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146 any obstacle being thrown in the way of either party. The vessels and persons employed by the custom-houses shall enjoy all the rights of Neutrality. A guard shall be placed over the offices and chests belonging to the customs."

By the 9th Article of the Treaty of Paris, of 1856, the Black Sea was Neutralized in the following terms: "The Black Sea is Neutralized; its waters and its ports, thrown open to the Mercantile Marine of every nation, are formally and in perpetuity interdicted to the flag of War, either of the Powers possessing its coasts, or of any other Power, with the exceptions mentioned in Articles XIV. and XIX. of the present Treaty." By a separate convention, bearing the same date as the Treaty, and embodied in its 10th Article, the "Sultan declared he was firmly resolved to maintain for the future the principle invariably established as the ancient rule of his Empire, and in virtue of which it has, at all times, been prohibited for the ships of War of Foreign Powers to enter the Straits of the Dardanelles and of the Bosphorus; and that, so long as the Porte is at Peace, His Majesty will admit no Foreign ship of War into the said straits." The six other Powers who were parties to the Treaty, on their part "engaged to respect this determination of the Sultan, and to conform themselves to the principle above declared."

The 11th Article of this Treaty, declaring the Neutralization of the Black Sea, was abrogated by the 1st Article of the Treaty of London, of the 13th March; but the general principle of closing the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus to ships of War was maintained — power, however, being reserved to the Sultan of "opening them in time of Peace to the vessels of War of friendly and allied Powers, in case the Sublime Porte should judge it necessary, in order to secure the execution of the stipulations of the Treaty of Paris, of the 30th March, 1856."

It is to be noticed that the principle of the partial Neutralization of the Dardanelles and of the Bosphorus had been