Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/116

 the Plenipotentiaries of the same Powers and of France as follows :

Majesties the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great of 13th 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 confirm 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, &c., &c. : —

Who, having reciprocally communicated to each other their Full Powers, found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon and signed the following Articles : —

Art. I. His Highness the Sultan, on the one part, declares that he is 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 Highness will admit no foreign ship-of-war into the said Straits.

And 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, on the other part, engage to respect this determination of the Sultan, and to conform themselves to the principle above declared.