matter. Newspapers, etc., Newspapers and all other kinds of printed matter, and patterns, and containing written samples of merchandise are to be subject to the laws and regulations of each country, respectively, in regard to their liability to be rated with letter postage when containing written matter, or for any other cause Customs duties. specified in said laws and regulations, as well as in regard to their liability to customs duty under revenue laws. Closed-mail tran ARTICLE IV. The United States office engages to grant the transit through the sit across United United States, as well as the conveyance by United States mail-packStates. ets, of the correspondence in closed mails which the Queensland post office may desire to transmit via the United States to British Columbia, the British North American provinces, the West Indies, Mexico, Central and South America, and at the following rates of United States transit-postage, viz: Rates by land routes. Rates by land and sea routes. Accounts to be rendered. To be settled quarterly. Letters from foreign countries and to other colonies. Registered arti cles. Registration fee. For the United States territorial transit of closed mails from Queensland for Mexico, British Columbia, Canada, or other British NorthAmerican Provinces, when transmitted entirely by land-routes, six cents per ounce for letter-mails and sixteen cents per pound for all kinds of printed matter. For the United States territorial and sea transit of closed mails from Queensland for British Columbia or other British North American Provinces, Mexico, Central and South America, or the West India Islands, when transmitted from the United States by sea, twenty-five cents per ounce for letter-mails, and twenty cents per pound for all kinds of printed matter. The Queensland post office shall render an account to the United States post office, upon letter-bills to accompany each mail, of the weight of the letters, and also of the printed and other matter contained in such closed mails, forwarded to the United States for transmission to either of the above-named countries and colonies, and the accounts arising between the two offices on this class of correspondence shall be stated, adjusted, and settled quarterly, and the amounts of the United States transit-charges found due on such closed mails shall be promptly paid over by the Queensland post office to the United States post office in such manner as the Postmaster-General of the United States shall prescribe. ARTICLE V. Prepaid letters from foreign countries received in and forwarded from the United States to Queensland shall be delivered in said colony free of all charges whatsoever, and letters received in Queensland from the United States addressed to other colonies of Australia will be forwarded to destination subject to the same conditions as are applicable to corre spondence originating in Queensland and addressed to those countries ARTICLE VI. The two post-departments may, by mutual agreement, provide for the transmission of registered articles in the mails exchanged between the two countries. The register-fee for each article shall be ten cents in the United States and fourpence in Queensland. ARTICLE VII. Details, how settled. Modification. The two post-departments shall settle by agreement between them all measures of detail and arrangement required to carry this convention into execution, and may modify the same in like manner, from time to time, as the exigencies of the service may require. ARTICLE VIII. Every fully prepaid letter dispatched from one country to the other shall be plainly stamped with the words "paid all," in red ink, on the right-hand upper corner of the address, in addition to the date-stamp of the office at which it was posted, and on insufficiently-paid letters the amount of the deficient postage shall be inscribed in black ink. ARTICLE IX. Dead letters, which cannot be delivered from whatsoever cause, shall be mutually returned, without charge, monthly, or as frequently as the regulations of the respective offices will permit. ARTICLE X. Marks on letters. Dead letters. Commencement This convention shall come into operation on the 1st day of January, 1876, and shall be terminable at any time on a notice, by either office, and termination. of six months. Done in duplicate and signed in Brisbane, the eighth day of December, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight huudred and seventyfive, and in Washington on the second day of February, one thousand eight hundred and seventy-six. [SEAL.] MARSHALL JEWELL, Signatures. Approved. EWD. CAIRNS. GEORGE THORN, JUNIOR, I hereby approve the aforegoing convention, and in testimony thereof Approval. I have caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. 640 Feb. 8, 1876. Angust 6, 1873, April 26, 1875, ante, pp. 557, 635 Previous conventions modified. Letter - postage reduced. Newspaper, etc., postage reduced. Conditions tended hai agency. ex Additional agreement between the United States of America and the Empire The undersigned, being thereunto duly authorized by their respective governments, have agreed to modify the provisions of the postal convention between the United States and Japan, concluded the 6th day of August, A. D. 1873, or the 6th day of the eighth month of the sixth year of Meiji, and of the agreement between the United States and Japan, signed at Washington the 26th day of April, A. D. 1875, as follows: 1st. It is agreed that the second paragraph of Article III of the said convention be so modified that the single rate of international letterpostage shall be reduced to five cents in the United States and five sen in Japan on each letter weighing fifteen grammes (one-half ounce) or less, and an additional rate of five cents or five sen for each additional weight of fifteen grammes (one-half ounce) or fraction thereof. Also, that the agreement between the United States and Japan, signed at Washington the 26th day of April, A. D. 1875, relative to the international postage on newspapers and other printed matter, patterns, and samples of merchandise exchanged between the two countries be so modified that the postage to be levied, collected, and retained by the post-office of the country of origin shall be reduced to two cents in the United States and two sen in Japan on each newspaper not exceeding four ounces in weight, and two cents or sen for each weight of two ounces or fraction of two ounces on all other articles of printed matter, patterns, and samples of merchandise. 2d. It is further agreed, in view of the fact that the Japanese gov to ex- erument is about to establish a postal agency at Shanghai, China, that changes by Shang- the same rates of postage and conditions of exchange shall be applied to correspondence of every kind originating in said Japanese postal agency, and dispatched through the exchange office of Yokohama to the United States, or to foreign countries via the United States, as are applied to the correspondence similarly addressed, originating in the Empire of Japan. 3d. It is further agreed that the respective Japanese post-offices of Exchanges between Japanese Yokohama, Hiogo, and Nagasaki may exchange correspondence by offices and Shang- means of American or Japanese mail-packets with the Japanese postal agency at Shanghai. hai agency. Postage reduced And it is also agreed that the single rate of letter-postage to be lev on Letters to and ied and collected at the United States postal agency at Shanghai on from Shanghai letters addressed to Japan shall be five instead of six cents as stipu agencies. lated in Article V of the postal convention between the two countries, and in like manner, a reduced single letter-rate of five sen shall be levied and collected in Japan on letters for Shanghai when dispatched in the mails to the United States postal agency at that port. Duration of convention. 4th. It is also hereby agreed that the provisions of Article V of the postal convention of August 6, 1873, as herein modified, shall continue in force until the 31st of December, 1876, the date of expiration of the existing contract between the United States and the Pacific Mail Steamship Company for the mail-service between Yokohama and Shanghai, touching at the ports of Hiogo and Nagasaki, and that on and after After January 1, January 1, 1877, its provisions shall apply only to such mails, if any, as 1877. shall after that date be exchanged between the Japanese post-office at Yokohama and the United States postal agency at Shanghai by means of mail-packets under contract with the United States Post Office Department performing regular trips between the port of Yokohama, Japan, and the port of Shanghai, China, When to go into This agreement shall be carried into operation on the 1st day of April, Done in duplicate original and signed at Washington, this eighth MARSHALL JEWELL, His Imperial Japanese Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary and I hereby approve the aforegoing agreement, and in testimony thereof I have caused the seal of the United States to be hereto affixed. [L. S.] U. S. GRANT. Signatures. President's ap proval. By the President: HAMILTON FISH, Secretary of State. WASHINGTON, February 8th, 1876. Translation. I hereby approve the aforegoing agreement, and in testimony thereof Approval of JaI have caused the seal of the Empire of Japan to be affixed. [SEAL.] MUTSUHITO. The thirty-first day of the third month of the ninth year of Meiji. By order of His Majesty: TERASHIMA MUNENORI, Minister for Foreign Affairs. pan. XIX-41 642 April 29, 1876. Preamble. Treaties, 509. Treaties, 513. Treaties, 500. Treaties, 514. 18 Stat., 760. Convention between the United States of America and the Mexican Repub- BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. A PROCLAMATION. Whereas a Convention between the United States of America and the Mexican Republic for extending the functions of the Umpire under the Convention between the two countries of the 4th of July, 1868, was concluded and signed by their respective Plenipotentiaries, at the city of Washington, on the twenty-ninth day of April, eighteen hundred and seventy-six, which Convention, being in the English and Spanish languages, is word for word as follows: Convention between the United States Whereas pursuant to the convention between the United States and the Mexican Republic of the 19th day of April, 1871, the functions of the joint commission under the convention between the same parties of the 4th of July, 1868, were extended for a term not exceeding one year from the day on which they were to terminate according to the convention last named; And whereas, pursuant to the first And whereas pursuant to the los Estados Unidos de Considerando: Que, conforme á la convencion celebrada entre la República Mexicana y los Estados Unidos el 19 de Abril de 1871, las funciones de la comision mixta establecida por la convencion entre las mismas partes, del 4 de Julio de 1868, fueron prorogadas por un término que no excediera de un debian terminar con arreglo á la año, contado desde el dia en que convencion últimamente citada: Que, conforme al artículo primero de la convencion concluida entre las mismas partes el veintisiete de tenta y dos, la comision mista antes Noviembre de mil ochocientos semencionada fué revivida y prorono excediera de dos años, contados gada de nuevo por un término que desde el dia en que las funciones de dicha comision terminasen con arreglo á la citada convencion del diez y nueve de Abril de 1871 : Que, conforme á la convencion celebrada entre las mismas partes el veinte de Noviembre de mil ochocientos setenta y cuatro, dicha comision fué de nuevo prorogada por un año contado desde el tiem po en que habria espirado con ar reglo á la convencion del veintisiete de Noviembre de mil ochoci entos setenta y dos, es decir, hasta el dia treinta y uno de Enero de |