granted or which may be granted to the most favored nation; and this, gratuitously if the concession be gratuitous, or in return for an equivalent compensation if the concession be conditional.
"Art. IV. The present treaty shall be ratified, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in Paris within three months, or sooner if possible.
"In faith whereof we, the undersigned plenipotentiaries, have signed the present treaty and have here unto affixed our seals.
"Done in Port-au-Prince this 12th day of February in the year of grace 1838.
In a convention signed on the same day, the indemnity to be paid by the Republic of Haiti was reduced to sixty millions of francs.
Having taken the initiative of abolishing slavery, the new State could not be indifferent to the measures adopted with a view to put an end to the inhuman slave-trade. In consequence, in August, 1840, Haiti signed with France a treaty[1] in which she gave her adhesion to the Conventions of November, 1831, and March, 1833, between Great Britain and France, which was destined to secure the abolition of the slave-trade. And, in order to complete her philanthropic mission, the Republic had previously agreed to pay the crews of the English men-of-war for the slaves who, after being rescued from the hands of the traders in human flesh, would be landed on her territory.[2]
Haiti had spent the first thirty-four years of her independence in the anxious expectation of an aggression from France. After thirty-four years of sacrifices and perseverance she at last succeeded in freeing herself of this anxiety. In the mean time, the greatest part of her resources had been devoted to armament, the
