[German Constitution.]

Estimates of Expenditure for the Army, arranged under heads, are to be laid before the Council of the Confederation and the Imperial Diet only for their information and remembrance.

ART. LXXII. The Chancellor of the Empire is to give account yearly to the Council of the Confederation and to the Imperial Diet of the application of all the incomes of the Empire, for discharge of responsibility.

ART. LXXIII. In cases of extraordinary requirements, the Contracting of a Loan, also the undertaking of a Guarantee on account of the Empire, may take place in the way of Imperial legislation.

Final Stipulation to Section XII.

To the Expenditure for the Bavarian Army, Articles LXIX and LXXI are only applicable in conformity with the stipulations of the Treaty of 23rd November, 1870, mentioned in the final stipulation to Section XI and Article LXXII, only so far that the assignment to Bavaria of the sums necessary for the Bavarian Army is to be notified to the Council of the Confederation and to the Imperial Diet.

XIII. Settlement of Differences and Penal Stipulations.

ART. LXXIV. Every undertaking against the existence, the integrity, the safety, or the Constitution of the German Empire; finally, insulting the Council of the Confederation or the Imperial Diet, or a member of the Council of the Confederation or of the Imperial Diet, or any authority, or a public functionary of the Empire, whilst in the exercise of their vocation, or in reference to their vocation, by word, in writing, printing, drawing, figurative, or other representation, will be sentenced and punished in the separate States of the Confederation, according to the existing law, or the laws which may in future be enacted there, in pursuance of which a similar offence committed against that separate State of the Confederation, its Constitution, its Chambers, or Diet, the members of its Chambers or Diet, its authorities or functionaries, would be punished.

ART. LXXV. For those undertakings against the German Empire, mentioned in Article LXXIV, which, if they had been undertaken against one of the separate States of the Confederation, would be qualified as High Treason, or Treason against the

[German Constitution.]

Country, the Common Upper Court of Appeal of the three Free and Hanseatic Towns, at Lubeck, is the competent deciding authority in first and last instance.

The special regulations as to the competency and the procedure of the Upper Court of Appeal are to be settled by way of Imperial legislation. Until the promulgation of an Imperial law, the competency of the Courts in the separate States of the Confederation, and the provisions relative to the procedure of these Courts, remain as they have hitherto been.

ART. LXXVI. Differences between various States of the Confederation, in so far as they are not of a private legal nature, and therefore to be decided by the competent judicial authorities, will, at the suit of one of the parties, be settled by the Council of the Confederation.

Constitutional differences in those States of the Confederation in whose constitution no authority for settling such disputes is provided are to be amicably arranged by the Council of the Confederation at the suit of one of the parties, or if this should not succeed, they are to be settled by way of Imperial legislation.

ART. LXXVII. If, in a State of the Confederation, the case of a refusal of justice should occur, and sufficient aid cannot be obtained by way of law, it is the duty of the Council of the Confederation to take cognizance of the complaints as to the refused or hindered administration of the law when proved according to the Constitution and existing laws of the respective State of the Confederation, and thereupon to cause the Government of the Confederate State which has given occasion for the complaint, to afford judicial aid.

XIV. General Stipulations.

ART. LXXVIII. Alterations in the Constitution take place by way of legislation. They are considered as rejected if they have 14 votes in the Council of the Confederation against them.

Those provisions of the Constitution of the Empire, by which certain rights are established for Separate States of the Confederation in their relation to the community, can only be altered with the consent of the State of the Confederation entitled to those rights.

[Duties of Neutrals. Maritime Warfare.]

No. 445. REGULATIONS relative to Duties of Neutrals in time of War. Washington, 8th May, 1871.

(Article VI of the Treaty of Washington of 8th May, 1871.*)

RULES.

A Neutral Government is bound—

First. To use due diligence to prevent the fitting out, arming, or equipping, within its jurisdiction, of any Vessel which it has reasonable ground to believe is intended to cruize or to carry on War against a Power with which it is at peace; and also to use like diligence to prevent the departure from its jurisdiction of any Vessel intended to cruize or carry on War as above, such Vessel having been specially adapted, in whole or in part, within such jurisdiction, to warlike use.

Secondly. Not to permit or suffer either Belligerent to make use of its Ports or Waters as the base of Naval Operations against the other, or for the purpose of the renewal or augmentation of military supplies or arms, or the recruitment of men.

Thirdly. To exercise due diligence in its own Ports and Waters, and, as to all persons within its jurisdiction, to prevent any violation of the foregoing obligations and duties.

And the High Contracting Parties agree to observe these Rules as between themselves in future, and to bring them to the knowledge of other Maritime Powers and to invite them to accede to them.†

*Not given; having no reference to the "Map of Europe."

† A difference of opinion having existed between the British and United States Governments as to the interpretation to be given to these Rules, a correspondence upon the subject passed between those Governments, from June, 1871, to February, 1874, which was laid before Parliament on the 17th July, 1874, and showed that, owing to such difference of opinion, Foreign Powers had not been invited to accede to it.

[Peace. Alsace and Lorraine.]

No. 446.-DEFINITIVE TREATY OF PEACE between France and Germany. Signed at Frankfort, 10th May, 1871.

Preamble. Reference to Preliminaries of Peace of 26th February, 1871. 1. Line of Frontier round the Town and Fortifications of Belfort to belong to France. Cessions in favour of Germany. International Boundary Commission.

2. Choice of Nationality. Retention of Immovable Property. Amnesty. 3. Delivery of Archives and Documents.

4. Reimbursements to be made by French Government.

5. Navigation of the Moselle and Canals.

6. Religion. Protestant and Jewish Dioceses.

7. Payment of War Indemnity. Value of Prussian Thaler. of Evacuation upon the payment of 2,000,000,000 Francs.

8. Contributions and Taxes. Maintenance of German Troops.

Conditions

9. Exceptional Treatment granted to the Produce of Industry of the ceded Territories.

10. Prisoners of War. Number of French Troops in and around Paris.

11. Commerce and Navigation. Most Favoured Nation Treatment. Renewal of Navigation, Railway, and Copyright Treaties, &c. Reservations of French Government.

12. Rights of Germans expelled from France. Naturalisation.

13. Restoration of Maritime Prizes.

14. Canalisation of the Moselle.

15. National Treatment to respective Subjects on account of events arising out of the War.

16. Cemeteries.

17. Additional Stipulations reserved for further Negotiations.

18. Ratifications.

Additional Articles.

1. Purchase of Railways of the East and Guillaume-Luxemburg.

2. Purchase by Prussia of Rights and Property on Swiss Territory of Railways of the East.

3. Rectification of Frontier near Belfort.

(Translation.)

Reference to Preliminaries of Peace of 26th February, 1871.

M. JULES FAVRE, Minister for Foreign Affairs of the French Republic, M. Augustin Thomas Eugène de Pouyer-Quertier, Minister of Finances of the French Republic, and M. Marc Thomas Eugène Goulard, Member of the National Assembly,

[Peace. Alsace and Lorraine.]

stipulating in the name of the French Republic, of the one part;

On the other, Prince Otho de Bismarck-Schoenhausen, Chancellor of the German Empire, Count Harry d'Arnim, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of His Majesty the Emperor of Germany at the Papal Court, stipulating in the name of His Majesty the Emperor of Germany; having agreed to convert into a Definitive Treaty the Preliminaries of Peace of the 26th February of the present year (No. 438) modified as it is about to be by the following Dispositions, have agreed:

Line of Frontier round the Town and Fortifications of Belfort to belong to France.

ART. I. The distance between the Town of Belfort and the Line of Frontier, such as it had been proposed during the negotiations of Versailles, and such as it is marked on the Map annexed to the Ratifications of the Preliminaries of the 26th February (No. 438), is considered as describing the Radius which, by virtue of the Clause relating thereto in Article I of the Preliminaries, is to remain to France with the Town and Fortifications of Belfort.

Rectification of Frontier. Cession in favour of France.

The German Government is disposed to extend that Radius so as to include the Cantons of Belfort, Delle, and Giromagny, as well as the western part of the Canton of Fontaine, to the West of a line to be traced from the spot where the Canal from the Rhone to the Rhine leaves the Canton of Delle to the South of Montreux-Chateau, to the Northern Limits of the Canton between Bourg and Félon where that Line would join the Eastern Limit of the Canton of Giromagny.

Cessions in favour of Germany.

The German Government will, nevertheless, not cede the above Territories unless the French Republic agrees, on its part, to a rectification of Frontier along the Western Limits of the Cantons of Cattenom and Thionville which will give to Germany the Territory to the East of a Line starting from the Frontier of Luxemburg between Hussigny and Redingen, leaving to France the Villages of Thil and Villerupt, extending between Erronville and Aumetz between Beuvillers and Boulange, between Trieux