Vu le Traité de Commerce conclu le 1er Mai, 1861, entre la France et la Belgique.*

Avons décrété et décrétons ce qui suit :

ART. I. Les dispositions du Traité de Commerce conclu le 1er Mai, 1861, entre la France et la Belgique, sont applicables à l'Angleterre.

II. Nos Ministres Secrétaires d'Etat au Département de l'Agriculture, du Commerce, et des Travaux Publics, et au Département des Finances, sont chargés, chacun en ce qui le concerne, de l'exécution du présent Décret.

Fait au Palais des Tuileries, le 29 Mai, 1861. Par l'Empereur :

NAPOLEON.

Le Ministre Secrétaire d'Etat au Département de l'Agriculture, du Commerce, et des Travaux Publics.

F. ROUHER.

CONVENTION between Great Britain and France, relative to the Emigration of Labourers from India to the French Colonies. Signed, in English and French, at Paris, July 1, 1861.†

His Majesty the Emperor of the French having made known, by a Declaration dated this day, 1st July, 1861, his resolution to put an end to the recruitment upon the Coast of Africa of negro labourers by means of redemption; and Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland desiring, in consequence, to facilitate the immigration of free labourers into the French Colonies, their said Majesties have resolved to conclude a Convention destined to regulate the recruitment of such labourers in the British territories in India. For this For this purpose they have named as their Plenipotentiaries:

Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Most Honourable Henry Richard Charles Earl Cowley, Her Majesty's Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Emperor of the French;

And His Majesty the Emperor of the French, M. Edouard Antoine Thouvenel, Senator, His Minister and Secretary of State for the Department of Foreign Affairs:

Who, after having communicated to each other their respective full powers, found in due form, have agreed upon the following Articles:

ART. I. The French Government shall be at liberty to recruit and engage labourers for the French Colonies in the Indian territories belonging to Great Britain, and to embark emigrants, being * Bulletin des Lois, No. 933, 27 May, 1861; and Tariff in Supplement to London Gazette, 4th June, 1861. See Extracts in this Volume, Pages 68, 72. Ratifications exchanged at Paris, July 30, 1861. See Page 209.

subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, either in British or French ports in India, under the conditions hereinafter stipulated.

II. The French Government shall intrust the direction of its operations in every centre of recruitment to an Agent chosen by itself.

Those Agents must be approved by the British Government. Such approval is assimilated, with regard to the right of granting and withdrawal, to the exequatur given to Consular Agents. III. This recruitment shall be effected conformably to the regulations which now exist, or may hereafter be established, for the recruitment of labourers for British Colonies.

IV. The French Agent shall, with regard to the operations of recruitment which are intrusted to him, enjoy for himself and for the persons whom he may employ, all the facilities and advantages afforded to the recruiting agents for British Colonies.

V. The Government of Her Britannic Majesty shall appoint in those British ports where emigrants may be embarked, an Agent who shall be specially charged with the care of their interests.

In French ports the same duty with regard to Indian subjects of Her Britannic Majesty shall be confided to the British Consular Agent.

Under the term "Consular Agents," jare comprised Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and all other commissioned Consular officers.

VI. No emigrant shall be embarked unless the Agent described in the preceding Article shall have been enabled to satisfy himself either that the emigrant is not a British subject, or, if a British subject, that his engagement is voluntary, that he has a perfect knowledge of the nature of his contract, of the place of his destination, of the probable length of his voyage, and of the different advantages connected with his engagement.

VII. The contracts of service, with the exception provided for by Section 4 of Article IX, and by Section 2 of Article X, shall be made in India, and shall either bind the emigrant to serve a person designated by name, or to serve a person to whom he shall be allotted by the proper authority, on his arrival in the Colony.

VIII. The contracts shall, moreover, make stipulation for: 1. The duration of the engagement, at the expiration of which the emigrant shall receive a return-passage to India at the expensc of the French Government, and the terms on which it will be competent to him to renounce his right to a free return-passage. 2. The number of days and hours of work.

3. The wages and rations, as well as the rate of payment for extra work, and all the advantages promised to the emigrant.

4. Gratuitous medical treatment for the emigrant, except in cases where, in the opinion of the proper Government officer, his illness shall have arisen from his own misconduct.

In every contract of engagement there shall be inserted an

exact copy of Articles IX, X, XX, and XXI, of the present Convention.

IX. 1. The duration of the immigrant's engagement shall not be more than 5 years. In case, however, he shall be duly proved to have absented himself from work, he shall be bound to serve a number of days equal to the time of his absence.

2. At the expiration of that period, every Indian who shall have attained the age of 10 years at the time of his departure from India shall be entitled to a return-passage at the expense of the French Government.

3. If he can show that his conduct has been regular, and that he has the means of subsistence, he may be allowed to reside in the Colony without any engagement; but from that time he will lose his right to a free return-passage.

4. If he consents to contract a new engagement, he will be entitled to a bounty, and will retain his right to a return-passage at the expiration of such second engagement.

The right of the immigrant to a return-passage extends to his wife, and to his children who quitted India under the age of 10 years, as well as to those born in the Colonies.

X. The immigrant shall not be bound to work more than 6 days in 7, nor more than 9 hours a day.

The conditions of task-work, and every other kind of regulation for work, shall be freely arranged with the labourer. The obligation to provide, on holidays, for the care of animals and the necessities of daily life, shall not be considered as work.

XI. In British ports, the arrangements which precede the departure of the emigrants shall be conformable to those prescribed by the regulations for the British Colonies.

In French ports, the Emigration Agent, or his deputies, shall, on the departure of every emigrant ship, deliver to the British Consular Agent a nominal list of the emigrants who are subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, with a description of their persons, and shall also communicate to him the contracts of which he may require copies. In such case, only one copy shall be given of all contracts of which the provisions are identical.

XII. In the ports of embarkation, the emigrants who are subjects of Her Britannic Majesty shall be at liberty, conforming to the regulations of police relative to such establishments, to leave the depôts, or other place in which they may be lodged, in order to communicate with the British Agents, who, on their part, may, at any reasonable hour, visit the places in which the emigrants, subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, are collected or lodged.

XIII. Emigrants may leave India for the Colonies to the east of the Cape of Good Hope at all times of the year.

For other Colonies they may leave only from the 1st of August to the 15th of March. This arrangement applies only to sailing-vessels; vessels using steam-power may leave at any time of the year.

Every emigrant sailing from India for the Antilles between the 1st of March and the 15th of September shall receive at least 1 double blanket over and above the clothing usually allowed to him, and may make use of it so long as the vessel is outside of the tropics.

XIV. Every emigrant vessel must carry a European surgeon and an interpreter.

The captains of emigrant vessels shall be bound to take charge of any despatch which may be delivered to them by the British Agent at the port of embarkation for the British Consular Agent at the port of destination, and to deliver it to the Colonial Government immediately after his arrival.

XV. In every vessel employed for the conveyance of emigrants, subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, the emigrants shall occupy either between decks, or in cabins on the upper deck, firmly secured and entirely covered in, a space devoted to their exclusive Such cabins and space between decks shall in every part have a height of not less than 1 mètre 65 centimètres French measure, or 5 feet English measure.

use.

No compartment shall take more than 1 adult emigrant for every cubic space of 2 mètres French measure, or 72 feet English measure, in the Presidency of Bengal and at Chandernagore; and for every cubic space of 1 mètre 700 decimètres French measures, or 60 feet English measure, in other French ports, and in the Presidencies of Bombay and Madras.

An emigrant above the age of 10 years shall count as an adult, and 2 children from 1 to 10 years of age shall count as 1 adult.

A place shall be fitted up for a hospital in every emigrant ship. Women and children shall occupy compartments of the vessel distinct and separate from those of the men.

XVI. Each shipment of emigrants shall include a proportion of women, equal to at least one-fourth of the number of men. After the expiration of 3 years the numerical proportion of women shall be raised to one-third; after 2 years more it shall be raised to one-half; and, after a further period of 2 years, the proportion shall be the same as may be fixed for the British Colonies.

XVII. The British Agents, at the embarkation, shall have, at all reasonable times, the right of access to every part of the ships which is appropriated to the use of emigrants.

XVIII. The Governors of the French establishments in India shall make such administrative regulations as may be necessary to insure the complete execution of the preceding stipulations.

XIX. On the arrival of an emigrant ship in any French Colony the Government shall cause to be transmitted to the British Consular Agent any despatches which it may have received for him, together with

1. A nominal list of all labourers disembarked, who are subjects of Her Britannic Majesty ;

2. A list of the deaths or births which may have taken place during the voyage.

The Colonial Government shall take the necessary measures to enable the British Consular Agent to communicate with the emigrants before their distribution in the Colony.

A copy of the list of distribution shall be delivered to the Consular Agent.

He shall be informed of all deaths and births which may occur during the period of engagement, as well as all changes of employer, and of all departures on a return-passage.

Every fresh engagement, or act of renunciation of the right to a free return-passage, shall be communicated to the Consular Agent. XX. All immigrants being subjects of Her Britannic Majesty shall in the same manner as other subjects of the British Crown, and comformably to the ordinary rules of international law, enjoy in the French Colonies the right of claiming the assistance of the British Consular Agents; and no obstacle shall be opposed to the labourer's resorting to the Consular Agent and communicating with him; without prejudice, however, to the obligations arising out of his engagements.

XXI. In the distribution of labourers no husband shall be separated from his wife, nor any father or mother from their children under 15 years of age. No labourer shall be required to change his employer without his own consent, unless he be transferred to the Government, or to the person who has acquired the property on which he is employed.

Immigrants who may become permanently incapable of work, either by sickness or by any other cause beyond their own control, shall be sent back at the expense of the French Government, whatever time may still be wanting to entitle them to a free returnpassage.

XXII. All operations of immigration may be carried on in the French Colonies by French or British vessels without distinction.

British vessels which may engage in those operations shall be bound to conform to all the measures of police, health, and equipment which may apply to French vessels.

XXIII. The labour regulations of Martinique shall serve as the basis for all the regulations of the French Colonies into which Indian emigrants, subjects of Her Britannic Majesty may be introduced.

The French Government engages not to introduce into those regulations any modification the result of which would be to place the said Indian subjects in an exceptional position, or to impose upon them conditions of labour more stringent than those prescribed by the said regulations.

XXIV. The present Convention applies to emigration to the Colonies of Réunion, Martinique, Guadeloupe and its dependencies, and Guiana.