ART. 13. The respective consuls, vice-consuls, and consularagents, shall have the right to arrest all sailors, who shall have deserted from vessels of war, or merchant vessels belonging to their respective countries, and may send them on board, or to their own country to this effect, they will address themselves in writing to the competent local authorities, and will justify by the exhibition of the ship's register, or roll of the crew, or if the said ship should have sailed, by a copy of the said documents duly certified by them, that the men whom they claim were a part of the same crew. On this demand thus justified, the delivery shall not be referred to them. Besides, every aid and assistance shall be given to them in seeking out, seizing, and arresting the said deserters, who shall even be detained and kept in the prison of the country, on the requisition, and at the expense of the consuls, until these agents shall have found an opportunity to send them away. If, however, this opportunity should not present itself in the space of four months, counting from the day of their arrest, the deserters shall be set at liberty, and cannot again be arrested for the same cause. ART. 14. French vessels arriving in or sailing out of the ports of Texas, and Texan vessels on their entry in, or leaving the ports of France, shall not be subject to other or higher duties of tonnage, of light money, port charges, pilotage, quarantine, or any other affecting the body of the vessel, than those which are paid, or shall be paid by vessels of the country itself. ART. 15. The products of the soil, and of the industry of either of the two countries imported directly into the ports of the other, the origin of which shall be duly ascertained, shall pay the same duties, whether imported in French or Texan vessels. In like manner, the products exported will pay the same duties, and will enjoy the same privileges, allocations, and drawbacks which are or shall be allowed on the exportation of the same articles in the vessels of the country from which they are exported. ART. 16. The cottons of Texas, without distinction of quality, will pay on their entry into the ports of France, when they shall be imported directly in French or Texan vessels, a uniform duty of twenty francs, or one hundred killogrammes. All reductions of duties which may hereafter be made in favour of the cottons of the United States, shall be equally applied to those of Texas gratuitously, should the concession be gratuitous, or with the same compensation, if the concession is conditional. ART. 17. From the day of the exchange of the ratifications of the present treaty, the duties at present levied in Texas, on all fabrics and other articles of silk, or of which silk shall be a chief component part, imported directly into Texas, the manufacture K K of France, in French or Texan vessels, shall be reduced onehalf. It is clearly understood that if the Texan government reduce the duties upon similar products of other nations to a rate inferior to one-half of the duties now existing, France cannot be obliged, in any case, to pay higher duties than those paid by the most favoured nation. The duties at present levied in Texas on the wines and brandies of France, also imported directly in Texan or French vessels, shall be reduced, the first two-fifths, and the second one-fifth. It is understood that in case the republic of Texas should hereafter think proper to diminish the present duties on wines and brandies, the productions of other countries, a corresponding reduction shall be made on the wines and brandies of France, gratuitously if the concession is gratuitous, or with the same compensation if the concession is conditional. ART. 18. The inhabitants of the French colonies, their property and ships, shall enjoy in Texas, and reciprocally the citizens of Texas, their property and ships, shall enjoy in the French colonies all the advantages which are or shall be granted to the most favoured nation. ART. 19. The stipulations of the present treaty shall be perpetual, with the exception fo Articles the 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, and 18th, the duration of which is fixed to eight years, counting from the day of the exchange of the ratifications. ART. 20. The present treaty shall be ratified by the contracting parties, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at Paris or Austin, within the period of eight months, or sooner if possible. In witness whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the present treaty, and have affixed thereto their seals. Done at Paris, the twenty-fifth day of September, in year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine. J. PINCKNEY HENDERSON. ADDITIONAL ARTICLES. ART. 1. As the laws of France require, as conditions of the nationality of a vessel : That it should have been built in France; that the owner, the captain, and three-fourths of the crew shall be citizens of France. And Texas, by reason of the particular circumstances in which she is placed, being unable to comply with the same conditions, the two contracting parties have agreed to consider as Texan vessels those which shall be bona fide the exclusive and real property of a citizen or citizens of Texas, residents of the country for at least two years, and of which the captain and two-thirds of the crew shall also be bona fide citizens of Texas. ART. 2. It is understood that if the republic of Texas thinks proper hereafter to diminish the duties now in force on silk goods, they will maintain between the silk goods, the produce of countries beyond the Cape of Good Hope and similar goods of other countries, a difference of ten per cent. in favour of the latter. ART. 3. The present additional articles shall have the same force for eight years, as if they had been, word for word, inserted in the treaty of this day. They shall be equally ratified by the contracting parties, and the ratifications exchanged at the same time as those of the treaty. Done at Paris, the 25th day of September, in the year Lord, 1839. of our J. PINCKNEY HENDERSON, [L. s.] And whereas, the senate of the republic of Texas, by their resolution of the 14th day of January, 1840, two-thirds of the senators present concurring, did advise and consent to the ratification of the said treaty. Now therefore, I Mirabeau B. Lamar, President of the republic of Texas, have caused the said treaty; with the additional Articles, 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 republic of Texas, and the citizens thereof. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the great seal of the republic of Texas to be affixed. Done at the city of Austin, this 18th day of January, in the year of our Lord, 1840, and of the independence of the republic the fourth. By the President, David G. Burnet, MIRABEAU B. LAMAR, [L. S.] Acting Secretary of State. MY LORD, London, 15th Sept., 1840. Immediately on my arrival at Liverpool, from the republic of Texas, I forwarded to the government journal an account of the latest movements of the Federalists in Texas, which appeared in the Morning Chronicle of the 17th August, showing the course which the Texan government has engaged to pursue pending the struggle between the Centralists and Federalists of Mexico; in addition to which, I beg to direct your Lordship's attention to the traffic in slaves, which is carried on at this moment in the most barefaced manner, between the Southern States of the North American Union and the republic of Texas. The vessels engaged in this branch of the American slave trade are steamers of the first class, of which there are no less than three; the "Neptune," "Columbia," and "New York." These boats respectively make two voyages a month, and the number of slaves thus transported across the Gulf of Mexico may be estimated at one hundred each boat per month. Nothing would be deemed more just, my Lord, than the seizure of the boats thus employed: considering that Mexico was the first civilized nation that abolished slavery, and that that act was not only seized by the British government of 1825 as the medium of opening a direct intercourse between Great Britain and Mexico, and was made the ostensible basis on which our relationship with Mexico was to rest; and moreover, that the legislature of Texas, (if she may for an instant be deemed an independent republic,) the country whence the slaves are taken, has made the importation of slaves by sea, except from the United States, piracy, which exception is overruled by the treaties established in accordance with international law; and lastly, that the United States, the country to which the boats in question belong, as if to demonstrate to the world her repugnance to the slave trade, seized six small vessels in the month of April last, in the port of New York, on a mere suspicion that they were fitting out for the slave trade. The United States are now pouring supplies into Texas, in order that the latter country may be able to fulfil her engagements with the Federalists; and if Texas can only get sufficient slave labour to develope her resources, the Federalists must succeed eventually, when we shall see slavery revived and perpetuated, and other institutions still more injurious to our interests and repugnant to our national prejudices, establiished throughout Mexico, whose dismemberment at this or any future period must prove most ruinous to British interests in that quarter. The recent alterations which have been made with regard to the western boundary of Texas are also worthy of your lordship's attention. Up to the month of May, 1840, the republic of Texas claimed the whole territory lying between the Sabine river, which divides Texas from the United States on the east, to the Rio Grande, or Rio del Norte, on the west; but at the period above mentioned, the republic of Texas ceded the territory lying between the Rio Grande and the Rio Nueces (in Western Texas) to the new republic of Rio Grande; the Nueces being the eastern boundary of the state of Coahuila, which separated it from the province of Texas, as laid down by the council of the eastern internal provinces or states of Mexico, established under the Mexican federal constitution of 1824. Should the Federalists fail in their attempt to establish the independence of the republic of Rio Grande, Texas will doubtless lay claim again to the territory in question. I have the honour to be, Your Lordship's very humble, obedient servant, To the Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston, M.P. DECLARATION OF AMERICAN CONSUL. now To all whom it may concern in the kingdom of Great Britain, United States, republic of Texas, and elsewhere, be it known, that from information just received, I Stewart Newell have good reasons to apprehend that a certain person, named or late a resident of the city of London, in the kingdom of Great Britain, has been using my name in reference to the validity of title in certain documents called Scrip, of the Galveston Bay and Texas Land Company of New York, purporting to be titles to land in Texas. And I am further informed that said represents his having a certificate or affidavit, with my name attached thereto, and sworn to before a magistrate or other public officer, wherein I have deposed to the truth and validity of said titles. Therefore I do now make known that all scrip for titles to land in Texas, such as referred to, or any scrip purporting to convey the right of said Company, or any other of similar character, to be, in my opinion, a base fraud, and unauthorized by any law of Mexico or Texas; and that no land can be obtained upon such scrip being presented at any of the land-offices in the republic of Texas, as experience has proved to me and others who purchased scrip of similar character, and as will fully appear by reference to the laws of Coahuila and Texas, and the republic of Texas, the latter having made provision for the settlement of claims of any and all empresarios, but not of those who claim under them. And I do further declare that said -, nor has any other person ever received from me any letter, document, or writing, or assurance whatever, of the validity of such titles; but if any such |