[Navigation of the Danube.]

Treatment of Austrian Vessels along the Danube and in Ports of the Black Sea with reference to Sanitary Precautions.

ART. VIII. In order still further to facilitate the commercial relations between the countries situated along the Danube and Russian Ports of the Black Sea, the Imperial Government of Russia agrees to assimilate the Austrian Steam Navigation on the Danube, with reference to Sanitary precautions, to those of the Black Sea through the Dardanelles, admitting that the mer. chandise forwarded from Vienna or Hungary, on board Austrian steamers, shall be treated at Odessa or in the other Russian Ports in the same manner as those arriving from Trieste, Leghorn, or other Mediterranean Ports, whenever such merchandise and the packages or bales which they contain shall be sealed with the seal of the Russian Embassy at Vienna, or that of the Russian Consulate at Orsova.

Duration of Convention.

ART. IX. The two High Contracting Parties, whilst thus recognising the permanent maintenance of the principle of the Free Navigation of the Danube, have agreed that the stipulations of the present Convention shall remain in force and have their full and entire effect for the space of 10 years, dating from the day of the exchange of the Ratifications.

Ratifications.

ART. X. The present Convention shall be ratified and the Ratifications thereof shall be exchanged at St. Petersburgh in two months, or sooner if possible.

In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Convention, and have affixed thereto the Seal of their Arms.

Done at St. Petersburgh, the 13th July, of the year of Our Lord,

1840.

25th

(L.S.) LE COMTE DE FICQUELMONT.

(L.S.) CHARLES COMTE DE NESSELRODE. (L.S.) C. M. WORONZOW.

[Pacification of the Levant.]

No. 192.-PROTOCOLS of Conferences between Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Turkey, respecting Pacification of the Levant. London, July, September, 1840.

Preamble.

TABLE.

Declaration of Ottoman Porte, relative to Passes to light Vessels of War, in Straits of Dardanelles and Bosphorus.

Article II of Convention to be carried into execution before Exchange of Ratifications.

Offers to be addressed immediately to Mehemet Ali.

Consular Agents of Four Powers to use their Influence with Mehemet Ali. Declaration of Allied Courts not to seek increase of Territory, &c.

PROTOCOL (1). London, 15th July, 1840.

Declaration of the Ottoman Porte, relative to Passes to light Vessels of War, in Straits of Dardanelles and Bosphorus.

IN affixing his signature to the Convention of this date, the Plenipotentiary of the Sublime Ottoman Porte declared:

That in recording by Article IV of the said Convention the ancient rule of the Ottoman Empire, by virtue of which it has been at all times forbidden to Foreign Vessels of War to enter within the Straits of the Dardanelles and of the Bosphorus, the Sublime Porte reserves to itself, as heretofore, to deliver Passes to light Vessels under Flag of War, which may be employed according to custom for the service of the correspondence of the Legations of Friendly Powers.

The Plenipotentiaries of the Courts of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, took note of the above Declaration, for the purpose of communicating it to their respective Courts.

PALMERSTON.

NEUMANN.

BULOW.

BRUNNOW.

CHEKIB.

RESERVED PROTOCOL (2). London, 15th July, 1840.

THE Plenipotentiaries of the Courts of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, Russia, and Turkey, having, in virtue of their Full Powers, concluded and signed this day a Convention (No. 190)

[Pacification of the Levant.]

between their respective Sovereigns, for the Pacification of the Levant;

Considering that, in consequence of the distances which separate the capitals of their respective Courts, a certain space of time must necessarily elapse before the Ratifications of the said Convention can be exchanged, and before orders founded thereupon can be carried into execution;

And the said Plenipotentiaries being deeply impressed with the conviction, that by reason of the present state of things in Syria, the interests of humanity, as well as the grave considerations of European policy which constitute the object of the common solicitude of the Contracting Parties to the Convention of this day, imperiously require that, as far as possible, all delay should be avoided in the accomplishment of the Pacification which the said Convention is intended to effect.

Article II of Convention to be carried into execution before Exchange of Ratifications.

The said Plenipotentiaries, in virtue of their Full Powers, have agreed that the preliminary measures mentioned in Article II of the said Convention, shall be carried into execution at once, without waiting for the exchange of the Ratifications; the respective Plenipotentiaries recording formally, by the present instrument, the consent of their Courts to the immediate execution of these measures.

Offers to be addressed immediately to Mehemet Ali.

It is morcover agreed between the said Plenipotentiaries, that His Highness the Sultan will proceed immediately to address to Mehemet Ali the communication and offers specified in the Separate Act annexed to the Convention of this day.*

Consular Agents of Four Powers to use their Influence with Mehemet Ali.

It is further agreed that the Consular Agents of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, at Alexandria, shall place themselves in communication with the Agent whom His Highness may send thither to communicate to Mehemet Ali the abovementioned offers; that the said Consuls shall afford to that Agent all the assistance and support in their power; and shall use all

* Page 1012.

[Pacification of the Levant.]

their means of influence with Mehemet Ali, in order to persuade him to accept the Arrangement which will be proposed to him by order of His Highness the Sultan..

The Admirals of the respective squadrons in the Mediterranean shall be instructed to place themselves in communication with the said Consuls on this subject.

PALMERSTON.

NEUMANN.
BULOW.

BRUNNOW.

CHEKIB.

PROTOCOL (3). London, 17th September, 1840.

THE Plenipotentiaries of the Courts of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, after having exchanged the Ratifications of the Convention concluded on the 15th of July last (No. 190), have resolved, in order to place in its true light the disinterestedness which has guided their Courts in the conclusion of that Act, to declare formally:

Declaration of Allied Courts not to seek increase of Territory, &c.

That in the execution of the engagements resulting to the Contracting Powers from the above-mentioned Convention, those Powers will seek no augmentation of Territory, no exclusive Influence, no Commercial advantage for their subjects, which those of every other nation may not equally obtain.

The Plenipotentiaries of the Courts above mentioned have resolved to record this Declaration in the present Protocol.

The Plenipotentiary of the Ottoman Porte, in paying a just tribute to the good faith and disinterested policy of the Allied Courts, has taken cognizance of the Declaration contained in the present Protocol, and has undertaken to transmit it to his Court.

PALMERSTON.

NEUMANN.

SCHLEINITZ.

BRUNNOW.

CHEKIB.

[Dardanelles and Bosphorus.]

No.193.-CONVENTION between Great Britain, Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, and Turkey, respecting the Straits of the Dardanelles and of the Bosphorus. Signed at London, 13th July, 1841.*

1. Closing of Straits of Dardanelles and Bosphorus to Foreign Ships of War in Time of Peace.

2. Firmans to be issued for Vessels under Flag of War used by Foreign Missions.

3. Invitation to Foreign Powers to accede to Convention.

4. Ratifications.

(Translation as laid before Parliament.†)

In the Name of the Most Merciful God.

THEIR Majesties the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, the King of the French, the King of Prussia, and the Emperor of All the Russias, being persuaded that their union and their agreement offer to Europe the most certain pledge for the preservation of the general Peace, the constant object of their solicitude; and their said Majesties being desirous of testifying this agreement, by giving to the Sultan a manifest proof of the respect which they entertain for the inviolability of his sovereign rights, as well as of their sincere desire to see consolidated the repose of his Empire; their said Majesties have resolved to comply with the invitation of His Highness the Sultan, in order to record in common, by a formal Act, their unanimous determination to conform to the ancient rule of the Ottoman Empire, according to which the passage of the Straits of the Dardanelles and of the Bosphorus is always to be closed to Foreign Ships of War, so long as the Porte is at peace.

Their said Majesties, on the one part, and His Highness the Sultan, on the other part, having resolved to conclude between them a Convention on this subject, have named for that purpose as their Plenipotentiaries, that is to say :

Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great and Ireland, the Right Honourable Henry John, Viscount Pal

See also General Treaty of 30th March, 1856, Art. X, and Separate Treaty of the same date.

+For French version, see "State Papers," vol. xxix, p. 703.