mg CONVENTION WITH FRANCE. 1788. as well as from all duties, taxes, impositions and charges whatsoever, except on the estate real and personal of which they maybe the proprietors or possesscrs, which shall be subject to the taxes imposed on the estates of all other individuals: And in all other instances they shall be subject to the lws of the land as the natives are. Those of the said consuls and vice-consuls who shall exerci e commerce, shall be respectively subject to all taxes, charges and impositions established on other merchants. They shall place over the outward door of their house, the arms of their sovereign ; but this mark of indication shall not give to the said house any privilege of asylum for any person or property whatsoever. ARTICLE III. Gough may The respective consuls and vice-consuls may establish agents in the ¤¤D<>i¤¤¤€6¤i¤· different ports and places of their departments where necessity shall require. These agents may be chosen among the merchants, either national or foreign, and furnished with a commission from one of the said consuls: They shall confine themselves respectively to the rendering to their respective merchants, navigators and vessels, all possible service, and to inform the nearest consul of the wants of the said merchants, navigators and vessels, without the said agents otherwise participating in the immunities, rights and privileges attributed to consuls and vice-consuls, and without power under any pretext whatever, to exact from the said merchants any duty or emolument whatsoever. ARTICLE IV. Comm my The consuls and vice-consuls respectively may establish a chancery, ggggblighg where shall be deposited the consular determinations, acts and ro- ¤h¤¤¤¤¤’Y· ceedings, as also testaments, obligations, contracts, and other acts dime by or between persons of their nation, and etfects left by deceased persons, or saved from shipwreck. They may consequently appoint fit persons to act in the said chancery, receive and swear them in, commit to them the custody of the seal, and authority to seal commissions, sentences and other consular acts, and also to discharge the functions of notary and register of the consulate. ARTICLE V. pews; and The consuls and vice-consuls respectively shall have the exclusive dw ¤*`¤¤¤¤¤l¤· right of receiving in their chancery, or on board of vessels, the declarations and all other the acts, which the captains, masters, crews, passen- 'EIS, and merchants of their nation may chuse to make there, even eir testaments and other disposals by last will: And the copies of the said acts, duly authenticated by the said consuls or vice-consuls, under the seal of their consulate, shall receive faith in law, equally as their originals would, in all the tribunals of the dominions of the Most Christian King, and of the United States. They shall also have, and exclusively, in case of the absence of the testamentary executor, administrator or legal heir, the right to inventory, liquidate and proceed to the sale of the personal estate left by subjects or citizens of their nation, who shall die within the extent of their consulate; they shall proceed therein with the assistance of two merchants of their said nation, or for want of them, of any other at their choice, and shall cause to be deposited in their chzmcery, the etfects and papers of the said estates; and no officer, military, judiciary, or of the police of the country, shall disturb them or interfere therein, in any manner whatsoever: but the said consuls and vice-consuls shall not deliver up the said effects, nor the proceeds thereof, to the lawtiil heirs, or to their order, till they shall have caused to be paid all debts which the deceased shall have contracted in the country; for which purpose the creditors shall have a right to attach the
