Vol. I, Ch. II. AUSTRIA AND PRUSSIA.

Articles concerning the Navigation of the Neckar, the Mayne, the Mozelle, the Meuse, and the Scheldt.

2d. In acting for the present central administration, where it shall be necessary, until the publication of the new regulations.

Signed

D'ALBERG.

CLANCARTY.

Wrede.

TURCKHEIM.

BERCKHEIM.

DE MARSCHALL.
SPAEN.

HUMBOLDT.

WESSENBERG.

1. The same freedom of navigation that has been granted for the Rhine, shall be extended to the Neckar, the Mayne, the Moselle, the Meuse, and the Scheldt, from the point where each of them becomes navigable, to their mouths.

2. Storehouse and forced harbour duties, on the Neckar and the Mayne, are and shall continue abolished, and all qualified watermen shall be allowed to navigate along the whole extent of these rivers, in the same manner that such liberty has been restored, by Article 19, on the Rhine.

3. The tolls levied on the Neckar and the Mayne shall not be increased ; on the contrary, the Governments, joint possessors of the bank, engage to reduce them, in case they should exceed the tarifs in use in 1802, to the rates of those tarifs. They likewise engage not to burthen navigation by any new imposts whatever, and will meet, as soon as possible, to arrange a tarif as similar to the duties levied on the Rhine, as circumstances may permit.

4. The duties now levied on the Moselle and the Meuse, in pursuance of the decree of the French Government of the 12th November 1806, and and of the 10th Brumaire of the year 14, shall not be increased; on the contrary, the Governments, joint possessors of the bank, engage to reduce them, in case they are higher than those levied on the Rhine, to the same

rate.

This engagement not to increase the present tarifs, refers, however, only to the amount and maximum of duties; the Governments expressly reserving to themselves the power of fixing, by new regulations, every thing relative to the division into different classes of such merchandize as is subject to a lower tarif; to the difference now established for passing up and down the river at the custom-houses; to the mode of collection; to the police of the navigation; or to any other subject requiring ulterior determination.

This regulation shall be made to correspond, as nearly as possible, with that of the Rhine; and the better to insure such uniformity, it shall be drawn up by those members of the central commission of the Rhine, whose Governments shall also have possessions on the banks of the Moselle and the Meuse.

No increase shall take place in the tarif, to be finally settled by the new regulation, unless a similar increase shall be considered necessary on the Rhine, and that only in the same proportion; and no other part of the regulation shall be altered but by common consent.

5. The States of the Rivers specified in Article 1. engage to keep the towing-paths in repair, as well as the necessary works in the beds of the rivers, in the same manner as agreed upon in Article 7. for the Rhine.

6. The subjects of the States of the Rivers Neckar, the Mayne and the Moselle, shall enjoy the same rights of navigation on the Rhine, and Prussian subjects on the Meuse, as the subjects of the States of the two last rivers; paying due regard, however, to the regulations therein established.

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7. Every thing relating to the navigation of the Scheldt, which may need Vol. I. Ch. II. ulterior arrangement, besides the freedom of navigation on this river, specified in Article 1, shall be definitively regulated in a manner the most favourable to commerce and navigation, and the most analogous to the regulations established on the Rhine.

In the name of the Most Holy and Undivided Trinity. His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias, and His Majesty the King of Prussia, animated by the desire of prosecuting the negociations adjourned at the Congress of Vienna, in order to fix the destiny of the seven Ionian Islands, and to insure the independence, liberty, and happiness of the inhabitants of those Islands, by placing them and their constitution under the immediate protection of one of the great Powers of Europe, have agreed to settle definitively by a special Act, whatever relates to this object, which, grounded upon the rights resulting from the Treaty of Paris of the 30th May 1814, and likewise upon the British declarations at the period when the British arms liberated Cerigo, Zante, Cephalonia, Santa Maura, Ithaca, and Paxo, shall be considered as forming part of the general Treaty, concluded at Vienna on the 9th June of the present year 1815, on the termination of the Congress; and in order to settle and sign the said Act, the High contracting Powers have nominated Plenipotentiaries; that is to say,

His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Right Honourable Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, K. G. &c. &c. &c. and the Most Illustrious and Most Noble Lord Arthur, Duke, Marquess, and Earl of Wellington, Marquess of Douro, Viscount Wellington of Talavera and of Wellington, and Baron Douro of Wellesley, K. G. &c. &c. &c. And His Majesty the Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and Bohemia, the Sieur Clement Wenceslas Lothaire, Prince of Metternich-WinnebourgOchsenhausen, &c. &c. &c. and the Sieur John Philip Baron Wessenberg, &c. &c. &c. who, after having exchanged their full powers, found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon the following Articles :

1. The Islands of Corfu, Cephalonia, Zante, Santa Maura, Ithaca, Cerigo and Paxo, with their dependencies, such as they are described in the Treaty between His Majesty the Emperor of all the Russias and the Ottoman Porte, of the 21st of March 1800 (2), shall form a single, free, and independent State, under the denomination of the United States of the Ionian Islands.

2. This State shall be placed under the immediate and exclusive protection of His Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, his heirs and successors. The other Contracting Powers do consequently renounce every right or particular pretension which they might have

(1) Since acceded to by all the other Powers of Europe.

(2) "The Islands of Corfu, Zante, Cephalonia, Santa Maura, Ithaca, Paxo, Cerigo, and all the large and small islands, inhabited and

Treaty between Great Britain and Austria (and Russia and Prussia). Signed at Paris, 5th November 1815.(1)

Vol. I. Ch. II. formed in respect to them, and formally guarantee all the dispositions of the

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AND PRUSSIA.

present Treaty.

3. The United States of the Ionian Islands shall, with the approbation of the Protecting Power, regulate their internal organization; and, in order to give to all the parts of this organization the necessary consistency and action, His Britannic Majesty will employ a particular solicitude with regard to the legislation and the general administration of those States. His Majesty will therefore appoint a Lord High Commissioner to reside there, invested with all the necessary power and authorities for this purpose.

4. In order to carry into execution, without delay, the stipulations mentioned in the articles preceding, and to ground the political re-organization of the United Ionian States, upon that organization which is actually in force, the Lord High Commissioner of the Protecting Power shall regulate the forms of convocation of a Legislative assembly, of which he shall direct the proceedings, in order to draw up a new Constitutional Charter for the States, which his Majesty the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland shall be requested to ratify.

Until such Constitutional Charter shall have been so drawn up, and duly ratified, the existing Constitutions shall remain in force in the different islands, and no alteration shall be made in them, except by His Britannic Majesty in Council.

5. In order to ensure, without restriction, to the inhabitants of the United States of the Ionian Islands, the advantages resulting from the high protection under which these States are placed, as well as for the exercise of the rights inherent in the said protection, His Britannic Majesty shall have the right to occupy the fortresses and places of those States, and to maintain garrisons in the same. The military force of the said United States shall also be under the orders of the Commander-in-Chief of the troops of His Britannic Majesty.

A

6. His Britannic Majesty consents, that a particular Convention with the Government of the said United States shall regulate, according to the reve-A nues of those States, every thing which may relate to the maintenance of the fortresses already existing, as well as to the subsistence and payment of the British garrisons, and to the number of men of which they shall be composed in time of peace.

The same Convention shall likewise fix the relations which are to exist between the said armed force and the Ionian Government.

7. The trading flag of the United States of the Ionian Islands shall be acknowledged by all the Contracting Parties as the flag of a free and independent State. It shall carry with the colours, and above the armorial bearings thereon displayed before the year 1807, such other as His Britannic Majesty may think proper to grant, as a mark of the protection under which the said United Ionian States are placed; and for the more effectual furtherance of this protection, all the ports and harbours of the said States are hereby declared to be, with respect to honorary and military rights, within British jurisdiction. The commerce between the United Ionian States and the dominions of His Imperial and Royal Apostolic Majesty shall enjoy the same advantages and facilities as that of Great Britain with the said United States. None but commercial agents, or Consuls, charged solely with the carrying on commercial relations, and subject to the regulations to which commercial agents or Consuls are subject in other independent States, shall be accredited to the United States of the Ionian Islands. (1)

(1) See extract from the Constitutional Chart which follows this Treaty.

8. All the Powers which signed the Treaty of Paris of the 30th of May 1814, and the Act of the Congress of Vienna of the 9th of June 1815; and also His Majesty the King of the Two Sicilies, and the Ottoman Porte, shall be invited to accede to the present Convention.

9. The present Act shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in two months, or sooner, if possible.

In witness whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed it, and have affixed thereunto the seals of their arms.

Done at Paris the 5th day of November, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifteen.

Signed

(L.S.) CASTLEreagh.
WELLINGTON.

(L.S.)

Vol.I. Ch. II.
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AND PRUSSIA.

(L.S.) METTERNICH.
(L.S.) WESSENberg.

CONSTITUTIONAL CHART of the United States of the Ionian Islands, as agreed on and passed unanimously by the Legislative Assembly, on the 2d of May 1817.

CHAPTER VII.

Miscellaneous.

SECTION IV.

Of Foreign Relations.

1. Whereas, in the latter part of the seventh Article of the Treaty of Paris, is is agreed," that no person, from any Power whatsoever, shall be admitted within these States, possessing or pretending to possess any powers beyond those which are defined in the aforesaid article ;" it is hereby declared, that any person who shall assume to himself any authority as an agent for a foreign Power, except as therein directed, shall be amenable to be tried before the Supreme Council of Justice, and be liable, if found guilty, to punishment, as in cases of high treason against the State.

2. No native, or subject of the United States of the Ionian Islands, shall be held competent to act as Consul or Vice-Consul for any foreign Power within the same.

3. The British Consuls, in all ports whatsoever, shall be considered to be the Consuls and Vice-Consuls of the United States of the Ionian Islands, and the subjects of the same shall be entitled to their fullest protection.

4. All applications necessary to be made by these States to any foreign Power, shall be transmitted by the Senate to His Excellency the Lord High Commissioner of the Protecting Sovereign, who shall forward the same to the ambassador or minister of the Protecting Sovereign, resident at the Court of the said foreign Power, for the purpose of submitting them in due form to the said Power.

5. The approval of the appointments of all foreign agents, or Consuls, in the United States of the Ionian Islands, shall be by the Senate, through the medium of His Highness the President thereof, with the concurrence of His Excellency the Lord High Commissioner of the Protecting Sovereign.

6. With a view to ensure the most perfect protection to the commerce of these islands, every vessel, navigating under the Ionian flag, shall be bound, before leaving the port of the Ionian States to which she belongs, to provide herself with a pass, signed by His Excellency the Lord High Commissioner

ferring to the Seventh Article of the preceding Treaty.

Document re

Vol. I. Ch. II. AUSTRIA. AND PRUSSIA.

of the Protecting Sovereign, and no vessel sailing without such pass shall be considered as navigating according to law. But it is reserved to His Majesty, the Protecting Sovereign, to decide how far it may be necessary, that, independent of such pass, they should further be bound to supply themselves with Mediterranean passes.

SECTION V.

Of the Sanità.

1. Whereas the protecting and protected State have an equal right and interest in the great object of the preservation of the public health; it is hereby declared, the controul of the Sanità throughout the United States of the Ionian Islands, shall be vested in the hands of His Excellency the Lord High Commissioner of the Protecting Sovereign, who shall regulate, according to the rules of Sanità, the relative quarantines to be performed in all instances, giving due notice of the same; shall fix the number of officers to be employed, and name, in each island, the heads of the office of Sanità, being either British or Ionian subjects: but all other appointments made upon this head shall be subject to the approbation of the Senate, and, as far as relates to numbers and amount of salary, to the consideration of the Legislative Assembly, as herein-before stated in regard to the civil list.

2. The post-office in each island shall, hereafter, be considered as an integral part of the Sanità.

SECTION VI.

Of the National Colours and Armorial Bearings.

1. The National Commercial Flag of the United States of the Ionian Islands, as directed by the seventh Article of the Treaty of Paris, shall be the original flag of these States, with the addition of the British Union, to bę placed in the upper corner, next to the flag-staff.

2. On usual days, the British colours shall be hoisted on all the forts within the United States of the Ionian Islands; but a standard shall be made to be hoisted on days of public rejoicing and festivity, according to the modeł of the armorial bearings of the said States.

3. The arms or armorial bearings of the United States of the Ionian Islands shall hereafter consist of the British arms in the centre, surrounded by the arms of each of the islands composing the said States.

4. The armorial bearings of each of the islands shall consist of the individual arms of the island, and such emblem, denoting the Sovereign Protection, as may be deemed advisable.

SECTION VII.
General Clauses.

3. In the instance of all maritime transactions, and the collection of the customs, it shall be competent for the proper authorities to employ either British or Ionian subjects.

5. A specific law shall settle the terms, time, and mode for the naturalization of foreign subjects in these States; but the subjects of the protecting Power shall, in all instances, be entitled to naturalization in half the time that is required for those of any foreign Power; and a subject of the protecting Power, or of any other Power, may be at once naturalized by a bill to that effect, without reference to any fixed time of residence in these States, which shall be laid down in the law itself.