52

if he accepts it, he shall endorse the fact, and judgment shall be rendered thereon, and execution issue in compliance with the terms thereof: Provided, however, That the parties may always settle the same before return thereof is made to the consul.

SEc. 21. And be it further enacted, That the commissioner and the consuls shall be fully authorized to call upon the Chinese authorities to sustain and sup- port them in the execution of the powers confided to them by said treaty, and on their part to do and perform whatever is necessary to carry the provisions of said treaty into full effect, so far as they are to be executed in China.

SEC. 22. And be it further enacted, That the provisions of this act, so far as the same relates to crimes committed by citizens of the United States, shall extend to Turkey, under the treaty with the Sublime Porte of May seventh, eighteen hundred and thirty, and shall be executed in the dominions of the Sublime Porte, in conformity with the provisions of said treaty, by the minister of the United States, and the consuls appointed by the United States to reside therein, who are hereby ex officio vested with the powers herein contained, for the purposes abovo expressed, so far as regards the punishment of crime.

SEc. 23. And be it further enacted, That the word commissioner, when used in this act, shall be understood to mean the persons vested with and exercising the principal diplomatic functions in China; and the word minister, as meaning the person vested with the powers of chief diplomatic functionary of the United States in Turkey. The word consul shall be understood to mean any person vested by the United States with, and exercising, the consular authority in any of the five ports in China named in the treaty, or in any port in Turkey.

SEc. 24. And be it further enacted. That all such officers shall be responsible for their conduct to the United States and to the laws thereof, not only as diplo. matic functionaries and commercial functionaries, but as judicial officers when they perform judicial duties, and shall be held liable for all negligences and mis- conduct as public officers.

APPROVED,

August 11th, 1848,

JAMES K. POLK.

ROB'T. C. WINTHROP,

Speaker of the House of Representatives.

DAVID R. ATCHISON,

President pro tem. of the Senate.

United States of America, Department of State.

To all to whom these presents shall come, Greeting: I certify that the foregoing is a true and complete copy of “ An act to carry into effect certain provisions in the treaties between the United States and China and the Ottoman Porte, giving certain judicial powers to ministers and consuls of the United States in those countries;" copied from, and carefully collated with the original roll on file in this Department.

L

In testimony whereof, I, James Buchanan, Secretary of State of the United States, have hereunto subscribed my name, and caused the Seal of the Department of State to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this twenty-eighth day of August, A. p. 1848, and of the Independence of the United States the seventy-third. JAMES BUCHANAN.

Share This Page