ARTICLE XVIII. This treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington, within the term of nine months after its date, or sooner if possible. In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present treaty, in duplicate, and have affixed thereto their seals, at Washington, the seventeenth of July, eighteen hundred and fiftyeight. LEW. CASS. [SEAL.] [SEAL.] H. BOSCH SPENCER. 1863.@ CONVENTION RELATIVE TO IMPORT DUTIES AND CAPITALIZATION OF SCHELDT DUes. Concluded May 20, 1863; ratification advised by the Senate February 26, 1864; ratified by the President March 5, 1864; ratifications exchanged June 24, 1864; proclaimed November 18, 1864. I. Tonnage, port, pilot dues. II. Salt. ARTICLES. III. Import duties. IV. Capitalization of Scheldt dues. V. Duration; ratification. The President of the United States of America on the one side, His Majesty the King of the Belgians on the other side, having deemed it advantageous to complete, by new stipulations the treaty of commerce and navigation entered into by the United States and Belgium on the 17th day of July, 1858, have resolved to make a convention in addition to that arrangement, and have appointed for their Plenipotentiaries, namely: The President of the United States, Henry Shelton Sanford, a citizen of the United States, their Minister Resident near His Majesty the King of the Belgians; His Majesty the King of the Belgians, the Sieur Charles Rogier, Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold, decorated with the Iron Cross, Grand Cross of the Order of the Ernestine Branch of Saxony, of the Polar Star, of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus, of our Lady of the Conception of Villa Vicosa, of the Legion of Honor, of the White Eagle, &c., a member of the Chamber of Representatives, his Minister of Foreign Affairs; Who, after having communicated to each other their full powers, found to be in good and proper form, have agreed upon the following articles: ARTICLE I. From and after the day when the capitalization of the duties levied upon navigation in the Scheldt shall have been secured by a general arrangement: 1st. The tonnage dues levied in Belgian ports shall cease. • The articles of this treaty not transitory have been superseded by the treaty of 1875. 2d. Fees for pilotage in Belgian ports and in the Scheldt, in so far as it depends on Belgium, shall be reduced twenty per centum for sailing vessels, twenty-five per centum for vessels in tow, thirty per centum for steam-vessels. 3d. Port dues and other charges levied by the city of Antwerp shall be throughout reduced. ARTICLE II. In derogation to the ninth article of the treaty of the 17th of July, 1858, the flag of the United States shall be assimilated to that of Belgium for the transportation of salt. ARTICLE III. The tariff of import duties resulting from the treaty of the 1st of May, 1861, between Belgium and France, is extended to goods imported from the United States, on the same conditions with which it was extended to Great Britain by the treaty of the twenty-third of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-two. The reduction made by the treaties entered into by Belgium with Switzerland on the eleventh of December, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, with Italy on the ninth of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, with the Netherlands on the 12th of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and also with France on the twelfth of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, shall be equally applied to goods imported from the United States. It is agreed that Belgium shall also extend to the United States the reductions of import duties which may result from her subsequent treaties with other powers. ARTICLE IV. The United States, in view of the proposition made by Belgium to regulate, by a common accord, the capitalization of the Scheldt dues, consents to contribute to this capitalization under the following conditions: a. The capital sum shall not exceed thirty-six millions of francs. b. Belgium shall assume for its part one-third of that amount. c. The remainder shall be apportioned among the other States, pro rata to their navigation in the Scheldt. d. The proportion of the United States, to be determined in accordance with this rule, shall not exceed the sum of two millions seven hundred and seventy-nine thousand two hundred francs. e. The payment of the said proportion shall be made in ten annual installments of equal amount, which shall include the capital and the interest on the portion remaining unpaid at the rate of four per centum. The first installment shall be payable at Brussels, on the first day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, or immediately after the Congress of the United States shall have made the requisite appropriation. In either event, the interest shall commence to run on the date of the first of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, above mentioned. The Government of the United States reserves the right of anticipating the payment of the proportion of the United States. The above-mentioned conditions for the capitalization of the Scheldt dues shall be inserted in a general treaty, to be adopted by a conference of the maritime States interested, and in which the United States shall be represented. ARTICLE V. The Articles I. and IV. of the present additional convention shall be perpetual; and the remaining articles shall, together with the treaty of commerce and navigation made between the high contracting parties on the seventeenth of July, eighteen hundred and fiftyeight, have the same force and duration as the treaties mentioned in Article III. The ratifications thereof shall be exchanged with the least possible delay. In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present convention, and have affixed thereto their seals. Made in duplicate, and signed at Brussels the twentieth day of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-three. [SEAL.] [SEAL.] H. S. SANFORD. Declaration annexed to the additional convention signed this day between the United States and Belgium: The Plenipotentiary of the United States having required that the attributions of the Consuls of the United States in Belgium should become the object of farther stipulations, and it having been impracticable to complete in season the examination of the said stipulations, it is agreed that the Belgian Government will continue that examination with the sincere intent to come to an agreement as early as may be possible. Done at Brussels, in duplicate, the twentieth of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-three. H. S. SANFORD. 1863. CONVENTION FOR THE EXTINGUISHMENT OF THE SCHELDT DUES. Concluded July 20, 1863; ratification advised by the Senate February 26, 1864; ratified by the President March 5, 1864; ratifications exchanged June 24, 1864; proclaimed November 18, 1864. I. Scheldt dues extinguished. II. Declaration by King of Belgium. III. Tonnage and other dues. IV. Payment by the United States. ARTICLES. V. Execution. The United States of America and His Majesty the King of the Belgians, equally desirous of liberating forever the navigation of the Scheldt from the dues which encumber it, to assure the reformation of the maritime taxes levied in Belgium, and to facilitate thereby the development of trade and navigation, have resolved to conclude a treaty to complete the convention signed on the 20th of May, 1863, between the United States and Belgium, and have appointed as their Plenipotentiaries, namely: The President of the United States of America, Henry Shelton Sanford, a citizen of the United States, their Minister Resident to His Majesty the King of the Belgians; and His Majesty the King of the Belgians, Mr. Charles Rogier, Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold, decorated with the Iron Cross, &c., &c., &c., his Minister of Foreign Affairs; Who, after having exchanged their full powers, found to be in good and due form, have agreed upon the following articles: ARTICLE I. The high contracting parties take note of, and record: 1st. The treaty concluded on the twelfth of May, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, between Belgium and the Netherlands, which will remain annexed to the present treaty, and by which his Majesty the King of the Netherlands renounces forever the dues established upon navigation in the Scheldt and its mouths, by the third paragraph of the ninth article of the treaty of the nineteenth of April, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine, and His Majesty the King of the Belgians engages to pay the capital sum of the redemption of those dues, which amount to 17,141,640 florins. 2d. The declaration made in the name of His Majesty the King of the Netherlands on the fifteenth of July, eighteen hundred and sixtythree, to the Plenipotentiaries of the high contracting parties, that the extinguishment of the Scheldt dues, consented to by his said Majesty, applies to all flags; that these dues can never be re-established under any form whatsoever; and that this suppression shall not affect in any manner the other provisions of the treaty of the nineteenth of April, eighteen hundred and thirty-nine, which declaration shall be considered inserted in the present treaty, to which it shall remain also annexed. ARTICLE II. His Majesty the King of the Belgians makes, for what concerns him, the same declaration as to that which is mentioned in the second paragraph of the preceding article. ARTICLE III. It is well understood that the tonnage dues suppressed in Belgium, in conformity with the convention of the twentieth of May, eighteen hundred sixty-three, cannot be re-established, and that the pilotage dues and local taxes reduced under the same convention cannot be again increased. The tariff of pilotage dues and of local taxes at Antwerp, shall be the same for the United States as those which are set down in the protocols of the conference at Brussels. ARTICLE IV. In regard to the proportion of the United States in the capital sum of the extinguishment of the Scheldt dues, and the manner, place and time of the payment thereof, reference is made by the high contracting parties to the convention of the twentieth May, eighteen hundred and sixty-three. ARTICLE V. The execution of the reciprocal engagements contained in the present treaty is made subordinate, in so far as is necessary, to the formalities and rules established by the constitutional laws of the high contracting parties. ARTICLE VI. It is well understood, that the provisions of Article III. will only be obligatory with respect to the State which has taken part in, or those which shall adhere to, the treaty of this day, the King of the Belgians reserving to himself expressly the right to establish the manner of treatment as to fiscal and customs regulations of vessels belonging to States which shall not be parties to this treaty.. ARTICLE VII. The present treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications thereof shall be exchanged at Brussels with the least possible delay. In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the same in duplicate, and affixed thereto their seals. Done at Brussels, the twentieth day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-three. [SEAL.] [SEAL.] H. S. SANFORD. [Translation.] Treaty of May 12, 1863, between Belgium and the Netherlands, annexed to the treaty of July 20, 1863. His Majesty the King of the Belgians and His Majesty the King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxemburg, having come to an agreement upon the conditions of the redemption, by capitalization, of the dues established upon the navigation of the Scheldt and of its mouths, by paragraph three of the ninth article of the treaty of the 19th April, 1839, have resolved to conclude a special treaty on this subject, and have appointed for their Plenipotentiaries: His Majesty the King of the Belgians, M. Aldephonse Alexander Felix, Baron du Jardin, Commander of the Order of Leopold, decorated with the Iron Cross, Commander of the Lion of the Netherlands, Chevalier Grand Cross of the Oaken Crown, Grand Cross and Commander of several other orders, his Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary near to His Majesty the King of the |