Page:Thorpe (1819) A commentary on the treaties.pdf/49

45 I shall not notice the Commission Court established in London; it does not effect abolition as much as ﬁnance, but shall leave it for those more conversant with that subject, to balance its utility and expense.

The separate article of the Portuguese treaty, signed at London on the 11th of September, 1 817, is the only part now left for me to comment on, and I must declare that its obscure construction is only surpassed, by its mischievous tendency,

SEPARATE ARTICLE.

“As soon as the total abolition of the slave trade, for the subjects of the Crown of Portugal, shall have taken place, the two high contracting Parties hereby agree by common consent, to adapt to that state of circumstances, the stipulations of the additional convention, concluded at London, the 18th of July last, but in default of these alterations, the additional convention of that date shall remain in full force until the expiration of fifteen years, from the day on which the general abolition of the slave trade shall so take place on the part of the Portuguese government.” ‘

I suppose the meaning of this article to be,