(18.)-BRITISH NOTIFICATION of the Prohibition by the Turkish Authorities of the Entrance of Vessels into Smyrna by Night.— London, July 8, 1877.*

Foreign Office, July 9, 1877.

THE Earl of Derby, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has received the following telegram from Her Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople, dated July 8, 1877 :—

"In consequence of the state of war, the Porte has forbidden entrance by night into the port of Smyrna to all ships of war and merchant-vessels."

(19.)-BRITISH NOTIFICATION, with regard to the Protection

against Seizure of Coal supplied for the use of Steamers navigating the Suez Canal, during the War between Russia and Turkey. -London, August 15, 1877.†

Foreign Office, August 15, 1877.

It is hereby notified for general information that, with the view of obviating any interruption in the supply of coal for the use of steamers navigating the Suez Canal, the Russian Consul-General in London has been authorized by the Imperial Government to grant to owners and masters of vessels clearing from any port in the United Kingdom with coals for Port Said, certificates of protection against seizure by Russian cruizers, on production of shipping documents or other evidence showing that the coal is destined for commercial use.

If London be the port of departure of the vessel, the application may be made direct to the Consul-General; in all other cases it must be made through the Consular Agent on the spot, who will transmit the same to the Consul-General.

(20.)—BRITISH NOTIFICATION respecting the exhibition of Firmans by Merchant-Vessels passing through the Bosphorus to the Black Sea.-London, August 20, 1877.‡

Foreign Office, August 20, 1877. THE Earl of Derby, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has received from Her Majesty's Ambassador at Constantinople the following telegram relative to merchant-vessels passing through the Bosphorus to the Black Sea :

"To ensure efficiency of its means for prevention of trade in con

"London Gazette," July 10, 1877.

+"London Gazette," August 24, 1877.

"London Gazette," August 21, 1877.

traband of war, the Porte has decided that merchant-vessels, passing through the Bosphorus to the Black Sea, must hand to the Captain of the Port of Anatoli Kavak the Firman with which they must be provided for the passage of the Straits. Every vessel infringing this order will be stopped by the forts."

(21.)—TURKISH NOTIFICATION of the Closing of the Entrance to the Gulf of Arta at Night.-Constantinople, August 25, 1877.*

M. L'AMBASSADEUR,

Sublime Porte, le 25 Août, 1877.

J'AI l'honneur de vous informer que le Gouvernement Impérial vient d'interdire provisoirement et jusqu'à nouvel avis l'entrée et la sortie de la Passe de Prévésa à tous navires et embarcations après le coucher du soleil.

Tout bâtiment sans distinction qui, contrairement à cette défense, cherchera à passer, sera invité à s'arrêter par un coup de canon tiré à blanc de la forteresse, et si, nonobstant ce premier signal, il persiste à avancer, des coups de canon à boulet mettront obstacle à son passage.

Cette mesure ayant été publiée sur les lieux, je viens prier votre Excellence de vouloir bien, de son côté, en informer son Gouvernement et les navigateurs sujets Anglais.

Rt. Hon. A. H. Layard.

Veuillez, &c.,

SERVER.

CORRESPONDENCE between Great Britain and Portugal, respecting the Territory on the West Coast of Africa lying between 5° 12′ and 8° of South Latitude. (Molembo, Cabinda, Ambriz, &c.)-1845-1876.†

No. 4.-Baron Moncorvo to the Earl of Aberdeen.-(Rec. July 29.) (Translation.) London, July 28, 1845.

THE Undersigned, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of Her Most Faithful Majesty, having laid before his Government the Convention entered into between Great Britain and France on the 29th May last for obtaining the complete suppression of the Slave Trade, and of which the Undersigned had forwarded a copy, accompanied by a note of the 10th June last, which was addressed to him by the Right Honourable the Earl of Aber* "London Gazette," September 11, 1877.

+ Laid before Parliament in 1883.

Vol. XXXIII. Page 4.

deen, Her Britannic Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, has been directed by Her Majesty's Government to thank his Lordship for this important communication, and at the same time to make to his Lordship the following observations on the text and meaning of that Convention.

In Article I of the Convention is pointed out the portion of the coast of Africa where the two nations are to establish their cruizers in order most vigilantly to repress the Slave Trade conformably with Article II, so that the station on the whole coast of East Africa is assigned exclusively to the British naval forces, and that on the western coast, from the Cape Verd to 16° 30′ south latitude, to the combined naval forces of Her Britannic Majesty and of His Majesty the King of the French.

Now, all the establishments which the Crown of Portugal possesses at Guinea and on the coast of Mina, north of the equator, are situated to the south of Cape Verd; and as by Article II of the Additional Convention to the Treaty of the 22nd January, 1815,* concluded in London on the 28th July, 1817,† between Portugal and Great Britain, it was expressly laid down (though that Convention was not a Treaty of limits for the positive determination and demarcation of all the dominions of Her Majesty) that the Crown of Portugal should be recognized to possess to the south of the equator on the eastern coast of Africa the territories comprehended between the Cape Delgado and the Bay of Lorenço Marques; and on the west coast all the territory comprehended between 8° and 18° south latitude; and as in the same manner it was recognized by the same Article II that Her Most Faithful Majesty should have reserved to her her rights to the territory of Molembo and Cabinda, from 5° 12′ up to 8° south latitude, it follows that almost the whole of the territories on both coasts of Africa subject to the Crown of Portugal is comprehended in the district allotted in the said Convention of the 29th May last for the naval stations of Great Britain and France.

Hence the Government of Her Most Faithful Majesty was greatly disappointed on finding that the said Convention of the 29th May last had been concluded without the British Government having previously made known its intentions to the Portuguese Government, as would have been consistent with the intimate relations of amity and alliance which have subsisted without interruption between the two Crowns of Portugal and Great Britain for a series of ages; as was due to the good faith with which Portugal has co-operated towards the suppression of that iniquitous Traffic, having been the first Power which resolved to act in concert to that

* Vol. II. Page 345.

+ Vol. IV. Page 85.

effect with Great Britain, and the first to agree to the right of visit, setting thereby the example to other nations with which Great Britain successively treated on the same basis, and, finally, the nation which has recently made for the same laudable end the greatest efforts, attended with sacrifices much above its strength, which on a late occasion was acknowledged by Sir Robert Peel in Parliament; and as, lastly, was required by the remarkable circumstance that the basis of the operations of the combined British and French squadrons was for the major part made to extend along the coasts and seas of the Portuguese dominions of Africa, where Portugal keeps up a naval force which, backed by that to be stationed there by Great Britain, would be more than sufficient for obtaining in those latitudes the end of the said Convention without depending on or needing, as respects the coasts and seas of the Portuguese dominions, the naval forces of another Power with which Portugal is not allied by Treaties for the suppression of the Slave Trade, and which it consequently cannot recognize as possessing any of those rights which are deducible solely from such a Treaty; it being, moreover, greatly to be feared with regard to those dominions and the lawful trade carried on in them that the cruizers of that Power may pretend to give some erroneous interpretation to that Convention.

In Article IV is conferred on the Commanders of the respective British and French squadrons the power of negotiating, or causing to be negotiated, by their subordinate officers, Treaties for the suppression of the Slave Trade with the native Princes or Chiefs of the above-mentioned part of the African coast, wherever it may appear necessary; and in Article VI it empowers the same Commanders to employ by common accord, and in conformity with the rules of the law of nations, the sea and land force necessary for insuring the observance of the Treaties concluded in pursuance of that Convention, it being reserved to the two Contracting Powers to decide when it is requisite for the attainment of the end of the Convention, on verifying the occupation of some points of the above-mentioned coast of Africa.

Her Majesty's Government is certain that none of the above dispositions contained in the said IVth and VIth Articles can ever be understood to apply to the above territories subject to the Crown of Portugal, not only because this very subjection and dependence of the native Princes and Chiefs of them, exclusive of the full enjoyment of sovereignty, renders them incompetent for concluding Treaties with any nation, but also because the employment of an armed force in those territories, and much more their occupation, would be a manifest violation and usurpation of them and of the incontestable rights of Her Majesty's Crown, which, without the

express consent of that august Sovereign, could never become the object of diplomatic transactions between two foreign nations.

Moreover, such transactions could never be either allowed or authorized by the British Government, the principal ally of the Portuguese Crown, and the guarantee and defender of her rights, which assuredly would never be attacked with more flagrant injustice than at the present epoch, in which Portugal most completely fulfils the Treaties whereby she is bound to Great Britain with the view of obtaining the suppression of the Slave Trade, employing for this end on the African coasts a great part of her naval forces in conjunction with those of Great Britain.

Article VIII establishes the right of the British and French cruizers to verify the nationality of the vessels they meet with, being obliged to conform to the instructions founded on the principles of the law of nations, and on the constant practice of maritime nations, to be furnished them by their respective Governments.

Her Majesty's Government entertains no doubt whatever on this stipulation with regard to the naval forces of Great Britain, with whom Portugal has concluded Treaties whereby the cruizers of both nations are empowered to visit the Portuguese and British merchant-vessels; but the French Government is not in the same situation with respect to Portugal, which has no Treaty with France for conceding to the latter the right of visiting Portuguese ships; and Portugal, therefore, can never allow France to possess that right: indeed, it would be a matter of surprise if the forces of a nation which has refused to submit to the right of visit by reason of deeming it indecorous to its flag, although obliged thereto by solemn Treaties, were to resolve on exercising this very right over the ships of a nation which never conceded it to them, and that, too, in virtue of a Convention concluded by a third Power.

Her Majesty's Government, therefore, being desirous to obviate the very grave inconveniences which might result to the interests and dignity of the Crown of that august Sovereign and to the lawful commerce of Portugal from any erroneous construction that possibly might be put on the stipulations of the said Convention of the 29th May last, as appears to have already been the case in respect of the interpretation attached by M. Guizot, in the French Parliament, to the range and station of cruizers on the Eastern Coast of Africa-he attempting to attribute there to France an equal or even superior authority to that conferred on her by the Convention on the West Coast; the danger of these inconveniences arising from the very fact of the British Government having concluded that Convention with France without rendering Her Majesty's Government cognizant of it prior to its having been signed, notwithstand