Page:The European Concert in the Eastern Question.djvu/265

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THE TREATY OF PARIS.
249

In order to cover the expenses of such works, as well as of the establishments intended to secure and to facilitate the navigation at the mouths of the Danube, fixed duties, of a suitable rate, settled by the Commission by a majority of votes, may be levied, on the express condition that, in this respect as in every other, the flags of all nations shall be treated on the footing of perfect equality[1].

The Riverain Commission Art. XVII. A Commission shall be estahlished, and shall be composed of delegates of Austria, Bavaria, the Sublime Porte, and Würtemberg (one for each of those Powers), to whom shall be added Commissioners from the three Danubian Principalities, whose nomination shall have been approved by the Porte. This Commission, which shall be permanent: 1. Shall prepare regulations of navigation and river police; 2. Shall remove the impediments, of whatever nature they may be, which still prevent the application to the Danube of the arrangements of the Treaty of Vienna; 3. Shall order and cause to be executed the necessary works throughout the whole course of the river; and 4, Shall, after the dissolution of the European Commission, see to maintaining the mouths of the Danube and the neighbouring parts of the sea in a navigable state[2].

Duration of powers. Art. XVIII. It is understood that the European Commission shall have completed its task, and that the Riverain Commission shall have finished the works described in the preceding Article, under Nos. 1 and 2, within the period of two years. The signing Powers assembled in Conference having been informed of that fact, shall, after having placed it on record, pronounce the dissolution of the European Commission, and from that time the permanent Riverain Commission shall enjoy the same powers as those with which the European Commission shall have until then been invested[3].
  1. The Commission has prepared several Navigation Acts for the Lower Danube. Those now in force are the Act of 2nd November, 1865 (Texts, No. IV), with the 'Acte additionel' of 28th May, 1881 (Texts, No. VII), v. supra, p. 231.
  2. This Commission, instead of being permanent, practically ceased to exist after the disallowance of its Navigation Act by the Powers in 1859; although its reconstitution was contemplated by Art. 17 of the Treaty of London of 1871. On its history, v. supra, p. 230.
  3. None of the provisions of this Article have been complied with. The Riverain Commission within the two years succeeded only in producing an Act