Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 18 Part 2c.djvu/782

 TWO SICILIES, 1845. 775 wherein the laws and usages of the country may require the intervention of any special agents in the States and dominions of the high contracting parties. Antricmz VIII. Each of the two high contracting parties may have, in the ports of Consular olilcers. the other, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Commercial Agents, of their own appointment, who shall enjoy the same privileges and powers of those of the most favored nation ; but if any such Consuls shall exercise commerce, they shall be submitted to the same laws and usages to which the private individuals of their nation are submitted in the same place. The said Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Commercial Agents are author- De¤¤**¤¤‘¤ frem ized to require the assistance of the local authorities for the search, ar- "°“°°*°· rest, detention, and imprisonment of the deserters from the ships of war and merchant-vessels of their country, For this purpose, they shall apply to the competent tribunals, judges, and officers, and shall in writing demand the said deserters, proving, by the exhibition of the registers of the vessel, the rolls of the crews, or by other official documents, that such individuals formed part of the crews; and this reclamation being thus substantiated, the surrender shall not be refused. Such deserters, when arrested, shall be placed at the disposal of the said Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Commercial Agents, and may be confined in the public prisons, at the request and cost of those who shall claim them, in order to be detained until the time when they shall be restored to the vessels to which they belonged, or sent back to their own country by avessel of the same nation, or any other vessel whatsoever. But if not sent back within four months from the day of their arrest, or if all the expenses of such imprisonment are not defrayed by the party causing such arrest and imprisonment, they shall be set at liberty, and shall not he again arrested for the same cause. However, if the deserter should be found to have committed any crime or oiience, his surrender may be delayed until the tribunal, before which his case shall be depending, shall have pronounced its sentence, and such sentence shall have been carried into effect. Anrrcra IX. If any ships of war or merchant vessels be wrecked on the coasts of Wreeked Md the States of either of the high contracting parties, such ships or vessels, d"‘“"8°‘1 ’°°°°l“· or any parts thereof, and all furniture and appurtenances belonging thereunto, and all goods and merchandise which shall be saved therefrom, or the produce thereof, if sold, shallebe faithfully restored with the least possible delay, to the proprietors, upon being claimed by them, or by their duly authorized factors; and if there are no such proprietors or factors on the spot, then the said goods and merchandise, or the proceeds thereof, as well as all the papers found on board such wrecked. ships or vessels, shall be delivered to the Almerican or Sicilian Consul or Vice-Consul in whose district the wreck may have taken place; and such Consul, Vice-Consul, proprietors, or factors, shall pay only the expenses incurred in the preservation of the property, together with the rate of salvage, and expenses of quarantine, which would have been $ il VP se Md payable in the like case ofa wreck of a national vessel ; and the goods q‘""""°“‘°‘ and merchandise saved from the wreck shall not be subject to duties, unless cleared for consumption; it being understood that in case of any legal claim upon such wreck, goods, or merchandise, the same shall be referred for decision to the competent tribunals of the country. Anrromax X. The merchant vessels of each of the two high contracting parties, Veeeeie eeekivg which may be forced by stress of weather or other cause into one of the ’°f“g°· ports of the other, shall be exempt from all duty of port or navigation