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tations shall take place in Ottoman or in vessels of the United States, and whatever may be the place of destination, whether a port of either of the contracting parties, or of any third Power.

ARTICLE IX.

Tonnage

duties,

No duties of tonnage, harbour, pilotage, light-house, quarantine, or other similar or corresponding duties of whatever nature, or under whatever denomination, levied in the name or for the harbor, light-house, profit of Government, public functionaries, private individ- &c., duties. uals, corporations, or establishments of any kind, shall be imposed in the ports of the dominions and possessions of either country upon the vessels of the other country, which shall not equally, and under the same conditions, be imposed, in the like cases, on national vessels in general. Such equality of treatment shall apply reciprocally to the respective vessels, from whatever port or place they may arrive, and whatever may be their place of destination.

ARTICLE X.

All vessels which, according to the laws of the United States, are to be deemed vessels of the United States, and all vessels What to be deemed which, according to Ottoman laws, are to be deemed Otto- Vessels of the United man vessels, shall, for the purposes of this treaty, be deemed toman vessels. vessels of the United States and Ottoman vessels respectively.

ARTICLE XI.

States and what Ot

No charge upon

United States.

No charge whatsoever shall be made upon goods of the United States, being the produce or manufacture of the United States of America, whether in vessels of the United States or other certain goods of the vessels, nor upon any goods the produce or manufacture of any other foreign country carried in vessels of the United States, when the same shall pass through the Straits of the Dardanelles, or of the Bosphorus, whether such goods shall pass through those straits in the vessels that brought them, or shall have been transhipped to other vessels; or whether, after having been sold for exportation, they shall, for a certain limited time, be landed, in order to be placed in other vessels for the continuance of their voyage. In the latter case, the goods in question shall be deposited at Constantinople, in the magazines of the custom-house, called transit magazines; and &, in any other places where there is no entrepot, they shall be placed under the charge of the administration of the customs.

ARTICLE XII.

Transit duty.

The Sublime Porte, desiring to grant, by means of gradual concessions, all facilities in its power to transit by land, it is stipulated and agreed that the duty of three per cent., levied up to this time on articles imported into the Ottoman Empire, in their passage through the Ottoman Empire to other countries, shall be reduced to two per cent., payable as the duty of three per cent. has been paid hitherto, on arriving in the Ottoman dominions; and at the end of eight years, to be reckoned from the day of the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty, to a fixed and definite tax of one per cent., which shall be

levied, as is to be the case with respect to Ottoman produce exported, to defray the expense of registration.

The Sublime Porte, at the same time, declares that it reserves to itself the right to establish, by a special enactment, the measures to be adopted for the prevention of fraud.

Frauds.

Taxes.

ARTICLE XIII.

Citizens of the United States of America, or their agents, trading in goods the produce or manufacture of foreign countries, shall be subject to the same taxes and enjoy the same rights, privileges, and immunities, as foreign subjects dealing in goods the produce or manufacture of their own country.

Tobacco and salt.

ARTICLE XIV.

An exception to the stipulations laid down in the fifth article shall be made in regard to tobacco in any shape whatsoever, and also in regard to salt, which two articles shall cease to be included among those which the citizens of the United States of America are permitted to import into the Ottoman dominions.

Citizens of the United States, however, or their agents, buying or Traders in tobacco Selling tobacco or salt for consumption in the Ottoman Em and salt in Turkey. pire, shall be subject to the same regulations and shall pay the same duties as the most favored Ottoman subjects trading in the two articles aforesaid; and furthermore, as a compensation for the proNo export duty on hibition of the two articles above-mentioned, no duty whattobacco and salt. soever shall in future be levied on those articles when exported from the Ottoman Empire by citizens of the United States.

Regulations as to

their exportation.

Citizens of the United States shall, nevertheless, be bound to declare the quantity of tobacco and salt thus exported to the proper custom-house authorities, who shall, as heretofore, have the right to watch over the export of these articles, without thereby being entitled to levy any tax thereon on any pretence whatsoever.

Importation of gun

ARTICLE XV.

It is understood between the two contracting parties that the Sublime Porte reserves to itself the faculty and right of issuing a powder, arms, &c. general prohibition against the importation into the Ottoman Empire of gunpowder, cannon, arms of war, or military stores, but such prohibition will not come into operation until it shall have been officially notified, and will apply only to the articles mentioned in the decree enacting the prohibition. Any of these articles which have not been so specifically prohibited shall, on being imported into the Ottoman Empire, be subject to the local regulations, unless the legation of the United States of America shall think fit to apply for a special license, which will in that case be granted, provided no valid objection thereto can be alleged. Gunpowder, in particular, when allowed to Gunpowder. be imported, will be liable to the following stipulations: 1. It shall not be sold by citizens of the United States in quantities exceeding the quantities prescribed by the local regulations.

2. When a cargo or a large quantity of gunpowder arrives in an Ottoman port, on board a vessel of the United States, such vessel shall be anchored at a particular spot, to be designated by the local authorities, and the gunpowder shall thence be conveyed, under the inspection of

such authorities, to depots, or fitting places designated by the Govern ment, to which the parties interested shall have access under due regulations.

Fowling-pieces, pistols, and ornamental or fancy weapons, as also small quantities of gunpowder for sporting, reserved for

Not to apply to

private use, shall not be subject to the stipulations of the what. present article.

ARTICLE XVI.

The firmans required for merchant-vessels of the United States of America, on passing through the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus, shall always be delivered in such manner as to occasion to such vessels the least possible delay.

ARTICLE XVII.

Firmans.

Manifests to be

The captains of merchant-vessels of the United States laden with goods destined for the Ottoman Empire shall be obliged, immediately on their arrival at the port of their destination, deposited in customto deposit in the custom-house of said port a true copy of their manifest.

ARTICLE XVIII.

house.

Contraband goods will be liable to confiscation by the Ottoman treasury; but a report or procès verbal of the alleged act of contraband must, so soon as the said goods are seized by

Contraband.

the authorities, be drawn up and communicated to the consular authority of the citizen or subject to whom the goods said to be contraband shall belong; and no goods can be confiscated as contraband unless the fraud with regard to them shall be duly and fiscate, legally proved.

ARTICLE XIX.

Proceedings to con

All merchandise the produce or manufacture of the Ottoman dominions and possessions, imported into the United States of Subjects, vessels, America, shall be treated in the same manner as the like and merchandise of merchandise the produce or manufacture of the most favored the United States. nation.

the Sublime Porte in

All rights, privileges, or immunities, which are now or may hereafter be granted to, or suffered to be enjoyed by, the subjects, vessels, commerce, or navigation of any foreign Power in the United States of America shall be equally granted to, and exercised and enjoyed by, the subjects, vessels, commerce, and navigation of the Sublime Porte.

ARTICLE XX.

Present treaty to

what.

years from

The present treaty, when ratified, shall be substituted for the commercial convention of the 16th of August, 1838, between the Sublime Porte and Great Britain, on the footing of which be substituted for the commerce of the United States of America has been heretofore placed, and shall continue in force for 28 the day of the exchange of the ratifications; and each of the two contracting parties being, however, at liberty to give to twenty-eight years. the other, at the end of 14 years, (that time being fixed, as the provisions of this treaty will then have come into full force,) notice for its revision, or for its determination at the expiration of may be given, &c.

To continue

for

Notice to terminate

a year from the date of that notice, and so again at the end of 21 years.

Treaty to be ex

vince of the Otto

The present treaty shall receive its execution in all and every one of the provinces of the Ottoman Empire; that is to say, in all ecuted in all the pro: the possessions of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan, situated man Empire. in Europe or in Asia, in Egypt, and in the other parts of Africa belonging to the Sublime Porte, in Servia, and in the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia.

Treaty to be construed fairly.

ARTICLE XXI.

It is always understood that the Government of the United States of America does not pretend, by any article in the present treaty, to stipulate for more than the plain and fair con struction of the terms employed, nor to preclude in any manner the Ottoman Government from the exercise of its rights of internal adminis tration where the exercise of these rights does not evidently infringe upon the privileges accorded by ancient treaties, or by the present treaty, to citizens of the United States or their merchandise.

Tariff of custom

ARTICLE XXII.

The high contracting parties have agreed to appoint, jointly, commissioners for the settlement of a tariff of custom-house duties, house duties. to be levied in conformity with the stipulations of the present treaty, as well upon merchandise of every description being the produce or manufacture of the United States of America imported into the Ot toman Empire, as upon articles of every description the produce or manufacture of the Ottoman Empire and its possessions, which citizens of the United States or their agents are free to purchase in any part of the Ottoman Empire for exportation to the United States or to any other country. The new tariff, to be so concluded, shall remain in force during seven years, dating from the date of the exchange of the ratifications.

To remain in force seven years.

Each of the contracting parties shall have the right, a year before the How and when expiration of that term, to demand the revision of the tariff. may be revised, But if, during the seventh year, neither the one nor the other of the contracting parties shall avail itself of this right, the tariff then existing shall continue to have the force of law for seven years more, dating from the day of the expiration of the seven preceding years; and the same shall be the case with respect to every successive period of seven years.

ratified.

ARTICLE XXIII.

The present treaty shall be ratified and the ratifications shall be exTreaty when to be changed at Constantinople in three calendar months, or sooner if possible, and shall be carried into execution when ratified. Done at Constantinople on the twenty-fifth day of Feb ruary, eighteen hundred and sixty-two.

When concluded.

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PARAGUAY.

PARAGUAY, 1859.

SPECIAL CONVENTION BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE REPUBLIC OF PARAGUAY, RELATING TO THE CLAIMS OF THE "UNITED STATES AND PARAGUAY NAVIGATION COMPANY." CONCLUDED AT ASSUMPTION FEBRUARY 4, 1859; RATIFICATIONS EXCHANGED AT WASHINGTON MARCH 7, 1860; PROCLAIMED MARCH 12, 1860.

His Excellency the President of the United States of America, and His Excellency the President of the Republic of Paraguay, desiring to remove every cause that might interfere with the good understanding and harmony, for a time so unhappily interrupted, between the two nations, and now so happily restored, and which it is so much for their interest to maintain; and desiring for this purpose to come to a definite understanding, equally just and honorable to both nations, as to the mode of settling a pending question of the said claims of the "United States and Paraguay Navigation Company"-a company composed of citizens of the United States-against the Government of Paraguay, have agreed to refer the same to a special and respectable commission, to be organized and regulated by the convention hereby established between the two high contracting parties; and for this purpose they have appointed and conferred full powers, respectively, to wit:

Negotiators.

His Excellency the President of the United States of America upon James B. Bowlin, a Special Commissioner of the said United States of America, specifically charged and empowered for this purpose; and His Excellency the President of the Republic of Paraguay upon Señor Nicholas Vasquez, Secretary of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the said Republic of Paraguay;

Who, after exchanging their full powers, which were found in good and proper form, agreed upon the following articles :

ARTICLE I.

Decree of commis

ioners in favor of

The Government of the Republic of Paraguay binds itself for the responsibility in favor of the "United States and Paraguay Navigation Company," which may result from the decree of commissioners, who, it is agreed, shall be appointed as follows:

ARTICLE II.

United States and
Paraguay Navig. Co.

Commissioners.

The two high contracting parties, appreciating the difficulty of agreeing upon the amount of the reclamations to which the said company may be entitled, and being convinced that a commission is the only equitable and honorable method by which the two countries can arrive at a perfect understanding thereof, hereby covenant to adjust them accordingly by a loyal commission. To determine the amount of said reclamations, it is, therefore, agreed to constitute

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