[Navigation of Rivers-Rhine.]

principle whether the possessors of the bank of the Rhine are liable to pay these arrears, or whether the application of this principle, if admitted by the Commission, applies to the various claims of arrears in particular. Its labours shall terminate in three months from the day of its assembling.

5. If the Commission shall decide that the arrears should be paid, and shall fix the instalments, the Central Commission shall regulate the mode of payment, in such manner that the debiting Governments shall have the option either of discharging the same in 10 successive years, at the rate of one-tenth each year, or of transferring them, analogous to the 30th of the Récès, at 2 per cent., into Rents, in addition to those which the Governments to whom they belong actually possess.

The Central Commission shall likewise decide whether, and in what proportion, France ought to contribute to the payment of these arrears.

6. All Payments decided on by the present Article are to be made half-yearly.

The Central Commission shall fix the manner in which these Payments shall be made, favouring, as much as possible, those to whom the said Rents belong, and the debiting Governments shall contribute to them in proportion to their share of the duties. This proportion shall be definitively arranged by the Central Commission at its first meeting, on the average of the amount of a year's receipts of the different offices of collection which have existed during the first six years from the time of the Convention of 1804* having been in force.

Pensions of Officers and Relief to Widows and Orphans.

ART. XXIX. The regulations comprehended in the Articles. LXXIII-LXXVIII of the Convention of the 15th August, 1804,* concerning a fund to be appropriated to the payment of Pensions on retirement, and to the relief of Widows and Children of Government officers, the number of vacancies, and the right of superannuation, as well as the amouut of the Pensions, and the relief to be granted to Widows and Orphans, being intimately connected with the general receipt of duties, shall immediately cease, and the business of granting Pensions on the retirement of officers of the Customs, and relief to their Widows and Orphans, is left to the discretion of each particular State bordering on the River.

* See Appendix.

[Navigation of Rivers-Rhine.]

Pensions. Payments by France.

The Central Commission shall nevertheless be employed immediately on its opening in arranging with France the restitution of the Fund, formed in virtue of Article LXXIII of the Convention, for the drawback of 4 per cent. upon salaries, which has been paid into the sinking fund; and the French Government engages to make the restitution as soon as the amount of this Fund shall have been liquidated by the Central Commission.

This restitution being made, the Commission shall consider what Pensions and relief are still to be paid out of this Fund, and shall assign them according to the principles established by the Convention of 1804.*

Individuals who have been employed in the tax-office, and to whom, in consequence of the new arrangements, proper situations cannot be given, or who shall allege such reasons for not accepting such situations as the Central Commission shall deem sufficient, shall have Pensions and Allowances granted to them conformably to the principles established by Article LIX of the Récès of the Empire of 1803.*

Pensions to Receivers of Duties.

ART. XXX. The Pensions granted to the receivers of duties, discontinued by Article XXXIX of the Récès of 1803,* shall be paid by the German Governments, joint possessors of the bank of the River. Those which have been legally granted since the period at which the duties on navigation have been in force, shall also be paid; but the Central Commission shall investigate and determine in what proportion the Governments, joint proprietors of the bank (the kingdom of the Netherlands, however, excepted), shall contribute to these Payments.

It shall discharge the amount of all these Pensions, and finally settle the scale by which such Payments shall be regulated.

The payment of these Pensions, as well as of those mentioned in Article XXIX, shall be regulated in the manner fixed by the 6th paragraph of Article XXVIII, for the payment of Rents.

Formation of Central Commission.

ART. XXXI. As soon as the general principles for the navigation of the Rhine shall have been laid down by the Congress the States of the Rhine shall appoint persons for the formation of the Central Commission; and this Commission shall assemble * See Appendix.

[Navigation of Rivers-Rhine.]

at latest on the 1st of June this year, at Mayence. At the same time the present Provincial Administration shall deliver up the direction with which they have been charged, to the Central Commission, and to the authorities of the States of the Rhine; the partial collection of the duties shall be substituted for the general collection, and they shall publish, in the name of all the States of the Rhine, a temporary instruction, by which it shall be ordered, that until the completion and final approval of the new regulation, the Convention of the 15th August, 1804, shall be observed; it being distinctly pointed out, which of its Articles are already annulled by the present arrangements, and what other arrangements ought immediately to be adopted in lieu of them.

Duties of Central Commission.

ART. XXXII. As soon as the Central Commission shall have assembled it shall occupy itself:

1. In drawing up the Regulations for the navigation of the Rhine. It is sufficient to observe here, that the present Articles shall serve as a guide to them, and that the points which the regulations are to embrace, are mentioned as well in the present instrument, as in the Convention of the 15th August, 1804, and that care must be taken to retain whatever is good and useful in that Convention.

When the regulations are completed, they shall be submitted to the Governments of the Rhine for their approbation, and until such approbation shall have been given, the new order of things shall not commence, nor shall the Central Commission enter upon its regular duties.*

2. In acting for the present Central Administration, where it shall be necessary, until the publication of the new Regulations.

D'ALBERG.

CLANCARTY.
WREDE.

TURCKHEIM.

BERCKHEIM.

DE MARSCHALL.

SPAEN.

HUMBOLDT.

WESSENBERG.

*See Convention of 31st March, 1831.

[Navigation of Rivers-Necker, &c.]

ARTICLES concerning the Navigation of the Necker, the Mayne, the Moselle, the Meuse, and the Scheldt.*

Freedom of Navigation.

ART. I. The same Freedom of Navigation that has been granted for the Rhine, shall be extended to the Necker, the Mayne, the Moselle, the Meuse, and the Scheldt, from the point where each of them becomes navigable, to their mouths.

Storehouse and Harbour Duties on the Necker and Mayne abolished.

ART. II. Storehouse and forced Harbour Duties, on the Necker and the Mayne, are and shall continue abolished, and all qualified watermen shall be allowed to navigate along the whole extent of these Rivers, in the same manner that such liberty has been restored by Article XIX, on the Rhine.

Duties on the Necker and Mayne.

ART. III. The Tolls levied on the Necker and the Mayne shall not be increased; on the contrary, the Governments, joint possessors of the bank, engage to reduce them, in case they should exceed the Tariffs in use in 1802, to the rates of those Tariffs. They likewise engage not to burthen navigation by any new imposts whatever, and will meet, as soon as possible, to arrange a Tariff as similar to the duties levied on the Rhine, as circumstances may permit.

Duties on the Moselle and Meuse.

ART. IV. The Duties now levied on the Moselle and the Meuse, in pursuance of the decree of the French Government of the 12th November, 1806, and of the 10th Brumaire of the year 14, shall not be increased; on the contrary, the Governments, joint possessors of the bank, engage to reduce them, in case they are higher than those levied on the Rhine, to the same rate.

New Regulations to be framed.

This engagement not to increase the present Tariffs, refers, however, only to the amount and maximum of duties; the Governments expressly reserving to themselves the power of fixing, by new Regulations, everything relative to the division into different classes of such merchandise as is subject to a lower Tariff; to the difference now established for passing up and down the River at the Custom-houses; to the mode of collection; to the police of The Scheldt Toll was redeemed by the Treaty between Great Britain, &c., and Belgium, of 16th July, 1863.

[Navigation of Rivers-Necker, &c.]

the navigation; or to any other subject requiring ulterior determination.

This Regulation shall be made to correspond, as nearly as possible, with that of the Rhine; and the better to insure such uniformity, it shall be drawn up by those Members of the Central Commission of the Rhine, whose Governments shall also have possessions on the banks of the Moselle and the Meuse.

No increase shall take place in the Tariff to be finally settled by the new Regulation unless a similar increase shall be considered necessary on the Rhine, and that only in the same proportion; and no other part of the regulation shall be altered but by common consent.

Repair of Towing-paths.

ART. V. The States of the Rivers specified in Article I, engage to keep the Towing-paths in repair, as well as the necessary works in the beds of the Rivers, in the same manner as agreed upon in Article VII for the Rhine.

Rights of Navigation on the Rhine and on the Necker, Moselle, and Meuse, by Subjects of either State.

ART. VI. The subjects of the States of the Rivers Necker, the Mayne, and the Moselle, shall enjoy the same Rights of Navigation on the Rhine, and Prussian subjects on the Meuse, as the subjects of the States of the last two Rivers; paying due regard, however, to the regulations therein established.

Future Regulation of the Navigation of the Scheldt.

ART. VII. Everything relating to the Navigation of the Scheldt, which may need ulterior arrangement, besides the freedom of Navigation on this River, specified in Article I, shall be definitively regulated in a manner the most favourable to Commerce and Navigation, and the most analogous to the regulations established on the Rhine.