224. Each of the contracting parties may choose to employ cruisers for the suppression of the slave-trade, notification being sent of the fact to the other parties.

225. Wherever a merchant vessel sailing under the flag of one of the contracting parties shall have been detained by a cruiser of the other, duly authorized to that effect, such merchant vessel, the master, the crew, the cargo, and the slaves who may be on board shall be brought into such place as the contracting parties shall have respectively designated for that purpose, and they shall be delivered over to the authorities appointed with that view by the Government within whose possessions such place is situated, in order that proceedings may be had with respect to them before the competent tribunals.

226. Proceedings shall be immediately taken against the vessel detained, her master, her crew, and her cargo, before the competent tribunal of the country to which she belongs, and they shall be tried and adjudged according to the established forms and laws in force in that country; and if it results from the proceedings that the said vessel was employed in the slave-trade, or

fitted out for that traffic, the vessel, her fittings, and her cargo of merchandise shall be confiscated, and the master, the crew, and their accomplices shall be dealt with conformably to the laws by which they shall have been tried.

227. In case of confiscation the proceeds of the sale of the aforesaid vessel shall, within the space of six months, reckoning from the date of the sale, be placed at the disposal of the Government of the country to which the ship which made the capture belongs, in order to be employed in conformity with the laws of that country.

228. By the Treaty between Her Majesty and the King of Portugal of July 3, 1842, and July 18, 1821, Portugal agreed to unite in the same effort.

229. By a Convention between France and Great Britain, dated London, May 29, 1845, France entered into the same obligations.

230. By a Treaty between Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia on the one part, and Belgium on the other, dated London, February 24, 1848, Belgium acceded to the Treaty of December 20, 1841.

231. On August 31, 1848, several Articles were added to the Treaty of May 4, 1818, signed at the Hague, between Great Britain and the Netherlands, extending the boundary and removing the limits to the number of ships employed in the suppression of the slave-trade.

232. By a Treaty between Her Majesty and the United States of America, signed April 7, 1862, amended by the Treaties of February 17, 1863, and June 3, 1870, the United States joined in exercising the right of search and the institution of mixed courts of justice to decide all cases of capture.

233. By a Convention between the British and Egyptian Governments of August 4, 1877, the Egyptian Government engaged to prohibit absolutely the importation of slaves and to punish any person found engaged in the traffic in slaves; also to pursue as murderers all persons who may be found engaged in the mutilation of or traffic in children.

234. By a Convention between the Government of Great Britain and the German Empire of March 29, 1879, the provisions of the Treaty

of December 20, 1841, were extended to the German Empire.

235. By a Convention between Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland and His Majesty the Sultan of January 25, 1880, and a declaration signed March 3, 1883, Turkey reserved absolutely the prohibition of the slave-trade, engaged to forbid the importation of slaves, and to pursue as criminals all persons who may be found engaged in the mutilation of or traffic in children.

236. Treaties regarding the slave-trade also exist with Abyssinia, the Argentine Confederation, Bolivia, Chile, Equator, Mexico, New Grenada, Persia, Texas, Uruguay, and Zanzibar.

237. Engagements have also been obtained from the following African Chiefs to prohibit the import or export of slaves, to close the public markets for slaves, and to protect all liberated slaves :

Sultan of Zanzibar, June 5, 1873.
Nukeeb of Maculla, April 7, 1873.

Sultan of Johanna, March 8, 1873, October 10, 1882.

Sultan of Muscat, April 14, 1873.

Jemadar of Shuhr, November 17, 1873.

King of Dahomey, May 12, 1877.

Sultan of Mohilla, October 24, 1882.

King of Abyssinia, June 3, 1884.

CHAPTER XIV.

POSTAL COMMUNICATION.

SECTION I.-UNIVERSAL POSTAL UNION.

A TREATY for the formation of a General Postal Union was signed at Berne on October 9, 1874, between Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Roumania, Russia, Servia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States. This Treaty was revised by the Convention of Paris of June, 1878, between the countries already named and the following:-The Argentine Republic, Brazil, certain British Colonies, the Danish Colonies, the French Colonies, Japan, Mexico, Montenegro, the Netherlands Colonies, Persia, Peru, the Portuguese Colonies, and Salvador. A new Convention was signed at Lisbon on November 3, 1880, with provisions for the Parcel Post. And by a Convention signed at Lisbon on March 21, 1885, several modifications were made in the previous Conventions, and the following additional countries became parties