COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS.

TREATY OF COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE TWO SICILIES.

THE following is a correct copy of the "Treaty of Commerce and Navigation between the United States of America and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies," concluded at Naples, the 1st of December, 1845, and lately ratified by the President of the United States by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. The ratifications were to be exchanged on or before the 1st of June, 1846, and by its 12th article, the treaty is to be in force from the day of its conclusion:

The United States of America, and his Majesty the King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, equally animated with the desire of maintaining the relations of good understanding which have hitherto so happily subsisted between their respective states, and the consolidating the commercial intercourse between them, have agreed to enter into negotiations for the conclusion of a Treaty of Commerce and Navigation, for which purpose they have appointed plenipotentiaries; that is to say:

The President of the United States of America, William H. Polk, Charge d'Affaires of the same United States of America to the Court of his Majesty the King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies; and his Majesty the King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, D. Guistino Fortunato, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Military Constantinian Order of St. George, and of Francis the 1st, Minister Secretary of State of his said Majesty; D. Michael Gravina and Requesenz, Prince of Comitini, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Order of Francis the 1st, Gentleman of the Chamber in waiting, and Minister Secretary of State of his said Majesty; and D. Antonio Spinelli, of Scalea, Commander of the Royal Order of Francis the 1st, Gentleman of the Chamber of his said Majesty, Member of the General Consulata, and Superintendent General of the Archives of the Kingdom; who, after having exchanged their full powers, found in good and due form, have concluded and signed the following articles:

ARTICLE I. There shall be reciprocal liberty of commerce and navigation between the United States of America and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.

No duty of customs, or other impost, shall be charged upon any goods the produce or manufacture of one country, upon importation by sea or by land from such country into the other, other or higher than the duty or impost charged upon goods of the same kind, the produce or manufacture of, or imported from, any other country; and the United States of America and his Majesty the King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies do hereby engage that the subjects or citizens of any other state shall not enjoy any favor, privilege, or immunity, whatever, in matters of commerce and navigation, which shall not also, and at the same time, be extended to the subjects or citizens of the other high contracting party, gratuitously if the concession in favor of that other state shall have been gratuitous, and in return for a compensation as nearly as possible of proportionate value and effect, to be adjusted by mutual agreement, if the concessions shall have been conditional. ARTICLE II. All articles of the produce or manufacture of either country, and of their respective states, which can legally be imported into either country from the other, in ships of that other country, and thence coming, shall, when so imported, be subject to the same duties, and enjoy the same privileges, whether imported in ships of the one country, or in ships of the other: and in like manner, all goods which can legally be exported or re-exported from either country to the other, in ships of that other country, shall, when so exported or re-exported, be subject to the same duties, and be entitled to the same privileges, drawbacks, bounties and allowances, whether exported in ships of the one country, or in ships of the other.

ARTICLE III. No duties of tonnage, harbor, light-houses, pilotage, quarantine, or other similar duties, of whatever nature, or under whatever denomination, shall be imposed in either country, upon the vessels of the other, in respect of voyages between the United States of America and the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, if laden, or in respect of any voyage, if in ballast, which shall not be equally imposed, in like cases, upon national vessels. ARTICLE IV. It is hereby declared that the stipulations of the present treaty are not to be understood as applying to the navigation and carrying trade between one port and another situated in the states of either contracting party, such navigation and trade being reserved exclusively to national vessels. Vessels of either country shall, however, be per

mitted to load or unload the whole or part of their cargoes at one or more ports in the states of either of the high contracting parties, and then to proceed to complete the said loading or unloading to any other port or ports in the same states.

ARTICLE V. Neither of the two governments, nor any corporation or agent acting in behalf or under the authority of either government, shall, in the purchase of any article which, being the growth, produce, or manufacture of the one country, shall be imported into the other, give, directly or indirectly, any priority or preference on account of, or in reference to, the national character of the vessel in which such article shall have been imported; it being the true intent and meaning of the high contracting parties that no distinction or difference whatever shall be made in this respect.

ARTICLE VI. The high contracting parties engage, in regard to the personal privileges that the citizens of the United States of America shall enjoy in the dominions of his Majesty the King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and the subjects of his said Majesty in the United States of America, that they shall have free and undoubted right to travel and to reside in the states of the two high contracting parties, subject to the same precautions of police which are practised towards the subjects or citizens of the most favored nations. They shall be entitled to occupy dwellings and warehouses, and to dispose of their personal property of every kind and description, by sale, gift, exchange, will, or in any other way whatever, without the smallest hindrance or obstacle; and their heirs or representatives, being subjects or citizens of the other high contracting party, shall succeed to their personal goods, whether by testament or ab intestato, and may take possession thereof, either by themselves or by others acting for them, and dispose of the same at will, paying to the profit of the respective governments such dues only as the inhabitants of the country wherein the said goods are, shall be subject to pay in like cases. And in case of the absence of the heir and representative, such care shall be taken of the said goods as would be taken of the goods of a native of the same country in like case, until the lawful owner may take measures for receiving them. And if a question should arise among several claimants, as to which of them said goods belong, the same shall be decided finally by the laws and judges of the land where such goods are.

They shall not be obliged to pay, under any pretence whatever, any taxes or impositions, other or greater than those which are paid or may hereafter be paid, by the subjects or citizens of the most favored nations, in the respective states of the high contracting parties. They shall be exempt from all military service, whether by land or by sea; from forced loans, and from every extraordinary contribution not general, and by law established. Their dwellings, warehouses, and all premises appertaining thereto, destined for purposes of commerce or residence, shall be respected. No arbitrary search of, or visit to, their houses, and no arbitrary examination or inspection whatever of the books, papers, or accounts of their trade, shall be made; but such measures shall be executed only in conformity with the legal sentence of a competent tribunal; and each of the two high contracting parties engages that the citizens or subjects of the other, residing in their respective states, shall enjoy their property and personal security in as full and ample manner as their own citizens or subjects, or the subjects or citizens of the most favored nations.

ARTICLE VII. The citizens and the subjects of the two high contracting parties shall be free in the states of the other, to manage their own affairs themselves, or to commit those affairs to the management of any persons whom they may appoint as their broker, factor, or agent; nor shall the citizens and subjects of the two high contracting parties be restrained in their choice of persons to act in such capacities, nor shall they be called upon to pay any salary or remuneration to any person whom they shall not choose to employ. Absolute freedom shall be given in all cases to the buyer and seller to bargain together, and to fix the price of any goods or merchandise imported into, or to be exported from, the states and dominions of the two high contracting parties; save and except generally such cases wherein the laws and usages of the country may require the intervention of any special agents in the states and dominions of the high contracting parties.

ARTICLE VIII. Each of the two high contracting parties may have, in the ports of the other, consuls, vice-consuls, and commercial agents, of their own appointment, who shall enjoy the same privileges and powers of those of the most favored nations; but if any such consuls shall exercise commerce, they shall be submitted to the same laws and usages to which private individuals of their nation are submitted in the same place.

The said consuls, vice-consuls, and commercial agents, are authorized to require the assistance of the local authorities for the search, arrest, detention, and imprisonment of the deserters from the ships of war and merchant vessels of their country. For this purpose, they shall apply to the competent tribunals, judges and officers, and shall in writing demand the said deserters, proving, by the exhibition of the registers of the vessels, the rolls of the crews, or by other official documents, that such individuals formed part of

the crews; and this reclamation being thus substantiated, the surrender shall not be refused.

Such deserters, when arrested, shall be placed at the disposal of the said consuls, viceconsuls, or commercial agents, and may be confined in the public prisons at the request and cost of those who shall claim them, in order to be detained until the time when they shall be restored to the vessels to which they belonged, or sent back to their own country by a vessel of the same nation, or any other vessel whatsoever. But if not sent back within four months from the day of their arrest, or if all the expenses of such imprisonment are not defrayed by the party causing such arrest or imprisonment, they shall be set at liberty, and shall not be again arrested for the same cause.

However, if the deserter should be found to have committed any crime or offence, his surrender may be delayed until the tribunal before which his case shall be depending shall have pronounced its sentence, and such sentence shall have been carried into effect. ARTICLE IX. If any ships of war or merchant vessels be wrecked on the coasts of the states of either of the high contracting parties, such ships or vessels, or any parts thereof, and all furniture and appurtenances belonging thereunto, and all goods and merchandise which shall be saved therefrom, or the produce thereof, if sold, shall be faithfully restored, with the least possible delay to the proprietors, upon being claimed by them, or by their duly authorized factors; and if there are no such proprietors or factors on the spot, then the said goods and merchandise, or the proceeds thereof, as well as all the papers found on board such wrecked ships or vessels, shall be delivered to the American or Sicilian consul or vice-consul in whose district the wreck may have taken place; and such consul, vice-consul, proprietors or factors, shall pay only the expenses incurred in the preservation of the property, together with the rate of salvage and expenses of quarantine which would have been payable in the like case of a wreck of a national vessel; and the goods and merchandise saved from the wreck shall not be subject to duties, unless cleared for consumption; it being understood that in case of any legal claim upon such wreck, goods or merchandise, the same shall be referred for decision to the competent tribunals of the country.

ARTICLE X. The merchant vessels of each of the two high contracting parties which may be forced by stress of weather or other cause into one of the ports of the other, shall be exempt from all duty of port or navigation paid for the benefit of the state, if the motives which led to take refuge be real and evident, and if no operation of commerce be done by loading or unloading merchandises; well understood, however, that the loading or unloading, which may regard the subsistence of the crew, or necessary for the repara. tion of the vessel, shall not be considered operations of commerce which lead to the payment of duties, and that the said vessels do not stay in port beyond the time necessary, keeping in view the cause which led to taking refuge.

ARTICLE XI. To carry always more fully into effect the intentions of the two high contracting parties, they agree that every difference of duty, whether of 10 per cent or other, established in the respective states, to the prejudice of the navigation and commerce of those nations which have not treaties of commerce and navigation with them, shall cease and remain abolished in conformity with the principle established in the first article of the present treaty, as well on the productions of the soil and industry of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, which therefrom shall be imported in the United States of America, whether in vessels of the one or of the other country, as on those which in like manner shall be imported in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in vessels of both countries.

They declare, besides, that as the productions of the soil and industry of the two countries, on their introduction in the ports of the other, shall not be subject to greater duties than those which shall be imposed on the like productions of the most favored nations, so that the red and white wines of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, of every kind, including those of Marsala, which may be imported directly into the United States of America, whether in vessels of the one or of the other country, shall not pay higher or greater duties than those of the red or white wines of the most favored nations. And in like manner, the cottons of the United States of America, which may be imported directly in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, whether in vessels of the one or other nation, shall not pay higher or greater duties than the cottons of Egypt, Bengal, or those of the most favored nations.

ARTICLE XII. The present treaty shall be in force from this day, and for the term of ten years, and further, until the end of twelve months after either of the high contracting parties shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the same, each of the said high contracting parties reserving to itself the right of giving such notice at the end of said term of ten years, or at any subsequent term.

ARTICLE XIII. The present treaty shall be approved and ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the

said States, and by his Majesty the King of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Naples at the expiration of six months from the date of its signatures, or sooner, if possible.

In witness whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the same, and have affixed thereto the seals of their arms.

Done at Naples, the first of December, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-five.

The Senate of the United States advised and consented, on the 26th of March, 1846, to the ratification of the following TREATY OF COMMERCE AND NAVIGATION BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THE BELGIANS.

The United States of America, on the one part, and his Majesty the King of the Belgians, on the other part, wishing to regulate in a formal manner their reciprocal relations of commerce and navigation, and further to strengthen, through the development of their interests respectively, the bonds of friendship and good understanding so happily estab lished between the governments and people of the two countries, and desiring, with this view, to conclude, by common agreement, a treaty establishing conditions equally advantageous to the commerce and navigation of both States, have, to that effect, appointed as their Plenipotentiaries-namely: the President of the United States, Thomas G. Clemson, Charge d'Affaires of the United States of America to his Majesty the King of the Belgians; and his Majesty the King of the Belgians, M. Adolphe Dechamps, officer of the order of Leopold, Knight of the Order of the Red Eagle of the first class, Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Michael of Bavaria, his Minister for Foreign Affairs, a member of the Chamber of Representants-who, after having communicated to each other their full powers, ascertained to be in good and proper form, have agreed to and concluded the following articles:

ART. I. There shall be full and entire freedom of commerce and navigation between the inhabitants of the two countries; and the same security and protection which is enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of each country shall be guarantied on both sides. The said inhabitants, whether established or temporarily residing within any ports, cities, or places whatever, of the two countries, shall not, on account of their commerce or industry, pay any other or higher duties, taxes, or imposts, than those which shall be levied on citizens or subjects of the country in which they may be; and the privileges, immunities, and other favors, with regard to commerce or industry, enjoyed by the citizens or subjects of one of the two States, shall be common to those of the other.

ART. II. Belgian vessels, whether coming from a Belgian or a foreign port, shall not pay, either on entering or leaving the ports of the United States, whatever may be their destination, any other or higher duties of tonnage, pilotage, anchorage, buoys, lighthouses, clearance, brokerage, or generally other charges whatsoever, than are required from vessels of the United States in similar cases. This provision extends not only to duties levied for the benefit of the State, but also to those levied for the benefit of pro. vinces, cities, countries, districts, townships, corporations, or any other divisions or jurisdictions, whatever be its designation.

ART. III. Reciprocally, vessels of the United States, whether coming from a port of said United States or from a foreign port, shall not pay, either on entering or leaving the ports of Belgium, whatever may be their destination, any other or higher duties of tonnage, pilotage, anchorage, buoys, light-houses, clearance, brokerage, or generally other charges whatever, than are required from Belgian vessels in similar cases. This provision extends not only to duties levied for the benefit of the State, but also to those levied for the benefit of provinces, cities, countries, districts, townships, corporations, or any other division or jurisdiction, whatever be its designation.

ART. IV. The restitution by Belgium of the duty levied by the government of the Netherlands on the navigation of the Scheldt, in virtue of the third paragraph of the ninth article of the treaty of April nineteenth, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine, is guarantied to the vessels of the United States.

ART. V. Steam vessels of the United States and of Belgium, engaged in regular navi

gation between the United States and Belgium, shall be exempt in both countries from the payment of duties of tonnage, anchorage, buoys and light-houses.

ART. VI. As regards the coasting trade between the ports of either country, the vessels of the two nations shall be treated, on both sides, on the same footing with vessels of the most favored nation.

ART. VII. Articles of every description, whether proceeding from the soil industry, or warehouses of Belgium, directly imported therefrom into the ports of the United States in Belgian vessels, shall pay no other or higher duties of import than if they were imported under the flag of said States.

And reciprocally, articles of every description directly imported into Belgium from the United States, under the flag of the said States, shall pay no other or higher duties than if they were imported under the Belgian flag.

It is well understood:

1. That the goods shall have been really put on board in the ports from which they are declared respectively to come.

2. That a putting in at an intermediate port, produced by uncontrollable circumstances duly proved, does not occasion the forfeiture of the advantage allowed to direct importation.

ART. VIII. Articles of every description imported into the United States from other countries than Belgium, under the Belgian flag, shall pay no other or higher duties whatsoever than if they had been imported under the flag of the most favored foreign nation, other than the flag of the country from which the importation is made.

And reciprocally, articles of every description imported under the flag of the United States into Belgium from other countries than the United States, shall pay no other or higher duties whatsoever than if they had been imported under the flag of the foreign nation most favored, other than that of the country from which the importation is made. ART. IX. Articles of every description exported by Belgian vessels, or by those of the United States of America, from the ports of either country to any country whatsoever, shall be subjected to no other duties or formalities than such as are required for exportation under the flag of the country where the shipment is made.

ART. X. All premiums, drawbacks, or other favors of like nature which may be allowed in the States of either of the contracting parties upon goods imported or exported in national vessels, shall be likewise and in the same manner allowed upon goods imported directly from one of the two countries by its vessels into the other, or exported from one of the two countries by the vessels of the other, to any destination whatsoever.

ART. XI. The preceding article is, however, not to apply to the importation of salt, and of the produce of the national fisheries; each of the two parties reserving to itself the faculty of granting special privileges for the importation of those articles under its own flag. ART. XII. The high contracting parties agree to consider and to treat as Belgian vessels and as vessels of the United States all those which, being provided by the competent authority with a passport, sea letter, or any other sufficient document, shall be recognized conformably with existing laws as national vessels in the country to which they respectively belong.

ART. XIII. Belgian vessels and those of the United States may, conformably with the laws of the two countries, retain on board, in the ports of both, such parts of their cargoes as may be destined for a foreign country; and such parts shall not be subjected, either while they remain on board, or upon re-exportation, to any charges whatsoever, other than those for the prevention of smuggling.

ART. XIV. During the period allowed by the laws of the two countries respectively for the warehousing of goods, no duties other than those of watch and storage, shall be levied upon articles brought from either country into the other while awaiting transmit, re-exportation, or entry for consumption.

Such goods shall in no case be subject to higher warehouse charges, or the other formalities, than if they had been imported under the flag of the country.

ART. XV. In all that relates to duties of customs and navigation, the two high contracting parties promise reciprocally not to grant any favor, privilege, or immunity to any other State which shall not instantly become common to the citizens and subjects of both parties respectively; gratuitously, if the concession or favor to such other State is gratuitous, and on allowing the same compensation or its equivalent, if the concession is conditional.

Neither of the contracting parties shall lay upon goods proceeding from the soil or the industry of the other party, which may be imported into its ports, any other or higher duties of importation or re-exportation than are laid upon the importation or re-exportation of similar goods coming from any other foreign country.

ART. XVI. In cases of shipwreck, damages at sea, or forced putting in, each party shall