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request of the Commissioners, or of any two of them, the papers in its possession which may be important to the just determination of any of the claims laid before the Commission.

ARTICLE VI. The concurring decisions of the Commissioners, or of any two of them, shall be conclusive and final. Said decisions shall in every case be given upon each individual claim, in writing, stating in the event of a pecuniary award being made, the amount or equivalent value of the same in gold coin of the United States; and in the event of interest being allowed on such award, the rate thereof and the period for which it is to be computed shall be fixed, which period shall not extend beyond the close of the Commission; and said decision shall be signed by the Commissioners concurring therein.

ARTICLE VII. The High Contracting Parties hereby engage to consider the decision of the Commissioners, or of any two of them, as absolutely final and conclusive upon each claim decided upon by them, and to give full effect to such decisions without any objections, evasions, or delay whatever.

ARTICLE VIII. Every claim shall be presented to the Commissioners within a period of two months reckoned from the day of their first meeting for business, after notice to the respective Governments as prescribed in Article V of this Convention. Nevertheless, where reasons for delay shall be established to the satisfaction of the Commissioners, or of any two of them, the period for presenting the claim may be extended by them to any time not exceeding two months longer.

The Commissioners shall be bound to examine and decide upon every claim within six months from the day of their first meeting for business as aforesaid; which period shall not be extended except only in case of the proceedings of the Commission shall be interrupted by the death, incapacity, retirement or cessation of the functions of any one of the Commissioners, in which event the period of six months herein prescribed shall not be held to include the time during which such interruption may actu ally exist.

It shall be competent in each case for the said Commissioners to decide whether any claim has, or has not, been duly made, preferred, and laid before them, either wholly, or to any and what extent, according to the true intent and meaning of this Convention.

ARTICLE IX. All sums of money which may be awarded by the Commissioners as aforesaid, shall be paid by the one Government to the other, as the case may be, at the capital of the Government to receive such payment, within six months after the date of the final award, without interest, and without any deduction save as specified in Article X.

ARTICLE X. The Commissioners shall keep an accurate record and correct minutes or notes of all their proceedings, with the dates thereof; and the Governments of the United States and of Chile may each appoint and employ a Secretary versed in the languages of both countries, and the Commissioners may appoint any other necessary officer or officers to assist them in the transaction of the business which may come before them.

Each Government shall pay its own Commissioner, Secretary and Agent or Counsel, and at the same or equivalent rates of compensation, as near as may be, for like officers on the one side as on the other. All other

expenses, including the compensation of the third Commissioner, which latter shall be equal or equivalent to that of the other Commissioners shall be defrayed by the two Governments in equal moieties.

The whole expenses of the Commission, including contingent expenses, shall be defrayed by a ratable deduction on the amount of the sums awarded by the Commissioners, provided always that such deduction shall not exceed the rate of five per centum on the sum so awarded. If the whole expenses shall exceed this rate, then the excess of expense shall be defrayed jointly by the two Governments in equal moieties.

ARTICLE XI. The High Contracting Parties agree to consider the result of the proceedings of the Commission provided for by this Convention as a full, perfect and final settlement of any and every claim upon either Government within the description and true meaning of Articles I and II; and that every such claim, whether or not the same may have been presented to the notice of, made, preferred or laid before the said Commission, shall, from and after the conclusion of the proceedings of the said Commission, be treated and considered as finally settled, concluded and barred. ARTICLE XII. The present Convention shall be ratified by the President of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof and by the President of the Republic of Chile, with the consent and approbation of the Congress of the same, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington, at as early a day as may be possible within six months from the date hereof.

In testimony whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Convention, in the English and Spanish languages, in duplicate, and hereunto affixed their respective seals.

Done at the city of Santiago the seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and ninety-two.

[SEAL.]

[SEAL.]

PATRICK EGAN.
ISIDORO ERRAZURIZ.

COLOMBIA.

Convention concerning the adjustment of claims against the Republic of New

Granada.

[Concluded September 10, 1857; ratification exchanged at Washington, November 5, 1860; proclaimed November 8, 1860.]

The United States of America and the Republic of New Granada, desiring to adjust the claims of citizens of said States against New Granada, and to cement the good understanding which happily subsists between the two Republics, have, for that purpose, appointed and conferred full powers, respectively, to wit:

The President of the United States upon Lewis Cass, Secretary of State of the United States, and the President of New Granada upon General Pedro A. Herran, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of that Republic in the United States;

Who, after exchanging their full powers, which were found in good and proper form, have agreed to the following articles:

ARTICLE I. All claims on the part of corporations, companies or individuals, citizens of the United States, upon the Government of New Granada, which shall have been presented prior to the first day of September, 1859,

either to the Department of State at Washington, or to the minister of the United States at Bogota, and especially those for damages which were caused by the riot at Panama on the fifteenth of April, 1856, for which the said Government of New Granada acknowledges its liability, arising out of its privilege and obligation to preserve peace and good order along the transit route, shall be referred to a Board of Commissioners, consisting of two members, one of whom shall be appointed by the Government of the United States and one by the Government of New Granada. In case of the death, absence or incapacity of either Commissioner, or in the event of either Commissioner omitting or ceasing to act, the Government of the United States, or that of New Granada, respectively, or the Minister of the latter in the United States, acting by its direction, shall forthwith proceed to fill the vacancy thus occasioned.

The Commissioners so named shall meet in the city of Washington within ninety days from the exchange of the ratifications of this convention, and, before proceeding to business, shall make and subscribe a solemn oath that they will carefully examine and impartially decide, according to justice and equity, upon all the claims laid before them, under the provisions of this convention, by the Government of the United States. And such oath shall be entered on the record of their proceedings.

The Commissioners shall then proceed to name an Arbitrator or Umpire, to decide upon any case or cases on which they may differ in opinion. And if they cannot agree in the selection, the Umpire shall be appointed by the Minister of Prussia to the United States, whom the two high contracting parties shall invite to make such appointment, and whose selection shall be conclusive on both parties.

ARTICLE II. The Arbitrator being appointed, the Commissioners shall proceed to examine and determine the claims which may be presented to them, under the provisions of this convention, by the Government of the United States, together with the evidence submitted in support of them, and shall hear, if required, one person in behalf of each Government on every separate claim. Each Government shall furnish, upon request of either of the commissioners, such papers in its possession as the Commissioners may deem important to the just determination of any claims presented to them. In cases where they agree to award an indemnity, they shall determine the amount to be paid, having due regard, in claims which have grown out of the riot of Panama of April 15, 1856, to damages suffered through death, wounds, robberies or destruction of property. In cases where they cannot agree, the subjects of difference shall be referred to the Umpire, before whom each of the Commissioners may be heard, and whose decision shall be final.

ARTICLE III. The Commissioners shall issue certificates of the sums to be paid by virtue of their awards to the claimants, and the aggregate amount of said sums shall be paid to the Government of the United States, at Washington, in equal semi-annual payments, the first payment to be made six months from the termination of the Commission, and the whole payment to be completed within eight years from the same date; and each of said sums shall bear interest (also payable semi-annually) at the rate of six per cent. per annum from the day on which the awards, respectively, shall have been decreed. To meet these payments, the Government

of New Granada hereby specially appropriates one-half of the compensation which may accrue to it from the Panama Railroad Company, in lieu of postages, by virtue of the thirtieth article of the contract between the Republic of New Granada and said Company, made April 15, 1850, and approved June 4, 1850, and also one-half of the dividends which it may receive from the net profits of said road, as provided in the fifty-fifth article of the same contract; but if these funds should prove insufficient to make the payments as above stipulated, New Granada will provide other means for that purpose.

ARTICLE IV. The Commission herein provided shall terminate its labors in nine months from and including the day of its organization; shall keep an accurate record of its proceedings, and may appoint a secretary to assist in the transaction of its business.

ARTICLE V. The proceedings of this Commission shall be final and conclusive with respect to all the claims before it, and its awards shall be a full discharge to New Granada of all claims of citizens of the United States against that Republic which may have accrued prior to the signature of this convention.

ARTICLE VI. Each Government shall pay its own Commissioner, but the Umpire, as well as the incidental expenses of the Commission, shall be paid, one-half by the United States, and the other half by New Granada. ARTICLE VII. The present Convention shall be ratified, and the ratifications exchanged in Washington.

In faith whereof, we, the respective Plenipotentiaries, have signed this convention, and have hereunto affixed our seals.

Done at Washington, this tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.

[SEAL.] [SEAL.]

LEW. CASS.
P. A. HERRAN.

Convention concerning the adjustment of claims against the United States of Colombia; supplemental to the Convention of September 10, 1857. [Concluded February 10, 1864; ratifications exchanged at Washington August 19, 1865; proclaimed August 19, 1865.]

Whereas a Convention for the adjustment of claims was concluded between the United States of America and the Republic of New Granada, in the city of Washington, on the tenth of September 1857, which convention, as afterward amended by the contracting parties, was proclaimed by the President of the United States on the 8th November 1860;

And whereas the Joint Commission organized under the authority conferred by the preceding mentioned convention did fail, by reason of uncontrollable circumstances, to decide all the claims laid before them under its provisions, within the time to which their proceedings were limited by the 4th article thereof;

The United States of America and the United States of Colombia, the latter representing the late Republic of New Granada, are desirous that the time originally fixed for the duration of the commission should be so extended as to admit the examination and adjustment of such claims as were presented to but not settled by the joint commission aforesaid, and to this end have named Plenipotentiaries to agree upon the best mode of accomplishing this object, that is to say: The President of the United

States of America, William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States of America, and the President of the United States of Colombia, Señor Manuel Murillo, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States of Colombia;

Who, having exchanged their full powers, have agreed as follows:

ARTICLE I. The high contracting parties agree that the time limited in the convention above referred to for the termination of the commission, shall be extended for a period not exceeding nine months from the exchange of ratifications of this convention, it being agreed that nothing. in this article contained shall in any other wise alter the provisions of the convention above referred to; and that the contracting parties shall appoint commissioners anew, and an umpire shall be chosen anew, in the manner and with the duties and powers respectively expressed in the said former convention.

ARTICLE II. The present convention shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Washington as soon as possible.

In witness whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the same, and have hereunto affixed their seals.

Done at Washington this tenth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.

[SEAL.] [SEAL.]

WM. H. SEWARD,
M. MURILLO.

Convention for the settlement of the claim of Cotesworth and Powell, 1872.

The undersigned, Señor Don Jil Colunjé, Secretary of the Interior and Foreign Relations of the United States of Colombia, and Charles O'Leary, Esq., Her Britannic Majesty's Acting Consul General, in charge of Her Majesty's Legation in Bogotá, being both specially authorized by their respective Governments to enter into an agreement which shall put an end to the claim of Messrs. Cotes worth and Powell, British subjects, against the Government of Colombia, arising out of certain acts connected with the administration of Justice in the city of Baranquilla, State of Bolivar, between the years 1858 and 1860, have agreed upon the following stipulations for that purpose:

ARTICLE 1. The claim of Messrs. Cotesworth and Powell shall be submitted to the arbitration of two commissioners, one to be named by the Government of the United States of Colombia, the other by Her Britannic Majesty's chargé d'affaires in Bogotá, or, in his absence, by the British Acting Consul General in charge of Her Majesty's Legation.

Any vacancy that may arise in the commission, shall be filled in the same manner as the original appointment.

ARTICLE 2. The commissioners, before proceeding to any other business, shall name some third person to act as an umpire, to decide any point on which they may differ in opinion. If they should not be able to agree in regard to the choice of any such person, the appointment shall be made by the person in charge of the French Legation in Bogotá.

ARTICLE 3. The arbitrators shall decide, as a preliminary question, whether the Republic is bound to grant an indemnity to Messrs. Cotesworth and Powell. If that question be decided in the affirmative, they shall fix the amount of the indemnity, both principal and interest.

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