge, than is payable by subjects or citizens of the country. In every case the subjects and citizens of the Contracting Parties shall be permitted to export their property, or the proceeds thereof, British subjects from the territory of Nicaragua, and Nicaraguan citizens from the British territory, freely, and without being subjected on such exportation to pay any duty as foreigners, and without having to pay any other or higher duties than those to which subjects or citizens of the country are liable.

XIII. Both Contracting Parties promise and engage formally to give their special protection to the persons and property of the subjects or citizens of each other, of all occupations, who may be in the territories subject to the jurisdiction of one or the other, transient or dwelling therein, leaving open and free to them the tribunals of justice, for their judicial recourse, on the same terms which are usual and customary with the native subjects or citizens of the country; for which purpose they may either appear in proper person, or employ, in the prosecution or defence of their rights, such advocates, solicitors, notaries, agents, and factors as they may judge proper, in all their trials at law; and such citizens or agents shall have free opportunity to be present at the decisions or sentences of the tribunals in all cases which may concern them, and shall enjoy in such cases all the rights and privileges accorded to native subjects or citizens.

XIV. In the event of any subject or citizen of either of the two Contracting Parties dying without will or testament in the dominions or territories of the other Contracting Party, or in the absence of lawful heirs or representatives, the Consul-General Consul, or Acting Consul of the nation to which the deceased may belong, shall, so far as the laws of each country will permit, have the right, after a duly made and attested inventory has been signed by him, to take possession and charge of the property which the deceased may have left, for the benefit of his lawful heirs and creditors, giving immediate notice of the death to the authorities of the country.

XV. The subjects of Her Britannic Majesty residing in the Republic of Nicaragua, and the citizens of the Republic of Nicaragua residing in the dominions of Her Britannic Majesty, shall be exempted from all compulsory military service whatsoever, whether by sea or land, and from all forced loans, or military exactions or requisitions; and they shall not be compelled, under any pretext whatsoever, to pay any ordinary or extraordinary charges, requisitions, or taxes, other or higher than those that are or may be paid by native subjects or citizens.

XVI. It is agreed and covenanted that neither of the High Contracting Parties shall knowingly receive into, or retain in, its service, any subjects or citizens of the other Party who have deserted from the naval or military service of that other Party; but that, on the contrary, each of the Contracting Parties shall respectively discharge from its service any such deserters, upon being required by the other Party so to do.

And it is further agreed, that if any of the crew of any merchantvessel of either Contracting Party shall desert from such vessel within any port in the territory of the other Party, the authorities of such port and territory shall be bound to give every assistance in their power for the apprehension of such deserters, on application to that effect being made by the Consul of the Party concerned, or by the deputy or representative of the Consul; and any person knowingly protecting or harbouring such deserters shall be liable to punishment.

XVII. British subjects residing in the territories of the Republic of Nicaragua shall enjoy the most perfect and entire liberty of conscience, without being annoyed, molested, or disturbed on account of their religious belief. Neither shall they be annoyed, molested, or disturbed in the proper exercise of their religion, in private houses, or in the chapels or places of worship appointed for that purpose, provided that in so doing they observe the decorum due to Divine worship, and the respect due to the laws of the country. Liberty shall also be granted to bury British subjects