may in the country of the United States of America dispose of their effects by testament, donation, or otherwise; and their heirs, subjects of his said Majesty, shall succeed them, without any impediment, in all their effects, moveable and immoveable, either by testament or ab intestat; so that they may take possession of the inheritance, either by themselves, or by attorney, and dispose of it as they please, after having discharged the different duties established by the laws of the State where the said succession shall have been left; and in case that the heirs of the said dead subjects should be absent or minors, and that the deceased shall not have appointed guardians or executors, the property left shall then be inventoried by the notary public, or by the magistrate of the place, and disposed of in such manner that they may be kept and preserved for the legal proprietors; and, supposing that there should arise a dispute about such inheritance among several pretenders, then the judges of the places where the effects of the deceased shall be found, shall decide the process by a definitive sentence agreeably to the laws of the country. The contents of the present article shall be reciprocally observed, with respect to the subjects of the United States of America, in the States of his Danish Majesty.

ARTICLE XXIV.

A perfect liberty of conscience shall be granted to the subjects and inhabitants of each party within the respective States, and they may, consequently, freely attend the worship of their religion without being disturbed or molested, provided that they submit, as to the public demonstration, to the ordinances and laws of the country.

ARTICLE XXV.

His Majesty the King of Denmark and Norway, and the United States of North America, have agreed that the present treaty shall be in full effect during the space of fifteen successive years, reckoning from the day of its ratification; and the two contracting parties reserve to themselves the power of renewing it at the expiration of that time.

ARTICLE XXVI.

The present treaty shall be ratified on both sides, and the ratifications shall be exchanged within the space of eight months from the date of the signature.

Explanation of the Counter Project of a Treaty of Amity and Commerce received from Denmark.

Translation.

Although the simple comparison of the enclosed counter project, with the project proposed by Mr. Franklin, evidently proves the attention that has been shown on our part here to the negociation set on foot, and which, in the main, has been agreed upon as to the principles which have been adopted for the basis of a treaty, as well as the most essential stipulations, we could not avoid, however, explaining more distinctly certain points of the counter project; and the eclaircissements that will be given of them will at the same time prove the amicable intentions with which it has been endeavored to facilitate the consequence of an affair too important to the welfare of the two nations, not to merit the attention and cares of the Powers which govern them.

The second and third articles will regulate the conduct of the reciprocal subjects in the respective States. Taking things as they now are, it is easily perceived that the stipulations of the said articles, although apparently reciprocal, give, however, superior advantages to the United States; for, according to the system of commerce, which subsists in Denmark and Norway, the most favored nations pay there no greater imposts or other duties than the proper subjects of the State, and the proper subjects of the State enjoy considerable dimunitions with respect to unprivileged nations, as well for their vessels as for their merchandize. It is evident, therefore, that the subjects of the United States of America being received among the most favored nations in Denmark and Norway, would not only gain by that means a competition with the said most favored, but also a preference over several other nations even in the neighborhood of Denmark, with whom no treaties of commerce have been concluded, and who, therefore, are still in the number of unprivileged, as to navigation and commerce, in the States of his Danish Majesty.

On the other hand, if the advantages which would result from these articles, as to the commerce of the subjects of Denmark in the territories of the United States, are considered, the said advantages would be confined to the simple competition with every other foreign nation; but, as there is no nation that we know of, which actually

pays in the territories of the United States other or greater duties. than what the privileged or most favored nations are bound to pay, the Danish subjects would not find in the territories of the United States the same preference which the subjects of the United States would obtain in Denmark and Norway. The preceding considerations are not advanced for the purpose of taking any advantage, but they are pointed out only to show the impartiality and good will with which we desire to contribute to the mutual connexions of amity and commerce between the two nations, who will, it is to be hoped, more and more unite. As to the periods inserted in these articles, they do not essentially change the stipulations projected by the Minister of the United States; they only add therein some proper determination to prevent every misunderstanding on the subject of the reciprocal liberties and privileges, and to guaranty some rights, which the subjects of his Danish Majesty enjoy with respect to certain countries and colonies, as Iceland, Greenland, Finmarson, Faro, the establishment of Tranquibar, and, in certain respects, the Islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John; and if, at any time, it should please the United States to reserve for its own subjects similar rights, with respect to certain places, or certain kinds of merchandize, and to exclude therefrom every foreign nation, the same stipulations shall then suit their intentions. In like manner the same mark of reciprocity has been given to every change, excepting only the last clause of the third article, which has not been susceptible of the same turn, considering the local position of the United States, and which, undoubtedly for the same reason, has been inserted in the treaty of the United States with Holland, in the same manner as it is here in the counter project.

After having pointed out the privileges which the subjects of his Danish Majesty enjoy in the Islands of St. Croix, St. Thomas, and St. John, it will not be useless to observe, that it is only the commerce and navigation between the said islands and Europe, which Denmark has appropriated to itself in any manner; but the commerce which is conducted between those islands and North America, although always subject to the same interior regulations on both sides, has been for a long while authorized by his Danish Majesty's commercial laws, and his said Majesty has, moreover, granted to the Islands of St. Thomas and St. John privileges, which

will give the commerce of these islands with America in particular, a freer course, and very different from that of the commerce of the colony. The advantages which the United States may derive from a more close commercial connexion with the said privileged islands, and whose ports, distinguished by the security they insure to vessels, appear to invite the commercial subjects of America, are too evident to need any circumstantial detail. There shall only be added, therefore, to what has been said, this single observation, that his Danish Majesty, having it very much at heart to open every possible road to industry and commerce, finds himself much disposed to favor the connexion in question, and that, if for this pupose the United States, after the conclusion of the present treaty, which shall fix the general commercial points between the contracting parties, should desire a particular convention to agree upon the reciprocal and local advantages proper to accomplish this object, his said Majesty would willingly come into it, provided that the United States were equally disposed on their part to facilitate the affair.

The fourth and fifth articles have only been modified in order to remove the doubts which might arise with respect to the defence and protection due to the vessels belonging to the respective subjects. It is only in cases of attack from the common enemy, against whom it was conceived possible to confine each other by these articles; for in case that one of the parties was at war and the other at peace, the vessels belonging to the neutral party could not protect the vessels belonging to the belligerent party, without taking a part and quitting its neutrality.

The privileges of the most favored nations undoubtedly guaranty to the respective subjects the favors mentioned in the sixth, eleventh, fourteenth, and seventeenth articles of the project. For this reason it has appeared, that it would be better to reduce the points detailed in these articles to the number of general liberties of the most favored nations, and this is what has been done in the sixth, thirteenth, sixteenth, and twenty-first articles of the counter project, contenting ourselves here with the assurance, that the subjects of his Danish Majesty in the cases mentioned here, as well as in any other, shall be regarded and treated in the territories within the dominions of the United States as the most favored nations, and in expectation that the United States will not demand any thing more in these respects.

The seventh, eighth, and ninth articlés of the counter project only contain the spirit and ideas of the fifteenth, seventh, and eighth articles of the project, to which has been added some further stipulations, conformable to the principles which have been established and acknowledged with respect to the commerce of neutral nations in time of war.

The term of two months which has been proposed in the ninth article, and that of six months named in the twelfth article of the project, did not appear to correspond with the extent of commerce which is carried on, particularly with the East Indies, nor with difficulties which the merchants or inhabitants sometimes find in arranging their affairs to change their abode. It is for this reason that instead of two and six months, the terms six and nine months have been substituted, it being nevertheless well understood, that . from the friendship and good understanding which is about being strengthened between the two nations, the subjects of neither party will ever have cause to take refuge on account of a rupture.

Although no fault has been found as to the merchandize, which the project has called contraband, or not contraband in time of war, there is however reason to think that it would still be better for the conveniency of the contracting parties, only to name in express terms the contraband, without detailing the free merchandize, with respect to which no better explanation could be given, as it appears, than by agreeing that every thing that is not called contraband shall be comprehended in the number of free merchandize; consequently, on this principle the seventeenth article of the counter project has been arranged, and at the end of the article has been added the definition. of a port that is blocked up.

The new articles that have been proposed on this side principally turn on reciprocal points and favors, which justice and equity demand, and which humanity and the rights of nations ordinarily grant, even without stipulation by express conventions; but it is usage that has introduced them into treaties, and it is conceived that it is no less necessary to conform thereto.

As to the passports mentioned in the eighteenth article of the counter project, there is nothing easier than to agree about them after the conclusion of the treaty, or at the time when it is concluded and the models that shall be agreed on can then be officially exchanged and published in case of necessity.