The consuls and vice consuls respectively shall have the exclusive right of receiving in their chancery, or on board of vessels, the declarations and all other acts, which the captains, masters, seamen, passengers, and merchants of their nation would make there, even their testaments and other dispositions of last will, and the copies of the said acts duly authenticated by the said consuls, or vice consuls, and under the seal of their consulate shall receive faith in law in all the tribunals of France and the United States.
They shall have also, and exclusively, the right to inventory, liquidate, and proceed to the sale of the moveable effects of the estates left by subjects of their nation who shall die within the extent of the consulate. They shall proceed therein with the assistance of two merchants of their said nation, of their own choosing, and shall deposit in their chancery the effects and papers of the said estates, and no officer, military or civil, or of the police of the country, shall trouble them or interfere therein, in any manner whatsoever; but the said consuls and vice consuls shall not deliver up the same and their product to the lawful heirs, or their attornies, until they shall have discharged all the debts, which the deceased shall have contracted in the country, by judgment, by acts, or by notes, the writing and signing of which shall be known and certified by two principal merchants of the nation of the said deceased, and in all other cases the payment of debts cannot be ordered but on the creditor's giving sufficient and local security to repay the sums unduly received, principal, interest, and costs, which securities, however, shall remain duly discharged after a year in time of peace, and two years in time of war, if the demand in discharge cannot be formed before these delays, against the heirs who shall present themselves.
ARTICLE VIII.
The respective consuls and vice consuls shall receive the declarations, "consulats," and other consular acts from all captains and masters of their respective nations on account of average losses sustained at sea by leakage, or throwing merchandises overboard, and these captains and masters shall leave in the chancery of the said consuls and vice consuls, the "consulats," and other consular acts, which they may have had made in other ports on account of the accidents, that may have happened to them on their voyage. If a subject of His Most Christian Majesty and a citizen of the United States are interested in the said cargo, the average shall be fixed by the tribunals of the country, and not by the consuls or vice consuls; and the tribunals shall admit the acts and declarations; if any should have been passed before the said consuls and vice consuls; but when only the subjects of their own nation, or foreigners, shall be interested, the respective consuls or vice consuls, and in case of their absence or distance, their agents furnished with their commission, shall officially nominate skilful persons of their said nation to regulate the damages and averages.
ARTICLE IX.
In case, by storms or other accidents, French ships or vessels shall run ashore on the coasts of the United States, or the ships and vessels of the United States shall run ashore on the coasts of France, the consul or vice consul nearest to the place of shipwreck shall do whatever he may judge proper, as well for the purpose of saving the said ship or vessel, its cargo and appurtenances, as for the storing and security of the effects and merchandise saved. He may take an inventory, without any officers military, of the custom house, justices, or the police of the country interfering, otherwise than to facilitate to the consuls, vice consuls, captain and crew of the vessel shipwrecked, or run ashore, all the assistance and favor, which they shall ask, either for the celerity and security of the salvage and effects saved, or to prevent all disturbances.
To prevent even any kind of dispute and discussion in the said cases of shipwreck, it has been agreed that where no consul or vice consul shall be found to attend to the salvage, or that the residence of the said consul or vice consul, (he not being at the place of shipwreck) shall be further distant from the said place than that of the competent territorial judge, the latter shall immediately there proceed therein with all the celerity, safety, and precautions prescribed by the respective laws; but the said territorial judge shall retire on the coming of the consul or vice consul, and shall resign to him the procedures by him done, the expenses of which the consul or vice consul shall cause to be reimbursed to him.
The merchandise and effects saved shall be deposited in the custom house, or other nearest place of safety, with the inventory of them, which shall be made by the consul or vice consul, or in their absence by the judge who shall have had cognizance thereof, and the said merchandises and effects shall be afterwards delivered, after levying therefrom the costs, and without form of process to the proprietors, who being furnished with a replevy from the nearest consul or vice consul, shall reclaim them by themselves, or their attornies, either for the purpose of re-exporting the merchandises, and in that case they shall pay no kind of duties of exportation, or for the purpose of selling them in the country if they are not prohibited; and in this latter case, the said merchandises being averaged, there shall be granted them an abatement of the entrance duties proportioned to the damages sustained, which shall be ascertained by the verbal process formed at the time of the shipwreck, or of the vessels running ashore.