APPENDIX. 
443 
the present stipulation, the benefit and rights conceded to 
the enterprise shall be forfeited, unless they are impeded by 
fortuitous or unforeseen causes, as deadly and desolating 
epidemics, earthquakes, or inundations, civil or national 
wars, and other cases of this description, in which cases the 
enterprise shall enjoy an extension of double the time of the 
interruption, provided that notice be given by the enter¬ 
prise, and the Government acknowledge the cause as suffi¬ 
cient for such interruption, or, in case of disagreement, the 
tribunal of Arbitrators established in Article XI.; but if, at 
the expiration of all the terms assigned in the present sti¬ 
pulation, the works of the transit are not finished, then this 
convention shall be considered as definitely annulled, and 
the existing works in said transit, with its accessories and 
dependencies, shall pass to the dominion and absolute power 
of the Republic without any indemnification whatever. 
Article XIV. In view of the treaties made with France 
on the 11th of April, 1859, and with Great Britain on the 
11th of February, 1860, the Republic of Nicaragua on the one 
part, and Captain Bedford Clapperton Trevelyan Pirn, of the 
English Royal Navy, and his legitimate representatives on 
the other, accept and confirm the formal guarantee contained 
in said treaties, to maintain the neutrality and innocent use 
of the transit across the Republic, submitting the enterprise 
to the conditions laid down in the aforesaid treaties; and 
the Republic makes for its part the most solemn declaration 
to comply with the conditions that the above-mentioned 
conventions of 1859 and 1860 have imposed upon it. 
Article XV. The present stipulation shall be submitted 
to the approval of the supreme Government and ratification 
of legislative power, which, being obtained without any 
amendment, shall be binding immediately on both contract¬ 
ing parties, and in case of being amended shall be definitely 
binding on the said parties from the date on which Captain 
Bedford Clapperton Trevelyan Pirn accepts and ratifies it; 
and in either case by the fact of the definite ratification the 
present contract shall be substituted for that of the railroad 
