[Neufchatel Boundary.]

No. 122.-PROCES VERBAL between the Commissioners of France, Switzerland, and Neufchatel, for the Demarcation of the Frontier between France and Neufchatel. Neufchatel, 4th November, 1824.

ᎪᎡᎢ,

1

to

7.

TABLE.

Preamble. Reference to Treaties of 30th May, 1814, and 20th November, 1815.

Instructions for the Demarcation of the Limits between France and
Neufchatel.

1. Limit in River Doubs.

2

to Regulations for the Navigation of the River Doubs.

6.

(Translation.)

Reference to Treaties of 30th May, 1814, and 20th November, 1815.

WE, Armand Charles, Count Guilleminot, Lieutenant-General of the Armies of His Most Christian Majesty, Peer of France, his Ambassador at the Ottoman Porte, &c., Commissioner for the demarcation of the Frontiers of the Kingdom on the East of France, appointed by Letters Patent dated 7th May, 1816,

Assisted by the members of the Boundary Commission, whose names follow: Joseph Durey, Count de Nomville, Colonel on the Staff, &c.; Anatoli François Epailly, Lieutenant-Colonel of Engineers, &c.; Louis Michel Boutinot, Captain of Engineers, &c., of the one part;

And we, Jean Conrad Finsler, Major-General, Councillor of State for the Canton of Zurich, Quartermaster-General and Boundary Commissioner for the Helvetic Confederation, by Order of 1st June, 1816;

And, as Commissioner of the Principality of Neufchatel, 21st Swiss Canton, we, George de Rougemont, one of the Presidents of the Council of State, appointed by Letters Patent dated 12th August, 1817; assisted by Joel Matile, Councillor of State and Archiviste, charged with the functions of CommissionerGeneral, and, in that capacity, to intervene in all that relates to the Frontiers of the Cantonal Principality of Neufchatel; Charles François Nicolet, Mayor of Loche, and Charles Junod, member of the Court of Justice of the Coast, the two latter sworn surveyors, employed, each of them, as engineers, of the other part;

After having exchanged our Full Powers and conferred for several days upon the object of our Mission, have agreed:

[Neufchatel Boundary.]

That the Treaties of Peace signed at Paris on the 30th May, 1814 (No. 1), and 20th November, 1815 (No. 40), fix the Boundary between France and the Principality of Neufchatel;

That Paragraph 6 of Article III of the first of these Treaties (No. 1), to which the second made no change, is described in the following terms:

"In the Department of the Doubs, the Frontier shall be so regulated as to commence above the Rançonnière, near Loche, and follow the crest of the Jura between the Cerneux-Pequignot and the village of Fontenelles, as far as the peak of that mountain, situated about 7,000 or 8,000 feet to the north-west of the village of La Brévine, where it shall again fall in with the ancient Boundary of France;"

That these stipulations of the Treaty refer to the Limit which separates France from the Canton of Neufchatel;

That the same Limit has been established and described in a Procès-verbal drawn up from the 12th to the 26th November, 1766, by Messieurs Jacques François Hyacinthe Faton, Subdelegate of the Intendency of Franche Comté, Commissioner of the Most Christian King, of the one part, and Samuel Meuron, and François Antoine Rougemont, Councillors of State and Commissioners of the King of Prussia, of the other part;

That under that state of things, the said Limit is divided into two parts, the one settled by the Procès-verbal of 1766, and the other to be settled, in execution of the Treaties of Paris.

After having made several visits and examinations of the Frontier, we have also recognised that the text of the Treaty above quoted did not strictly apply to the Territory to which it related; that for example, instead of the village of Fontenelles, there is only a chapel and a few scattered houses, known under the name of Fontenelles; that in the Limit to be rectified, the Jura does not consist of a single peak, nor of several continuous peaks; lastly, that the distance of 7,000 to 8,000 feet does not well refer to the village of Brevine, with reference to the summit of the Jura over which the ancient Limit passes.

In the part of the ancient Limit which is preserved, we have remarked that the position is uncertain in many places, either on account of the small number of stakes and of their bad position, or because the roads cut in 1766 have not been well kept.

After having maturely examined the land between Rançonnière

[Neufchatel Boundary.]

and Brévine, we terminated the discussions on the execution of the Treaties of Paris by a Convention signed at Berne on the 9th July, 1818, by which it has been admitted that the rectification should consist in making the Limit pass by the Rock called Ecussons, on the northern side of the hill Nilot, the pasture grounds called Basse-Bergeron, the crest of the Meix Musy, the parish of the Roussottes, the left of the houses called Upper Gardots, that of Meix Seignolet, the right of the road from Rabelin to MeixBaillot, and the several summits at the beginning of the Larmont Mountain, where the ancient Limit is to be found which the Treaties wished to designate as being the village of Brévine, and which is hereafter described under number 74. By this rectification the houses called Lower Gardots, and the Hamlets called Cerneux, Pequinot, and Bétod with their dependencies, the small valley of Roussottes, have been united to the Territory of the Canton of Neufchatel.

The Limit, according to the acts above spoken of, extends from the point at which the course of the Doubs ceases to separate France from the Canton of Berne, close to the hamlet of Biaufond as far as the point where the Limit between France and the Canton de Vaud, near the Vitaux Farm, commences. In some parts of its extent it is naturally formed by the course of the Doubs, by that of the Rivulet Rançonnière, by crests of mountains and slopes, in the others it is determined by straight lines whose direction must be marked by stakes.

In order to execute the Measurement, the Plan and the description of the Limit, we have decided as follows:

ARTS. I to VI. Instructions for the Demarcation of the Limits between France and Neufchatel.

The waters of the River Doubs, where its course forms the Limit, serve as a means of transport and as a motive power. The enjoyment of those waters having up to the present time been subjected to duties more or less disputed frequently giving rise to discussions and alterations between the respective subjects, we the above-named Commissioners, with the intention of preventing everything which might impede the good intelligence between them, have agreed that the enjoyment of the waters of the Doubs should in future be regulated in accordance with the following Articles :

[Neufchatel Boundary.]

Limit in River Doubs.

ART. I. In every part of the River Doubs which separates France from the Principality and Canton of Neufchatel, the Limit of Sovereignty is in the Middle of the Waters.

ARTS II to VI. Regulations for the Navigation of the River Doubs.

The present Act of demarcation shall be submitted to the approbation of the respective Governments, and immediately after the Ratifications, they shall be exchanged.

Done, concluded, and settled in duplicate at Neufchatel, 4th November, 1824.

In the name of Count Guilleminot

and by special delegation,

EPAILLY.

DE ROUGEMONT.

MATILE.

FINSLER.

[Kniphausen.]

No. 123.-CONVENTION between The Duke of Oldenburg and Count Bentinck, for regulating the Political Relations of the Seignory of Kniphausen. Signed at Berlin, 8th June, 1825.

Reference to Conference of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1818.

1. Sovereignty of Count Bentinck over Seignory of Kniphausen.

2. Cession by Count Bentinck to Duke of Oldenburg of supremacy over Kniphausen with reservation of certaiu Rights.

3. Federal Acts, &c., of German Confederation binding on Kniphausen. 4. Kniphausen to contribute in money and men towards the German Confederation.

5. Special flag for Kniphausen.

6. Judicial powers.

7. Court of arbitration to settle differences and disputes.

8. Freedom of Trade.

9. Guarantee of Convention by German Confederation. 10. Rights reserved by Count Bentinck.

Reference to Conference of Aix-la-Chapelle of 1818.

WHEREAS by the political events which followed the Treaty of Tilsit, the Seignory of Kniphausen was united in the same district with the Seignory of Jevert under one and the same Government, and this union found to exist when His Majesty the Emperor of Russia, in 1813, resumed possession of Jever, and then made it over to the Duke of Oldenburg, without any simultaneous disposition on the part of the Allied Sovereigns, or anything being subsequently determined, as to Kniphausen, at the Congress of Vienna; and whereas various differences arose from this uncertainty, and therefore at the desire of the Cabinets assembled in Congress at Aix-la-Chapelle, in the year 1818, Russia and Prussia were induced to mediate a Convention between H.S.H. the Duke of Oldenburg and Count Bentinck, as possessor of the Seignory of Kniphausen, by which the relations of the latter should be better determined, and thereby on the one part in consideration of the interests of His Serene Highness, particularly with respect to his eventual rights of succession, and

* France and Prussia, 9th July, 1807. Annulled.

The Department of the Bouches d'Ems and Weser of the French Empire. See also Oldenburg Patent of 6th August, 1823.