The Marquis de la Fayette, who will have the honor of delivering this to you, has, ever since his arrival in Europe, been very industrious in his endeavors to serve us and promote our interests, and has been of great use on several occasions. I should wish the Congress might think fit to express in some proper manner their sense of his merit.

My malady prevents my going to Versailles, as I cannot bear a carriage upon pavement; but my grandson goes regularly on Court days to supply my place, and is well received there. The last letters I have had the honor of receiving from you are of the 14th of January.

With great respect, I am, sir, &c.,

B. FRANKLIN.

Consular Convention.

Convention between his Most Christian Majesty and the Thirteen United States of North America, for the purpose of determining and fixing the functions and prerogatives of their respective Consuls, Vice Consuls, Agents, and Commissaries.

His Majesty the Most Christian King, and the Thirteen United States of North America, having by the 29th article of the treaty of amity and commerce concluded between them, mutually granted the liberty of having in their respective States and ports, consuls, vice consuls, agents, and commissaries, and being willing, in consequence thereof, to determine and fix in a reciprocal and permanent manner the functions and prerogatives of the said consuls, vice consuls, agents, and commissaries, his Most Christian Majesty has nominated the Sieur Charles Gravier, Count of Vergennes, Baron of Welfording, &c., Counsellor of the King in all his Councils, Commander of his Orders, Head of the Royal Council of Finances, Counsellor of the State of the Sword, Minister and Secretary of State, and of his Commands and Finances; and the United States, Mr. Benjamin Franklin, their Minister Plenipotentiary to his Most Christian Majesty, who, after having communicated to each other their respective full powers, agreed upon what follows:

ARTICLE I.

The consuls and vice consuls nominated by his Most Christian

Majesty and the United States shall be bound to present their commissions on their arrival in their respective States, according to the form which shall be there established., There shall be delivered to them without any charges the exequatur necessary for the exercise of their functions; and on the exhibition they shall make of the said exequatur, the governors, commanders, heads of justice, public bodies, tribunals, and other officers, having authority in the ports and places of their consulates, shall cause them to enjoy, as soon as possible, and without difficulty, the preeminences, authority, and privileges, reciprocally granted, without exacting from said consuls and vice consuls any duty under any pretext whatever.

ARTICLE II.

The respective consuls shall have power to establish vice consuls in the different ports and places of their departments, where necessity shall require. There shall be delivered to them likewise the exequatur necessary to the exercise of their functions, in the form pointed out in the preceding article, and on the exhibition, which they shall make of the said exequatur, they shall be admitted and acknowledged in the terms, and according to the powers, authority, and privileges stipulated by the 1st, 4th, and 5th articles of the present convention.

ARTICLE III.

The respective consuls and vice consuls may establish agents in the 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. It shall be their business, respectively, to render to their respective merchants, navigators, and vessels, all possible service, and to inform the nearest consul or vice 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 the consuls and vice consuls, and without power to exact from the said merchants any duty or emolument whatever, under any pretext whatever.

ARTICLE IV.

The consuls and vice consuls, officers of the consulate, and in

general all persons attached to the consular functions, shall enjoy respectively a full and entire immunity for their persons, their papers, and their houses. The list of the said persons shall be approved and inspected by the executive power of the place of their residence.

They shall be exempt from all personal service and public offices, from soldier's billets, militia, watch-guard, guardianship, and trusteeship, as well as from all duties, taxes, impositions, and charges whatsoever, except the real estates of which they may be proprietors, which shall be subject to the taxes imposed on the estates of all other individuals.

They shall place over the outward door of their house the arms of their sovereign, without this mark of distinction giving to the said house the right of asylum for any malefactor or criminal, so that in case it should happen that any malefactor or criminal take refuge there, he shall be instantly delivered up on the first requisition, and without difficulty.

ARTICLE V.

Generally, in all cases whatever, which concern the police or administration of justice, where it may be necessary to have a juridical declaration from the said consuls and vice consuls respectively, the governors, commandants, chief justice, public bodies, tribunals, or other officers whatever, of their respective residence there, having authority, shall be bound to inform them of it, by writing to them, or sending to them a military or civil officer to let them know, either the object which is proposed, or the necessity there is for going to them to demand from them this declaration, and the said consuls and vice consuls shall be bound on their part to comply faithfully with what shall be desired of them on these occasions.

ARTICLE VI.

The consuls and vice consuls respectively may establish a chancery, where shall be deposited the consular acts and deliberations, all effects left by deceased persons, or saved from shipwreck, as well as testaments, obligations, contracts, and, in general, all the acts and proceedings done between, or by, persons of their

nations.

They may, in consequence, appoint for the business of the said chancery capable persons, receive them, administer an oath to them,

give to them the keeping of the seal, and the right of the seal, commissions, judgments, and other acts of the consulate, as well as there to discharge the functions of notaries and registers.

ARTICLE VII.

The consuls and vice consuls respectively shall have the exclusive right of receiving in their chancery, or on board of vessels, the declarations and all other acts which the captains, masters, seamen, passengers, and merchants of their nation would make there, even their testaments and other dispositions of last will, and the copies of the said acts duly authenticated by the said consuls, or vice consuls, and under the seal of their consulate, shall receive faith in law in all the tribunals of France and the United States.

They shall have also, and exclusively, the right to inventory, liquidate, and proceed to the sale of the movable effects of the estates left by subjects of their nation who shall die within the extent of the consulate. They shall proceed therein with the assistance of two merchants of their said nation of their own choosing, and shall deposit in their chancery the effects and papers of the said estates, and no officer, military or civil, or of the police of the country, shall trouble them or interfere therein, in any manner whatsoever; but the said consuls and vice consuls shall not deliver up the same and their product to the lawful heirs, or their attorneys, until they shall have discharged all the debts which the deceased shall have contracted in the country, by judgment, by acts, or by notes, the writing and signing of which shall be known and certified by two principal merchants of the nation of the said deceased; and in all other cases the payment of debts cannot be ordered but on the creditor's giving sufficient and local security to repay the sums unduly received, principal, interest, and costs, which securities, however, shall remain duly discharged after a year in time of peace, and two years in time of war, if the demand in discharge cannot be formed before these delays, against the heirs who shall present themselves.

ARTICLE VIII.

The respective consuls and vice consuls shall receive the declarations, "consulats," and other consular acts, from all captains and masters of their respective nations on account of average losses

sustained at sea by leakage, or throwing merchandizes overboard, and these captains and masters shall leave in the chancery of the said consuls and vice consuls, the "consulats," and other consular acts, which they may have had made in other ports on account of the accidents that may have happened to them on their voyage. If a subject of his Most Christain Majesty and a citizen of the United States are interested in the said cargo, the average shall be fixed by the tribunals of the country, and not by the consuls or vice consuls; and the tribunals shall admit the acts and declarations, if any should have been passed before the said consuls and vice consuls; but when only the subjects of their own nation, or foreigners, shall be interested, the respective consuls or vice consuls, and in case of their absence or distance, their agents furnished with their commission, shall officially nominate skillful persons of their said nation to regulate the damages and averages.

ARTICLE IX.

In case by storms or other accidents, French ships or vessels shall run ashore on the coasts of the United States, or the ships and vessels of the United States shall run ashore on the coasts of France, the consul or vice consul nearest to the place of shipwreck shall do whatever he may judge proper, as well for the purpose of saving the said ship or vessel, its cargo and appurtenances, as for the storing and security of the effects and merchandize saved. He may take an inventory without any officers military, of the custom-house, justices, or the police of the country interfering, otherwise than to facilitate to the consuls, vice consuls, captain and crew of the vessel shipwrecked or run ashore, all the assistance and favor which they shall ask, either for the celerity and security of the salvage and effects saved, or to prevent all disturbances.

To prevent even any kind of dispute and discussion in the said cases of shipwreck, it has been agreed that where no consul or vice consul shall be found to attend to the salvage, or that the residence of the said consul or vice consul (he not being at the place of shipwreck) shall be further distant from the said place than that of the competent territorial judge, the latter shall immediately there proceed therein with all the celerity, safety, and precautions prescribed by the respective laws; but the said territorial judge shall