take on board or land at Dover, as well as at other British ports where they may be obliged to put in, any passengers of whatever nation they may be, with their wearing-apparel and luggage, and also with their horses and carriages, on condition that the captains of the said packets shall conform to the regulations of the United Kingdom concerning the arrival and departure of travellers.
"They shall be prohibited from conveying goods or merchandize on freight, with the exception, however, of postal packets and small parcels, the weight of which shall be limited by mutual agreement between the two Offices."
"Art. XIII. In case of war between the two nations, the mail-packets shall continue their navigation without impediment or molestation, until a notification is made on the part of either of the two Governments that the service is to be discontinued, in which case they shall be permitted to return freely, and under special protection, to the port in Belgium where they were fitted out.'
Similar clauses were inserted in the Convention Hertslet's Treaties, vol. vi, p. 349. with France of the 3rd April, 1843, and 24th September, 1856.
In the latter Convention, Article V ran thus:----
"When the packets employed by the British Post Office or by the French Post Office in execution of Articles I and II of the present Convention are national vessels, the property of Government, or vessels chartered or subsidized by Government, they shall be considered and treated as Vessels of war in the ports of the two countries at which they regularly or accidentally touch, and be there entitled to the same honours and privileges."
Clauses then followed with regard to their exemption from port duties, &c., their liberty to carry passengers, and their non-molestation in the event of war, similar to those inserted in the Belgian Treaty above mentioned; but with reference to passengers it was added that
"the passengers admitted on board those packets who did not think fit to land during the stay at one of the said ports should not, under any pretext, be removed from on board, be liable to any search, or be subjected to the formality of a visa of their passports. And as
Conventions with France.
Hertslet's Treaties, vol. ix, p. 182
Buenos Ayres. Decree,
Treaty with Mexico.
Ibid., vol. iii, p. 247.
reference is specially made in Article V to these packets as being those which were employed in execution of Articles I and II of the Convention, it may be as well to describe their provisions.
Article I stipulated for the regular exchange of letters by means of two lines of steam-packets, one to be maintained or subsidized by the British Government, and the other by the French Government, on the line between Dover and Calais.
Article II then declared that, "independently of the correspondence which should be exchanged between the Post Offices of the two countries by the route pointed out in the preceding Article, those offices might eventually forward from one to the other letters, &c., by the several routes thereinafter enumerated, and which were thus described:---
"1. By the packets which the British Government and the French Government might respectively think it right to maintain, to freight, or to subsidize for the conveyance of correspondence.
2. By merchant-ships plying between the British and French ports."
Under this stipulation French mail-packets have been treated in British Colonial harbours as ships of war.
But to cite other instances:-
On the 10th April, 1824, a Decree was issued by the Government of Buenos Ayres, containing regulations which had been agreed upon with the British Consul-General, for the Post Office packets of Great Britain; by Article 9 of which it was declared that those packets were relieved from all port-dues, but that the passengers and crew would be subject to the regulations and general police of the country.
Again, the Treaty of Commerce, &c., concluded with Mexico, on the 26th December, 1826, contained the following Article:-
"Art. II. The respective ships of war and Post Office packets of the two countries shall have liberty freely and securely to come to all harbours, rivers, and places, saving only such particular ports (if any) to which other foreign ships of war and
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