if they think fit, whether it be acquired before or during the present war, Vol. I. Ch. II. and retiring to whatever country they may choose. 18. The Allied Powers, desiring to offer His Most Christian Majesty a new proof of their anxiety to arrest, as far as in them lies, the bad consequences of the disastrous epoch fortunately terminated by the present peace, renounce all the sums which their governments claim from France, whether on account of contracts, supplies, or any other advances whatsoever to the French Government, during the different wars which have taken place since 1792. His Most Christian Majesty, on His part, renounces every claim which He might bring forward against the Allied Powers on the same grounds. In execution of this Article, the high Contracting Parties engage reciprocally to deliver up all titles, obligations, and documents, which relate to the debts they may have mutually cancelled. 19. The French Government engages to liquidate and pay all debts it may be found to owe in countries beyond its own territory, on account of contracts, or other formal engagements between individuals, or private establishments, and the French Authorities, as well for supplies as in satisfaction of legal engagements.. 20. The high Contracting Parties, immediately after the exchange of the ratifications of the present Treaty, shall name Commissioners to direct and superintend the execution of the whole of the stipulations contained in the 18th and 19th Articles. These Commissioners shall undertake the examination of the claims referred to in the preceding Article, the liquidation of the sums claimed, and the consideration of the manner in which the French Government may propose to pay them. They shall also be charged with the delivery of the titles, bonds, and the documents relating to the debts which the high Contracting Parties mutually cancel, so that the approval of the result of their labours shall complete that reciprocal renunciation. 21. The debts which in their origin were specially mortgaged upon the countries no longer belonging to France, or were contracted for the support of their internal administration, shall remain at the charge of the said countries. Such of those debts as have been converted into inscriptions in the great book of the public debt of France, shall accordingly be accounted for with the French Government after the 22d of December 1813. The deeds of all those debts which have been prepared for inscription, and have not yet been entered, shall be delivered to the Governments of the respective countries. The statement of all these debts shall be drawn up and settled by a joint commission. 22. The French Government shall remain charged with the reimbursement of all sums paid by the subjects of the said countries into the French coffers, whether under the denomination of surety, deposit, or consignment. In like manner all French subjects, employed in the service of the said countries, who have paid sums under the denomination of surety, deposit, or consignment, into their respective territories, shall be faithfully reimbursed. 23. The functionaries holding situations requiring securities, who are not charged with the expenditure of public money, shall be reimbursed at Paris, with the interest, by fifths and by the year, dating from the signature of the present Treaty. With respect to those who are accountable, this reimbursement shall commence, at the latest, six months after the presentation of their accounts, except only in cases of malversation. A copy of the last account shall be transmitted to the Government of their countries, to serve for their information and guidance. FRANCE. Vol. I. Ch. II. 24. The judicial deposits and consignments upon the "caisse d'amortissement" in the execution of the law of 28 Nivose, year 13, (18 January, 1805), and which belong to the inhabitants of countries France ceases to possess, shall, within the space of one year from the exchange of the ratification of the present Treaty, be placed in the hands of the Authorities of the said countries, with the exception of those deposits and consignments interesting French subjects, which last will remain in the " caisse d'amortissement," and will only be given up on the production of the vouchers, resulting from the decisions of competent authorities. 25. The funds deposited by the corporations and public establishments in the "caisse de service" and in the " caisse d'amortissement,” or other “ caisse” of the French government, shall be reimbursed by fifths, payable from year to year, to commence from the date of the present Treaty; deducting the advances which have taken place, and subject to such regular charges as may have been brought forward against these funds by the creditors of the said corporations, and the said public establishments. 26. From the first day of January 1814, the French Government shall cease to be charged with the payment of pensions, civil, military, and ecclesiastical, pensions for retirement, and allowances for reduction, to any individual who shall cease to be a French subject. 27. National domains acquired for valuable considerations by French subjects in the late departments of Belgium, and of the left bank of the Rhine, and the Alps beyond the ancient limits of France, and which now cease to belong to Her, shall be guaranteed to the purchasers. 28. The abolition of the "droits d'Aubaine," " de Détraction," and other duties of the same nature, in the countries which have been formerly incorporated, or which have reciprocally made that stipulation with France, shall be expressly maintained. 29. The French Government engages to restore all bonds, and other deeds which may have been seized in the provinces occupied by the French armies or administrations; and in cases where such restitution cannot be effected, these bonds and deeds become and continue void. 30. The sums which shall be due for all works of public utility not yet finished, or finished after the 31st of December 1812, whether on the Rhine, or in the departments detached from France by the present Treaty, shall be placed to the account of the future possessors of the territory, and shall be paid by the commission charged with the liquidation of the debts of that country. 31. All archives, maps, plans, and documents whatever, belonging to the ceded countries, or respecting their administration, shall be faithfully given up at the same time with the said countries; or if that should be impossible, within a period not exceeding six months after the cession of the countries themselves. This stipulation applies to the archives, maps, and plates which may have been carried away from the countries during their temporary occupation by the different armies. 32. The present Treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged within the period of fifteen days, or sooner, if possible. In witness whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed and affixed to it the seals of their arms. Done at Paris, the 30th of May, in the year of our Lord 1814. LE PRINCE DE BENEVENT, (L.S.) CHARLES STEWART, Lieut. Gen. (L.S.) FRANCE. 1. His Most Christian Majesty, concurring without reserve in the senti- Vol. I. Ch. II. ments of His Britannic Majesty, with respect to a description of traffic repugnant to the principles of natural justice and of the enlightened age in which we live, engages to unite all his efforts to those of His Britannic Additional Majesty, at the approaching Congress, to induce all the Powers of Christen- Articles. dom to decree the abolition of the Slave Trade, so that the said trade shall cease universally, as it shall cease definitively, under any circumstances, on the part of the French Government, in the course of five years; and that, during the said period, no slave merchant shall import or sell slaves, except in the colonies of the state of which he is a subject. 2. The British and French Governments shall name, without delay, Commissioners to liquidate the accounts of their respective expences for the maintenance of prisoners of war, in order to determine the manner of paying the balance which shall appear in favour of the one or the other of the two Powers. 3. The respective prisoners of war, before their departure from the place of their detention, shall be obliged to discharge the private debts they may have contracted, or shall at least give sufficient security for the amount. 4. Immediately after the ratification of the present Treaty of peace, the sequesters, which since the year 1792 may have been laid on the funds, revenues, debts, or any other effects of the high Contracting Parties or their subjects, shall be taken off. The Commissioners mentioned in Article II. shall undertake the examination of the claims of His Britannic Majesty's subjects upon the French Government, for the value of the property, moveable or immoveable, illegally confiscated by the French Authorities, as also for the total or partial loss of their debts or other property, illegally detained under sequester since the year 1792. France engages to act towards British subjects in this respect, in the same spirit of justice which the French subjects have experienced in Great Britain; and His Britannic Majesty, desiring to concur in the new pledge which the Allied Powers have given to His Most Christian Majesty, of their desire to obliterate every trace of that disastrous epocha so happily terminated by the present peace, engages on His part, when complete justice shall be rendered to His subjects, to renounce the whole amount of the balance which shall appear in His favour for support of the prisoners of war, so that the ratification of the report of the above Commissioners, and the discharge of the sums due to British subjects, as well the restitution of the effects which shall be proved to belong to them, shall complete the renunciation. 5. The two high Contracting Parties, desiring to establish the most friendly relations between their respective subjects, reserve to themselves, and promise to come to a mutual understanding and arrangement, as soon as possible, upon their commercial interests, with the view of encouraging and increasing the prosperity of their respective States. The present Additional Articles shall have the same force and validity as if they were inserted word for word in the Treaty patent of this day. They shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at the same time. In witness whereof, the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed and affixed to them the seals of their arms. Done at Paris, the 30th day of May, in the year of our Lord 1814. ABERDEEN, (L.S.) CATHCART, (L.S.) Vol. I. Ch. II. Convention between Great Britain and France. Signed at London, 7th of March 1815. In the Name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity. The trade in salt and opium throughout the British Sovereignty in India, having been subjected to certain regulations and restrictions, which, unless due provision be made, might occasion differences between the subjects and agents of His Britannic Majesty and those of His Most Christian Majesty ; Their said Majesties have thought proper to conclude a Special Convention for the purpose of preventing such differences, and removing every cause of dispute between their respective subjects in that part of the world, and in this view have named for their respective plenipotentiaries, viz. His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Robert, Earl of Buckinghamshire, a Peer of the United Kingdom, President of the Board of His Majesty's Commissioners for the Affairs of India, &c. &c. &c. And His Majesty the King of France and Navarre, the Sieur Claude Louis de la Chatre, descendant of the Princes of Deols, Count de la Chatre, His Ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary at the Court of London, &c. &c. &c. who, after having communicated to each other their respective full Powers, found in good and due form, have agreed upon the following Articles : 1. His Most Christian Majesty engages to let at farm to the British Government in India, the exclusive right to purchase at a fair and equitable price, to be regulated by that which the said Government shall have paid for salt in the districts in the vicinity of the French possessions on the coast of Coromandel and Orissa respectively, the salt that may be manufactured in the said possessions, subject to a reservation of the quantity that the agents of His Most Christian Majesty shall deem requisite for the domestic use and consumption of the inhabitants thereof; and upon the condition, that the British Government shall deliver in Bengal, to the agents of His Most Christian Majesty, the quantity of salt that may be judged necessary for the consumption of the inhabitants of Chandernagore, reference being had to the population of the said settlement, such delivery to be made at the price which the British Government shall have paid for the said article. 2. In order to ascertain the prices as aforesaid, the official accounts of the charges incurred by the British Government, for the salt manufactured in the districts in the vicinity of the French settlements on the coasts of Coromandel and Orissa respectively, shall be open to the inspection of a Commissioner to be appointed for that purpose by the agents of His Most Christian Majesty in India; and the price to be paid by the British Government shall be settled according to an average to be taken every three years, of the charges as aforesaid ascertained by the said official accounts, commencing with the three years preceding the date of the present Convention. The price of salt at Chandernagore to be determined, in the same manner, by the charges incurred by the British Government for the salt manufactured in the districts nearest to the said settlement. 3. It is understood that the salt works in the possessions belonging to His Most Christian Majesty shall be and remain under the direction and administration of the Agents of His said Majesty. 4. With a view to the effectual attainment of the objects in the contemplation of the High Contracting Parties, His Most Christian Majesty engages to establish in His possessions on the coasts of Coromandel and Orissa, and at Chandernagore in Bengal, nearly the same price for salt, as that at which it shall be sold. by the British Government in the vicinity of each of the said possessions. 5. In consideration of the stipulations expressed in the preceding Articles, His Britannic Majesty engages that the sum of four lacs of sicca rupees FRANCE. shall be paid annually to the Agents of His Most Christian Majesty, duly Vol. I. Ch. II. authorized, by equal quarterly instalments; such instalments to be paid at Calcutta or at Madras, ten days after the bills that may be drawn for the same by the said Agents shall have been presented to the Government of either of those Presidencies; it being agreed that the rent above stipulated shall commence from the 1st of October 1814. 6. With regard to the trade in opium, it is agreed between the high Contracting Parties, that at each of the periodical sales of that article, there shall be reserved for the French Government, and delivered upon requisition duly made by the Agents of His Most Christian Majesty, or by the persons duly appointed by them, the number of chests so applied for; provided that such supply shall not exceed 300 chests in each year; and the price to be paid for the same shall be determined by the average rate at which opium shall have been sold at every such periodical sale: it being understood that if the quantity of opium applied for at any one time shall not be taken on account of the French Government by the Agents of His Most Christian Majesty, within the usual period of delivery, the quantity so applied for shall nevertheless be considered as so much in deduction of the 300 chests hereinbefore mentioned. The requisitions of opium as aforesaid are to be addressed to the Governor General, at Calcutta, within thirty days after notice of the intended sale shall have been published in the Calcutta Gazette. 7. In the event of any restriction being imposed upon the exportation of saltpetre, the subjects of His Most Christian Majesty shall nevertheless be allowed to export that article to the extent of 18,000 maunds. 8. His Most Christian Majesty, with the view of preserving the harmony subsisting between the two nations, having engaged by the twelfth Article of the Treaty concluded at Paris, on the 30th of May 1814, not to erect any fortifications in the establishments to be restored to Him by the said Treaty, and to maintain no greater number of troops than may be necessary for the purposes of police; His Britannic Majesty on His part, in order to give every security to the subjects of His Most Christian Majesty residing in India, engages, if at any time there should arise between the high Contracting Parties any misunderstanding or rupture, (which God forbid), not to consider or treat as prisoners of war, those persons who belong to the civil establishments of His Most Christian Majesty in India, nor the officers, non-commissioned officers, or soldiers, who, according to the terms of the said Treaty, shall be necessary for the maintenance of the police in the said establishments, and to allow them to remain three months to settle their personal affairs, and also to grant them the necessary facilities and means of conveyance to France with their families and private property. His Britannic Majesty further engages to permit the subjects of His Most Christian Majesty in India, to continue their residence and commerce so long as they shall conduct themselves peaceably, and shall do nothing contrary to the laws and regulations of the Government. But in case their conduct should render them suspected, and the British Government should judge it necessary to order them to quit India, they shall be allowed the period of six months to retire with their effects and property to France, or to any other country they may choose. At the same time it is to be understood, that this favour is not to be extended to those who may act contrary to the laws and regulations of the British Government. 9. All Europeans and others whosoever, against whom judicial proceedings shall be instituted within the limits of the said settlements or factories |