THE TREATY OF WASHINGTON. 263 



Board be appointed, as a full, perfect, and final settlement of all the claims 

 hereinbefore referred to ; and further engage that every such claim, whether 

 the same may or may not have been presented to the notice of, made, prefer- 

 red, or laid before the Tribunal or Board, shall, from and after the conclusion 

 of the proceedings of the Tribunal or Board, be considered and treated as fi- 

 nally settled, barred, and thenceforth inadmissible. 



Article XII. 



The High Contracting Parties agree that all claims on the part of corpora- 

 tions, companies, or private individuals, citizens of the United States, upon the j 

 Government of Her Britannic Majesty, arising out of acts committed against 

 the persons or property of citizens of the United States during the period be- 

 tween the thirteenth of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-one, and the ninth 

 of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-five, inclusive, not being claims growing 

 out of the acts of the vessels referred to in Article I. of this Treaty, and all 

 claims, with the like exception, on the part of corporations, companies, or pri- 

 vate individuals, subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, upon the Government of 

 the United States, arising out of acts committed against the persons or prop- 

 erty of subjects of Her Britannic Majesty during the same period, which may 

 have been presented to either Government for its interjjosilion with the other, 

 and which yet remain unsettled, as well as any other such claims which may be 

 presented within the time specified in Article XIV. of this Treaty, shall be re- 

 • ferred to three Commissioners, to be appointed in the following manner, that is 

 to say: One Commissioner shall be named by the President of the United 

 States, one by Her Britannic Majesty, and a third by the President of the /f 

 United States and Her Britannic Majesty conjointly ; and in case the third I 

 Commissioner shall not have been so named within a period of three months 

 from the date of the exchange of the ratifications of this Treaty, then the 

 third Commissioner shall be named by the Representative at Washington 

 of His Majesty the King of Spain. In case of the death, absence, or inca- 

 pacity of any Commissioner, or in the event of any Commissioner omifting 

 or ceasing to act, the vacancy shall be filled in the manner hereinbefore pro- 

 vided for making the original appointment ; the period of three months in case 

 of such substitution being calculated from the date of the happening of the 

 vacancy. 



The Commissioners so named shall meet at Washington at the earliest con- 

 venient period after they have been respectively named-; and shall, before pro- 

 ceeding to any business, make and subscribe a solemn declaration that they 

 will impartially and carefully examine and decide, to the best of their judgment, 

 and according to justice and equity, all such claims as shall be laid before them 

 on the part of the Governments of the United States and of Her Britannic Maj- 

 esty, respectively ; and such declaration shall be entered on the record of their 

 proceedings. 



