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other duties than those for custody and storage shall be levied upon articles imported from one of the two countries into the other, until they shall be removed for transit, re-exportation, or internal consumption.

In no case shall such articles pay higher duties, or be liable to other formalities, than if they had been imported under the national flag, or from the most favoured country.

XI. Goods of every kind coming from or going to either of the two countries shall reciprocally be exempted from all transit duty.

The prohibition in regard to gunpowder is, however, maintained; and the two High Contracting Parties reserve to themselves to subject the transit of arms of war to special authorizations.

The treatment of the most favoured nation is reciprocally guaranteed to each of the two countries in all that concerns transit and warehousing.

XII. With regard to the coasting trade, it is agreed between the High Contracting Parties that the subjects and vessels of each of them shall, in the dominions and possessions of the other, enjoy the same privileges, and be treated in all respects on the same footing, as national subjects and vessels.

With regard to the coasting trade in the Colonies, the stipulations of the present article shall be applicable only to the coasting trade of such of the Colonies of Her Britannic Majesty as have applied or shall hereafter apply, in conformity with the Acts of Parliament which govern this matter, that their coasting trade may be open to foreign vessels.

XIII. The regulations esta

blished for goods imported from France into Belgium by Articles XVIII. to XXVI. inclusive of the Treaty of Commerce concluded between the two countries on the 1st of May, 1861, shall equally apply in Belgium to the same goods imported from Great Britain and its Possessions.

With regard to pure or mixed tissues, taxed ad valorem, the va luation of which in the ports may appear to the Belgian Government to present difficulties, the Belgian Government reserves to itself the power to designate the Customhouse of Brussels exclusively for the admission of such goods.

XIV. Neither of the two High Contracting Parties shall impose upon goods the produce or manufacture of the other party, other or higher duties of importation than such as are or may be imposed upon the same goods, the produce of any other foreign country.

Each of the two Parties engages to extend to the other any favour or privilege, or reduction in the tariff of duties of importation or exportation, on articles mentioned, or not mentioned, in the present Treaty, which either of them may grant to any third Power. They engage, moreover, not to establish against each other any duty or prohibition of importation or exportation, which shall not, at the same time, be applicable to all other nations.

It is further agreed that if sen salt refined in Belgium should obtain a deduction of more than seven per cent. from the general duty of excise, British salt refined in Belgium shall enjoy, at the same moment, a deduction from the excise which shall not be inferior by more than seven per cent. to the deduction granted to sea salt.

XV. Articles the produce or manufacture of Belgium shall not be subject in the British Colonies to other or higher duties than those which are or may be imposed upon similar articles of British origin.

XVI. The subjects of one of the High Contracting Parties shall enjoy, in the dominions of the other, the same protection as native subjects in all that relates to property in trade marks, as well as in industrial and manufacturing patterns and models of every description.

The exclusive right to make use of an industrial or manufacturing pattern or model shall not, with regard to British subjects in Belgium, and reciprocally with regard to Belgian subjects in Great Britain, have a duration longer than that fixed by the law of the country for native subjects.

If the industrial or manufacturing pattern or model is open to the public in the country of origin, it cannot be made the subject of an exclusive right in the other country.

The provisions of the two preceding paragraphs are applicable to trade-marks.

The rights of subjects of one of the High Contracting Parties in the dominions of the other are not subject to the condition that the models or patterns shall be worked

there.

The present article shall not be put into operation in either country, with regard to such models or patterns, until the expiration of a year from the date of the signature of the present Treaty.

XVII. Belgian subjects shall not have the right to claim in Great Britain exclusive property in a mark, model, or pattern, un

less they shall have previously complied with the regulations, if any, which are or may be in force for the deposit at London, by British subjects, of marks, models, or patterns.

Reciprocally, British subjects shall not have the right to claim in Belgium exclusive property in a mark, model, or pattern, unless they shall have previously complied with the laws and regulations on those subjects which are or may be in force in Belgium.

XVIII. Each of the High Contracting Parties shall have the right to name consuls for the protection of trade in the dominions and territories of the other party; and the consuls who may be so appointed shall enjoy, within the territories of each party, all the privileges, exemptions, and immunities which are or may be granted in those territories to agents of the same rank and character appointed by or authorized to act for the Government of the most favoured nation.

Before any consul can act as such, he must, however, in the usual form be approved and admitted by the Government of the country to which he is sent; and each of the two High Contracting Parties shall have the right to except from the residence of consuls any particular places which either of them may judge proper to be excepted.

XIX. If any vessel of war or merchant-vessel of either of the two countries should be wrecked upon the coasts of the other, such vessel, or any parts thereof, and all furniture and appurtenances belonging thereunto, as well as all goods and merchandize which shall be saved therefrom, or the proceeds thereof, if sold, shall be restored

to the proprietors or to their agents, on being claimed by them. In case there should be no such proprietors or agents upon the spot, the said articles and goods, or the proceeds thereof, as well as all the papers found on board of any such vessel, shall be delivered to the British or Belgian consul in whose district the wreck shall have taken place; and such consul, proprietors, or agents shall not be called upon to pay any charge but the expenses incurred in the preservation of the property, and the same rate of salvage which would be equally payable, under the like circumstances, by a national vessel. The goods and merchandize saved from the wreck shall not be subject to the established duties, unless cleared for consumption.

XX. The British flag shall continue to enjoy in Belgium the repayment of the Scheldt Toll so long as the Belgian flag shall enjoy the same.

XXI. From and after, at latest, the day on which the capitalization of the Scheldt Toll shall be effected by a general arrangement

1. The tonnage duty imposed in Belgian ports shall cease to be levied;

2. The pilotage duties in Belgian ports and in the Scheldt, so far as depends upon Belgium, shall undergo a reduction

Of 20 per cent. for sailing vessels;

Of 25 per cent. for vessels towed; Of 30 per cent. for steam-vessels.

3. The system of local taxes imposed by the city of Antwerp shall be throughout diminished.

XXII. As a temporary exception to the stipulations of Article XIV., and for the space of two years from the 1st of October,

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Cotton yarns twisted, warped, or dyed, shall pay the duties imposed upon single yarns unbleached or bleached, with an addition of five centimes for twisted yarns, ten centimes for warped yarns, and fifteen centimes for dyed yarns, per kilogramme.

The duty on stuff of wool mixed with cotton shall be twenty-two and-a-half per cent. until the 1st of October, 1863, and twenty per cent. until the 1st of October, 1864. During the continuance of the transitory system the importer may, at his choice, pay either one hundred and eighty francs the hundred kilogrammes, or the duties stipulated above.

The duty upon printed cotton tissues shall be one hundred and fifty francs the hundred kilogrammes.

XXIII. It is understood that in case the present duty on the importation of foreign spirits should be maintained in the British tariff, the Article relative to spirits which is contained in the Treaty concluded between Belgium and France on the 1st of May, 1861, shall not be applied to British spirits, so far as regards the reductions therein. stipulated, until the 1st of October, 1865.

XXIV. The Ionian Islands being under the protection of Her Britannic Majesty, the subjects and vessels of those islands shall enjoy, in the dominions of His Majesty the King of the Belgians, all the advantages which are granted to the subjects and vessels of Great Britain by the present Treaty, as soon as the Government of the Ionian Islands shall have agreed

to grant to the subjects and vessels of His Majesty the King of the Belgians the same advantages which are granted in those islands to the subjects and vessels of Her Britannic Majesty: it being understood, that in order to prevent abuses, every Ionian vessel claiming the benefits of that Treaty shall be furnished with a patent signed by the Lord High Commissioner of Her Britannic Majesty, or by his representative.

XXV. The present Treaty shall continue in force for ten years, dating from the tenth day after the exchange of the ratifications. In case neither of the two High Contracting Parties should have notified, twelve months before the end of the said period, its intention to terminate the Treaty, it shall remain in force until the expiration of a year dating from the day on which either of the High Contracting Parties shall have given notice for its termination.

The High Contracting Parties reserve to themselves the right to

introduce into the Treaty, by common consent, any modifications which may not be at variance with its spirit or principles, and the utility of which may be shown by experience.

XXVI. From and after the date fixed by the preceding Article, the Treaty of Commerce and Navigation of the 27th of October, 1851, shall cease to be in force.

XXVII. The present Treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at London before the first day of September, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.

In witness whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the same, and have affixed thereto the seal of their arms.

Done in duplicate at London, the twenty-third day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.

(L.S.) RUSSELL.

(L.S.) THOS. MILNER GIBSON. (L.S.) SYLVAIN Van de Weyer.

STATE PAPERS.

CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING THE CIVIL WAR

IN NORTH AMERICA.

CORRESPONDENCE RESPECTING THE SINKING OF STONE-LADEN SHIPS IN THE HARBOUR OF CHARLESTON.

Newspaper Extract (Inclosure in the work of sinking. Each ship

Despatch 125).

FLEET OF STONE VESSELS.The fleet of stone-laden vessels for sinking in the harbours of the Southern coast, which has been for some time preparing, sailed on the 20th instant, and we give below a list of the vessels composing it, with their tonnage. They are all old, but substantial, whalingvessels, double decked to give them greater firmness; they were stripped of their copper and other fittings which were not necessary for so short a voyage as they will make, and loaded with picked stone as deeply as was safe.

In the bottom of each ship a hole was bored, into which was fitted a lead-pipe five inches in diameter, with a valve so fixed that, though perfectly safe even for a long voyage, it can be quickly removed. It is calculated that the ship will be filled and sunk to the bottom in twenty minutes after the removal of this valve.

The crew consists of six men each. These will be returned by the men-of-war who will assist in

will be anchored in the place chosen for her, and will then be sprung round broadside to the channel, thus effecting as great a stoppage as is possible. When this is done, and she is in position, the valve will be withdrawn, and when the vessel is nearly level with the water's edge the men will leave in a small boat. It is reported that an enterprising rigger has gone down with the fleet, with the intention to take off what pieces of spars and rigging may remain above the water's edge after the ships are sunk.

No. 126.-Lord Lyons to Earl Russell. (Received December 12.)

Washington, November 29, 1861. My Lord,-In my despatch of the 25th instant, I inclosed extracts from newspapers giving details of the preparations made by order of the Government of the United States to obstruct the inlets and harbours on the coast of

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