Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 18 Part 2c.djvu/546

 NETHERLANDS, 1782. 539 sixth of February, 1778, and which make the articles ninth, tenth, sev- [See treaty ¤f enteenth, and twentysecond of the treaty of commerce now subsisting 1778 ""f**_F”¤°°· between the United States of America and the Crown of France: Nor PP‘2°3'z1°‘] shall it hinder His Catholic Majesty from acceding to that treaty, and enjoying the advantages of the said four articles. ARTICLE XXIII. If at any time the United States of America shall judge necessary to Treaties with the commence negotiations with the King or Emperor of Murocco and Fez, B“'b·"Y P°"°”· and with the Regencies of Algiers, Tunis, or Tripoli, or with any of them, to obtain passports for the security of their navigation in the Mediterranean Sea, their High Mightinesses promise that upon the requisition which the United States of America shall make of it, they will second such negotiations in the most favourable manner, by means of their Gonsuls, residing near the said King, Emperor, and Regencies. CONTRABAND. Anrrcms XXIV. The liberty of navigation and commerce shall extend to all sorts of C¤¤*¤b•¤d¤¤*i· merchandizes, excepting only those which are distinguished under the °l“· name of contraband, or merchandizes prohibited: And under this denomination of contraband and merchandizes prohibited, shall be comprehended only warlike stores and arms, as mortars, artillery, with their artihces and appurtenances, fusils pistols, bombs, grenades, gunpowder, saltpetre, sulphur, match, bullets and balls, pikes, sabres, lances, halberts, casques, cnirasses, and other sorts of arms, as also soldiers, horses, saddles, and furniture for horses; all other effects and merchandizes, not before specined expressly, and even all sorts of naval matters, however proper they may be for the construction and equipment of vessells of war, or for the manufacture of one or another sort of machines of war, by land or sea, shall not be judged contraband, neither by the letter, nor according to any pretended interpretation whatever, ought they, or can they be comprehended under the notion of effects prohibited or contraband: so that all effects and merchandizes, which are not expressly before named, may, without any exception, and in perfect liberty, be transported by the subjects and inhabitants of both allies, from and to places belonging to the enemy · excepting only the places which at the same time shall be besieged, blocked, or invested; and those places only shall be held for such which are surrounded nearfy by some of the belligerent Powers. Aarrern XXV. To the end that all dissention and quarrel may be avoided and pre- Sw-lette r ¤ ¤r vented, it has been agreed, that in case that one of the two parties P“*’P°"*°· happens to be at war, the vessells belonging to the subjects or inhabitants of the other ally shall be provided with sea-letters or passports, expressing the` name, the property, and the burthen of the vessell, as also the name and the place of abode of the master, or commander of the said vessell, to the end that thereby it may appear that the vessell really and truly belongs to subjects or inhabitants of one_of the parties; which passports shall be drawn and distributed, according to the form annexed to this treaty; each" time that the vessell shall return, she should have such her passport renewed, or at least they ought not to be of more antient date than two years, before the vessel] has been returned to her own country. _ It has been also agreed, that such vessells, being loaded, ought to be M¤¤¤f¢¤¢¤· provided not only with the said passports or sea-letters,but also with a general passport, or with particular passports or manifests, or other publick documents, which are ordinarily given to vessells outward