prisons, at the request and cost of those who shall claim them, in order to be detained until the time when they shall be restored to the vessel to which they belonged, or sent back to their own country by a vessel of the same nation, or any other vessel whatsoever. The agents, owners, or masters of vessels on account of whom the deserters have been apprehended, upon requisition of the local authorities, shall be required to take or send away such deserters from the States and dominions of the contracting parties, or give such security for their good conduct as the law may require. But if not sent back nor reclaimed within six months from the day of their arrest, or if all the expenses of such imprisonment are not defrayed by the party causing such arrest and imprisonment, they shall be set at liberty, and shall not be again arrested for the same cause. However, if the deserters should be found to have committed any crime or offence, their surrender may be delayed until the tribunal before which their case shall be depending shall have pronounced its sentence, and such sentence shall have been carried into effect. ARTICLE XI. It is agreed that perfect and entire liberty of conscience shall be en joyed by the citizens and subjects of both the contracting parties, in the countries of the one and the other, without their being liable to be disturbed or molested on account of their religious belief. But nothing contained in this article shall be construed to interfere with the exclusive right of the Hawaiian Government to regulate for itself the schools which it may establish or support within its jurisdiction. ARTICLE XII. If any ships of war or other vessels be wrecked on the coasts of the States or Territories of either of the contracting parties, such ships or vessels, or any parts thereof, and all furniture and appurtenances belonging thereunto, and all goods and merchandise which shall be saved therefrom, or the produce thereof, if sold, shall be faithfully restored with the least possible delay to the proprietors, upon being claimed by them or by their duly authorized factors; and, if there are no such proprietors or factors on the spot, then the said goods and merchandise, or the proceeds thereof, as well as all the papers found on board such wrecked ships or vessels, shall be delivered to the American or Hawaiian consul or vice-consul in whose district the wreck may have taken place; and such consul, vice-consul, proprietors, or factors, shall pay only the expenses incurred in the preservation of the property, together with the rate of salvage and expenses of quarantine which would have been payable in the like case of a wreck of a national vessel; and the goods and merchandise saved from the wreck shall not be subject to duties unless entered for consumption, it being understood that in case of any legal claim upon such wreck, goods, or merchandise, the same shall be referred for decision to the competent tribunals of the country. ARTICLE XIII. The vessels of either of the two contracting parties which may be forced by stress of weather or other cause into one of the ports of the other shall be exempt from all duties of port or navigation paid for the benefit of the State, if the motives which led to their seeking refuge be real and evident, and if no cargo be discharged or taken on board, save such as may relate to the subsistence of the crew, or be necessary for the repair of the vessels, and if they do not stay in port beyond the time necessary, keeping in view the cause which led to their seeking refuge. ARTICLE XIV. The contracting parties mutually agree to surrender, upon official requisition, to the authorities of each, all persons who, being charged with the crimes of murder, piracy, arson, robbery, forgery, or the utterance of forged paper, committed within the jurisdiction of either, shall be found within the territories of the other, provided that this shall only be done upon such evidence of criminality as, according to the laws of the place where the person so charged shall be found, would justify his apprehension and commitment for trial if the crime had there been committed; and the respective judges and other magistrates of the two Governments shall have authority, upon complaint made under oath, to issue a warrant for the apprehension of the person so charged, that he may be brought before such judges or other magistrates, respectively, to the end that the evidence of criminality may be heard and considered; and if, on s hearing, the evidence be deemed sufficient to sustain the charge, all be the duty of the examining judge or magistrate to certify the same to the proper executive authority, that a warrant may issue for the surrender of such fugitive. The expense of such apprehension and delivery shall be borne and defrayed by the party who makes the requisition and receives the fugitive. ין ARTICLE XV. So soon as steam or other mail packets under the flag of either of the contracting parties shall have commenced running between their respective ports of entry, the contracting parties agree to receive at the post-offices of those ports all mailable matter, and to forward it as directed, the destination being to some regular post-office of either country, charging thereupon the regular postal rates as established by law in the territories of either party receiving said mailable matter, in addition to the original postage of the office whence the mail was sent. Mails for the United States shall be made up at regular intervals at the Hawaiian post-office, and dispatched to ports of the United States, the postmasters at which ports shall open the same, and forward the inclosed matter as directed, crediting the Hawaiian Government with their postage as established by law, and stamped upon each manuscript or printed sheet. All mailable matter destined for the Hawaiian Islands shall be received at the several post-offices in the United States and forwarded to San Francisco, or other ports on the Pacific coast of the United States, whence the postmasters shall dispatch it by the regular mail packets to Honolulu, the Hawaiian Government agreeing on their part to receive and collect for and credit the Post-Office Department of the United States with the United States' rates charged thereupon. It shall be optional to prepay the postage on letters in either country, but postage on printed sheets and newspapers shall, in all cases, be prepaid. The respective Post-Office Departments of the contracting parties shall in their accounts, which are to be adjusted annually, be credited with all dead letters returned. ARTICLE XVI. The present treaty shall be in force from the date of the exchange of the ratifications, for the term of ten years, and further, until the end of twelve months after either of the contracting parties shall have given notice to the other of its intention to terminate the same, each of the said contracting parties reserving to itself the right of giving such notice at the end of the said term of ten years or at any subsequent term. Any citizen or subject of either party infringing the articles of this treaty shall be held responsible for the same, and the harmony and good correspondence between the two Governments shall not be interrupted thereby, each party engaging in no way to protect the offender or sanction such violation. ARTICLE XVII. The present treaty shall be ratified by the President of the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate of the said States, and by His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, by and with the advice of privy council of state, and the ratification shall be exchanged at Houlu within eighteen months from the date of its signature, or sooner, possible. In witness whereof the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the same in triplicate and have thereto affixed their seals. Done at Washington, in the English language, the twentieth day of December, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine. JOHN M. CLAYTON, SEAL.] JAMES JACKSON JARVES. [SEAL.] And whereas the said treaty has been duly ratified on both parts and the respective ratifications of the same were exchanged at Honolulu on the 24th day of August last, by Charles Bunker, consul of the United States at Lahaina, and R. C. Wyllie, minister of foreign relations of His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, on the part of their respective governments: Now, therefore, be it known that I, Millard Fillmore, President of the United States, have caused the said treaty to be made public, to the end that the same, and every article and clause thereof, may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the United States and the citizens thereof. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this 9th day of November, in the year of our Lord 1850, and of the Independence of the United States the seventy-fifth. MILLARD FILLMORE. [L. S.] By the President: W. S. DERRICK, Acting Secretary of State. S. Ex. 77——————6 Mr. G. P. Judd and Mr. James J. Jarves to Mr. Clayton. WASHINGTON, May 30, 1850. SIR: We have the honor to inclose for your perusal copies of certain documents relative to the late difficulties which have arisen between the Governments of France and the Hawaiian Islands. Nos. 17, 18, and 19 relate to an application to the Government of Her Britannic Majesty in order to obtain their good offices in the adjustment of the points at issue. Nos. 20 and 21 relate to a new treaty with France. From these you will perceive that the British Government have consented to use their good offices in favor of our Government. We are instructed to request the friendly interposition of the United States towards a satisfactory settlement of the difficulties with France, and we invite the coöperation of your excellency, particularly with reference to the adoption by both England and France of treaties similar to that negotiated by the United States. It is the earnest desire of His Hawaiian Majesty that the United States become party to an arrangement with those two powers to secure his, neutrality in all wars and provide for the settlement of any future difficulty which may arise between the Hawaiian Islands and either of the three powers by a reference to the other two. Trusting that our communication may meet with a favorable consideration, we subscribe ourselves, Your excellency's most obedient servants, [Inclosures not found with note.] G. P. JUDD, JAMES J. JARVES. Mr. Clayton to Mr. Judd and Mr. Jarves. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, To Messrs. G. P. JUDD and JAMES J. JARVES, Washington: GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the 30th ultimo, with the accompanying documents, relative to the difference between His Hawaiian Majesty's Government and the Government of France, growing out of certain proceedings of the late consul-general of France and of the naval commander of that Republic at the Hawaiian Islands. Your note has been submitted to the President, who has directed me to state, in reply, that as the United States have strong motives both of sympathy and interest for desiring that His Hawaiian Majesty's Government should be upon the most friendly terms with all others and especially with those of powerful commercial States, he ardently hopes that the misunderstanding adverted to may be adjusted to the mutual satisfaction of the parties, and will cheerfully do anything in his power, compatible with the cardinal policy of this Government, to bring about that desirable result. An instruction will accordingly be addressed to Mr. Rives, the United States minister at Paris, directing him to employ his good offices, either separately or in conjunction with the British minister, for the purpose of accommo dating the dispute between His Hawaiian Majesty's Government and that of France. The desire which you express in behalf of His Hawaiian Majesty that the United States should become a party to an arrangement with Great Britain and France to secure His Majesty's neutrality in all wars and provide for the settlement of any future difficulty which may arise between the Hawaiian Islands and either of the three powers, by a reference to the other two, shall be taken into respectful consideration. I avail myself of the occasion, gentlemen, to offer to you the assurance of my very high regard. JOHN M. CLAYTON. No. 15.] Mr. Clayton to Mr. Rives. TO WILLIAM C. RIVES, Esq., etc.: DEPARTMENT OF STATE, SIR: I transmit a copy of a note and of the accompanying papers addressed to this Department, under date the 30th of May last, by Messrs. G. P. Judd and James Jackson Jarves, accredited to this Goverment as special commissioners of His Hawaiian Majesty, requesting the friendly interposition of the United States towards a satisfactory settlement of the differences between the Hawaiian Government and that of France. A copy of my answer to the application is also inclosed. It certainly is very desirable that the relations between France and the Hawaiian Islands should be of an amicable character. We desire that those islands should maintain their independence. We believe that their existing government is competent to discharge the duties of a sovereign state, and that if any of its acts or omissions with reference to other governments, or to the citizens or subjects owing them allegiance, have been of questionable propriety, this should be imputed to the inexperience of the Hawaiian functionaries, and to the difficulties arising from the peculiarities of their position. It undoubtedly behooves the governments of older and more powerful states who hold official intercourse with the Hawaiian Government to view with indulgence any delinquencies which they may commit clearly resulting from the causes just indicated. The occasion is not considered to call for an expression of an opinion by this Department in regard to the merits of the controversy between the French and the Hawaiian authorities. The Department, however, will not hesitate to express its belief that whatever may have been the convictions of the French officers as to the justice of their cause, the measures adopted to obtain redress were unnecessarily harsh. It is hoped that this will ultimately be the conclusion of the French Government itself; and that, in that event, it will make such amends to the Hawaiian Government as a great and magnanimous nation can not fail to consider as due in such case to a feeble and injured state. The Department will be slow to believe that the French have any intention to adopt, with reference to the Sandwich Islands, the same policy which they have pursued in regard to Tahiti. If, however, in your judgment it should be warranted by circumstances, you may take a proper opportunity to intimate to the minister for foreign affairs of |