Appendix No. 30.

Italy and Peru.

ARTICLE XXIII.

This Convention shall be ratified by his Excellency the President of the Republic of Peru, with the approval of Congress, and by His Majesty the King of Italy. The ratifications shall be exchanged in the city of Lima within the space of a year, or before, if possible.

In faith whereof the respective Plenipotentiaries have signed the present Convention in duplicate, and sealed it with their private seals.

Done at Turin on the 3rd day of May, in the year of grace 1863.

ITALY AND PORTUGAL.

Consular Convention between Portugal and Italy. Signed at Lisbon, September 30, 1868.

(Translation.)

[Ratified July 9, 1869.]

HIS Majesty the King of Portugal and of the Algarves, and His Majesty the King of Italy, recognizing the utility of fixing and extending in the best possible manner the rights, privileges, and immunities mutually accorded to Consuls, Vice-Consuls, Consular Agents, Chancellors and Secretaries, as well as the functions and duties which are respectively to be discharged by them in the two countries, have determined to conclude a Consular Convention, and have for that purpose appointed as their Plenipotentiaries; that is to say: His Majesty the King of Portugal and the Algarves, the Count d'Avila, a Peer of the Realm, Councillor of State, Honorary Minster of State, Grand Cross of the Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Tower and Sword, Valour, Loyalty, and Merit, and of that of Our Lady of Conception of Villa Viçoza, Knight Commander of the Order of Christ, Grand Cross of the Orders of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus, and of the Crown of Italy. and of several other foreign Orders;

His Majesty the King of Italy, the Marquis Oldoini, His Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary, Grand Cross of the Order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus, of that of Christ of Portugal, and of several other foreign Orders;

Who, after having communicated to each other their respective full powers, which were found in good and due form, have agreed upon the following Articles :

ARTICLE I.

Each of the High Contracting Parties shall have the right to appoint Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Consular Agents in the ports, cities, and places in the territory of the other, reserving the mutual right of excepting such localities as may be thought expedient. This reservation cannot, however, be made applicable to one of the Contracting Parties unless it shall also be made applicable to all other Powers.

The said Agents shall be mutually admitted and recognized, upon the presentation of their letters of appointment, according to the rules and formalities adopted in the respective countries.

The necessary exequatur for the free exercise of their functions shall be issued gratis, and in virtue of the said exequatur the chief authority in the place where they reside shall immediately take the necessary steps to enable them to discharge the duties of their office, and admit them to the enjoyment of the exemptions, prerogatives, immunities, honours, and privileges belonging thereto.

ARTICLE II.

The Consuls-General, Consuls, and Vice-Consuls or Consular Agents, who may be subjects of the State by which they have been appointed, shall enjoy exemption from soldiers' billets and military taxes, from all direct taxes, both personal and sumptuary, whether imposed by the State, by the provincial authorities, or by the municipalities, unless they possess real property, or carry on any trade or industry, because in such cases they shall be subject to the same charges, service, and taxes as are imposed on natives.

All the abovementioned Agents shall moreover enjoy personal immunity, excepting on the score of any acts which the penal legislation of the two countries qualifies as crimes, and punishes as such; and if they be merchants, they shall be liable to corporal imprisonment only on account of commercial matters, and not on account of civil matters.

The Consuls-General, Consuls, and Vice-Consuls or Consular Agents may place over the outer door of the Consulate or Vice-Consulate the escutcheon of the arms of their nation, with the following inscription: Consulate or Vice-Consulate of

They may on days of public solemnity, either religious or national, and on other customary occasions, hoist the flag of their nation at the Consular house, unless they should reside in a city where the Legation of their country is established.

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Appendix No. 31.

Italy and Portugal.

Appendix No. 31. The Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Consular Agents may also carry the Italy and Portugal. official functions. national flag in any boats of which they may make use in port in the discharge of their

ARTICLE III.

The Consuls-General, Consuls, and their Chancellors, as well as Vice-Consuls or Consular Agents, shall not be obliged to appear as witnesses before the Courts of Justice. Whenever the local judicial authorities may want to receive any declarations from them, they shall either go in person to their place of residence, or send some competent functionary to receive the same by word of mouth, or apply for the same in writing.

ARTICLE IV.

In the event of inability to act, absence, or death of any Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls or Consular Agents, the Assistant-Consuls, Chancellors, and Secretaries, who shall have been previously presented to the authorities as such, shall be admitted, de jure pleno, according to their rank and precedence, to the discharge, ad interim, of the Consular functions, and no obstacle shall be placed in their way by the local authorities, who, on the contrary, shall be bound to afford them assistance and protection, and to maintain during their temporary management their enjoyment of the exemptions, prerogatives, immunities, and privileges mutually recognized in virtue of this Convention as belonging to the Agents of the Consular Service.

ARTICLE V.

The Consular archives shall be invioable, and the local authorities shall not in any case, or under any pretext, examine or seize any papers appertaining thereto. Such'papers shall always be kept entirely separate from any papers and books relating to the business or industry which may be carried on by the respective Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Consular Agents.

ARTICLE VI.

The Consuls-General and Consuls may appoint Vice-Consuls or Consular Agents to any cities, ports, and places within their Consular districts, subject to the approval of the Government of the territory.

These Agents may be chosen indifferently among the citizens of the two countries and among foreigners; and they shall be provided with a letter of appointment signed by the Consul by whom they shall have been named, and under whose orders they shall have been placed. They shall also enjoy the same privileges and immunities as are stipulated in this Convention, saving the exceptions contained in Article II.

ARTICLE VII.

The Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Consular Agents of the two countries may address themselves to the authorities in their districts to complain of any infraction of the Treaties and Conventions in force between the two countries, and of any abuse of which the natives themselves may complain.

Should their representations not be attended to by those authorities, they may, in the absence of a Diplomatic Agent of their nation, have recourse to the Government of the State where they reside.

ARTICLE VIII.

The Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, Consular Agents, and Chancellors shall have the right to receive, in their respective Chanceries, at the residence of the parties interested, or on board the ships of their nation, the affidavits which the captains and crews, passengers, merchants, or citizens of their nation may wish to make.

They are likewise authorized to receive, as Notaries Public, the testamentary declarations of the subjects of their country, and to perform all the other acts of Notaries Public, even in case such acts should be made for the purpose of granting a mortgage on property situated within the territory of the nation to which the Consul or Consular Agent belongs; in this case the special enactments in force in the country where such acts shall have to be carried out are to be observed.

The aforesaid Agents shall, moreover, have the right of receiving, in their respective Chanceries, all agreements which may be made between one or more of their fellow

countrymen, and natives of the country where they reside, as well as any other agreements Appendix No. 31. concerning citizens of this latter country only, provided that such acts have reference to property situated within the territory of the nation to which the Consul or Consular Italy and Portugal. Agent receiving the same shall belong, or to business which has to be transacted within the same territory.

The copies of and extracts from the records of such acts, duly certified by the aforementioned Agents, and stamped with the official seal of the Consulates, Vice-Consulates, or Consular Agencies, shall be received as evidence both in the Courts of Justice and out of the same, both in Portugal and in Italy, and have the same validity as the originals; and they shall possess the same force and validity as if they had been drawn up by a Notary Public, or by other public officers of either country; provided such acts be drawn up in the form required by the laws of the State to which the Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Consular Agents appertain, and that they shall have subsequently been stamped, registered, and subjected to the other formalities which regulate the matter in the country where such acts will have to be carried into execution.

In case any doubt should be raised as to the authenticity of the copy of any public act registered in the Chancery of one of the respective Consulates, the collation thereof with the original shall not be refused to an interested party applying for the same; on the contrary, the latter shall be allowed to be present when such collation takes place, should he consider it expedient to be so.

The respective Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Consular Agents may translate and legalize any documents issued by the authorities and functionaries of their country; and their translations and legalizations shall have, in the country where they reside, the same force and validity as they would have had if they had been made by sworn interpteters of the country.

ARTICLE IX.

In the event of the death of a subject of either of the two Contracting Parties in the territory of the other, the local authorities shall immediately give notice thereof to the Consul-General, Consul, Vice-Consul, or Consular Agent in whose district the death shall have taken place. The latter shall also, on their part, give notice to the authorities whenever they shall have been the first to receive news of any such death.

Should a Portuguese die in Italy, or an Italian in Portugal, without having made a will, or without having appointed an executor; or in case their heirs, either natural or named by will, or any of them, should happen to be minors, incapable of acting, or absent, or in case the executors named should not be on the spot where the right of succession to the inheritance is proved, the Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, or Consular Agents of the nation of the deceased shall have the right to take the following steps:

1. To place seals, ex officio, or at the demand of the interested parties, upon all the effects, furniture, and papers of the deceased, giving the proper local authorities previous notice of this operation, who may also be present thereat, and also place their own seals thereon; these seals, as well as those of the Consular Agent, shall not be broken except in the presence of the local authorities. But if, after the Consul or Vice-Consul shall have addressed an invitation to the local authority to be present at the breaking of the seals, the latter should not present himself within the period of forty-eight hours, counting from the reception of the invitation, the Consular Agent may perform that operation alone.

2. To make an inventory of all the property and effects of the deceased in the presence of the local authority, in case the latter should, in consequence of the above-mentioned notice, think proper to be present at the act. The local authority shall sign the records of the proceedings made in his presence, but the intervention ex officio at such acts shall not afford grounds for exacting any kind of fees.

3. To order the sale by public auction of all the moveable property forming part of the inheritance which may be susceptible of deterioration, or such as it may be difficult to preserve, and also any crops or effects for the sale of which a favourable opportunity may appear.

4. To deposit in a safe place the property and effects included in the inventory, to keep the amount of debts, and the proceeds of any revenues which may be recovered, in the Consulate or to intrust the same to some merchant fully to be depended on. In any case these deposits shall be made with the consent of the local authority who shall have been present at the previous operation, wherever, after the convocation mentioned in the following paragraph, the subjects of the country or of any third Power shall present themselves as interested in the estate, either ab intestato or by will.

5. To announce the death, and to convoke by means of the local newspapers, and of

Appendix No. 31. those of the country of the deceased, if necessary, all who have claims on the estate, either Italy and Portugal. by will or ab intestato, in order to enable them to exhibit within the period fixed by the

laws of the place, the necessary bonds or documents duly certified. Whenever any creditors of the estate left either by will or ab intestato shall appear, the payment of their claims is to be made within the term of fifteen days after the closing of the inventory, if there be any funds that can be applied to that purpose; and if not, so soon as the necessary sums shall be realized in the best manner, or finally within a term fixed by common consent between the Consuls and the majority of the persons interested.

Should the respective Consuls refuse to pay the whole or part of the debts, alleging the insufficiency of the amount of the estate to satisfy the same, the creditors, if they think it expedient for their own interests, may apply to the competent authority for permission to form themselves into a society. After this declaration shall have been obtained with the legal formalities established in either of the two countries, the Consuls or Vice-Consuls shall immediately forward to the judicial authority, or to the assignees, as the case may be, all the documents, effects, and sums appertaining to the estate left either by will or ab intestato, and it will be the duty of the said Agents to represent the absent heirs, the minors, and those incapable of acting.

In any case the Consuls-General, Consuls, and Vice-Consuls may deliver the estate, or the proceeds thereof, to the lawful heirs or to their attorneys after the expiration of the terms of six months from the day of the publication of the news of the death in the newspapers.

6. To manage and liquidate in person, or by others appointed by them on their own responsibility, the estate left either by will or ab intestato, without any intervention on the part of the local authority in their operations, unless the subjects of the country or of any third Power shall have to make good any rights to the estate, because in the latter case, should any difficulties be raised in regard to any claim which might cause contention, inasmuch as the Consul-Generals, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents have no right to decide, the Courts of Justice of the country shall take cognizance thereof, for the purpose of either taking the proper steps in the matter, or of trying the case, as it may be competent for them to do.

The said Agents shall act as the representatives of the estate left either by will or ab intestato, that is, they shall retain the management, and the right of liquidating the interests of the estate, or of causing the sale of the effects thereof, in the manner abovementioned; they shall watch over the interests of the heirs, and moreover they shall have the right of appointing the lawyers to plead the interests of the latter before the Courts of Justice.

It is understood that they are to furnish to the Courts of Justice any papers and documents tending to elucidate the matter submitted to their decision.

After judgment shall have been given, the Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents, in case no appeal shall be made therefrom, shall execute the same and continue, de jure pleno, the liquidation which shall have been held in suspense until the conclusion of the lawsuit.

7. To appoint, if necessary, tutors and guardians in accordance with the law of the respective countries.

ARTICLE X.

In the event of the death of a Portuguese in Italy, or of an Italian in Portugal, at any place where there is no Consular Agent of his nation, the proper local authority shall proceed, in accordance with the legislation of the country, to make an inventory of the effects, and to liquidate the property left, and he shall be bound to render an account, within the shortest period possible, of the result of these operations, either to the Legation, which is to take cognizance thereof, or to the Consulate or Vice-Consulate at the nearest place to that where the investigation into the estate left either by will or ab intestato shall have been opened.

But as soon as the nearest Consular Agent shall either appear in person or send his delegate, the local authority who shall have interfered in the matter must act in conformity with the provisions of the foregoing Article.

ARTICLE XI.

The Consuls-General, Consuls, Vice-Consuls, and Consular Agents of the two States shall take cognizance, to the exclusion of any other authority, of the inventories and other proceedings adopted with a view to the preservation of the property and effects, of whatever nature they may be, bequeathed by seamen or passengers of their country, who shall