when they come to, and enter the ports of the other party, but may freely be carried out again at any time by their captors to the places expressed in their commissions, which the commanding officer of such vessels shall be obliged to shew. But no vessel which shall have made prizes on the subjects of his most christian majesty the king of France, shall have a right of asylum in the ports or havens of the said United States; and if any such be forced therein by tempest or dangers of the sea, they shall be obliged to depart as soon as possible, according to the tenor of the treaties existing between his said most christian majesty and the said United States.

Art. 20. No citizen or subject of either of the contracting parties shall take from any power with which the other may be at war, any commission or letter of marque for arming any vessel to act as a privateer against the other, ou pain of being punished as a pirate; nor shall either party hire, lend, or give any part of their naval or military force to the enemy of the other, to aid them offensively or defensively against that other.

Art. 21 If the two contracting parties should be engaged in war against a common enemy, the following points shall be observed between them.

1st. If a vessel of one of the parties, retaken by a privateer of the other, shall not have been in possession of the enemy more than twenty-four hours, she shall be restored to the first owner for one third of the value of the vessel and cargo; but if she shall have been more than twenty-four hours in possession of the enemy, she shall belong wholly to the recaptor. 2d. If in the same case the recapture were by a public vessel of war of the one party, restitution shall be made to the owner for one thirtieth part of the value of the vessel and cargo, if she shall not have been in the possession of the enemy more than twenty-four hours, and one tenth of the said value where she shall have been longer, which sums shall be distributed in gratuities to the recaptors. 3d. The restitution in the cases aforesaid, shall be after due proof of property, and surety given for the part to which the recaptors are entitled. 4th. The vessels of war, public and private, of the two parties, shall be reciprocally admitted with their prizes into the respective ports of each: but the said prizes shall not be discharged nor sold there, until their legality shall have been decided according to the laws and regulations of the states to which the captor belongs, but by the judicatures of the place into which the prize shall have been conducted. 5th. It shall be free to each party to make such regulations as they shall judge necessary for the conduct of their respective vessels of war, public and private, relative to the vessels which they shall take and carry into the ports of the two parties.

Art. 22. Where the parties shall have a common enemy, or shall both be neutral, the vessels of war of each shall upon all occasions take under their protection the vessels of the other going the same course, and shall defend such vessel as long as they hold the same

ceurse, against all force and violence, in the same manner as they ought to protect and defend vessels belonging to the party of which they are.

Art. 23. If war should arise between the two contracting parties, themerchants of either country, then residing in the other, shall be allowed to remain nine months to collect their debts and settle their affairs, and may depart freely, carrying off all their effects, without molestation or hindrance: And all women and children, scholars of every faculty, cultivators of the earth, artizans, manufacturers and fishermen unarmed and inhabiting unfortified towns, villages or places, and in general all others whose occupations are for the common subsistence and benefit of mankind, shall be allowed to continue their respective employments, and shall not be molested in their persons, nor shall their houses or goods be burnt, or otherwise destroyed, nor their fields wasted by the armed force of the enemy, into whose power by the events of war they may happen to fall; but if any thing is necessary to be taken from them for the use of such armed force, the same shall be paid for at a reasonable price. And all merchant and trading vessels employed in exchanging the products of different places, and thereby rendering the necessaries, conve niences and comforts of human life more easy to be obtained, and more general, shall be allowed to pass free and unmolested, and neither of the contracting powers shall grant or issue any commission to any private armed vessels empowering them to take or destroy such trading vessels, or interrupt such commerce.

Art. 24. And to prevent the destruction of prisoners of war, by sending them into distant and inclement countries, or by crouding thm into close and noxious places, the two contracting parties solemnly pledge themselves to each other and to the world, that they will not adopt any such practice; that neither will send the prisoners whom they may take from the other into the East Indies, or any other parts of Asia or Africa, but that they shall be placed in some part of their dominions in Europe or America, in wholesome situations, that they shall not be confined in dungeons, prison-ships, nor prisons, nor be put into irons, nor bound, nor otherwise restrained in the use of their limbs; that the officers shall be enlarged on their paroles within convenient districts, and have comfortable quarters, and the common men be disposed in cantonments, open and extensive enough for air and exercise, and lodged in barracks as roomy and good as are provided by the party in whose power they are for their own troops; that the officers shall also be daily furnished by the party in whose power they are, with as many rations, and of the same articles and quality, as are allowed by them, either in kind or by commutation, to officers of equal rank in their own army; and all others shall be daily furnished by them with such ration as they allow to a common soldier in their own service; the value whereof shall be paid by the other party on a mutual adjustment of accounts for the subsistance of prisoners at the close of the war; and the said

accounts shall not be mingled with, or sett off against any other, nor the balances due on them, be withheld as a satisfaction or reprisal for any other article, or for any other cause, real or pretended, whatever; that each party shall be allowed to keep a commissary of prisoners of their own appointment, with every separate cantonment of prisoners in possession of the other, which commissary shall see the prisoners as often as he pleases, shall be allowed to receive and distribute whatever comforts may be sent to them by their friends, and shall be free to make his reports in open letters to those who employ him; but if any officer shall break his parole, or any other prisoner shall escape from the limits of his cantonment, after they shall have been designated to him, such individual officer or other prisoner, shall forfeit so much of the benefit of this article as provides for his enlargement on parole or cantonement. And it is declared, that neither the pretence that war dissolves all treaties, nor any other pretence whatever, shall be considered as annulling or suspending this and the next preceding article, but on the contrary, that the state of war is precisely that for which they are provided, and during which they are to be as sacredly observed as the most acknowledged articles in the law of nature or nations.

Art. 25. The two contracting parties grant to each other the liberty of having each in the ports of the other, consuls, vice-consuls, agents and commissaries of their own appointment, whose functions shall be regulated by particular agreement whenever each party shall chuse to make such appointment; but if any such consuls shall exercise commerce, they shall be submitted to the same laws and usages to which the private individuals of their nation are submitted in the same place.

Art. 26. If either party shall hereafter grant to any other nation, any particular favour in navigation or commerce, it shall immediately become common to the other party, freely, where it is freely granted to such other nation, or on yielding the compensation where such nation does the same.

Art. 27. His majesty the King of Prussia, and the United States of America, agree that this treaty shall be in force during the term of ten years from the exchange of ratifications, and if the expiration of that term should happen during the course of a war between them, then the articles before provided for the regulation of their conduct during such a war, shall continue in force until the conclusion of the treaty which shall re-establish peace; and that this treaty shall be ratified on both sides, and the ratifications exchanged within one year from the day of its signature.

In testimony whereof, the plenipotentiaries before mentioned, have hereto subscribed their names and affixed their seals, at the

places of their respective residence, and at the date expressed under their several signatures.

[L. 8.]

F. G. DE THULEMEIR,

à la Hage le 10 Septembre, 1785.

NOW KNOW YE, That we, the Said United States in Congress assembled, having considered and approved, do hereby ratify and confirm the said treaty, and every article and clause therein contained.

In testimony whereof, we have caused our seal to be hereunto affixed. Witness the Hon. Nathaniel Gorham, our chairman in the absence of His Excellency John Hancock, our president, the seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-six, and of our independence and sovereignty, the tenth.

CHAS. THOMSON,

Secretary.

PRES. FRANKLIN TO JOHN FRANKLIN, &C., OF WYOMING,

In Council,

1786.

Philad, June 11, 1786.

Gentlemen,

I received in its time your Letter of the 25th of February last, written in behalf of the People settled at Wyoming, and requesting a Protection of Government for an Agent who might be sent hither, to explain your Grievances, &c. The Request appear'd to us to be reasonable, and such a Protection would have been immediately sent, but that we were told the Gentleman who brought your Letter, Captain Schot, being in Town, and well acquainted with your Affairs, the giving him a Hearing might possibly answer your purpose as well, and spare you the Expence & Trouble of sending a special Agent. He was accordingly heard before the Council, and had an opportunity of conversing separately with several of the Members as well as with the Members of Assembly, and gave so clear and so affecting an Account of the situation of your People, their present Disposition, and former Sufferings, as enclin'd the Government in general to show them every kind of reasonable Favour. The Assembly accordingly took the necessary previous steps for a Compliance with your Request respecting a separate County which will probably be compleated at their next Session. But as there may be other Matters necessary to be consider'd and discuss'd, in order to establish solid and lasting Quiet, the Council

have since judged that it might still be useful if your first Proposal of sending an Agent hither were agreed to, and if one or more chosen & appointed by the People should accordingly be here about the beginning of the Session, which was fixt for the 22d of August next. You may therefore now acquaint the Settlers, that upon Information of such Appointment, a Passport or Safe Conduct under the great Seal, for the Person or Persans so appointed shall be sent to you, giving him or them perfect security in coming, residing here, and returning, from all Arrests or suits of any kind, and full Freedom & Protection from every Hindrance, Restraint or Molestation whatso

ever.

Be assured, Gentlemen, that it will be a great Pleasure to the whole Council, as well as to myself in particular, if we can be instrumental by just & reasonable Measures, in promoting the Happiness of so great a Body of our People as the Settlers at Wyoming consist of. I am, Gentlemen,

Directed,

Sir,

Your Friend and humble Servt.

B. FRANKLIN,* President.

Messrs. John Franklin, Wm. Hooker Smith & John Jenkins.

REPORT OF BOARD OF TREASURY TO CONGRESS, 1786. Board of Treasury, June 22, 1786.

We do ourselves the honour of submitting, through your Excellency, to the consideration of Congress, the report of this Board on the requisition of the present year. From this, Congress will observe, that the sum of 2,170,337 dollars is necessary to be raised by this requisition in actual specie, out of which no less a sum than 1,724,426 dollars are due on the foreign debt.

If it be asked, what expectations there are that the several states will raise, by the ordinary mode of requisition, the sums required by the proposed report, the answer obviously is, That no reasonable hope of this nature can possibly exist; for, exclusive of the sum last mentioned, almost the whole of the specie required by the requisition of the 27th September last, which amounted to one million of dollars, is still unpaid, though the period of payment was fixed for the 1st of May last; together with a specie balance due on the requisition of the 27th of April, 1784, of about one million of dollars; so that the actual sum which ought to be paid by the several states, into the public treasury, before the first of January next, is at least 3,700,000 dollars.

* See Col. Rec., Vol. XV., p. 35, 36.