31

A.—3

for travelling. They shall be free to travel or to reside in any part of the regency without hindrance or molestation; and they shall be treated with respect, love, and honor. They shall be exempt from forced military service, whether by land or by sea; from forced loans, and from every extraordinary contribution. Their dwellings and warehouses destined for the purposes of residence and commerce, as well as their property, both real and personal, of every kind, shall be respected, and, in particular, all the stipulations of the Convention concluded between Her Majesty's Government and His Highness the Bey on the 10th of October, ISC3, relative to the permission granted to British subjects to hold real property in the llegency of Tunis, are hereby confirmed. And British subjects, vessels, commerce, and navigation shall enjoy, without any restriction or diminution, all the privileges, favours, and immunities which are now or may hereafter be granted to the subjects, vessels, commerce, and navigation of any other nation whatever. Her Britannic Majesty, on her part, engages to insure to Tunisian subjects, vessels, commerce, and navigation within her dominions, the enjoyment of the same protection and privileges which are or may be enjoyed by the subjects, vessels, commerce, and navigation of the most favoured nation. (Article V.) Import Duties : Produce and Manufactures. —And it is, moreover, agreed that no other or higher duties shall be imposed on the importation of any article the produce or manufacture of one of the Contracting Parties into the country of the other, which shall not equally extend to the like articles being the produce or manufacture of any other country. (Article VII.) Internal Trade. —lf British merchants or their agents in the Uegency of Tunis should purchase any article of Tunisian produce or manufacture for internal consumption, the said merchants or their agents shall not pay, on the purchase and sale of such articles, any higher duties or charges than are paid, under similar circumstances, by the most favoured class of Tunisians or foreigners engaged in the internal trade of the liegency of Tunis. In like manner Tunisian merchants, or their agents, in the British dominions shall not pay on the purchase and sale of British produce or manufactures, for internal consumption in the said dominions, higher duties or charges than are paid by British subjects or the most favoured foreigners engaged in the internal trade of the said dominions, upon similar articles of produce or manufacture. (Article X.) Harbours : Pilotage, Lighthouse, Quarantine, and Local Dues. —No harbour, pilotage, lighthouse, or quarantine dues, or other local dues, shall be levied upon British vessels which are not imposed upon Tunisian vessels, or upon the vessels of the most favoured nation. If a British vessel shall enter a Tunisian port from stress of weather and depart, it shall not be subject to the payment of the aforesaid dues, but shall pay only the fee to the pilot, should a pilot be required. Should such vessel, however, visit a Tunisian port for the purpose of procuring water and of purchasing provisions, it shall pay only a portion, not exceeding half, of the harbour, pilotage, lighthouse, and quarantine or other local dues payable at the said port. In like manner Tunisian vessels which shall visit any of the ports of Her Majesty's dominions shall pay only the harbour, quarantine, and other dues which are levied upon British vessels. (Article XVIII) Wrecks : Stolen Property. —Should, however (which G-od forbid), the crew, or any portion of the crew, of a wrecked or stranded British vessel be murdered by the natives, or its cargo, or any part of its cargo or contents be stolen by them, the Tunisian Grovernment binds itself to take the most prompt and energetic measures for seizing the marauders or robbers, in order to proceed to their severe punishment. It, moreover, engages to make the most diligent search for the recovery and restitution of the stolen property; and whatever compensation for the damage done to individuals or to their effects, under similar circumstances, is granted, or may hereafter be granted, to the subjects of the most favoured nation, or the equivalent of it, shall be also accorded to the subjects of the Queen of Great Britain. (Article XXXI.) If applicable to British Colonies. Subjects : Commerce, Sfc. —Applicable to the British "dominions." (Article V.) Coasting Trade. —Vessels navigating under the British flag, and vessels navigating under the Tunisian flag, shall be free to carry on the coasting trade in the States and dominions of the Contracting Parties. They shall enjoy the same rights and immunities as are enjoyed by national vessels, and they shall be free either to land a portion of their cargoes, or to embark goods, foreign or native, to complete their cargoes, in each other's ports, without being obliged in each case to procure any special license from the local authorities, or to pay any charges and dues that are not paid by national vessels. The stipulations of this article shall, however, as regards the colonial coasting trade, be deemed to extend only to the coasting trade of such of the colonial possessions of Her Britannic Majesty as, under the provisions of the Act relating thereto, may have opened their coasting trade to foreign vessels. (Article VIII.) TUBKEY.— Apeil 29, 1861. Commerce and Navigation. —The present treaty, when ratified, shall be substituted for the Convention concluded between the two High Contracting Parties on the 16th August, 1838, and shall remain in force for twenty-eight years from the day of the exchange of the ratifications (July 9,1861) ; each of the High Contracting Parties being, however, at liberty to give to the other, at the end of fourteen years (that time being fixed, as the provisions of this treaty will then have come into full force), notice for its revision, or for its determination at the expiration of a year from the date of that notice, and so again at the end of twenty-one years. The present treaty shall receive its execution in all and every one of the provinces of the Ottoman Empire—that is to say, in all the possessions of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan situated in Europe or in Asia, in Egypt and in the other parts of Africa belonging to the Sublime Porte, in Servia, and in the United Principalities of Moldavia and "Wallachia. The Sublime Porte declares that she is ready to grant to other foreign Powers, who may seek to obtain them, the commercial advantages contained in the stipulations of the present treaty. (Article XX.)