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become citizens of fuch city or place where they fhall refide or trade. By felling wholefale is understood one or more bales of goods, chefts, cafks, barrels, alfo feveral dozens of finall articles of merchandise of the fame kind, collected in the fame place, and in confiderable lots, or other forts of package. It is further agreed, that the fubjects of Ruffia may carry, in the fame manner, into the ports of Great Britain and of Ireland, where they fhall be established or refide, all forts of merchandise or effects, of which the trade or the entry is not prohibited, which is understood equally of the manufactures and productions of the Afiatic provinces, provided that it be not actually prohibited by fome. law now in force in Great Britain; that they fhall be permitted to keep them in their houfes or magazines, to fell or exchange them wholefale, freely become citizens of fuch city or place where they fhail refide or trade; and that they may buy and tranfport out of the dominions of Great Britain all forts of merchandife and effects which the fubjects of any other nation may there buy and tranfport elsewhere, particularly gold and filver, wrought or unwrought, except the coined money of Great Britain. It is agreed that British fubjects trading in the dominions of Ruffia fhall have the liberty, in cafe of death, of an extraordinary want, or of an abfolute neceffity, when there remains no other means of procuring money, or in cale of bankruptcy, of difpofing of their effects, either in Rullian or foreign merchandife, in the manner in which the perfons interested fhall think most advantageous. The fame thing fhall be obferved with regard to Ruian fubjects in the dominions of Great

Britain. All this is to be under ftood with the restriction, that every permiffion on either fide, specified in this article, fhall be in no wife contrary to the laws of the country, and that the Ruffian fubjects, as well as the British subjects, and their clerks, conform themfelves, on both fides, punctually to the rights, ftatutes, and ordinances of the country in which they shall trade, in order to obviate all forts of frauds and pretexts. It is for this reafon the decifions of the said cafes happening to the British fac tories in Ruffia thall depend, at St. Petertburgh, upon the college of commerce, and in the other cities, where there is no college of commerc?, upon the tribunals which have cognizance of commercial affairs.

V. And in order to preserve a juft equality between Ruffian and British fubjects, both the one and the other fhall pay the fame duties of exportation and of importation, whether it be in Ruffia or in Great Britain and Ireland, whether it be in Ruffian or in British vessels; and no regulation thall be made by the high contracting parties in favour of its own fubjects, which the subjects of the other high contracting party fhall not enjoy, and that understood bona fide, under whatever name or form it may be, in fuch manner as that the fubjects of one of the powers fhall have no advan tage over thofe of the other in the relpective dominions,

VI. Every affiftance and poffible difpatch fhall be given for the loading and unloading of veffels, as well as for the entry and de parture of their merchandife, according to the regulations made for that purpofe; and they fhall not in any manner be detained, upon the penalties announced in the faid regulations. In like man

ner, if the fubjects of Great Britain make contracts with any chancery or college whatsoever, for delivering certain merchandise or effects, on the declaration that thofe merchandife are ready to be delivered, and after they fhall have been actually delivered within the term fixed in thofe contracts, they fhall be received, and the accounts fhall be regulated and liquidated, in confequence, between the faid college or chancery and the British merchants, within the time which fhall have been fixed in the faid contracts. The fame rule fhall be obferved in the dominions of Great Britain towards Ruffian merchants.

VII. It is agreed that the fubjects of Great Britain may, in all the cities and places of Ruffia where it is allowed to any other nation to trade, pay for merchandife bought in the fame current money of Ruffia which they have taken for their merchandife fold, unless the contrary fhould be ftipulated in their contracts. The fame is to be understood equally refpecting Ruffian merchandise in the do. minions of Great Britain.

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VIII. In the places where embarkations are ufually made, it fhall, be permitted to the fubjects of the high contracting parties to load their fhips or carriages with, and to tranfport by water and by land, all forts of merchandife which they may have hought (with the exception of thofe of which the exportation is prohibited), on paying the custom-houfe duties, providing that thofe fhips aud carriages conform themselves to the laws.

IX: The fubjects of the high contracting parties fhall not pay more duties upon the entry or departure of their merchandise than are paid by the fubjects of other

nations. Nevertheless, in order to prevent, on both fides, the cuf tom-houfe from being defrauded, in the cafe of the difcovery of merchandise imported clandeftine." ly, and without paying the cuftomhoufe duty, they fhall be confifcated, and the merchants convicted of contrabanding fhall be fubjected to the fine established by the law in fuch cases.

X. It fhall be permitted to the high contracting parties to go, come, and trade freely in the states with which the one or the other of thofe parties fhall be, at present or in future, at war, provided that they do not carry ammunition to the enemy: with the exception, nevertheless, of places actually blockaded or befieged, whether by fea or land; but at all other times, and with the exception of warlike ammunition, the subjects aforesaid may transport into thofe places every other fort of merchandise, as well as paffengers, without the fmalleft hindrance. With refpect to the fearching of merchant fhips, fhips of war and privateers fhall conduct themselves as favourably as the course of the war then existing may poffibly permit it towards the most friendly powers which fhall remain neuter, obferving, as much as poffible, the acknowledged principles and rules of the law of na.. tions.

XI. All cannons, mortars, firearms, piftols, bombs, grenades, balis, bullets, mufquets, flints, matches, powder, falt-petre, fulphur, cutlaffes, pikes, fwords, belts, cartouch-boxes, faddles and bri dles, beyond the quantity which may be neceffary for the ufe of the fhip, or beyond that which each man ferving on board the veffel, or paffenger, fhall have, fhall be ef teemed warlike provifions or am

munition;

munition; and, if any are found, they fhall be confifcated, according to the laws, as contraband or prohibited effects; but neither the fhips, paffengers, nor the other merchandise found at the fame time, fhall be detained or prevent ed from continuing their voyage. XII. If, which God forbid, peace fhould be broken between the two high contracting parties, neither perfons, fhips, nor mer chandife, fhall be detained or confifcated; but the term of a year at leaft fhall be granted, for the purpofe of felling, difpofing of, or car rying away their effects, and with drawing themfelves wherever they fhall please, which is to be underftood equally respecting all thofe who fhall be in the fea and land fervice, and they fhall be permitted, previous to, or at their departure, to confign the effects of which they fhall not have difpofed, as well as the debts to which they may have a claim, to fuch perfon as they fhall judge proper, to be difpofed of according to their will and profit; which debts the debtor fhall equally be obliged to pay as if the rupture had not taken place.

XIII. In the event of a fhipwreck happening in a place belonging to one or other of the high contracting parties, not only every affiftance fhall be given to the unfortunate perfons, and no violence done to them, but also the effects which they fhall have thrown out of the fhip into the fea fhall not be concealed, detained, nor damaged, under any pretext whatever; on the contrary, the above-mentioned effects and merchandise fhall be preserved and restored to them, upon a fuitable recompence being given to those who shall have affifted in faving their perfons, vessels, and effects.

British merchants to build, buy, fell, and hire houfes in all states and cities of Ruffia, excepting only the permiflion of building, buying, felling, and hiring houfes in thofe cities of the empire which have particular rights of citizenship, and privileges contrary thereto; and it is exprefsly ftipulated that at St. Peterburgh, Moscow, Archangel, Riga, and Narva, as well as in all ports of the Black Sea, the houses which British merchants fhall have purchased or built, fhall, as long as they fhall continue to belong to them, and refide therein, be exempted from having foldiers quar tered in them; but fuch houfes as they fhall let or hire, fhall be fubjected to all city taxes, the tenant and proprietor agreeing with each other on that fubject. As to every other city in Ruffia, the houses which they fhall purchase or build, as well as those which they fhall hire or let, fhall not be exempt from having foldiers quartered in them. It is, in like manner, permitted to Ruffian merchants to build, buy, fell, and hire houfes in Great Britain and Ireland, and to difpofe of them as it is allowed to the fubjects of the most favoured nations. They fhall have the free exercife of the Greek religion in their own houfes or in the places allotted for that purpose. In like manner Britifli merchants fhall have the free exercise of the proteftant religion. The fubjects of both the one and the other power eftablifhed in Ruffia or Great Britain, fhall have the difpofal of their property, and the power of leaving it by will to whom they fhall judge proper, according to the cuftom and the laws of their own country.

XV. Paffports fhall be granted XIV. It fhall be permitted to to all British fubjects who fhall de

fire to quit Ruffia, after having published their names and places of abode in the gazettes, according to the cuftom of the prefent day, without obliging them to give fecurity; and if at the time there does not appear any juft caufe for detaining them, they fhall be permitted to depart, after providing themselves, however, with paffports from the tribunals established for that purpose. The fame facility fhall be granted, on the like occafion, according to the cuftom of the country, to Ruffian fubjects, who fhall defire to quit the dominions of Great Britain.

XVI. British merchants, who fhall hire or keep fervants, fhall be obliged to conform themselves to the laws of that empire upon this fubjeft; which Ruffian merchants fhall be equally obliged to do in Great Britain.

XVII. In all lawfuits and other affairs, British merchants fhall not be under any other jurifdiction than that of the college of commerce, or that which fhall be hereafter established for the adminiftration of justice between merchants. If it should happen, however, that British merchants were to have lawsuits in any cities at a distance from the above-mentioned college of commerce, both they and the other party fhall carry their com plaint before the magiftrates of the faid cities. Ruffian merchants in Great Britain fhall have reciprocally the fame protection and juftice, according to the laws of that kingdom, which other foreign merchants have there, and fhall be treated in the fame manner as the fubjects of the most favoured nation.

XVIII. Ruffian merchants refiding in Great Britain, and British merchants refiding in Ruffia, fhall

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not be obliged to fhow their books or papers to any perfon whatsoever, unlefs it be to afford evidence in courts of juftice; neither fhall the faid books or papers be taken or detained. If it hould happen, however, that a British merchant becomes a bankrupt, the affair fhall be under the jurifdiction at St. Petersburgh, of the college of commerce, or of that which shall hereafter be established for the purpose of adminiftering juftice in commercial affairs, and, in the other cities at a distance, under that of the magiftrate of the city: and the bufinefs fhall be carried on according to the laws which are, or fhall hereafter be made upon that fubject. If, however, British merchants, obftinately refolved not to become bankrupts, fhould refuse to pay their debts either into the banks of his imperial majesty or to individuals, it fhall be permitted to arreft a part of their effects, equivalent to their debts; and in cafe thofe effects fhould prove inadequate to that purpose, they may ar reft their perfons, and detain them until the majority of their creditors both as to the number and value of their respective demands, confent to liberate them: with respect to their effects which fhall have been arrested, they fhall remain in the cuftody of those who shall be ap pointed and duly authorized for that purpose by the majority of the cre ditors as aforefaid; and the perfons fo appointed fhall be obliged to ap. praife the effects as foon as poffible, and to make a juft and equitable distribution to all the creditors, ac cording to their respective claims. The fame courfe fhall be purfued, in fimilar cafes, with regard to Ruffian merchants in the dominions of Great Britain, and they fhall be protected therein in the manner

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regulated in the preceding article.

XIX. In cafe of complaints and of lawfuits, three perfons of irreproachable character, from amongst the foreign merchants, fhall be, according to the circumftances of the cafe, appointed by the college of commerce, and in fuch places where there is none, by the magistrate, to examine the books and papers of the complainants; and the report which they fhall make to the college of commerce, or to the magiftrate, of what they fhall have found in the faid books and papers, shall be confidered as good proof.

delivering their merchandise at the place or at the time agreed upon and mentioned in the faid bills or contracts, the college of commerce, after complaints to that effect fhall have been made, and proofs given, fall fummon them three times, granting them a fufficient time to appear in perfon, and if they allow it to elapfe without appearing, the faid college fhall condemn them, and fhall fend an exprefs, at the expence of the plaintiff, to the governors and to the tribunals of government, enjoining them to put the fentence into execution, and thereby compel the debtors to fulfil their engagentents. And if the demands fhould be found frivolous or unjust, then the British merchants fhall be obliged to pay the damage which they fhall have occafioned, either by the lofs of time, or by the expences of the voyage.

XXII. The brack fhall be establifhed with juftice, and the brack

lity of the merchandise and for fraudulent packages, and obliged, upon fufficient proofs against them, to pay for the loffes which they have occafioned.

XX. The cuftom-houses fhall take care to examine the fervants or the clerks of Ruffian merchants, at the time of their enregistering their purchases, if they are furnished, for that purpose, with the orders or full powers of their masters, and if they are not, they shall not be credited. The fame measures fhall be adopters fhall be answerable for the quaed with the fervants of British merchants; and when the faid fervants, having orders or full powers from their masters, shall have euregiftered the merchandise on account of their mafters, the latter fhall be refponfible therefor in the fame manner as if they had themfelves enregistered them. With refpect to Ruffian fervants employed in fhops, they fhall, in like manner, be enregistered by the tribunals eftablifhed for that purpofe, in the cities where thofe fhops fhall be; and their mafters fhall be refponsible for them, in matters of trade, and in the purchases which they fhall have made in their name.

XXI. In the cafe of Ruffian merchants who are in debt to British merchants upon bills of exchange, or who have made contracts for the delivery of merchandise, not paying their bills of exchange, or not

XXIII. A regulation fhall be made in order to prevent the abuses which may be practifed in the packing of leather, hemp, and lint; and if any difputes fhould happen between the purchaser and the fell er refpecting the weight or the tare of any merchandise, the cuf tom-house fhall decide it according to equity.

XXIV. In every thing which relates to taxes and duties upon the importation and exportation of merchandife in general, the fub jects of the two high contracting parties fhall always be confidered and treated as the moft favoured nation.

XXV. The subjects of the two

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