Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 12.djvu/1078

 less there be some objections offered on the part of the inhabitants respecting the place. The legal fees to the officers for applying their seal shall be paid. The citizens of the United States shall not unreasonably insist on particular spots, but each party shall conduct with justice and moderation. Any desecration of the cemeteries by natives of China shall be severely punished according to law. At the places where the ships of the United States anchor, or their citizens reside, the merchants, seamen, or others can freely pass and repass in the immediate neighborhood; but, in order to the preservation of the public peace, they shall not go into the country to the villages and marts to sell their goods unlawfully, in fraud of the revenue.

If any vessel of the United States be wrecked or stranded on the coast of China, and be subjected to plunder or other damage, the proper officers of government, on receiving information of the fact, shall immediately adopt measures for its relief and security; the persons on board shall receive friendly treatment, and be enabled to repair at once to the nearest port, and shall enjoy all facilities for obtaining supplies of provisions and water. If the merchant vessels of the United States, while within the waters over which the Chinese government exercises jurisdiction, be plundered by robbers or pirates, then the Chinese local authorities, civil and military, on receiving information thereof, shall arrest the said robbers or pirates, and punish them according to law, and shall cause all the property which can be recovered to be restored to the owners or placed in the hands of the consul. If by reason of the extent of territory and numerous population of China, it shall in any case happen that the robbers cannot be apprehended, and the property only in part recovered, the Chinese government shall not make indemnity for the goods lost; but if it shall be proved that the local authorities have been in collusion with the robbers, the same shall be communicated to the superior authorities for memorializing the Throne, and these officers shall be severely punished, and their property be confiscated to repay the losses.

The citizens of the United States are permitted to frequent the ports and cities of Canton and Chau-chau or Swatau, in the province of Kwang-tung, Amoy, Fuh-chau, and Tai-wan, in Formosa, in the province of Fuh-kien, Ningpo, in the province of Cheh-kiang, and Shanghai, in the province of Kiang-su, and any other port or place hereafter by treaty with other powers or with the United States opened to commerce, and to reside with their families and trade there, and to proceed at pleasure with their vessels and merchandise from any of these ports to any other of them. But said vessels shall not carry on a clandestine and fraudulent trade at other ports of China not declared to be legal, or along the coasts thereof; and any vessel under the American flag violating this provision shall, with her cargo, be subject to confiscation to the Chinese government; and any citizen of the United States who shall trade in any contraband article of merchandise shall be subject to be dealt with by the Chinese government, without being entitled to any countenance or protection from that of the United States; and the United States will take measures to prevent their flag from being abused by the subjects of other nations as a cover for the violation of the laws of the Empire.

At each of the ports open to commerce, citizens of the United States shall be permitted to import from abroad, and sell, purchase, and export all merchandise of which the importation or exportation is not prohibited by the laws of the Empire. The tariff of duties to be paid by citizens of the United States, on the export and import of goods from and into China, shall be the same as was agreed upon at the treaty of Wanghia, except so far as it may be modified by treaties with other nations, it being expressly agreed that citizens of the United States shall never pay higher duties than those paid by the most favored nation.