Grand Cross of the Royal Order of the Saviour of Greece, &c., his Chamberlain, formerly Minister of State, Counsellor of State employed on Extraordinary Service, Hereditary Senator of the Kingdom of Bavaria, his Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to His Majesty the Emperor of Austria; Who having previously communicated to each other their respective full powers, have agreed on the following Articles: ART. I. The Governments of Spain and Bavaria bind themselves by the present Convention to deliver up to each other reciprocally, with the single exception of their own subjects, all persons who, for the more or less serious crimes enumerated in Article II, shall have been indicted or sentenced by the tribunals of the State, in the territory of which the crime shall have been committed, and who from Bavaria may have taken refuge in Spain or her colonies, or from Spain and her colonies in Bavaria. II. The more or less serious crimes for which extradition shall be reciprocally granted are as follows: 1. Parricide, murder, poisoning, homicide, infanticide, abortion, rape with violence, outrages against modesty carried into effect or attempted with violence, or those carried into effect or attempted without violence on a person under 12 years of age, or with circumstances which would give such an outrage the character of a serious crime. 2. Maltreatment of a minister of religion, when in the exercise of the functions of his ministry. 3. Arson. 4. Robbery in gangs, highway robbery, or robbery at night in an inhabited house, robbery with violence, escalade, or with the use of housebreaking tools, forcible entry into a house or apartments, robbery by force in uninhabited places, and finally all thefts committed by servants or salaried dependants. 5. Swindling. 6. The fabrication, introduction, or uttering of bad money, or of the instruments which serve to coin it, the falsification or alteration of paper money, and the emission or introduction into the kingdom of false or altered paper money, the falsification of the dies or stamps by which gold and silver are assayed, the falsification. of the seals of the State, and of all kinds of stamped paper, although it may have been done out of the country which demands the extradition. 7. False testimony and bribery of witnesses to a serious crime; forgery committed in public, private, or commercial documents, excepting those forgeries which are not visited with corporal punishment. 8. Robbery of effects committed by depositaries named by the public authority, and who by reason of their charge have them in III. The extradition shall not take effect for political offences, whether more or less serious. IV. Extradition shall be deniable if the term of legal limitation of judicial action, in conformity with the laws of the country where the defendant may have taken refuge, shall have expired since the perpetration of the more or less serious crime imputed to him at his trial, or since sentence was passed upon him. V. If the person whose extradition is demanded should be undergoing a trial or sentence for a more or less serious crime, or be arrested for debt, or any other obligation of civil right, in the country where he has taken refuge, it shall not be granted until he is acquitted or has undergone his sentence, or been on the other hand released from arrest. VI. If the person indicted or sentenced should happen not to be a subject of that one of the two Contracting States which demands him, his extradition may be deferred until his Government shall have been consulted, if necessary, and requested to produce the reasons which it may have to allege in opposition to his extradition. In that case it shall be at the option of the Government to whom the demand is made to follow the course which it considers best, and to give up the criminal to be tried, either to his native country or to the country where the more or less serious offence may have been committed. VII. The demand for extradition must always be made through the diplomatic channel, and shall not be entertained without the communication of a warrant or other document of an equal value in justice, drawn up in accordance with the legal forms of the State making the demand for extradition, and declaring at the same time the nature and gravity of the crime, and also the punishment applicable to it. The description of the person demanded must also, if possible, accompany the said documents. VIII. All the stolen articles which may be in the possession of the person whose extradition is to be effected, and all those which may serve to prove the crime, shall be delivered up at the time when the extradition takes place. The articles shall also be given up, if the criminal shall have hidden or deposited them in the country where he may have taken refuge, and they be afterwards found or discovered. IX. The expenses incurred by the arrest, detention, and maintenance of persons whose extradition shall have been granted, and also their removal to the place where they are to be delivered up, shall be borne by the Government of the country where such persons may have taken refuge. X. When there shall have elapsed from the day on which the refugee shall have been placed at the disposal of the Government making the demand, a space of 3 months, with respect to persons taking refuge in the European provinces of Spain and Bavaria, and of 6 months for those taking refuge in the Spanish colonies, without the said Government having taken steps to assume the charge of such persons, the extradition may be denied, and the persons set at liberty. XI. The High Contracting Parties reserve to themselves to settle by mutual agreement and according to the nature of the cases, the formalities which shall be observed for the delivery of criminals, and to decide at what points of their territory the said delivery shall be effected, and also the other accessory measures which may appear necessary for the complete and punctual execution of the present Convention. XII. Whenever the examination of witnesses appears necessary for the investigation of the facts or any similar proceeding on a criminal trial, due course shall be given by the competent authority of one of the two States, and in conformity with its laws, to the requisition which shall be forwarded there for that purpose through the diplomatic channel by the competent authority of the other State. Such a step shall not, however, be claimed if the investigation of the case be directed against a subject of the State to whom the demand is made, and who shall not yet have been arrested by the Government making the demand, or if the offence for which he is indited be not punishable by the laws of the State of which the examination of witnesses is demanded. The respective Governments renounce any claim which may have for its object the payment of the expenses arising from the execution of such requisitions. XIII. If in a criminal case the personal presence of a witness should be found necessary, the Government of the country to which the said witness belongs shall request him to present himself before the tribunal claiming his presence; and if the witness consents, the expenses of his journey and residence shall be paid to him in conformity with the tariffs and regulations in force in the country where he shall have to make his declaration. XIV. The present Convention shall begin to be in force 10 days after its publication in the form prescribed by the laws of both States. It shall be obligatory for the space of 5 years, reckoning from the day of its ratification, and shall continue to be in force for 5 years more, and so on successively from 5 years to 5 years, if one of the Contracting Parties shall not announce to the other, one year previous to the expiration of the said term, the termination of this Convention. It shall be ratified and the ratifications shall be exchanged within two months, or sooner if possible. In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Convention in duplicate, in the Spanish and German languages, and have sealed it with the seal of their arms. Done in Vienna, this 28th of June, of the year of Grace 1860. CONVENTION between Spain and Venezuela, for the renewal of Diplomatic Relations, and for the Settlement of Claims of Spanish Subjects.-Signed at Santander, August 12, 1861. [Ratifications exchanged at Madrid, November 16, 1861.] (Translation.) THE frequent Conferences between the Undersigned, the Minister of State of Her Catholic Majesty, and the Envoy of the Republic of Venezuela, have convinced the Queen's Government of the sincerity of the feelings of affection and friendship which animate the said Republic, and that most of the injuries suffered by Spanish subjects have been chiefly caused by the unfortunate state in which that country has for a long time been. Her Catholic Majesty's Government, not wishing to aggravate this state of things, but on the contrary being desirous to contribute by all legitimate means in their power to change or at least improve it, by giving to the Government the strength which arises out of friendly relations with other States, and which is weakened or lost through international conflicts, have agreed to renew the interrupted relations (between the two countries), basing them on solid foundations, worthy of the honour of the two nations, and which may be a sure guarantee for their respective interests, and agreeable to the principles of the law of nations, which are, unfortunately, forgotten or ignored in the midst of civil disturbances. The two Governments, then, being anxious to establish the firmest friendship between two nations united by so many links, and whose origin, sentiments, and welfare all require that they ought to be friends, have agreed, the Government of Spain through the medium of Her Catholic Majesty's Minister of State, he being fully authorized, and that of Venezuela through its representative, Señor Don Fermin Toro, who has been invested for the purpose with the necessary powers, on the following stipulations: I. The Government of the Republic of Venezuela shall indemnify Her Catholic Majesty's subjects for the injuries done them by the authorities, or by the Government forces, in conformity with the proofs brought forward by the interested parties. II. The murderers of Spanish subjects and their accomplices shall be prosecuted and punished according to the laws. III. If in any case it shall be legally proved that the local authorities dependent upon the Government did not afford proper protection to Her Catholic Majesty's subjects, they having the means and power to do so, the Government of the Republic of Venezuela shall grant the corresponding indemnity for the injuries inflicted on them by factions or illegal authorities. IV. Spanish subjects who have received injuries from factions, must prove the negligence of the legitimate authorities in adopting proper measures to protect their interests and persons, and to punish or repress the guilty parties. V. The Government of the Republic of Venezuela shall give Spanish subjects the necessary protection for them to prove the injuries they have suffered, and the causes which gave rise to the said injuries. VI. The decision of all the reclamations which have been made, or which may hereafter be made for the above-mentioned injuries, shall be adopted by the two Governments in conformity with the sentiments of rectitude and good faith, and with the principles of justice by which they are animated. In faith whereof Her Catholic Majesty's Minister of State and the Representative of the Government of the Republic of Venezuela, in virtue and in the exercise of the powers conferred on them, sign two documents of the same tenor, and seal them with their usual seals, in order that due effect may be given to them in the Chanceries of the respective Governments whose representation has been confided to the Undersigned in this affair, and to whose formal and explicit ratification the said documents must be submitted, in order that the stipulations contained in them may serve as unalterable rules in the matters now pending, and in those which may arise hereafter. Santander, August 12th, 1861. (L.S.) SATURNINO CALDERON COLLANTES. (L.S.) FERMIN TORO. |