GREAT BRITAIN


557


and shall, before proceeding to any business, make and subscribe a solemn
declaration
that they will impartially and carefully examine and decide the matters referred
to
them to the best of their judgment, and according to justice and equity;
and such
declaration shall be entered on the record of their proceedings. Each of
the high con-
tracting parties shall also name one person to attend the commission as its
agent, to
represent it generally in all matters connected with the commission.
  ARTICLE " 4. The proceedings shall be conducted in such order as the
commissioners
appointed under articles twenty-two and twenty-three of this treaty shall
determine.
They shall be bound to receive such oral or written testimony as either government
shall
present. If either party shall offer oral testimony, the other party shall
have the right
of cross-examination, under such rules as the commissioners shall prescribe.
  If in the case submitted to the commissioners either party shall have specified
or
alluded to any report or document in its own exclusive possession-without
annexing a
copy, such party shall -be bound-if the other party thinks proper to apply
for it-to
furnish that party with a copy thereof; and either party may call upon the
other,
through the commissioners, to produce the original or certified copies of
any papers
adduced as evidence, giving in each instance such reasonable notice as the
commission-
ers may require.
  The case on either side shall be closed within a period of sixomonths fromthe
date of the
organization of the commission, and the commissioners shall be requested
to give their
award as soon as possible thereafter. The aforesaid period of six months
may be ex-
tended for three months, in case of a vacancy occurring among the commissioners,
under the circumstances contemplated in article twenty-three of this treaty.
  ARTICLE 25. The commissioners shall keep an accurate record and correct
minutes or
notes of all their proceedings, with the dates thereof, and may appoint and
employ a
secretary and any other necessary officer or officers to assist them in the
transaction of
the business which may come before them.
  Each of the high contracting parties shall pay its own commissioner and
agent or
counsel; all other expenses shall be defrayed by the two governments in equal
moieties.
  XXXIII. The foregoing articles, eighteen to twenty-five inclusive, and
article thirty
of this treaty, shall take effect as soon as the laws required to carry them
into opera-
tion shall have been passed by the Imperial Parliament of Great Britain,
by the parlia-
ment of Canada, and by the legislature of Prince Edward Island, on the one
hand,
and by the Congress of the United States on the other. Such assent having
been given,
the said articles shall remain in force for the period of ten years from
the date at which
they may come into operation; and further, until the expiration of two years
after
either of the high contracting parties shall have given notice to the other
of its wish
to terminate the same, each of the high contracting parties being at liberty
to give
such notice to the other at the end of the said period of ten years, or at
any time after-
ward.



                                   No. 323.

                     Mr. Fish to Sir Edward Thornton.

                                           DEPARTMENT OF STATE,
                                                Washington, May 18, 1874.
   SIR : I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your note of the
 14th instant, conveying the information that the act of the legislature
 of- Newfoundland, passed by that body on the 28th of March, 1874, for
 the purpose of extending the provisions of articles XVIII to XXV,
 inclusive, of the treaty of Washington, to that colony, was specially con-
 firmed by Her Majesty on the 12th instant, and inclosing a copy of the
 colonial act.
   Presuming that the special confirmation mentioned is meant as signi-
 fying the assent of Her Majesty contemplated by the provisions of this
 act, I have the honor to state that the act of Congress, in pursuance of
 which the President is authorized to issue his proclamation extending
 the provisions of the articles in question to the colony of Newfoundland,
 provides that such proclamation may issue when the President shall
 have received satisfactory evidence that the colony of Newfoundland
 hasconsented "in4a due and proper manner" to have the provisions