XVII. Their moft Chriftian and Catholic Majefties engage and promife, in cafe they fhall find themselves engaged in a war, neither to liflen to nor make any propofitions of peace, neither to treat nor conclude any thing with their enemy or enemies, but by mutual and common confent and agreement, and reciprocally to communicate every thing that fhall come to their knowledge, interefting to the two Crowns, and in particular on the terms of peace; fo that in war as in peace, each of the two Crowns fhall regard as his own intereft that of his ally.

XVIII. In conformity to this principle, and the engagement contracted in confequence thereof, their most, Chriftian and Catholic Majefties have agreed, that when they fhall terminate by peace the war they fhall have fupported in common, they will balance the advantages which one of the two Powers may have received, againft the loffes of the other; fo that, on the conditions of peace, as in the operations of war, the two Monarchs of France and Spain, throughout the extent of their Empire, fhall be confidered, and will act, as if they formed but one and the fame Power.

XIX. The King of the Two Sicilies, having the fame ties of blood and friendship, and the fame interefts, which intimately unite their moft Chriftian and Catholic Majefties, his Catholic Majefty ftipulates for the King of the Two Sicilies, his fon, and obliges himself to make him ratify, as well for himself, as his defcendants for ever, all the articles of the prefent treaty; and, as to what regards the proportion of fuccours to be furnished by his Sicilian Majefty, they fhall be fettled in his act of acceffion to the faid treaty, according to the extent of his power.

XX. Their moft Chriftian, Catholic, and Sicilian Majefties engage, not only to concur in the maintenance and splendor of their kingdoms, in their present state, but also to fupport, on every occafion whatever, the dignity and rights of their Houfes; fo that each Prince, who fhall have the honour to defcend from the

fame blood, may be affured at all times of the protection and affiftance of three Crowns.

XXI. The prefent treaty being to be confidered, as hath been already announced in the preamble, as a Family Compact between all the branches of the auguft Houfe of Bourbon, no other Power, but thofe of that Houfe, can be invited or admitted to accede thereto.

XXII. The strict friendship which unites the contracting Monarchs, and the engagements they take by this treaty, determine them alfo to ftipulate, that their dominions and refpective fubjects fhall partake of the advantages, and of the union eftablifhed between thofe Sovereigns; and their Majefties promife not to fuffer, in any cafe, nor under any pretence whatever, their faid fubjects to do or undertake any thing contrary to that perfect correfpondence which ought inviolably to fubfift between the three Crowns.

XXIII. The more effectually to preferve this harmony, and these reciprocal advantages between the fubjects of the two Crowns, it is agreed, that the Spaniards fhall no longer be confidered as foreigners in France; and confequently his moft Chriftian Majesty engages to abolish, in their favour, the right of efcheatage, fo that they may difpofe by will, donations, or otherwife, of all their effects, without exception, of what nature foever, which they poffefs in his kingdom, and which their heirs, fubjects of his Catholic Majefty, refident in France or elfewhere, fhall have power to receive as their inheritance, even where no will is made, either by themselves, their attornies, or particular order (though they may not have obtained letters of naturalization) and convey them out of his moft Chriftian Majefty's dominions, notwithstanding all the laws, edicts, ftatutes, cuftoms, or rights to the contrary, which his moft Chriftian Majefty hereby annuls, as far as is neceffary. His Catholic Majefty engages, on his part, to grant the fame privileges, and in the fame

manner,

manner, in every part of his dominions in Europe, to all the French fubjects of his most Christian Majesty, with refpect to the free difpofal of the effects they fhall poffefs in any part of the Spanish monarchy; fo that the fubjects of the two crowns fhall be generally treated (in what regards this article) in both dominions, as the proper and natural fubjects of the Power in whose territories they refide. Every thing abovefaid, refpecting the abolition of the right of efcheatage, and the advantages which the French are to enjoy in the Spanish dominions in Europe, and the Spaniards in France, is granted to the fubjects of the King of the Two Sicilies, who fhall be comprised under the fame condition in this article; and the fubjects of their most Christian and Catholic Majefties fhall reciprocally enjoy the fame exemption and advantages in the dominions of his Sicilian Majefty.

XXIV. The fubjects of the high contracting parties fhall be treated, with refpect to commerce and duties, in each of the two kingdoms in Europe, as the proper fubjects of the country in which they live or refort to; so that the Spanish flag fhall enjoy in France the fame rights and prerogatives as the French flag; and, in like manner, the French flag fhall be treated in Spain with the fame favour as the Spanish flag. The fubjects of the two monarchies, in declaring their merchandizes, fhall pay the fame duties as fhall be paid by the natives. The importation and exportation fhall be equally free to them as to the natural fubjects; neither fhall they pay any other duty than what shall be received from the natural fubjects of the Sovereign, nor any goods be liable to confifcation, but fuch as are prohibited to the natives themfelves; and as to what concerns thefe objects, all interior treaties, conventions, or engagements between the two monarchies, are hereby abolished. And farther, that no other foreign Power shall enjoy in Spain, any more than in France, any privileges more advantageous than thofe of the two nations; the fame rules fhall be observed VOL. I.

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in both France and Spain, with regard to the flag and fubjects of the King of the Two Sicilies; and his Sicilian Majefty fhall reciprocally caufe to be obferved the fame, with refpect to the flag and subjects of the Crowns of France and Spain.

XXV. If the high contracting parties fhall hereafter conclude a treaty of commerce with other Powers, and grant them, or have already granted them, in their ports or dominions, the treatment granted to the most favoured nation, notice fhall be given to the faid Powers, that the treatment of Spaniards in France, and in the Two Sicilies, of Frenchmen in Spain, and in like manner in the Two Sicilies, and of Neapolitans and Sicilians in France and Spain, upon the fame footing, is excepted in that refpect, and ought not to be quoted, or ferve as an example, their moft Chriftian, Catholic, and Sicilian Majefties being unwilling that any other nation fhould partake of those privileges which they judged convenient for the reciprocal enjoy ment of their respective fubjects.

XXVI. The high contracting parties will reciprocally confide in all the alliances which they fhall hereafter form, and the negotiations they fhall engage in, efpecially fuch as fhall have any influence on their common interefts; and, confequently, their moft Chriftian, Catholic, and Sicilian Majefties will order all their respective minifters, that they endeavour, in the other courts of Europe, to maintain among themfelves the most perfect harmony and entire confidence, that every step taken in the name of either of the three Crowns, may tend to their glory and common advantages, and be a conftant pledge of the intimacy which their faid Majefties would for ever establish among them.

XXVII. The delicate object of precedence in public acts, employments, and ceremonies, is often an obftacle to good harmony and the intimate confidence which ought to be supported between the refpective Minifters

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Minifters of France and Spain, because fuch contentions, whatever method may be taken to stop them; indifpofe the mind. These naturally arofe when the two Crowns belonged to Princes of two different Houses; but now (and at all times hereafter) and as long as Providence has determined to maintain on the two thrones Sovereigns of the fame Houfe, it is not agreeable that there fhould fubfift between them a continual occafion for altercation and discontent; their most Christian and Catholic Majefties have therefore agreed entirely to remove that occafion, in determin-' ing, as an invariable rule to their Ministers, invested with the fame character in foreign courts, as well as in those of the family (for fuch now certainly are those of Naples and Parma) that the Minifters of the chief Monarch of the Houfe fhall always have the precedence in every act, employment, or ceremony whatever, which precedence fhall be regarded as the confequence of the advantage of birth; and that, in all other courts, the Minister (whether of France or Spain) who fhall laft arrive, or whofe refidence fhall be more recent, fhall give place to the Minifter of the other Crown, and of the fame character, who fhall have arrived first, or whose residence shall have been prior, fo that henceforth, in that refpect, there will be a certain and brotherly alternative, to which no other Power can be fubject, nor fhall be admitted, feeing that this arrangement, which is equally a confequence of the prefent Family Compact, would ceafe, if the Princes of the fame House no longer filled the thrones of the two monarchies, and that then each Crown would refume its rights or pretenfions to precedence. It is agreed alfo, that if, by accident, the Ministers of the two Crowns fhould arrive precifely at the fame time in any other court than that of the family, the Minister of the Sovereign chief of the House shall take place of the Minifter of the Sovereign who is a junior of the fame House.

XXVIII. The