for the purpose of obtaining the application of the modifications, which not being comprised in the articles, might give ground for opposite sentiments between the five Courts. "Finally, the opinion of the Conference expressed on the 4th of January, 1832, on the subject of the 24 articles, and according to which, it did not seem to think about interfering its good offices, in order to prolong from fourteen days to a month the reciprocal evacuation after the exchange of the ratifications, is in direct opposition with the first modified article, which appoints a determined day. "Independent of the remarks made by the court of the Hague, on the 24 articles, the epochs fixed in the 14th article are no longer in accord with the payments which are to take place, since the Low Countries have not only effected the payment of the half year, due on the 1st of January last, but besides procured the funds necessary for the payment of the dividends of the half-year, ending on the 1st of July current. "From these motives the answer cannot be otherwise than negative to the question of supposing Belgium shall have given its assent to the project of an arrangement between the two aforesaid countries; in such case, this project, and that of an arrangement between the five Powers and the king, would obtain the approbation of his majesty. But at the same time the Court of the Hague has endeavoured to find appropriate means in the actual state of the requisitions, to satisfy the dissident parties on the points of difference. "The court of the Hague believes that it has succeeded therein, by the annexed project of a treaty between the king and the five Courts, tending to regulate the separation of Belgium from Holland, and containing the treaty to be formed between Holland and Belgium; a project which the undersigned is charged to offer to the Conference, and which he has the honour of doing in the subjoined note. "The plenipotentiaries of the five Powers assembled in Conference in London, will find therein a new proof of the desire of the government of the Low Countries to put an end to the existing difficulties, of which an example would be in vain sought after in the annals of diplomacy, and without abandoning itself to the chances of posterior negotiations. "The undersigned hope that their excellencies will fully appreciate the pacific sentiments which this project will give rise to, and will deign to honour him with a favourable answer in as short a delay as their Conferences will allow. "He is also charged to state, that these new sacrifices for the preservation of peace, made by the king, are too hard, not to be the last; and at the same time he is charged to add, in the most formal manner, that if the five Powers shall not succeed in coming to a full understanding among themselves on the contents of this project, it is to be considered as null and of no avail; that the king reserves to himself most expressly the right of maintaining, by all the means which Divine Providence has placed within his power, the conditions of the annex A of the 12th protocol, without acknowledging either the political independence of Belgium, or prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg, as long as he shall not have received acceptable conditions; that the king. rejects the responsibility of the difficulties which may arise, and to which the Conference has made allusion, and which his majesty shall not have provoked; and that he will never neglect his honour nor the supreme law of nations, that sacred and imprescriptible law, from which no state has ever deviated with impunity, and which leaves to every government of a free people its own will as the last arbitrator of its rights. "The undersigned seize the opportunity of, &c. DUTCH PROJECT of TREATY between his MAJESTY the KING of the NETHERLANDS on one part, and the Courts of AUSTRIA, of FRANCE, of ENGLAND, of PRUSSIA, and of RUSSIA, on the other, 30th of JUNE, 1832. 1. His majesty the king of the Netherlands is ready and engages himself to cause to be concluded and to sign by his plenipotentiary, the treaty mentioned in the following articles, when it shall be signed by the representatives of the five Powers. 2. The five Powers declare that the treaty mentioned in the preceding articles, which has been matured in the Conference, which their representatives constitute at London, contains the dispositions which they desired to see carried into effect for the re-establishment of good understanding and of peace between the five parties interested, and for the maintenance of the peace of Europe, which treaty guaranteed by the said Courts is of the following tenour: Treaty between Belgium and Hol land. ARTICLE I. The Belgic territory shall consist of the provinces of Brabant, south of Liege, of Namur, Hainault, Flanders west and east of Antwerp, Limburg, such as they belonged to the kingdom of the Netherlands, established in 1815, with the exception of the districts of Limburg designated in article 3. The Belgian territory shall comprise further the part of the territory of the grand duchy, designated in article , upon condition of obtaining the consent of which it makes mention. II. His majesty the king of the Netherlands, grand duke of Luxemburg, consents, in consideration of the approbation of the male issue of the house of Nassau, and of the Germanic Confederation, that the frontiers which shall separate the grand duchy of Luxemburg from the territory shall be traced as follows:-To commence from the French frontiers between Rodauge, which will remain with the grand duchy of Luxemburg, and Athus, which will belong to Belgium, there will be, according to the annexed map, a line drawn, which leaving the road of Arlong to Linguy, the town of Arlong, with its territory, and the road of Arlong to Bastogne to Belgium, between Mesauez, which will remain to Belgium, and Clemency, which will remain to the grand duchy, will pass by Steenfurt, which will likewise remain to the grand duchy. From Steenfurt this line will be prolonged in the direction of Eischen, Hebus, Guirsch, Oberpalen, Grend, Nothomb, Paret, and Peole, as far as Martelange; Hebus,__ Guirsch, Grend, Nothomb, and Paret, will belong to Belgium; and Eischen, Oberpalen, Perle, and Martelange, to the grand duchy; from Martelange this line will follow the course of the Sure, the towing path of which will serve as a boundary between the two states, as far as opposite to Tintage, from whence the line will be prolonged in the most direct manner possible to the actual limits of the arrondissements of Diekirch, and all parts between Surlet, Harlange, Jescamps, which it will leave to the grand duchy, and Heuville, Livarchamp, and Loutermange, which will remain to Belgium. Hence, in the environs of Doncols and Zoule, which will remain to the grand duchy, touching at the actual frontier of the arrondissement of Diekirch, the line will follow it as far as the Prussian territory. All the territory, all the towns and places situate on the west of this line, will belong to Belgium, and all the territory, towns, and places, on the last, will continue to belong to the grand duchy of Luxemburg. It is understood that the commissioners for fixing the boundaries alluded to in article 4, in drawing the line, and conforming themselves as much as possible to the place abovementioned, and also to the marks in the chart subjoined to the present article, will pay attention to the local situation and to the convenience of both parties. His majesty the king of the Netherlands, grand duke of Luxemburg, will make the necessary efforts to obtain the consent abovementioned. III. With a view to the execution of that part of article 1 which regards the provinces of Limburg, the territories of which the boundaries are pointed out below, shall continue to form part of the kingdom of the Netherlands. 1st. On the right bank of the Meuse to the Dutch detached VOL. LXXIV. pieces of territory on the said bank to Limburg, shall be added the districts of the same provinces on the same bank, which, in 1790, belonged to the States-general, so that that part of the present provinces of Limburg which is situated on the right bank of the Meuse, and is comprised between that river on the west, the frontiers of Prussia on the east, the present boundary of the province of Liege on the south side, and Dutch Guelderland on the north, shall henceforth belong to the kingdom of the Netherlands. 2nd. On the left bank of the Meuse, a line, commencing at the most southern point of the Dutch provinces of North Brabant, shall be drawn according to the annexed chart, which, from below Wessem, shall enter that place and Stevenswardt, and then touch upon the Meuse at the point where, on its left bank, the boundaries of the present districts of Ruremonde and Maestricht join, so that Begerotte, Hambroy, Neer-Heren, Hervoort, and Thorn, with their territory, as well as all the other places to the north of that line, shall form part of the Dutch territory. The former Dutch detached pieces of territory in the province of Limburg, on the left bank of the Meuse, shall belong to Belgium, with the exception of the city of Maestricht, which, with a suitable circle of territory of at least 1,200 brasses diameter, reckoning from the out glacis of the fortress on the said bank, shall continue to belong, in full sovereignty and property, to his majesty the king of the Netherlands. The circle thus spoken of shall moreover be further regulated by the commissioners of boundaries mentioned in the following article :Ꮓ --: consequence of the above arrangements respecting territory, each of the two parties cedes respectively and for ever all right over all the territories, towns, places, and cities situate within the boundaries of the possessions of the other party. The said boundaries shall be marked out by Dutch and Belgian commissioners, who shall assemble at Maestricht. V. Holland will regulate in the most convenient manner the evacuation of the waters of Flanders. It consents, even, with a view to this object, to use being made of its territory. The sluices which shall be established for that purpose on the Dutch territory shall be subject to its authority. None can be constructed on its territory which may be injurious to its defence. Within a month after the exchange of the ratification there shall be appointed on both sides commissaries for deciding on the most suitable places for the establishment of the said sluices. They will understand with respect to those which are to be subjected to the common authority. VII. The arrangement from art. 103 to 117, inclusive, of the treaty of Vienna, shall be applicable to the waters and navigable rivers, which, where they flow, separate the Dutch and Belgian territory. The Dutch government undertake to establish duties and pilotage on the Scheldt, at a moderate rate, and to take care of the preservation of the embouchure of that river into the sea. These duties shall be the same both for Belgian and Dutch commerce. The said government will adopt provisionally for the Scheldt the tariffs of the convention arranged for the free navigation of the Rhine, signed the 31st of March, 1880, at Mentz, and also the other arrangements of that convention, so far as they are applicable to the Scheldt. But with regard to the assimilation of the navigation of the Scheldt to that of the Rhine, it will be necessary, in order to render it definitive, to have a special convention. VIII. The use of the canals which traverse both countries shall continue to be free to the inhabitants of both. It is understood that this shall be upon the same conditions, and that both parties can only establish moderate duties upon these canals. IX. Paragraph 1. Reckoning from the 1st of July, 1832, Belgium, on the division of the public debt of the kingdom of the Netherlands, shall remain charged with an annual rente of 8,400,000 florius of the Netherlands. Within fifteen days after the ratification of the present treaty, the Belgian and Dutch commissioners shall open at Utrecht negotiations for capitalizing that rente. If, within two months, these commissioners cannot agree upon the capitalization, and if thus the rente remains fixed at 8,400,000 florins, the reliquats which, in consequence of paragraph 5 below, may result on both sides, shall be considered as compensated, and the compensation shall no longer be accounted for. In that case the capital of the said rente shall be transferred to the debit of the great book of Amsterdam, or from the debit of the general chest of the kingdom of the Netherlands to the debit of the great book of Belgium. Paragraph 2. In the same case the said sum of 8,400,000 florins of the rente, and the capitals which it represents, shall be inscribed in the debit of the great book of Belgium, and considered as forming part of the Belgian national debt, and Belgium engages never to make either now or in future any difference between that part of its national debt and any other part of that contracted or which may be contracted. Paragraph 3. The payment of the said sum of 8,400,000 florins of annual rente shall be regularly made in silver half-yearly at Brussels and at Antwerp, without any deduction. Paragraph 4. On the payment of the said sum of annual rente, or its capitalization, Belgium shall be entirely discharged from the chief portion of the public debt of the kingdom of the Netherlands. Paragraph 5. The commissioners mentioned in paragraph 1, shall proceed to the liquidation of the funds of the sinking fund, and of the bank of Brussels, in its character of cashier-general of the state. Paragraph 6. The division of the obligations, called domain les reinten, shall take place in proportion to the property mortgaged, according as it may be in the one or the other territory, so that these domains may be represented by their sale price, not yet fixed, or they may still remain under mortgage. Paragraph 7. The Belgian and Dutch commissioners in the event of the capitalization not taking place, shall occupy themselves, besides the said liquidation, with the transport of capital and rentes, which are to be placed to the charge of Belgium, to the amount of 8,400,000 florins, as already stated. They shall proceed to the mutual surrender of archives, charts, plans, and other documents, which belong respectively to both parties, or have relation to their government, X. Holland having alone made all the advances for the service of the whole public debt of the kingdon of the Netherlands, reckoning from the last half-year of 1830, it is understood that a portion of these advances calculated on the basis of the annual sum of 8,400,000 florins shall be reimbursed, with the amount of the general capitalization of this rente of 8,400,000 florins, if that capitalization takes place, or shall be paid separately by the Belgian treasury to the Dutch treasury, by instalments of 4,200,000 florins; in the latter case the first instalment shall be paid three months after the ratification of the present treaty, and the others every three months. Upon all these different sums there shall be besides paid to Holland an interest of 5 per cent, from the 1st of January, 1832, until their full reimbursement. XI. The port of Antwerp shall continue to be exclusively a commercial port, conformably to the treaties of Paris and Vienna, of 1814 and 1815. XII. The works of general or local utility, such as canals, roads, &c., which have been constructed in whole or in part, at the expense of the kingdom of the Netherlands, shall remain with their charges and advantages to the territory in which they are situate. It is understood that the capitals which have been borrowed for these constructions, or which are specially appointed, shall be comprised in the above-mentioned charges, in so far as they have not yet been reimbursed, or that such reimbursements, if they have taken place, may become the object of compensation. XIII. The sequestration which, for political causes, has been placed |