ont eu, à bord, font, ou ont fait, partie de leur cargaison comme objet de commerce licite.

Par conséquent, afin de ne pas entraver un commerce licite, il est expressément enjoint aux croiseurs d'appliquer les dispositions contenues dans le § 3 de l'Article IX, seulement aux cas où il se trouverait à bord du bâtiment visité des planches de réserve évidemment destinées pour la formation d'un pont dit à Esclaves.

Les Plénipotentiaires soussignés, conformément à l'Article XVIII du Traité de ce jour, sont convenus que les Instructions ci-dessus seront annexées au Traité signé aujourd'hui entre la Grande Bretagne, l'Autriche, la France, la Prusse, et la Russie, pour la suppression de la Traite des Nègres d'Afrique, et qu'elles seront considérées comme faisant parte intégrante du dit Traité.

En foi de quoi les Plénipotentiaires des Hautes Parties Contractantes ont signé cette Annexe, et y ont apposé le sceau de leurs armes.

Fait à Londres, le vingt Décembre, l'an de Grâce mil huit cent quarante et un.

(L.S.)

ABERDEEN.

TREATY between Her Majesty and the Republic of Bolivia, for the abolition of the Traffic in Slaves.-Signed at Sucre, September, 25, 1840.

[Ratifications exchanged Oct. 8, 1842.]

In the name of the Most Holy Trinity.

HER Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Republic of Bolivia, being mutually animated by a sincere desire to co-operate for the utter extinction of the barbarous Traffic in Slaves, have resolved to proceed to the conclusion of a treaty, for

the special purpose of immediately attaining this object, and have respectively named for this purpose as their Plenipotentiaries, to wit:

Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Belford Hinton Wilson, Esquire, and Chargé d'Affaires of Her Britannic Majesty at Lima;

And the Republic of Bolivia, the Citizen José Maria Linares, Minister of State for the Departments of the Home and Foreign Affairs;

Who, having duly communicated to each other their respective full powers, and found them to be in proper form, have agreed upon and concluded the following Articles :

ARTICLE I. The Slave Trade having been constitutionally abolished throughout the territories of the Republic of Bolivia, is hereby declared to be, henceforward, totally prohibited to all the citizens of the said Republic, in all parts of the world.

Article II. The Republic of Bolivia hereby specially engages, that two months after the exchange of the ratifications of the present Treaty, if the ordinary Congress shall be assembled at that time, or two months after the subsequent meeting of Congress, it will promulgate throughout its territories a penal law, inflicting the punishment attached to piracy on all those citizens of Bolivia who shall, under any pretext whatsoever, take any part whatever in the Traffic in Slaves; and from time to time afterwards, as it may become needful, it will take the most effectual measures for preventing the citizens of the Republic from being concerned, and the flag of the Republic from being used, in carrying on, in any way, the Trade in Slaves.

Article III. Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the Republic of Bolivia, hereby mutually engage, that, by an Additional Convention to the present Treaty, hereafter to be concluded between the said High Contracting Parties to the present Treaty, they will concert and settle the details of the measures, by which the law of piracy, which will become applicable to that traffic by the legislation of each of the two countries, shall be immediately and reciprocally

G

carried into execution with respect to the vessels and subjects or citizens of each.

Article IV. In order more completely to carry into effect the spirit of the present Treaty, the two High Contracting Parties mutually consent, that those ships of their navies respectively, which shall be provided with special Instructions for that purpose, as hereinafter mentioned, may visit such merchant vessels of the two nations, as may be suspected, upon reasonable grounds, of being engaged in the Traffic in Slaves, or of having been fitted out for the purposes thereof, or of having, during the voyage in which they are met by the said cruizers, been engaged in the Traffic in Slaves, contrary to the provisions of this Treaty; and the two High Contracting Parties likewise consent that such cruizers may detain and send or carry away such vessels, in order that they may be brought to trial in the manner hereinafter agreed upon.

Article V. In order to regulate the mode of carrying the provisions of the preceding Article into execution, it is agreed:

1o. That all ships of the navies of the two nations, which shall be hereafter employed to prevent the Traffic in Slaves, shall be furnished by their respective Governments with a copy, in the English and Spanish languages, of the present Treaty; of the Instructions for cruizers, annexed thereto sub litera A; and of the Regulations for the Mixed Courts of Justice, annexed thereto sub literá B; which Annexes shall be considered as an integral part of the Treaty.

2o. That each of the High Contracting Parties shall from time to time communicate to the other, the names of the several ships furnished with such Instructions, the force of each ship, and the names of their several commanders.

3o. That if at any time there shall be just cause to suspect that any merchant vessel, sailing under the flag of either nation, and proceeding under the convoy of any ship or ships of war of either of the Contracting Parties, is engaged, or is intended to be engaged, in the Traffic in Slaves, or is fitted out for the purposes thereof, or has, during the voyage on which she may be met with, been

engaged in the Traffic in Slaves; it shall be lawful for the commander of any ship of the navy of either of the two High Contracting Parties, furnished with such Instructions as aforesaid, to visit such merchant vessel; and such commander shall proceed to visit the same, in communication with the commanding officer of the convoy, who, it is hereby agreed, shall give every facility to the visit, and to the eventual detention, if necessary, of such merchant vessel; and in all things shall assist, to the utmost of his power, in the due execution of the present Treaty, according to the true intent and meaning thereof.

4o. It is further mutually agreed, that the commanders of the ships of the two navies, respectively, who shall be employed on this service, shall adhere strictly to the exact tenor of the aforesaid Instructions.

Article VI. As the two preceding Articles are entirely reciprocal, the two High Contracting Parties engage mutually to make good any losses which their respective subjects or citizens may incur, by the arbitrary and illegal detention of their vessels; it being understood that this indemnity shall invariably be borne by the Government, whose cruizer shall have been guilty of such arbitrary and illegal detention; and that the visit and detention of such vessels, specified in the IVth Article of this Treaty, shall only be effected by those British or Bolivian ships which may form part of the navics, (royal and national,) respectively, of the two High Contracting Parties to the Treaty; and by such ships only of those navies, as shall be provided with the special Instructions annexed to the present Treaty, in pursuance of the provisions thereof.

The compensation for damages, of which this Article treats, shall be made within the term of one year, reckoned from the day on which the Mixed Courts of Justice pronounce sentence on the vessel, for the detention of which such compensation is claimed.

Article VII. In order to bring to adjudication, with as little delay and inconvenience as possible, the vessels which may be detained according to the tenor of the IVth Article of this Treaty, there shall be established, within the space of a year at furthest from the exchange of the ratifications of the present Treaty, two Mixed Courts of Justice, formed

of an equal number of individuals of the two nations, named for this purpose by the Governments of the two High Contracting Parties respectively.

These Courts shall reside, one in a possession belonging to Her Britannic Majesty, the other within the territories of the Republic of Bolivia; and the two Governments, at the period of the exchange of the ratifications of the present Treaty, shall declare, each for its own territories, in what places the Courts shall respectively reside; each of the two High Contracting Parties reserving to itself the right of changing at its pleasure the place of residence of the Court held within its own territories; provided, however, that one of the two Courts shall always be held upon the coast of Africa, and the other in one of the possessions of the Republic of Bolivia.

These Courts shall judge the causes submitted to them, according to the provisions of the present Treaty, without appeal; and according to the Regulations and Instructions which are annexed to the present Treaty, and which are considered as forming an integral part thereof.

Article VIII. If the commanding officer of any of the ships of the navies of Great Britain and of the Republic of Bolivia, respectively, duly commissioned according to the provisions of the IVth Article of this Treaty, shall deviate in any respect from the stipulations of the said Treaty, or from the Instructions annexed to it; the Government which shall conceive itself to be wronged thereby, shall be entitled to demand reparation; and, in such case, the Government to which such commanding officer may belong, binds itself to cause inquiry to be made into the subject of the complaint, and to inflict upon the said officer a punishment proportioned to any wilful transgression which he may have committed.

Article IX. It is hereby further mutually agreed, that every merchant vessel, British or Bolivian, which shall be visited by virtue of the present Treaty, may lawfully be detained and be sent or brought before the Mixed Courts of Justice, established in pursuance of the provisions thereof, if in her equipment there shall be found any of the things hereinafter mentioned, namely:

1. Hatches with open gratings, instead of the close hatches which are usual in merchant vessels.