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most friendly powers that shall remain neuter; obferving, as far as may be, the principles and maxims of the law of nations, that are generally acknowledged.

XI. All canon, mortars, muskets, piftols, bombs, grenades, bullets, balls, fufees, flint-ftones, matches, powder, faltpetre, fulphur, breaft-plates, pikes, fwords, belts, cartouch-bags, faddles and bridles, beyond the quantity that may be neceffary for the use of the fhip; or beyond what every man ferving on board the fhip, and every paffenger ought to have, fhall be accounted ammunition or military stores; and, if found, fhall be confifcated, according to law, as contraband goods or prohibited commodities; but neither the fhips nor paffengers, nor the other commodities found at the fame time, fhall be detained or hindered to profecute their voyage.

XII. If, what God forbid! the peace fhould come to be broke between the two high contracting parties, the perfons, fhips and commodities, fhall not be detained or confifcated; but they fhall be allowed, at leaft, the space of one year, to fell, difpofe, or carry off their effects, and to retire wherever they please; a ftipulation that is to be equally understood of all thofe who fhall be in the fea or land fervice; and they fhall farther be permitted, either at or before their departure, to confign the effects which they shall not as yet have difpofed of, as well as the debts that fhall be due to them, to fuch perfons as they fhall think proper, in order to difpofe of them according to their defire, and for their benefit; which debts, the debtors fhall be obliged to pay in the fame manner as if no fuch rupture had happened.

XIII. In cafe of a fhipwreck happening in any place belonging to one or other of the high contracting parties, not only fhall all kind of affiftance be given to the unhappy fufferers, and no fort of violence fhall be offered to them, but even the effects which they fhall have faved themselves, or which they fhall have thrown overboard into the fea, fhall not be concealed, withheld, or damaged, under any pretext whatsoever; on the contrary, the above-faid effects and commodities fhall be preserved and restored to them, upon their giving a moderate re

compence

compence to thofe who fhall have affifted them in faving their lives, their fhips and their commodities.

XIV. Permiffion fhall be granted to British merchants to build, buy, fell and hire houses in all the territories and towns of Ruffia, excepting, however, with regard to the permiffion of building and buying houfes in thofe towns of Ruffia which have particular rights of burgership and privileges inconfiftent with fuch indulgence; and it is exprefly fpecified, that at St. Petersburg, Mofcow and Archangel, the houfes which the British merchants fhall buy, or cause to be built, fhall be exempt from all quartering of foldiers, as long as they fhall belong to them, and fhall be inhabited by them; but with regard to the houfes which they fhall hire or let, these shall be subject to all the ufual charges of the town; the tenant and landlord fettling that matter between them. A's to every other town of Ruffia, the houses which they shall purchafe or cause to be built, in the fame manner as thofe which they fhall hire or let, fhall not be exempted from the quartering of foldiers. Permiffion fhall likewife be granted the Ruffian merchants to build, buy, fell and let houses in Great Britain and Ireland, in the fame manner as is done by the fubjects of the most favoured nations. They shall enjoy the free exercife of the Greek religion in their houfes, or in fuch places as are deftined for that purpofe; and in like manner the British merchants fhall enjoy the free exercife of the Proteftant religion. The fubjects of either power, established in Ruffia or in Great Britain, fhall have power to difpofe of their eftates, and to leave them by will to whomfoever they think proper, following the customs and laws of their own proper country.

XV. Paffports fhall be granted to all British fubjects who defire to quit the dominions of Ruffia, two months after they fhall have fignified their defign of departing, without obliging them to give fecurity; and if, in that time, there appear no juft caufe for detaining them, they fhall be allowed to go; nor fhall they be obliged to apply for that purpose, to any other quarter than to the college of commerce, or to that which may hereafter be established in its place. The fame eafy methods of departing fhall, upon like occafions, and agreeable to the cuftom of

the

the country, be granted to Ruffian merchants, who want to quit the dominions of Great Britain.

XVI. British merchants, who fhall hire or employ domestics, shall, in this particular, be obliged to conform themselves to the laws of this empire. And Ruffian merchants fhall be equally obliged to do the fame in Great Britain.

XVII. In all lawsuits and other proceedings the British merchants fhall be amenable only to the college of commerce, or to that which fhall hereafter be established for the administration of justice between merchants. But, if it fhould happen that the British merchants should have lawfuits in any place at a diftance from the above-mentioned college of commerce, both they and the adverse party fhall prefer their complaints to the magiftrate of the faid towns; with this provifo, however, that the British merchants fhall have the right to appeal from the fentence of the magiftrate, and to demand that of the college of commerce, if they find themselves aggrieved. The Ruffian merchants in the dominions of Great Britain shall, in their turn, have the fame protection and justice, which, according to the laws of that kingdom, are granted to other foreign merchants, and fhall be treated as the fubjects of the most favoured nation.

XVIII. The British merchants in Ruffia, and the Ruf fian merchants in Great Britain, fhall not be obliged to fhew their books or papers to any perfon whatever, unless it be to make proof in the course of juftice; ftill less shall the faid books or papers be taken or detained from them. If, however, the cafe fhould happen, that any British merchant becomes bankrupt, he shall be amenable at St. Petersburg to the college of commerce, or to that which fhall hereafter be established for the administration of juftice in mercantile affairs; and in other remote towns, to the magiftrate of the place; and he fhall be proceeded against according to the laws that are or fhall be made for this purpose. Nevertheless, if the British merchants, without becoming bankrupt, refufe to pay their debts, whether to the treasury of her Imperial Majefty, or to individuals, it fhall be lawful to lay an arreft upon part of their effects equivalent to their debts; and, in cafe thefe VOL. III.

effects

effects fhould not be fufficient for difcharging fuch debts, they may themselves be arrested and detained in cuftody, until fuch time as the greater part of their creditors, as well with refpect to number, as to the value of their refpective demands, have confented to their enlargement. With regard to their effects laid under arreft, they fhall remain as a depofit in the hands of thofe who fhall be named and duly authorifed for that purpose, by the greater part of their creditors, as is above fpecified; which delegates fhall be obliged to appraife the effects as foon as poffible, and to make a juft and fair diftribution of them to all the creditors, in proportion to their refpective demands. The fame procedure fhall, in like cafes, be obferved towards the Ruffian merchants in the dominions of Great Britain, and they fhall be there protected agreeably to the regulations made in the preceding

article.

XIX. In cafe of complaints and lawsuits, three perfons of fair and unblemished character among the foreign merchants, fhall, with a proper regard to circumftances, be named by the college of commerce, and where there is no fuch college, by the magiftrate, to examine the books and papers of the parties; and the report they fhall make to the college of commerce, or to the magiftrate, of what they fhall find in the faid books or papers, fhall be held a good proof.

XX. The commiffioners of the cuftoms fhall have the charge of examining the fervants or clerks of the Ruffian merchants, when they caufe their goods to be entered, whether they have, for that effect, the orders or full powers of the mafters; and if they have not fuch, they fhall not be credited. The fame conduct fhall be obferved towards the fervants of the British merchants; and, when the faid fervants, having the orders or full powers of their mafters, fhall caufe their goods to be entered on account of their mafters, thefe laft fhall be as refponsible as if they themselves had caufed them to be entered. All the Ruffian fervants employed in the fhops fhall likewife be registered, and their mafters fhall anfwer for them in the affairs of trade, and in the bargains which they make in their name.

XXI. In

XXI. In cafe the Ruffian merchants who are indebted to the British merchants withdraw from the places of their abode to other parts or diftricts, the collège of commerce, after complaints fhall have been made to them on the fubject, and proofs of the debts have been adduced, fhall cite them three times, allowing them a fufficient space to appear in perfon; and if they do not appear within the term prescribed, the faid college fhall condemn them, and fhall fend, at the expence of the plaintiff, an exprefs to the Governors and Waywodes, with orders to put the sentence in execution, and thus fhall oblige the debtors to pay the fums fpecified.

XXII. The brokerage fhall be fettled with juftice, and the brokers fhall be refponfible for the quality of the goods and fraudulent package, and fhall be obliged, after fufficient proofs produced against them, to make up the loffes to which they have given occafion.

XXIII. A regulation fhall be made to prevent the abuses that may be committed in the package of leather, hemp, and flax; and, if any difpute happen between the buyer and the feller concerning the weight or the tare, the commiffioners of the customs fhall determine it according to equity.

XXIV. In order the more effectually to encourage and promote the trade of Great Britain, it is agreed, that for the future the English woollen cloths, hereafter specified, fhall not pay any greater duties on entry than are fettled in this article, viz. English cloth for the use of the foldiery, fhall pay (in rixdollars) only two copecs (or pennies) for every arfheeen (or 714 yards) as a duty on entry; coarfe cloth of the county of York, known in the Ruffian Tariff by the name of Coftrogy, fhall only pay two copecs for every arfheen: broad flannel fhall only pay one copec per arfheen; narrow flannel fhall only pay three-fourths of a copec per arfheen, all as duty on entry. And in every thing that regards the impofts and duties payable on the importation or exportation of commodities in general, the fubjects of Great Britain fhall be always confidered and treated as the moft favoured nation.

XXV. The peace, friendfhip, and good understanding fhall continue for ever between the high contracting par

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