Page:Life of William Shelburne (vol 2).djvu/490

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454
WILLIAM, EARL OF SHELBURNE

their sovereigns give them the order and example. And for the execution of this Article, sea passes shall be given on each side for the ships which shall be dispatched to carry the news of it to the possessions of the said powers.

Art. 2. His Catholic Majesty shall keep the island of Minorca.

Art. 3. His Britannic Majesty shall cede to his Catholic Majesty East Florida, and his Catholic Majesty shall keep West Florida, provided that the term of 18 months, to be computed from the time of the ratification of the definitive Treaty, shall be granted to the subjects of his Britannic Majesty, who are settled as well in the island of Minorca as in the two Floridas, to sell their estates, recover their debts, and to transport their effects, as well as their persons, without being restrained on account of their religion, or under any other pretence whatsoever, except that of debts and criminal prosecutions. And his Britannic Majesty shall have power to cause all the effects that may belong to him in East Florida, whether artillery or others, to be carried away.

Art. 4. His Catholic Majesty shall not for the future suffer the subjects of his Britannic Majesty, or their workmen, to be disturbed or molested, under any pretence whatsoever, in their occupation of cutting, loading, and carrying away log-wood, in a district of which the boundaries shall be fixed; and for this purpose they may build without hindrance, and occupy without interruption, the houses and magazines necessary for them, for their families, and for their effects, in a place to be agreed upon either in the definitive Treaty, or within six months after the exchange of the ratifications; and his said Catholic Majesty assures to them by this Article, the entire enjoyment of what is above stipulated, provided that these stipulations shall not be considered as derogatory in any respect from the rights of his sovereignty.

Art. 5. His Catholic Majesty shall restore to Great Britain the islands of Providence and the Bahamas, without exception, in the same condition in which they were when they were conquered by the arms of the king of Spain.

Art. 6. All the countries and territories which may have been or may be conquered, in any part of the world whatsoever, by the arms of his Britannic Majesty, or by those of his Catholic Majesty, and which are not included in the present Articles, shall be restored, without difficulty, and without requiring compensations.

Art. 7. By the definitive Treaty, all those which have existed till now between the two high contracting parties, and which shall not be derogated from either by the said Treaty, or by the