in September '85, with Prussia.* It was negotiated on the part of America by Messrs. Franklin, Jefferson, and Adams, and on the part of Prussia by M. de Thulemeyer. This in

* Having already given numerous extracts from other treaties, we shall in this place only select the provisions of this treaty that are peculiar, remarking that it contains the stipulation respecting freedom of conscience, already cited in the treaties with the Netherlands and Sweden, and all other arrangements of the most favourable kind concerning commerce.

"ART. 4. More especially each party shall have a right to carry their own produce, manufactures, and merchandize, in their own or any other vessels, to any parts of the dominions of the other, where it shall be lawful for all the subjects or citizens of that other freely to purchase them; and thence to take the produce, manufactures, and merchandize of the other, which all the said citizens or subjects shall in like manner be free to sell them, paying in both cases such duties, charges, and fees only, as are or shall be paid by the most favoured nation. Nevertheless, the king of Prussia and the United States, and each of them, reserve to themselves the right, where any nation restrains the transportation of merchandize to the vessels of the country of which it is the growth or manufacture, to establish against such nation retaliating regulations; and also the right to prohibit, in their respective countries, the importation and exportation of all merchandize whatsoever, when reasons of state shall require it. In this case, the subjects or citizens of either of the contracting parties, shall not import nor export the merchandize prohibited by the other, but if one of the contracting parties permits any other nation to import or export the same merchandize, the citizens or subjects of the other shall immediately enjoy the same liberty.

"ART. 9. The ancient and barbarous right to wrecks, abolished between the parties.

"ART. 10. And where, on the death of any person holding real estate within the territories of the one party, such real estate would, by the laws of the land, descend on a citizen or subject of the other, were he not disqualified by alienage, such subject shall be allowed a reasonable time to sell the same, and to withdraw the

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strument, ratified the next year by Congress, was the last public act of Dr. Franklin in Europe.

The treaty is very remarkable for the provisions it con

proceeds without molestation, and exempt from all rights of detraction on the part of the government of the respective states. But this article shall not derogate in any manner from the force of the laws already published, or hereafter to be published by his majesty the king of Prussia, to prevent the emigration of his subjects.

“ART. 13. And in the same case of one of the contracting parties being engaged in war with any other power, to prevent all the difficulties and misunderstandings that usually arise respecting the merchandize heretofore called contraband, such as arms, ammunition, and military stores of every kind, no such articles carried in the vessels, or by the subjects or citizens of one of the parties to the enemies of the other, shall be deemed contraband, so as to induce confiscation or condemnation, and a loss of property to individuals. Nevertheless, it shall be lawful to stop such vessels and articles, and to detain them for such length of time as the captors may think necessary to prevent the inconvenience or damage that might ensue from their proceeding; paying, however, a reasonable compensation for the loss such arrest shall occasion to the proprietors and it shall further be allowed to use in the service of the captors, the whole or any part of the military stores so detained, paying the owners the full value of the same, to be ascertained by the current price at the place of its destination. But in the case supposed, of a vessel stopped for articles heretofore deemed contraband, if the master of the vessel stopped will deliver out the goods supposed to be of contraband nature, he shall be admitted to do it, and the vessel shall not, in that case, be carried into any port, nor further detained, but shall be allowed to proceed on her voyage.

"ART. 16. It is agreed, that the subjects or citizens of each of the contracting parties, their vessels, and effects, shall not be liable to any embargo, or detention on the part of the other, for any military expedition, or other public or private purpose whatsoever. And in all cases of seizure, detention, or arrest, for debts contracted, or offences committed by any citizen or subject of the one par

tains, though it does not appear that they have been attended with any good consequences to the parties, or have been of

ty, within the jurisdiction of the other, the same shall be made and prosecuted by order and authority of law only, and according to the regular course of proceedings usual in such cases.

:

"ART. 23. If war should arise between the two contracting parties, the merchants 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 ef fects, 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, conveniences, 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 crowding them 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.

any practical utility to the world. Blockades of every description were abolished,-the flag covered the property,

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 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 subsistence of prisoners at the close of the war; and the said accounts shall not be mingled with, nor set off against any others, 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 cantonment. And it is declared, that neither the pretence that war dissolves all treaties, nor any other 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."

The treaty was limited to ten years from the year 1786.

contrabands were exempted from confiscation, though they might be employed for the use of the captor, on payment of their full value. This, we believe, is the only treaty ever made by America, in which contrabands were not subject to confiscation; nor are we aware that any other modern treaty contains this remarkable provision. We are probably indebted to Dr. Franklin for the article. It had long been a favourite subject with him to procure the exemption, from the evils of war, of all persons engaged in private pursuits, or occupations, and to abolish privateering. He was desirous of having similar articles inserted in the treaty with England of '83, and proposed them to Mr. Oswald.

All wars consist in attacks on private property, for there is scarcely any other mode of making a war felt. Few nations have public property within reach of an enemy. If a nation, like America, should withdraw the few public ships it has from the ocean, it is difficult to conceive how a war could be conducted against it, for all its trade, occupation, commerce, and manufactures would go on as in time of peace. If the enemy land, the treaty forbids them destroying, and even compels them to live at their own expense. This proposition seems to be incapable of application; for the distinction between the public and the private property of a nation is a vague one, more especially under a free government; and, after all, public property, speaking with strictness, even in despotic countries, constitutes a very small portion of the wealth of the state. We do not undertake to say, what effect it would have on the patriotism of the people, to separate them so entirely from the government, as this arrangement would do. But we have great doubts, supposing it all along perfectly practicable, whether this scheme would have any other effect than to make wars perpetual. They should be accompanied with some horrors, at least, to prevent nations from engaging in them too eagerly. As to the particular application of the part, relating to privateers to this country, it can never be the policy of America, while that system exists among civilized na