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and according to justice and equity, without fear, favor, or affection to their own country, upon all such places as are intended to be reserved and excluded from the common liberty of fishing under this and the next succeeding article, and such declaration shall be entered on the record of their proceedings.

The commissioners shall name some third person to act as an arbitrator or umpire in any case or cases on which they may themselves differ in opinion. If they should not be able to agree upon the name of such third person, they shall each name a person, and it shall be determined by lot which of the two persons so named shall be the arbitrator or umpire in cases of difference or disagreement between the two commissioners. The person so to be chosen to be arbitrator or umpire shall, before proceeding to act as such in any case, make and subscribe a solemn declaration in a form similar to that which shall already have been made and subscribed by the commissioners, which shall be entered on the record of their proceedings. In the event of the death, absence, or incapacity of either of the commissioners, or of the arbitrator or umpire, or of their or his omitting, declining, or ceasing to act as such commissioner, arbitrator or umpire, another and different person shall be appointed or named as aforesaid to act as such commissioner, arbitrator or umpire, in the place and stead of the person so originally appointed or named as aforesaid, and shall make and subscribe such declaration as aforesaid.

Such commissioners shall proceed to examine the coasts of the North American provinces and of the United States embraced within the provisions of the first and second articles of this treaty, and shall designate the places reserved by the said articles from the common right of fishing therein. The decision of the commissioners and of the arbitrator or umpire shall be given in writing in each case, and shall be signed by them respectively.

The high contracting parties hereby solemnly engage to consider the decision of the commissioners conjointly, or of the arbitrator or umpire, as the case may be, as absolutely final and conclusive in each case decided upon by them or him respectively.

ARTICLE 2. It is agreed by the high contracting parties that British subjects shall have, in common with the citizens of the United States, the liberty to take fish of every kind, except shellfish, on the eastern seacoasts and shores of the United States north of the 36th parallel of north latitude, and on the shores of the several islands thereunto adjacent, and in the bays, harbors, and creeks of the said seacoasts and shores of the United States and of the said islands, without being restricted to any distance from the shore, with permission to land upon the said coasts of the United States and of the islands aforesaid, for the purpose of drying their nets and curing their fish: provided that, in so doing, they do not interfere with the rights of private property, or with the fishermen of the United States in the peaceable use of any part of the said coasts in their occupancy for the same purpose.

It is understood that the above-mentioned liberty applies solely to the sea

fishery, and that salmon and shad fisheries, and all fisheries in rivers and mouths of rivers, are hereby reserved exclusively for fishermen of the United States.

ARTICLE 3. It is agreed that the articles enumerated in the schedule hereunto annexed, being the growth and produce of the aforesaid British colonies or of the United States, shall be admitted into each country respectively free of duty:

Schedule of Articles free of Duty by Reciprocity Treaty with the British Provinces of N. A. and the United States.

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ARTICLE 4. It is agreed that the citizens and inhabitants of the United States shall have the right to navigate the river St. Lawrence, and the canals in Canada used as the means of communicating between the great lakes and the Atlantic ocean, with their vessels, boats, and crafts, as fully and freely as the subjects of her Britannic Majesty, subject only to the same tolls and other assessments as now are, or may hereafter be, exacted of her Majesty's said subjects; it being understood, however, that the British government retains the right of suspending this privilege on giving due notice thereof to the government of the United States.

It is further agreed, that if at any time the British government should exercise the said reserved right, the government of the United States shall have the right of suspending, if it think fit, the operation of article 3 of the present treaty, in so far as the province of Canada is affected thereby, for so long as the suspension of the free navigation of the river St. Lawrence or the canals may continue.

It is further agreed that British subjects shall have the right freely to

navigate Lake Michigan with their vessels, boats, and crafts, so long as the privilege of navigating the river St. Lawrence, secured to American citizens by the above clause of the present article, shall continue; and the government of the United States further engages to urge upon the State governments to secure to the subjects of her Britannic Majesty the use of the several State canals, on terms of equality with the inhabitants of the United States.

And it is further agreed, that no export duty, or other duty, shall be levied on lumber or timber of any kind cut on that portion of the American territory in the State of Maine watered by the river St. John and its tributaries, and floated down that river to the sea, when the same is shipped to the United States from the province of New Brunswick.

ARTICLE 5. The present treaty shall take effect as soon as the laws required to carry it into operation shall have been passed by the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain and by the Provincial Parliaments of those of the British North American colonies which are affected by this treaty on the one hand, and by the Congress of the United States on the other. Such assent having been given, the treaty shall remain in force for ten years from the date at which it may come into operation, and further, until the expiration of twelve months after either of the high contracting parties shall give notice to the other of its wish to terminate the same; each of the high contracting parties being at liberty to give such notice to the other at the end of the said term of ten years, or at any time afterwards.

It is clearly understood, however, that this stipulation is not intended to affect the reservation made by article 4 of the present treaty, with regard to the right of temporarily suspending the operations of articles 3 and 4 thereof.

ARTICLE 6. And it is hereby further agreed, that the provisions and stipulations of the foregoing articles shall extend to the island of Newfoundland, so far as they are applicable to that colony. But if the Imperial Parliament, the Provincial Parliament of Newfoundland, or the Congress of the United States, shall not embrace in their laws, enacted for carrying this treaty into effect, the colony of Newfoundland, then this article shall be of no effect; but the omission to make provision by law to give it effect, by either of the legislative bodies aforesaid, shall not in any way impair the remaining articles of this treaty.

ARTICLE 7. The present treaty shall be duly ratified, and the mutual exchange of ratifications shall take place in Washington within six months from the date hereof, or earlier if possible.

In faith whereof, we, the respective plenipotentiaries, have signed this treaty, and have hereunto affixed our seals.

Done in triplicate, at Washington, the fifth day of June, Anno Domini one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.

W. L. MARCY,

[L. S.]

ELGIN AND KINCARDINE. [L. s.]

And whereas the said treaty has been duly ratified on both parts, and the respective ratifications of the same were exchanged in this city on the 9th instant, by William L. Marcy, Secretary of State of the United States, and John F. Crampton, esq., her Britannic Majesty's envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to this government, on the part of their respective governments:

Now, therefore, be it known, that I, FRANKLIN PIERCE, President of the United States of America, have caused the said treaty to be made public, to the end that the same, and every clause and article thereof, may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the United States and the citizens thereof. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

[L. S.]

Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of September, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, and of the independence of the United States the seventy-ninth. FRANKLIN PIERCE.

By the President:

W. L. MARCY, Secretary of State.

(GENERAL REGULATIONS, No. 46.)

Supplementary to Regulations, No. 44.

TO COLLECTORS AND OTHER OFFICERS OF THE CUSTOMS.

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, March 31, 1855.

Inquiries having been submitted to this Department, on certain points in relation to the admission to free entry of articles, the growth or product of the British provinces, under the stipulations of the Reciprocity treaty of 5th June, 1854, the following instructions, supplementary to those heretofore issued, are transmitted for your information and government :

"Fish of all kinds, the products of fish, and of all other creatures living in the water," imported from any one of the provinces of New Brunswick, Canada, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, or Prince Edward's Island, being the product of some one of those provinces, are entitled to free entry from and after the 11th September, 1854, the date of the promulgation of the said treaty by the President of the United States; and, by authority of the first section of the act of Congress to carry into effect the said treaty, approved the 2d March, 1855, any duties paid thereon after said 11th September, 1854, are to be returned; and any warehouse bond given to secure duties on the same, since said date, is to be cancelled, and the said articles delivered to the importers free of duty.

The articles referred to in the second section of the aforesaid act of Congress, of 2d March, 1855, are to be entitled to free entry when imported from the province of Canada, from and after the 18th October, 1854, the date of the proclamation of the Governor General of that province in Council; when from the province of New Brunswick, from and after the 11th November, 1854, the date of the proclamation of the Governor of that province; and when from the province of Nova Scotia, from and after the 15th December, 1854, the date of the proclamation of the Governor of that province : and, by authority of the second section of the act of Congress above mentioned, any duties paid on importations from the several provinces aforesaid after such respective dates, are to be refunded, and any bonds for the payment of duties on such importations are to be cancelled, as the case may be. The Department being in possession of no information showing that the proclamation conditionally authorized by the act of the province of Prince Edward's Island, dated the 11th October, 1854, has been yet issued by the Lieutenant Governor or other administrator of the government, the privileges accorded by the said second section of the act of 2d March, 1855, to importations of certain articles from the provinces of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, cannot be extended to such articles from the said province of Prince Edward's Island, and consequently no duties can be refunded nor bonds cancelled on such articles imported into the United States prior to the 16th March, 1855, the date of the proclamation of the President of the United States, except the articles of fish of all kinds, products of fish, and of all other creatures living in the water, imported from and after the 11th September, 1854; but, in conformity with the terms of the said proclamation, all the articles referred to in the said act, the growth or product of the said province of Prince Edward's Island, imported direct therefrom subsequently to the said 16th of March, 1855, are entitled to the same privileges as those imported from the provinces of Canada, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

No legislation being known to have taken place in the province of Newfoundland to carry the Reciprocity Treaty into effect, the articles referred to in the said second section of the act of 2d March, 1855, on importation into the United States from said province, must still remain liable to the payment of duty under the existing tariff act.

Before any return of duties paid, or cancellation of bonds, in any of the cases referred to, the collector of the customs will transmit to this department a certified statement in each case, signed by himself, and by the naval officer, where there is one at the port of importation, according to the forms herewith transmitted, setting forth all the particulars of the case, and comprehending the affidavits and certificates required on the application for refunding duty or cancellation of bond, as the case may be.

In cases of future importations from the British provinces into the United States, claiming exemption from the payment of duty under the stipulations of the Reciprocity treaty, the affidavit of the importer is required as to the

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