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His Majesty, on the 1st of January, 1788, at the house of his grand banker at Paris, the said sum of eighteen millions, money of France, with interest at 5 per cent. per annum."

"1

FRANCE, 1800.

CONVENTION OF PEACE, COMMERCE, AND NAVIGATION.

Concluded September 30, 1800. Ratifications exchanged at Paris, July 31, 1801. Proclaimed December 21, 1801.

ARTICLE I-Declaration of amity.

ARTICLE II. (Treaties of 1778 and 1788 abrogated.)" The Ministers Plenipotentiary of the two parties not being able to agree at present respecting the treaty of alliance of 6th February, 1778, the treaty of amity and commerce of the same date, and the convention of 14th of November, 1788, nor upon the indemnities mutually due or claimed, the parties will negociate further on these subjects at a convenient time, and until they may have agreed upon these points the said treaties and convention shall have no operation, and the relations of the two countries shall be regulated as follows: "

ARTICLE III. (Restoration of public ships.)-"The public ships which have been taken on one part and the other, or which may be taken before the exchange of ratifications, shall be restored."

ARTICLE IV. (Captured property, not definitively condemned, to be restored.)—"Property captured, and not yet definitively condemned, or which may be captured before the exchange of ratifications (contraband goods destined to an enemy's port excepted), shall be mutually restored on the fol

1 By subsequent articles of this convention the United States acknowledge the loan of ten million livres, made by Holland to France for their account, in 1781; and stipulate to pay the same in ten annual installments, beginning in 1787. The eighteen million livres mentioned in article I. were to be paid in twelve annual installments, beginning the third year after a peace.

A new loan of six million livres was negotiated with France on Febuary 25, 1783, to be paid in six annual installments, beginning in 1797.

lowing proofs of ownership, viz.: The proof on both sides with respect to merchant ships, whether armed or unarmed, shall be a passport in the form following:

"And this passport will be sufficient without any other paper, any ordinance to the contrary notwithstanding; which passport shall not be deemed requisite to have been renewed or recalled, whatever number of voyages the said ship may have made, unless she shall have returned home within the space of a year. Proof with respect to the cargo shall be certificates, containing the several particulars of the cargo, the place whence the ship sailed and whither she is bound, so that the forbidden and contraband goods may be distinguished by the certificates which certificates shall have been made out by the officers of the place whence the ship set sail, in the accustomed form of the country. And if such passport or certificates, or both, shall have been destroyed by accident or taken away by force, their deficiency may be supplied by such other proofs of ownership as are admissible by the general usage of nations. Proof with respect to other than merchant ships shall be the commission they bear.

"This article shall take effect from the date of the signature of the present convention. And if, from the date of the said signature, any property shall be condemned contrary to the intent of the said convention, before the knowledge of this stipulation shall be obtained, the property so condemned shall, without delay, be restored or paid for."

ARTICLE V. (Prosecution of debts authorized). "The debts contracted by one of the two nations with individuals of the other, or by the individuals of one with the individuals of the other, shall be paid, or the payment may be prosecuted, in the same manner as if there had been no misunderstanding between the two States. But this clause shall not extend to indemnities claimed on account of captures or confiscations."

ARTICLE VI.-(Freedom of commerce and navigation.) "Commerce between the parties shall be free. The vessels of the two nations and their privateers, as well as their prizes, shall be treated in their respective ports as those of the nation the most favoured; and, in general, the two parties shall enjoy in the ports of each other, in regard to commerce and navigation, the privileges of the most favoured nation."

ARTICLE VII.-Property of citizens of one nation in the territory of the other. See Article XI. of the treaty of amity and commerce of 1778.

ARTICLE VIII.-See Plan of Treatise, XXIII.

ARTICLE IX. (Debts not to be confiscated.) "Neither the debts due from individuals of the one nation to individuals of the other, nor shares, nor monies, which they may have in public funds, or in the public or private banks, shall ever, in any event of war or of national difference, be sequestered or confiscated."

ARTICLE X. permits the appointment of commercial agents (consuls); and

ARTICLE XI. forbids discrimination in duties, as in the former treaty.

ARTICLE XII.-Neutrals are allowed to trade with the enemy in goods not contraband; and further in respect to Blockades, it is stipulated that vessels sailing for a blockaded port in ignorance of the blockade shall not be detained till after a notice is given.

ARTICLE XIII.-Gives a list of contraband goods, agreeing in the main with that in the treaty of 1778, with the exception that horses are not included.

ARTICLES XIV. and XV. declare for "free ships, free goods," and enemy ships, enemy goods, as in the plan of treaties.

ARTICLES XVI., XVII., and XVIII. provide for proofs of the nationality of vessels, protection of neutral ships, in time of war, and regulations for the right of search.

ARTICLE XIX.-Neutral vessels under convoy are not subject to visitation and search.

ARTICLES XX. and XXI. provide certain rules for the protection of persons and property in the case of the capture of neutral vessels.

ARTICLE XXII.-Prize courts are only competent to have cognizance of prize causes.

ARTICLE XXIII.-Provides for indemnification for damages by men of war and privateers.

Commanders of privateers shall hereafter be obliged to give security in the sum of seven thousand dollars, or if the ship be provided with above one hundred and fifty seamen, in the sum of fourteen thousand dollars, to satisfy all damages.

ARTICLE XXIV.-The ships of war of one nation to be admitted with their prizes into ports of the other.

ARTICLE XXV.-See Plan of Treaty, XXV.

ARTICLE XXXVI.-With reference to pirates as in the former treaty.

ARTICLE XXVII.-(Fisheries-Ratification.)-"Neither party will intermeddle in the fisheries of the other on its coasts, nor disturb the other in the exercise of the rights which it now holds or may acquire on the coast of Newfoundland, in the Gulph of St. Lawrence, or elsewhere on the American coast northward of the United States. But the whale and seal fisheries shall be free to both in every quarter of the world.

"This convention-shall be ratified on both sides in due form, and the ratifications exchanged in the space of six months, or sooner, if possible.

"In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the above articles both in the French and English languages, and they have thereto affixed their seals: declaring, nevertheless, that the signing in the two languages shall not be brought into precedent, nor in any way operate to the prejudice of either party.

"Done at Paris the eighth day of Vendémiaire of the ninth year of the French Republic, the thirtieth day of September, anno Domini eighteen hundred.

"J. BONAPARTE. "C. P. FLEURIEU. "ROEDERER.

"O. ELLSWORTH. “W. R. DAVIE.

“ W. V. MURRAY.”

"The Senate of the United States did, by their resolution of the 3d day of February, 1801, consent to and advise the ratification of the convention: Provided, The second article be expunged, and that the following article be added or inserted: 'It is agreed that the present convention shall be in force for the term of eight years from the time of the exchange of the ratifications.'

"Bonaparte, First Consul, in the name of the French people, consented on the 31st July, 1801, to accept, ratify, and con

firm the above convention, with the addition importing that the convention shall be in force for the space of eight years, and with the retrenchment of the second article: Provided, That by this retrenchment the two States renounce the respective pretensions, which are the object of the said article.'

"These ratifications, having been exchanged at Paris on the 31st of July, 1801, were again submitted to the Senate of the United States, which on the 19th of December, 1801, declared the convention fully ratified, and returned it to the President for promulgation."1

This treaty ended the controversy between France and the United States, begun in 1793, which had resulted in actual hostilities in 1798. The origin of this controversy was the refusal of the United States to carry out the stipulations of the 11th and 12th articles of the treaty of Alliance of 1778, and a difference of interpretation as between the two governments of the rights of consuls under the treaty of 1788. The United States adopted a policy of neutrality in the war between France and England; and refused to permit privateers to be fitted out in American ports, in the interest of France, or to allow French consuls to erect prize courts in the United States. The treaty of 1794 with England (“ Jay's treaty") gave further umbrage to France. The 25th article of this treaty gave the same right to English vessels to bring their prizes into American ports that was granted to French vessels by the 17th article of the treaty of commerce of 1778. By Jay's treaty, moreover, England was permitted to include as contraband certain articles that were plainly not of that nature (Article XVIII); and in general the United States, it was asserted, had sacrificed the French alliance in favor of England. From this state of affairs the two nations drifted rapidly into a quasi war; and by act of July 7, 1798, Congress declared the previous treaties with France null and void. All attempts to negotiate had failed, until the year 1800, when Napoleon having changed his policy, consented to the negotiation of the treaty of that year.

By striking out the 2d article and accepting Napoleon's proviso, the United States renounced all claims of their citizens for indemnity from France for property illegally captured and condemned before the signing of the treaty; and thereupon virtually assumed the responsibility for the payment of those claims. On the part of France, Napoleon's proviso had the effect of assenting to the abrogation of the previous treaties. The renunciation of claims was therefore an equivalent for the nullification of those treaties. (See Opinion of the Court of Claims delivered by Judge JOHN DAVIS, May 17, 1886.)

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