1784. CONVENTION between His most Christian Majesty and the thirteen United States of North America, for the purpose of determining and fix­ing the functions and prerogatives of their respective Consuls, vice-Con­suls, Agents and Commissaries.

His Majesty the most Christian King and the thirteen United States of North America, hav­ing by the 29th article of the Treaty of amity and commerce concluded between them, mu­tually granted the liberty of having in their respective States and Ports, Consuls, vice-Consuls, Agents and Commissaries and being willing in consequence thereof, to determine and fix in a reciprocal and permanent manner the functions and prerogatives of the said Consuls, vice-Consuls, Agents and Commissaries, His M. C. Majesty has nominated the Sieur Charles Gravier, Count of Vergennes, Baron of Wel [...]erding &c., Counsellor of the King in all his Councils, Commander of his Orders, Counsellor of the State of the Sword, Minister and Secretary of State, and of his Commands and Finances; and the United States the Sieur Benjamin Franklin, their Minister Plenipoten­tiary to His most Christian Majesty, who after having communicated to each other their respective full powers, agreed upon what follows:

ART. 1. The Consuls and vice-Consuls no­minated by H. M. C. M. and the U. S. shall be bound to present their commissions on their arrival in the respective States, according to the form which shall be there established. There shall be delivered to them without any charges the [Page 2] Exequatur necessary for the exercise of their functions; and on the exhibition they shall make of the said Exequatur, the Governors, Commanders, Heads of justice, public bodies, Tribunals and other Officers having authority in the ports and places of their consulates, shall cause them to enjoy as soon as possible, and without difficulty, the preeminencies, authority and privileges reciprocally granted, without exacting from the said Consuls and vice-Consuls any duty, under any pretext whatever.

ART. 4. The Consuls and vice-Consuls, the Officers of the consulate and in general all persons attached to the consular functions, shall enjoy respectively a full and entire immunity for their persons their papers, and their houses. The list of the said persons shall be approved and inspect­ed by the executive power of the place of their residence. They shall be exempt from all per­sonal service and public officers, from soldiers billets, militia, watch, guard, guardianship and trustee-ship, as well as from all duties, taxes, impositions and charges whatsoever, except the real estates of which they may be proprietors, which shall be subject to the taxes imposed on the estates of all other individuals.

They shall place, over the outward door of their house, the arms of their Sovereign, with­out that this mark of distinction shall give to the said house the right of asylum for any male­factor or criminal, so that in case it should happen that any malefactor or criminal takes refuge there, he shall be instantly delivered up, on the first re­quisition, and without difficulty.

ART. 2. The respective Consuls shall have power to establish vice-Consuls in the different ports and places of their departments where necessity shall require. There shall be delivered to them likewise the Exequatur necessary to the exercise of their functions in the form pointed out by the preceding article (1) and, on the exhibition which they [Page 3] shall make of the said Exequatur, they shall be admitted and acknowledged, in the terms and ac­cording to the powers, authority and privileges stipulated by the 1 st. 4 th. and 5 th. articles of the present Convention.

ART. 3. The respective Consuls and vice-Consuls. may establish Agents in the different ports and places of their departments where necessity shall require. These Agents may be chosen among the merchants, either national or foreign, and furnished with a commission from one of the said Consuls: it shall be their business respectively to render to their respe­ctive merchants, navigators and vessels all possible service, and to inform the nearest Consul or vice-Consul of the wants of the said merchants, navigators and vessels, without the said Agents otherwise participating in the im­munities, rights and privileges attributed to the Consuls and vice-Consuls, and without power to exact from the said merchants any duty or emolument whatever, under any pre­text whatsoever.

ART. 5. Generally in all cases whatever, which concern the police or administration of justice, where it may be necessary to have a juridical declaration from the said Consuls and vice-Consuls respectively, the Governors, Commandants, chief Justice, public bodies, tribunals or other Officers whatever of their respective residence there having authority▪ shall be bound to inform them of it, by writing to them, or sending to them a military or civil Officer to let them know, either the object which is proposed, or the necessity there is for going to them to demand from them this declaration, and the said Consuls and vice-Consuls shall be bound on their part to comply faithfully with what shall be desired of them on these occasions.

ART. 6. The Consuls and vice-Consuls res­pectively may establish a chancery where shall be deposited the Consular acts and deliberations, all effects left by deceased persons, or saved from shipwreck, as well as testaments, obliga­tions, contracts and in general all the acts and proceedings done between, or by persons of their nation.

[Page 4]They may in consequence appoint for the business of the said chancery capable persons, receive them, administer an oath to them, give to them the keeping of the seal, and the right of sealing commissions, judgments and other acts of the consulate, as well as there to discharge the functions of notaries and registers.

ART. 7. The Consuls and vice-Consuls res­pectively shall have the exclusive right of re­ceiving in their chancery, or on board of vessels, the declarations and all the other acts, which the captains, masters, seamen, passen­gers, and merchants of their nation would make there, even their testaments and other disposi­tions of last will; and the copies of the said acts, duly authenticated by the said Consuls or vice-Consuls, and under the seal of their [...]nsulate, shall receive faith in law in all the tribunals of France and the United States.

They shall have also, and exclusively the right to inventory, liquidate, and proceed to the sale of the moveable effects of the estates left by subjects of their nation, who shall die within the extent of their consulate: they shall proceed therein with the assistance of two mer­chants of their said nation, of their own chusing, and shall deposit in their chancery the effects and papers of the said estates; and no officer military or civil, or of the police of the country, shall trouble them or interfere therein, in any manner whatsoever: but the said Consuls and vice-Consuls shall not deliver up the same and their product to the lawful heirs or their attor­nies, until they shall have discharged all the debts which the deceased shall have contracted in the country by judgment, by acts or by notes, the writing and signing of which shall be known and certified by two principal merchants of the na­tion of the said deceased: and in all other cases [Page 5] the payment of debts cannot be ordered but on the creditors giving sufficient and local security to repay the sums unduly received, principal, interest and costs; which securities however shall remain duly discharged after a year in time of peace, and two years in time of war, if the demand in discharge cannot be formed before these delays against the heirs which shall present themselves.

ART. 8. The respective Consuls and vice-Consuls shall receive the declarations, consu­lates and other consular acts from all Captains and masters of their respective nation on ac­count of average losses sustained at sea by leakage or throwing merchandise over board and these Captains and masters shall leave in the chancery of the said Consuls and vice Consuls the consulates and other consular acts which they may have had made in other ports, on account of the accidents which may have hap­pened to them on their voyage. If a subject of his M. C. M. and a citizen of the U. S. are interested in the said cargo, the average shall be fixed by the Tribunals of the country, and not by the Consuls or Vice-Consuls: and the Tribunals shall admit the acts and declarations, if any should have been passed before the said Consuls and Vice-Consuls: but when only the subjects of their own nation, or foreigners shall be in­terested, the respective Consuls or vice Con­suls and in case of their absence or distance their agents furnished with their commission shall offi­cially nominate skilful persons of their said na­tion to regulate the damages and averages.

[Page 6]ART. 9. In case by storms or other accidents, French ships or vessels shall run ashore on the coasts of the U. S. and the ships and vessels of the U. S. shall run a shore on the coasts of France, the Consul or vice-Consul nearest to the place of shipwreck shall do whatever he may judge proper, as [...] for the purpose of saving the said ship or [...]ssel, its cargo and appartunances, as for the storing and security of the effects and merchandise saved. He may take an inventory, without any officers mili­tary, of the custom house, justices or the police of the country interfering, otherwise than to facilitate to the Consuls, vice-Consuls, captain, and crew of the vessel shipwrecked or run a shore, all the assistance and favour which they shall ask, either for the celerity and security of the salvage and effects saved, or to pre­vent all disturbances.

To prevent even any kind of dispute and discussion in the said cases of shipwreck, it has been agreed, that where no Consul or vice-Consul shall be found to attend to the salvage, or that the residence of the said Consul or vice-Consul (he not being at the place of shipwreck) shall be further distant from the said place than that of the com­petent territorial Judge, the latter shall im­mediately there proceed therein with all the celerity, safety and precautions prescribed by the respective laws; but the said territorial Judge shall retire on the coming of the Consul or vice-Consul and shall resign to him the procedures by him done, the expences of which the Consul or vice-Consul shall cause to be reimbursed to him.

The merchandise and effects saved shall be deposited in the custom house, or other nearest place of safety, with the inventory of them, which shall be made by the Consul or vice-Consul▪ or, in their absence, by the Judge who shall have had cognisance thereof, and the said merchandises and effects shall be after­wards [Page 7] delivered, after levying therefrom the costs, and without form of process, to the proprietors, who, being furnished with a replevy from the nearest Consul or vice-Consul, shall reclaim them by themselves, or by their attornies, either for the purpose of reexporting the merchandises, and in that case they shall pay no kind of duties of expor­tation; or for the purpose of selling them in the Country, if they are not prohibited, and in this latter case, the said merchandises being averaged, there shall be granted them an abatement of the entrance duties propor­tioned to the damage sustained, which shall be ascertained by the verbal process formed at the time of the shipwreck, or of the vessels running ashore.

ART. 10. The Consuls and vice-Consuls shall have on board of the vessels of their respective Nations, full power and Jurisdiction in Matters, Civil. They shall cause to be executed the respective laws, Ordinances and rules concerning Navigation, on board the said vessels,

And for this purpose they shall go there without being interrupted by any Officer or other person whatsoever.

They may cause to be arrested every vessel carrying the flag of their respective Nation; they may sequester them and even send them back respectively from the U. S. to France, or from France to the U. S. They may cause to be arrested, without difficul­ty, every Captain, Master, Sailor or passenger of their said re [...]pective Nation, they may cause to be arrested, or detained in the Country▪ the Sailors and deserters of their respective Nations, or send them back or transport them out of the Country.

It shall be sufficient proof that the Sailors and deserters belong to one of the respective Nations, [Page 8] that their names be written in the ship's register, or inserted in the roll of the crew.

One and the other of these proofs con­cerning Sailors and deserters being thus given no Tribunals, Judges, and Officers whatsoever, shall in any manner whatever take cognisance of the com­plaints which the said Sailors and deserters may make, but they shall on the contrary be delivered up on an order signed by the Consul or vice-Con­sul, without its being in any one's power in any manner to detain, engage, or withdraw them. And to attain to the complete execution of the arrangements contained in this article all persons having authority shall be bound to assist the said Consuls or vice-Consuls, and on a simple requisition signed by them, they shall cause to be detained and guarded in prison at the disposal and expence of the said Con­suls and vice-Consuls, the said Sailors and deserters until they shall have an opportunity to send them out of the Country.

Art. 11. In cases where the respective subjects shall have committed any crime, they shall be amenable to the Judges of the Country.

Art. 12. All differences and suits between the subjects of His M. C. M. settled in the U. S. or between the citizens and subjects of the U. S. settled in France, and all differences and suits concerning Commerce, between the subjects [Page 9] of His M. C. M. and one of the parties residing in France or else where, and the other in the U. S. or be­tween the citizens and subjects of the U. S. one of the parties residing in the U. S. or elswhere, and the other in France

shall be determined by the respective C [...]suls, either by a reference to arbitration, or by a summary judgment and without costs.

No Officer Civil or Military, shall interfere or take any part whatever in the affair: appeals shall be carried before the Tribunals of France or the U. S. to whom it may appertain to take cognisance thereof. The Consuls or Vice-Consuls shall not take cognisance of disputes or differences, which shall arise betwixt a subject of His M. C. M. and a citizen of the U. S. but the said disputes shall be brought before the Tribunals to which the defendant shall be amenable.

Art. 13. The general utility of Commerce having caused to be established in France Tribunals & particular forms to accelerate the decision of commercial affairs, the Merchants of the U. S. shall enjoy the benefit of these establishments in France and the Congress of the U. S. shall recommend to the Legislatures of the different States to provide equivalent advantages in favour of the French Merchants, for the prompt dispatch and decision of affairs of the same nature.

Art. 14. The subjects of his M. C. M. and those of the U. S. who shall prove that they belong to the body of their respective Nations by the certificate of the Consul or vice-Consul of the District, mentioning their names, surnames and place of their settlement, as inscribed in the registers of the consulate, shall not lose, for any cause whatever, in the respective Domains and States, the quality of subjects of the Country of which they originally were, conformably to the 11 th. article of the treaty of amity and commerce of the 6 th. of February 1778, of which the present article shall serve as an interpretation in case of necessity, and the said subjects respectively shall en­joy in consequence exemption from all personal service in the place of their settlement.

[Page 10]Art. 15. If any other Nation acquires, by virtue of [...] convention whatever either in France or in the U. S. a treatment more favour­able with respect to the consular pre-eminen­cies, powers, authority and privileges, the Consuls, vice-Consuls and Agents of His M. C. M. or the U. S. reciprocally shall participate therein, agreeable to the terms stipulated by the 2d. 3d. and 4th. articles of the treaty of amity and commerce, concluded between His M. C. M. and the U. S.

Art. 16.

The ratification of the present convention shall be given in proper form, and exchanged on both sides within the space of six months, or sooner if possible.

In faith whereof we the under-written Ministers plenipotentiaries of his most Christian Majesty and the United States of North America have signed the present convention and have thereto affixed the seal of our arms.

Done at Versailles, the 29th. July one Thousand seven hundred and eighty four.

1788. CONVENTION between His most Christian Majesty and the United States of America, for the purpose of defining and establishing the functions and privileges of their re­spective Consuls and vice-Consuls.

His Majesty the most Christian King and the United States of America having by the 29th article of the Treaty of amity and com­merce concluded between them, mutually granted the liberty of having, in their respe­ctive States and Ports, Consuls, vice-Consuls, Agents and Commissaries, and being willing in consequence thereof to define and establish in a reciprocal and permanent manner the functions and privileges of Consuls and vice-Consuls, which they have judged it convenient to esta­blish of preference, His M. C. Majesty has no­minated the Sieur Count of Montmorin of St. Herent, Marechal of his Camps and Armies, Knight of his Orders and of the Golden Fleece, his Counsellor in all his Councils, Minister and Secretary of State and of his Commandments and Finances, having the Department of fo­reign affairs, and the United States have no­minated Thomas Jefferson, Citizen of the United States of America and their Minister Plenipotentiary near the King, who after having communicated to each other their respective full powers, have agreed on what follows:

ART. I. The Consuls and vice-Consuls named by the M. C. K. and the U. S. shall be bound to present their commissions according to the forms which shall be established respectively by the M. C. K. within his dominions, and by the Congress within the U. S. there shall be deliver▪ [Page 2] to them, without any charges, the Exequatur necessary for the exercise of their functions; and on exhibiting the said Exequatur, the Governors, Commanders, Heads of justice, bodies corporate, Tribunals and other Officers having authority in the ports and places of their consulates, shall cause them to enjoy immediately, and without difficulty, the pree­minencies, authority and privileges, recipro­cally granted, without exacting from the said Consuls and vice-Consuls any fee, under any pretext whatever.

ART. II. The Consuls and vice-Consuls and persons attached to their functions that is to say, their Chancellors and Secretaries, shall enjoy a full and entire immunity for their Chancery and the papers which shall be therein contained: they shall be exempt from all personal service, from soldiers billets, militia, watch, guard, guardianship, trustee-ship, as well as from all duties, taxes, impositions, and charges what­soever, except on the estate real and personal of which they may be the proprietors or possessors, which shall be subject to the taxes imposed on the estates of all other individuals: and in all other instances they shall be subject to the laws of the land as the natives are.

Those of the said Consuls and vice-Consuls who shall exercise commerce shall be respectively subject to all taxes, charges and impositions established on other merchants.

They shall place over the outward door of their house the arms of their Sovereign: but this mark of indication shall not give to the said house any privilege of asylum for any person or property whatsoever.

[Page 3]ART. III. The respective Consuls and vice-Consuls may establish Agents in the different ports and places of their departments where necessity shall require. These Agents may be chosen among the merchants either national or foreign, and furnished with a commission from one of the said Consuls: they shall confine themselves respectively to the rendering to their respective merchants, navigators, and vessels all possible service, and to inform the nearest Consul of the wants of the said mer­chants, navigators and vessels, without the said Agents otherwise participating in the immu­nities, rights and privileges attributed to Con­suls and vice-Consuls, and without power under any pretext whatever to exact from the said merchants any duty or emolument whatsoever.

ART. IV. The Consuls and vice-Consuls respectively may establish a chancery, where shall be deposited the Consular determinations, acts and proceedings as also testaments, obliga­tions, contracts, and other acts done by, or between persons of their nation, and [...] left by [...] or saved [...] shipwreck.

[Page 4]They may consequently appoint fit persons to act in the said chancery, qualify and swear them in, commit to them the custody of the seal, and authority to seal commissions, sen­tences and other consular acts, and also to dis­charge the functions of notaries and registers of the Consulate.

ART. V. The Consuls and vice-Consuls res­pectively shall have the exclusive right of re­ceiving in their chancery, or on board their vessels, the declarations and all other the acts, which the captains, masters, crews, passen­gers, and merchants of their nation may chuse to make there, even their testaments and other disposals by last will: and the copies of the said acts, duly authenticated by the said Consuls or vice-Consuls, under the seal of their consulate shall receive faith in law, equally as their originals would, in all the tribunals of the dominions of the M. C. King and of the United States.

They shall also have, and exclusively, in case of the absence of the testamentary executor, guardian or lawful representative, the right to inventory, liquidate and proceed to the sale of the personal estate left by subjects or citizens of their nation, who shall die within the extent of their consulate: they shall proceed therein with the assistance of two merchants of their said nation, or, for want of them, of any other at their choice, and shall cause to be deposit­ed in their chancery, the effects and papers of the said estates; and no officer military, judi­ciary, or of the police of the country shall disturb them or interfere therein, in any man­ner whatsoever: but the said Consuls and vice-Consuls shall not deliver up the said ef­fects, nor the proceeds thereof to the lawful representatives or to their order, till they shall have caused to be paid all debts which the deceased shall have contracted in the country; for which purpose the creditor shall have a right to attach the said effects in their hands as they might in those of any other individual what­ever, and proceed to obtain sale of them till pay­ment of what shall be lawfully due to them. When the debts shall not have been contracted [Page 5] by judgment, deed or note, the signature where­of shall be known, payment shall not be ordered but on the creditor's giving sufficient surety resident in the country, to refund the sums he shall have unduly received, principal, interest and costs: which surety nevertheless shall stand duly discharged after the term of one year in time of peace, and of two in time of war, if the discharge cannot be formed before the end of this term against the representatives who shall present themselves.

And in order that the representatives may not be unjustly kept out of the effects of the deceased the Consuls and vice-Consuls shall notify his death in some one of the gazettes published within their consulate, and that they shall retain the said effects in their hands four months to answer all just de­mands which shall be presented: and they shall be bound after this delay to deliver to the persons succeeding thereto what shall be more than suffi­cient for the demands which shall have been formed.

ART. VI. The Consuls and vice-Consuls respectively shall receive the declarations, protests and reports of all captains and masters of their respective nation on account of average losses sustained at sea: & these captains and masters shall lodge in the chancery of the said Consuls and vice-Consuls, the acts which they may

have made in other ports on account of the accidents which may have happened to them on their voyage. If a subject of the M. C. K. and a citizen of the U. S. or a foreigner are interested in the said cargo, the average shall be settled by the tribunals of the country and not by the Consuls or vice-Consuls; but when only the subjects or citizens of their own na­tion shall be interested, the respective Consuls or vice-Consuls shall appoint skilful persons to settle the damages and average.

[Page 6]ART. VII. In cases where by tempest, or other accident, French ships or vessels shall be stranded on the coasts of the U. S. and ships or vessels of the U. S. shall be stranded on the coasts of the dominions of the M. C. K. the Consul or vice-Consul nearest to the place of shipwreck shall do whatever he may judge proper, as well for the purpose of saving the said ship or vessel, its cargo and appurtenances, as for the storing and the security of the ef­fects and merchandise saved. He may take an inventory of them, without the intermedling of any officers of the military, of the customs, of justice, or of the police of the country, otherwise than to give to the Consuls, vice-Consuls, captain and crew of the vessel ship­wrecked or stranded all the succour and fa­vour which they shall ask of them, either for the expedition and security of the saving and of the effects saved, as to prevent all di­sturbance.

And in order to prevent all kind of dispute and discussion in the said cases of shipwreck, it is agreed that when there shall be no Consul or vice-Consul to attend to the saving of the wreck, or that the residence of the said Consul or vice-Consul (he not being at the place of the wreck) shall be more distant from the said place than that of the com­petent Judge of the Country, the latter shall immediately proceed therein, with all the dispatch, certainty and precautions prescribed by the respective laws; but the said territorial Judge shall retire, on the arrival of the Consul or vice-Consul, and shall deliver over to him the report of his proceedings, the expen­ces of which the Consul or vice-Consul shall cause to be reimbursed to him, as well as those of saving the wreck.

The merchandise and effects saved shall be deposited in the nearest custom house, or other place of safety, with the inventory thereof which shall have been made by the Consul or vice Consul, or by the Judge who shall have proceeded in their absence, that the said effects and merchandise may be afterwards delivered, [Page 7] (after levying therefrom the costs) and without form of process, to the owners, who being fur­nished with an order for their delivery from the nearest Consul or vice-Consul, shall reclaim them by themselves, or by their order, either for the purpose of reexporting such merchandise, in which case they shall pay no kind of duty of exportation, or for that of selling them in the Country, if they be not prohibited there, and in this last case, the said merchandise, if they be damaged, shall be allowed an abatement of entrance duties pro­portioned to the damage they have sustained, which shall be ascertained by the affidavits taken at the time the vessel was wrecked or struck.

Art. VIII. The Consuls and vice-Consuls shall exercice Police over all the vessels of their respective Nations and shall have on board the said vessels all power and Jurisdiction in Civil Matters, in all the disputes which may there arise, they shall have an entire inspection over the said vessels, their crew and the changes and substitu­tions there to be made. For which purpose they may go on board the said vessels whenever they may judge it necessary. Well understood that the functions hereby allowed shall be confined to the interior of the vessels, and that they shall not take place in any case which shall have any inter­ference with the Police of the ports where the said vessels shall be.

Art. IX.

The Consuls and vice-Consuls may cause to be arrested the Captains, Officers, Mariners, Sai­lors, and all other persons being part of the crews of the vessels of their respective Nation who shall have deserted from the said vessels in order to send them back and transport them out of the Country. For which purpose the said Consuls and vice-Consuls shall address themselves to the courts, Judges and Officers competent, and shall demand the said deserters in writing, proving by [Page 8] an exhibition of the registers of the vessel or ship's roll that those men were part of the said crews: and on this demand so proved (saving however where the contrary is proved) the delivery shall not be refused; and there shall be given all aid and assistance to the said Consuls and vice-Consuls for the search, seizure and arrest of the said deserters, who shall even be detained and kept in the prisons of the Country, at their request and expence until they shall have found an opportunity of sen­ding them back. But if they be not sent back within three months, to be counted from the day of their arrest they shall be set at liberty, and shall be no more arrested for the same cause.

Art. X. In cases where the respective subjects or citizens shall have committed any crime, or breach of the peace, they shall be amenable to the Judges of the Country.

Art. XI. When the said offenders shall be a part of the crew of a vessel of their Nation, and shall have withdrawn themselves on board the said vessel they may be there seized and arrested by order of the Judges of the Country: these shall give notice thereof to the Consul or vice-Consul, who may repair on board if he thinks proper: but this notification shall not in any case delay execution of the order in question. The persons arrested shall not afterwards be set at liberty until the Consul or vice-Consul shall have been notified thereof; and they shall be delivered to him, if he requires it▪ to be put again on board of the vessel on which they were arrested, or of others of their Nation, and to be sent out of the Country.

ART. XII. All differences and suits between the subjects of the M. C. K. in the U. S. or between the citizens of the United States with­in the dominions of the M. C. K. and particularly all disputes relative to the wages and terms of [Page 9] engagement of the crews of the respective vessels, and all differences of whatever nature they be, which may arise between the privates of the said crews, or between any of them and their captains, or between the captains of different vessels of their nation, shall b [...] determined by the respective Consuls and vice-Consuls, either by a reference to arbitra­tors, or by a summary judgment and without costs.

No Officer of the country, civil or military, shall interfere therein or take any part whatever in the matter: and the appeals from the said consular sentences shall be carried before the tribunals of France or of the U. S. to whom it may appertain to take cognizance thereof.

ART. XIII. The general utility of commerce having caused to be established within the do­minions of the M. C. K. particular tribunals and forms for expediting the decision of commercial affairs, the merchants of the U. S. shall enjoy the benefit of these establishments; and the Congress of the U. S. will provide in the manner the most conformable to its laws equivalent ad­vantages in favour of the French merchants, for the prompt dispatch and decision of affairs of the same nature.

ART. XIV. The subjects of the M. C. K. and citizens of the U. S. who shall prove by legal evi­dence that they are of the said nations respectively shall in consequence enjoy an exemption from all personal service in the place of their settle­ment.

[Page 10]ART. XV. If any other nation acquires by virtue of any convention whatever, a treatment more favourable with respect to the consular preeminencies, powers, authority and privileges, the Consuls and vice-Consuls of the M. C. K. or of the U. S. reciprocally shall participate therein, agreeable to the terms stipulated by the 2d. 3d. and 4th. articles of the treaty of amity and commerce, concluded between the M. C. K. and the U. S.

ART. XVI. The present Convention shall be in full force during the term of twelve years to be counted from the day of the exchange of ratifications, which shall be given in proper form, and ex­changed on both sides within the space of one year, or sooner if possible.

In faith whereof we Ministers Plenipoten­tiary have signed the present Convention, and have thereto set the seal of our arms.

Done at Versailles the 14th. of November one thousand seven hundred and eighty eight.